Disaster Zoo
OPERA: Operational Platform for Emergency Response and Awareness
Flood Hippo​
Imagine this. You are driving to dinner when the emergency tone screams through the radio and your cell phone lights up with flood warnings for this and that county. If you are risk averse, you might head home immediatley; but if you have been numbed by too many alerts, or you are just to busy, you might stay out on the road.
Either way this flood is real and dangerous. This situation occurred in Tuscaloosa, Alabama when the Black Warrior River overflowed in December, 2015. This flood spilled into both the cities of Northport and Tuscaloosa, flooding homes, roads and businesses. During the flood you are panicked and eager to get home, away from the water or to loved ones whom you are worried about. You drive quickly along your normal route only to find the road covered with water.
Do you try to cross the water? What lies on the other side? Does it look deep? At this point you have a choice:
(1) Risk driving into the water or (2) Not get where you are going....
Many chose to drive, and as a result many lose their lives.
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FloodHippo calls upon the routing functionalities of the OPERA suite to provide you with driving directions around current and forecasted flood extents. Like all Disaster Zoo accounts the message is delivered through Twitter in the form of a hyper link. Within the link, you can direct the application to take you to a location of your choice or to the nearest active emergency shelter. With these options easily at your fingertips, we imagine most of you would have turned around or avoided the flood altogether. FloodHippo has saved your car, and maybe your life.... and it did the same for every other driver on the road that subscribed to the service.
Campers, lighting, drought... fires can start in many ways and occur in all places. When they do they are visiable, dramatic and volatile...
Imagine a fire breaks out miles from your home, just as it did in Santa Barbra, California in 2016. The flames are a cracklin', smoke is in the air and your phone is ringing off the hook:
Are you ok? How big is the fire? Where is it? Where is it going? How is my home?
Are my animals in danger? Do I need to move?
You wish you could answers these questions but all you can see is smoke and the wall of orange growing in the sky. The news station is focused on the dramatic images or destruction and heroism yet the extent of the fire is anything but communicated.
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Instead of facing this disaster with confusion, fear and doubt subscribers to the FireBadger account will be delivered a map of current and future fire extents. FireBadger calls upon the buffer functionalities of the OPERA suite to provide information and understanding. While no disaster will ever be calm, FireBadger will help you better grasp the realities of the situation, helping you and all subscribers face the disaster with confidence.
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It was a sunny day in August, 2015 in Cedar Hill Colorado. The Denver Broncos just won, the leaves are changing, and you're celebrating with a neighborhood barbeque with family and friends. After dinner it's a standard cool Colorado night and all is right in the world. You wake up the next day to the news that the EPA has accidentally released lead into the river at more than 1200 times the safe levels for human consumption. Your mind begins racing:
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Is my water safe? What areas are effected? How far will the contamination reach? Am I safe being around it? How long will this last?
Did my water taste funny this morning? You think of all the uses water plays in your everyday life, in your kid's life and in your community....
ChemicalSpillPenguin aims to add peace of mind to your situation calling on the network functionality of the OPERA system. If only you had some alert about not drinking it. This is where ChemicalSpillPenguin comes into play. With this app the local EPA office or simuliar person in authority can input an origin of the spill and use the deterministic routing methods to show where the contaminant will flow.
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What this means to you is that you will receive a map of the spill and where it will end up as well as timely warnings about when you are near the extents of the effects. This functionality aims to give you peace of mind as your community rebuilds and you work towards living a healthy, productive life free of heavy metal or oil poisoning.
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