Use of Emerging Remote-Sensing Technologies to Determine Neighborhood Wind/Water Damage Patterns

Abstract

Remote-sensing imagery of hurricane-affected areas has proven helpful for rapidly preserving the damage scene soon after a hurricane and for establishing neighborhood damage patterns of both wind and storm surge. Remote-sensing signatures of wind and storm-surge damage have been identified for the primary types of residential construction along the U.S. Gulf Coast. For the three main types of residential construction on the Mississippi Coast, wind damage to buildings has a similar appearance, while remote-sensing signatures of storm-surge actions depend largely on construction type, as described herein. The presence and location of debris relative to visible sources (e.g., roofs) helps to identify storm-surge damage to slab-on-grade and well-anchored pier-and-beam residences. Analysis of remote-sensing imagery also can identify the buoyant transport of intact buildings and intact roof assemblies that have been removed from supporting walls; however, in near-vertical imagery it is difficult to distinguish intact buildings from detached-but-intact roof assemblies. Neighborhood damage patterns derived from remote-sensing imagery have been employed in determining probable wind and storm-surge damage to residences resulting from Hurricane Katrina.