The second costliest hurricane season on record ended this year on Thanksgiving. In total, the 2024 hurricane season caused over $220 billion in damages most of which was wrought by five major storms including Hurricanes Beryl, Helene, and Milton.
When a major storm of this magnitude hits, it is essential for FEMA - the lead federal response agency - to quickly establish situational awareness so that the agency can respond, support survivors, and allocate federal resources efficiently. The need is particularly pressing during major hurricanes that generate significant flooding over large multi-jurisdictional regions.
Throughout the 2024 hurricane season, Floodbase monitored the southeastern U.S. 24/7 enabling FEMA to rapidly establish critical situational awareness with near real-time flood data as major events unfolded. This data response supported the agency’s efforts to contextualize where and how floods impacted large regions and the communities within them as disasters progressed, and assess impacts immediately following.
Support Overview:
- FEMA requested daily Floobase data during all five major hurricanes in 2024.
- The total area monitored by Floodbase during these events was 506,000 square miles over nine states.
- During Hurricane Helene – Floodbase supported FEMA in establishing situational awareness across seven southeastern states spanning 281,000 square miles.
- FEMA received daily data from Floodbase to utilize in daily leadership briefings during Hurricane Helene, providing decision makers with visual and analytical context.
Since 2022 Floodbase has worked with FEMA to strengthen the agency’s flood monitoring and analytics capabilities over large areas, helping it establish situational awareness during major disasters. Selected by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deliver a national, near real-time flood intelligence system for FEMA, Floodbase provides the agency with data on request before, during, and following flood events. In 2024 Floodbase provided continuous daily flood monitoring to FEMA during all five major hurricanes and a subset of additional flood events nationwide.
“Flooding is devastating for households and communities. I look forward to exploring with Floodbase how their predictive and post-flood analysis can help us more quickly understand a major flood event so we can make timely decisions to support our policyholders.”
- Jeffrey Jackson, FEMA Acting Assistant Administrator for Federal Insurance | March 7, 2023
2024 Hurricane Season In Focus: Helene Response
On September 26, 2024 the Category 4 storm Hurricane Helene slammed into the Florida coast. Anticipating significant flooding and wind damage, FEMA activated Floodbase’s daily data sharing beginning on September 24th covering areas close to landfall. As Helene swept inland, carving an 800-mile path of destruction, FEMA’s area of focus nearly doubled from its initial geographic land area in scope.
With historic levels of flooding spreading across seven states, Floodbase generated flood data across more than 281,000 square miles - making it possible for FEMA to have a continuous overview of the rapidly evolving situation across the southeast U.S. The daily flood data, shared with FEMA through October 2nd, provided the agency critical context needed to respond and provide initial assistance to survivors.
Providing Situational Awareness:
During major events over expansive geographies FEMA has often been hampered by the need to synthesize disparate data generated by numerous partner agencies, third party vendors, and ground sources. Having been described as ‘drinking from a fire house,’ the process can create uncertainty during the critical days following a storm’s landfall.
Throughout Hurricane Helene’s impact on the southeast U.S., Floodbase flood extent and severity data was one of the first daily information that FEMA teams received, enabling them to visualize floodwater and respond accordingly. Due to delivery speed and the comprehensiveness of the geographical coverage, the Floodbase data could be leveraged in daily briefings. The visualization of flood extent for agency leadership, provided them with much needed situational awareness as input for their decision making process.
Supporting Survivors:
In 2024, FEMA launched the “Significant Needs Assistance” cash relief program that allocates $750 checks to help households cover urgent emergency expenses immediately following a major disaster. To quickly determine which households qualified for this federal assistance during Hurricane Helene, FEMA leveraged flood data from Floodbase to help identify the zip codes impacted by flooding. This in turn enabled the program to issue checks within weeks of the event. Moving forward, FEMA’s Preliminary Damage Assessment office foresees increasing need for this type of assistance as flood disasters worsen in magnitude and frequency.
Floodbase’s support of FEMA throughout hurricane season is a tangible example of Floodbase’s mission to enable all communities to prepare and respond to climate disasters by reducing the barriers to scientific information and capital. Floodbase is committed to the continuous improvement of our AI platform in support of FEMA and other organizations in need of continuous flood monitoring and flood data in the months and years to come.
Learn More:
Floodbase’s near real-time Flood Data Response Product leveraged by FEMA is available to state and local governments, insurance data platforms, and large corporations with national emergency operations centers. Contact us to learn more.
