Volume 1, Number 3, October 2003
This third issue of PANEL UPDATE, the eNewsletter of the Panel on Wind and Seismic Effect’s,
reports on the recent Hurricane Isabel’s strike on the US central Atlantic states and NILIM’s new
real-time disaster information system. Your comments about the eNewsletter’s content andformat are welcomed. We strive to bring you, the Panel Members with timely information about
your Panel activities.
HURRICANE ISABEL AND AAWE
During the evening of 18 September 2003 and morning of the 19th, Hurricane Isabel traveledthrough North Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland on its northward path to Canada. Isabel caused
widespread power outages, localized damage to water treatment plants, swollen streams andrivers, flooding in low lying areas along waterfronts, many downed trees, extensive businessinterruption, and the closing of federal, state, and local government offices and schools. The
cleanup and damage assessment phase is underway. Federal funds were released and madeavailable for damage repair. The American Association for Wind Engineering (AAWE) dispatched
an advance team to North Carolina before Isabel's landfall. The hurricane resulted in little windinduced structural damage; most damage was from storm surge and falling trees from saturatedsoils. AAWE released a preliminary report at the end of September. Many lives were saved
during Isabel’s track through the US east coast based on NOAA’s improved capability to provide
five-day forecasts that now are as reliable as were its two-day forecasts during the 1990s. On a
related matter, in May 2003, AAWE investigated damage from tornado outbreaks in Missouri andKansas. The findings were released in May 2003 and are available at www.windhazards.org andfrom AAWE's website www.aawe.org. During the Panel's Wind Engineering Task Committee
Workshop, Seattle, WA,
October 2002, AAWE and the Japanese Association for Wind Engineering developed a draft
Memorandum of Agreement (currently under review) to perform joint wind damage investigations
under the umbrella of the Panel.
Contributors: Bogusz (Bo) Bienkiewicz,
President AAWE, bogusz@engr.colostate.edu
and Walter Hays, Global Alliance for DisasterReduction, University of North Carolina atCharlotte, walter_hays@msn.com.
DEVELOPMENT OF REAL-TIME DISASTER
INFORMATION SYSTEMThe National Institute for Land and InfrastructureManagement (NILIM) initiated a new project,“Development of real time disaster informationsystem”. This project’s goal is to mitigate disasterdamage through use of IT and remote sensing
technology to disaster management activities.
The project consists of three tasks:
1. Develop a process to share and provide
disaster information.
2. Develop effective methods to estimate
disasters and damages in real time.
3. Develop methods to perform real-time
geographical movement observation andanalysis techniques that quickly predicts volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
The project is a cooperative research with geographical survey institute. NILIM is primarilyinvolved with tasks 1 and 2 above. The expected products of this work are:
1. New procedures to use laser scanner technology to rapidly understand real-time hazard
from volcanoes, flood areas, and landslides.
2. Disaster management system and crisis management computer based support system.
The project duration is three years. An experimental system will be developed and evaluated in
Tokai area. This project is expected to results in an improved and enhanced system of disastermanagement that will considerably mitigated disasters such as the Tokai earthquake.
Contributor: Takaaki Kusakabe, Head, Earthquake Disaster Prevention Division, National
Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, kusakabe-t88d8@nilim.go.jp.