New emergency management dashboards to prepare for hazardous events
Oct 20, 2022, 8:47 AM | Updated: 9:06 am
Fire fighters coordinate on the Bolt Creek Fire, gathering information and updates that will be posted to the new Emergency management Dashboard. Photo from Department of Natural Resources
With fall and winter storm seasons arriving soon, there is a new way to monitor what is going on in emergency management.
There are now real-time dashboards that provide information from weather events to power outages.
The Washington State Emergency Management Division recently released new a series of new public-facing interactive online dashboards that allow the public to monitor a variety of weather and natural hazards, along with actions being taken to address them.
Multiple wildfires erupt across western WA
The highly comprehensive series of dashboards can provide information on the ongoing series of wildfires, with information not only on containment numbers and acres burned but also on up-to-date evacuation orders and an overview of what resources are used to combat the fires.
For those who wish to know what is happening before, during, and after one or more significant hazardous events, these applications are updated regularly for a quick and easy way of checking in on all hazards across the state.
One dashboard offers a one-stop shopping location to view incident responses, flood data, electric power, space weather, radio communications, the National Weather Service, and more.
Another key dashboard found on this multiple-hazard application is the Public Operations Dashboard. This dashboard has tabs for various hazards, including wildfire, air quality, earthquake, tsunami, energy, weather, and even traffic conditions. And each of these hazard tabs has sub-tabs highlighting more specific events and situations.
There is also an entire dashboard that allows citizens of the State of Washington to self-report damages to their homes, businesses, and public facilities. The State Emergency Operations Center can use this information to visualize and summarize damage assessments.
For the first time, these applications provide a single location to find and monitor what is going on with different weather and natural hazard events.
If you want to keep an eye on any significant hazardous weather event as they unfold, bookmark these applications as the fall and winter storm season unfolds as well as any human-caused or other natural disasters
