Orion Hoch
Saturday Academy
Andy Bryant, Tanja Fransen
NOAA/NWS Portland
Through a partnership with Saturday Academy and NOAA/NWS Portland, OR, I was able to spend my summer as an intern at the National Weather Service office in Portland under the Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering (ASE) program. Through this program, I was given the opportunity to create a catalog of Historical Oregon Floods, prioritizing the use of GIS for easier accessibility with NWS staff, EMs, and the public. The primary goal was to create publicly available databases containing meteorological, hydrologic, and human impact data that can be used in various ways, such as familiarization for new forecasters and use by emergency managers in disaster mitigation planning. This was done using digital and hard-copy data from government sources and public archives, which I could synthesize into shareable maps.
The StoryMap uses data from the USACE, USGS, NOAA, FEMA, Portland City Archive, and more to capture the effects of flow, precipitation, and river crest height on Oregonians. Human impact is shown through videos, image collages, and damage estimates where available. While some data points are unfortunately incomplete because of archival limitations, the goal of the catalog is to create a living document that can be edited by NWS members when more data is available or for future events.
Supplementary URL: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ajz8dmeZqfNTt78mObJs5zt1Nk6zkkiMchobjuHoocs/edit?usp=sharing
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