Supporting the Movement of Fleet Utility Vehicles for the Restoration of Power: An Example of the Weather Enterprise at Work

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria posed historic challenges to the weather enterprise including emergency managers, electric utility industry and first responders. Working together through a strong public-private partnership the All Hazards Consortium (AHC), ESIP Federation and StormCenter Communications identified and supplied Earth science and other critical data sets through a collaborative common operating picture (C-COP) to deliver key NWS weather information, state declarations of emergency and associated waivers, real-time traffic and road closure information and live National Hurricane Center forecasts, watches and warnings to keep responding utility vehicles aware of a dynamic situation. This presentation will outline how it all came together through an agile process to provide improved situational awareness and a robust decision making environment to address three CAT 5 hurricanes in August and September 2017.