Florence Aerial Photos: NOAA Releases First Damage-Assessment Data
Nina Godlewski
t’s been only days since Hurricane Florence made landfall and brought record rainfall to the Carolinas, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has already captured data on the damage the storm inflicted.
The data, in the form of aerial images, was captured after the bulk of the storm hit. So far, the only images available cover Cape Henry, Virginia, down to Oregon Inlet in North Carolina, and from Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, to Charleston, South Carolina. The National Geodetic Survey was completing data collection, attempting two missions a day. The images in the database are expected to be updated roughly once every 12 hours in an effort to make more images available online on the Hurricane Florence Imagery site.
The images were captured with remote-sensing cameras onboard the King Air aircraft run by NOAA. The craft flew between 500 and 1,500 meters (1,640 to 4,921 feet) above the ground to capture the images, which were then compiled into a map.
Aerial images of the damage done by Hurricane Florence, from the Hurricane Florence Imagery database compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.