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Accurate flood forecasting and efficient emergency response operations are vital, especially in the case of urban flash floods. The dense distribution of power lines in urban areas significantly impacts search and rescue operations during extreme flood events. However, no existing emergency response frameworks have incorporated the impacts of overhead power lines on lifeboat rescue operations. This study aims to determine the necessity and feasibility of incorporating overhead power line information into an emergency response framework using Manville, New Jersey during Hurricane Ida as a test bed. We propose an integrated framework, which includes a building-scale flood model, urban point cloud data, a human vulnerability model, and network analysis, to simulate rescue operation feasibility during Hurricane Ida. Results reveal that during the most severe point of the flood event, 46% of impacted buildings became nonrescuable due to complete isolation from the road network, and a significant 67.7% of the municipality’s areas that became dangerous for pedestrians also became inaccessible to rescue boats due to overhead power line obstruction. Additionally, we identify a continuous 10-hour period during which an average of 43.4% of the 991 impacted buildings faced complete isolation. For these structures, early evacuation emerges as the sole means to prevent isolation. This research highlights the pressing need to consider overhead power lines in emergency response planning to ensure more effective and targeted flood resilience measures for urban areas facing increasingly frequent extreme precipitation events.
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This content will become publicly available on January 15, 2026
An integrated metric for rapid and equitable emergency rescue during urban flash flooding events
During flash flooding, quick and effective rescue operations are crucial to minimizing harm to vulnerable communities. While much research focused on emergency response and evacuation, few studies address how overhead powerline obstructions impact rescue operations. Additionally, existing research on vulnerable communities often emphasizes long-term flood mitigation and recovery but less so on immediate responses. To ensure rapid and equitable flood rescue operations, this study derives an integrated metric to quantify rescue demands that incorporate rescue efficiency, community flood severity, and social vulnerability. In detail, rescue efficiency is calculated by analyzing a network that captures the geospatial interdependencies between the residential buildings' road networks and overhead power lines; community flood severity is quantified as the percentage of building damage resulting from flood impacts; and social vulnerability is an integrated indication of key household composition factors (e.g., elders, single parents, and minorities). Based on this metric, a systematic step is designed to suggest the sequence of rescue operations and the strategies for distributing rescue lifeboats at emergency facilities. The applicability and feasibility of the proposed approach were demonstrated using lifeboat rescue operations in Manville, New Jersey, during Hurricane Ida. This study calculates dynamic changes in rescue loads of all emergency facilities and then finds the optimal strategies for distributing lifeboats. The results highlight the significant impact of overhead power line obstructions on the optimal rescue lifeboat distribution. Additionally, the results suggest prioritizing emergency evacuation for socially vulnerable households in Manville township. Practically, the generated rescue sequence and rescue lifeboat distribution are expected to help emergency response agencies perform effective and rapid rescue operations.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2103754
- PAR ID:
- 10610285
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
- Volume:
- 118
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 2212-4209
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 105209
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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