FEMA MOTF Damage Estimates Moore/Shawnee, OK Tornadoes May 23, 2014 – 1600 EDT

Overview FEMA Modeling Task Force (MOTF) coordinating damage assessments for one authoritative info source between responding organizations, including, but not limited to: National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) NOAA National Weather Service (SRH) Includes NWS field team surveys of verified wind intensity and damages (ground-truth data) American Red Cross (field PDA) FEMA Regions VI and VII ImageCat, Inc.

Current Status: May 23, 1600 EDT FEMA MOTF damage estimates are ongoing FEMA MOTF damage estimates are authoritative Multiple responding organizations produced early, coarse, low resolution damage estimations Early damage estimations by non-FEMA entities exaggerate impacts based on coarse techniques FEMA MOTF & NGA use very high resolution, high detail imagery, field verification, and techniques for very refined, high accuracy damage assessment

Current Status: May 23, 1600 EDT FEMA MOTF ground-truth building damage estimates for Moore and Shawnee tornadoes: Total buildings damaged: 2,393 Affected: 301 Minor: 629 Major: 335 Destroyed: 1,128 Other, non-FEMA damage estimates are not authoritative and may be inaccurate Additional tornado damage estimates will be added as imagery/observation analyses continue

Deconflicting Damage Estimates Early tornado track data was estimated from radar, not based on field observation NWS field teams estimated track and wind intensities from observations FEMA MOTF and NGA are using high resolution imagery to verify damages FEMA MOTF, NGA, and NWS observations of damage and intensity are in agreement

Deconflicting Damage Estimates Oklahoma SEOC produced early coarse exposure estimates based on Census data through “MARPLOT” software and radar track This method overestimates exposures by simplified methods This early estimate has been replaced with ground-truth, field-verified damage observations FEMA MOTF, NGA, and American Red Cross damage estimates are current, ongoing, and show consistency Media reports appear to be recycling older, out of date, inaccurate overestimates of damage

MOTF/NGA Damage Map

FEMA/NGA Imagery-based Damage Assessments agree with NWS damage/intensity observations.

Example – Prelim State Estimate Early state-based data did not estimate damages; it only estimated population/housing exposure (+/-10,021 Census housing units). This estimate is inaccurate and not based on official NWS tornado track or other observation data. UNOFFICIAL/OUT OF DATE DATA NOT FOR OPERATIONAL USE

Summary FEMA MOTF continues to provide coordinated, authoritative damage assessments for federal operations support FEMA MOTF damage estimates are a work-in-progress and will be updated at least daily until assessment activities are complete FEMA MOTF OK Tornadoes Situation Map: http://bit.ly/130jSmC Questions: FEMA-MOTF@fema.dhs.gov