Mass Burial Sites for Marion County, Indiana Spanish flu victims’ burial, North River, Labrador, Canada 1918

Background It is a well known fact that worldwide pandemic influenza outbreaks can and do occur. In addition natural disasters, industrial accidents, and acts of terrorism also occur around the globe In almost all cases these disasters result in increased numbers of fatalities that may strain local resources

Background We need to look no further than the 2010 Haiti earthquake to see the devastating results these disasters can inflict on regions around the world Victim numbers as a result of these disasters can be high

Haiti Earthquake

2004 Tsunami

2005 Hurricane Katrina

Background It is essential that the casualties that result from disasters are handled properly and with respect

Scope of Project Public health director Mayor of Indianapolis Marion County officials EMA Others Emergency Preparedness

Scope of Project Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare (MESH) Marion County Health Department – Water Quality & Hazardous Materials Mgt. Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County – GIS Department Project Collaboration

Scope of Project Need procedure that protects public health from disease agent that caused the mass fatalities and from any residual contamination due to event Develop a plan from scratch because little to no information on similar plans was available to reference Need to predetermine possible locations within Marion County, Indiana that are suitable as a mass burial site

Scope of Project Attempt to accommodate religious beliefs Burial vs. incineration Storage facilities Government-owned properties CONSIDERATIONS

Scope of Project Marion County, Indiana = sq. miles Population = ~ 1M Worst case scenario: Avian Influenza 60% infected = 600,000 people 30% mortality rate = 180,000 dead CONSIDERATIONS

Scope of Project Avg human height = 6 ft Avg human width = 3 ft 3 ft x 180,000 dead = 540,000 ft miles for body disposal (using the Single Line Slit Trench method) Marion County, Indiana = sq miles (width of Marion County = ~20 miles) CONSIDERATIONS

Haiti Earthquake Victims

2004 Tsunami Victims

Africa – Ebola Victims

Bosnia Single Line Slit Trench

Project Phases Phase I – Gathering information Phase II – Selecting criteria Phase III – GIS analysis Phase IV – Results Phase V – Secondary Results

Phase I – Gathering Information Find existing guidelines Determine recommendation for mass grave square footage requirements Determine what environmental risks a mass grave would pose to the community Find out what GIS layers are available to help us zero in to acceptable burial sites

Phase I – Gathering Information When recommendations for burial sites could be found, current information was used Information was gathered from: – Pan American Health Organization –Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – World Health Organization –and local resources

Phase I – Gathering Information Airfields Buildings Cemetery Greenway Watermains Waterbodies Parcels GIS Layers Pipeline Recreational areas Schools (polygon) Sanitary sewers Streams Parks Street centerlines

Phase II – Selecting Criteria Collect numerous recommendation criteria in regard to site selection Divided criteria into A and B categories

Phase II – Selecting Criteria Features within the county that were REQUIRED to be removed from consideration as potential burial sites A Criteria - CRITICAL

Phase II – Selecting Criteria A Criteria –Surface Water –Public Well Fields –Wetlands –Buildings

Phase II – Selecting Criteria Features within the county that would ideally be removed from consideration as potential burial sites B Criteria - SUPPLEMENTAL

Phase II – Selecting Criteria B Criteria –Pipelines –Railroads –Public Water Lines –Sewer Lines –Private Wells

Phase III – GIS Analysis Create a buffer of each individual A & B criteria layers Remove any land that falls within the A criteria buffers from consideration as a potential burial site Calculate the size of any areas of land that remain as potential burial sites to determine if they are large enough to meet the estimated mass grave square footage requirements

A Criteria At least 113 yards from any surface water At least 400 yards from public well fields At least 113 yards from any wetlands At least 55 yards from buildings

B Criteria At least 50 yards from pipelines At least 50 yards from railroads At least 50 yards from public water lines At least 50 yards from sewer lines At least 200 yards from private wells

Public Well Fields

Buffer of Public Well Fields

Surface Water

Buffer of Surface Water

Buildings

Buffer of Buildings

Phase III – GIS Analysis The next step is to remove the areas deemed as unacceptable burial sites from the map to show what parts of the county remain as potential sites.

Marion County

All land within 55 yards of a BUILDING removed White area = Land removed from consideration

All land within 400 yards of PUBLIC WELLS removed White area = Land removed from consideration

All land within 113 yards of WETLANDS and SURFACE WATER removed White area = Land removed from consideration

Phase IV – Results Preferred to keep the site within the boundaries of an existing park or recreational area Why? Government-owned areas

Parks and Recreation Areas

Phase IV – Results Divided the county up into 4 quadrants and chose 3 potential sites in each quadrant Ranked the sites in each quadrant based on size and quality of location

Phase IV – Results Clip remaining lands available as potential burial sites with the parks and recreation layer to leave us with only sites within parks or recreation facilities.

Areas meeting A Criteria within Parks and Amenities Rank: 1 Red 2 Blue 3 Green

Areas meeting A and B Criteria within Parks & Amenities A Criteria Rank: 1 Red 2 Blue 3 Green B Criteria Yellow

Areas meeting A and B Criteria within Parks and Amenities

Close up of a potential mass burial site ~23 acres

Phase IV – Secondary Results Secondary county for comparison Only A Criteria GIS layers were available Used same methods for A Criteria results Johnson County

Johnson County A Criteria Marion County A & B Criteria

Thank you! David Broyles GIS Jason Doerflein HazMat Joan Keene GIS