The time to prepare for a disaster is not while you are
experiencing it. The only thing you bring to the fight when it happens is
what you did to prepare for “something that will never happen”.
The quality of information available on these Iowa USNG
maps, is a direct result of the quality of the information that was provided by
the Iowa GIS community. Some areas are really good, some need some work.
So some points to ponder as you watch things unfold in
Texas:
- Did you know Iowa has an
online map delivery system for disasters? An example site is here: https://ia.sharedgeo.net/index.html
- Did you know there are
Iowa USNG map production standards?:
- If the answer is yes to
both items above, what have you done to share this knowledge with members
of your local first response community?
- And finally, as noted by
NAPSG, when all other location references are gone, this still works: www.usngapp.org. Is your community
ready to leverage that capability with maps, apps and dispatch? You
don’t need to GUESS where individuals in peril are located.
If what is taking place in Houston bothers you, the way to
do something about it is by working locally to make YOUR community better prepared
for the future. Not often the geospatial community gets to lead and
provide answers. On this one you do. Learn everything you can about
U.S. National Grid and pass it along.