Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) has leveraged its expertise in wind modeling to help inform U.S. officials tasked with responding to Hurricane Helene, providing critical wind field estimates in near real-time.
ARA, under contract 1333ND22PNB730388, provides the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with rapid estimates of the wind field of hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. to support mission assignments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA typically uses these rapid wind field estimates as inputs to their HAZUS model to help plan emergency response and allocation of resources.
The wind field model of Hurricane Helene that ARA created as the storm made landfall in Florida on September 26 was used during an operational briefing to President Biden, the FEMA Deputy Administrator Erik Hooks, and Senator Rick Scott, among others. Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction after making landfall, pummeling the southeastern United States.
“Extreme wind events can have a devastating impact on people, property, and communities,” said ARA Senior Engineer Lauren Mudd. “ARA’s trusted catastrophe modeling creates actionable risk information that increases community resilience in the face of natural disasters like Hurricane Helene.”
ARA is an industry leader in extreme wind modeling. ARA’s extensively vetted and peer reviewed models quantify the effects of these natural disasters for affected stakeholders, providing critical insights for safety, economic impacts, design for wind and water loadings, and community resilience. Learn more about ARA’s state-of-the-art capabilities in natural disaster risk assessment at https://www.ara.com/natural-disaster-risk-assessment-consulting/.
