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MOBILE DATA COLLECTION · WORKFLOW AUTOMATION · EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Post-Emergency Canvassing Operations (PECO) Data Infrastructure

GIS infrastructure enabling systematic door-to-door welfare assessment across rural mountain terrain following Hurricane Helene. Survey123 mobile collection, Power Automate workflow integration, and offline-capable operation for areas without cell coverage.

The Problem

Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic flooding across Western North Carolina in late September 2024. Haywood County needed to systematically check on thousands of residents across a rural mountain environment where many were isolated without power, water, or communication capabilities.

Traditional urban PECO models do not translate to rural terrain. Dispersed populations, unpaved roads, properties accessible only by private drives, and unreliable cellular coverage required purpose-built infrastructure rather than adapted urban playbooks.

The Solution

I designed and implemented an integrated GIS infrastructure to support the 21-day canvassing operation:

Survey123 Mobile Data Collection

Custom survey forms configured for offline operation with spatial intersection queries that auto-populated fire district and address data from county GIS layers based on GPS location. Field personnel did not need to manually identify their fire district or transcribe addresses. The system pulled authoritative data directly, reducing entry errors and ensuring geographic accuracy for follow-up coordination.

Power Automate Workflow Integration

Automated data pipeline routing incoming survey submissions by need type and geographic area. The workflow enabled coordination staff to organize supply delivery with a target 24-hour turnaround from initial contact to need fulfillment. Without automation, manual processing of 163 daily survey submissions would have created bottlenecks incompatible with the operational tempo.

Offline Resilience

Approximately 16% of visited addresses were in areas where cellular coverage was unavailable or unreliable. The offline-capable survey configuration allowed field teams to continue operations and sync completed surveys when connectivity was restored.

Needs Breakdown

Among the 298 households with identified needs, the survey captured detailed categorization enabling targeted resource coordination:

Households often reported multiple concurrent needs. The heating needs category captured heating source type (electric, propane, wood, fuel oil, kerosene) to enable appropriate resource matching.

Context

This work was accomplished while employed by Haywood County, in collaboration with Haywood County Health and Human Services. The operation received advisory support from the Washington, D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency and field support from NC National Guard troops including the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, 113th Sustainment Brigade, and 196th Signal Company.

NC Guard Go Door to Door after Tropical Storm Helene (U.S. Army)