UNC-Chapel Hill researchers are working to launch a data-driven website for people who could potentially be in a storm-related crisis or disaster, like Helene.
To identify communities in need of urgent aid, the website will use data gathered from UNC's Center for Virtual Care, Value, and Equity (ViVE). Recently, Saif Khairat, a UNC professor and lead of the project, gave a map of the data they collected to the State Department of Transportation. It showed areas in western North Carolina that had washed away bridges and impassable roads. He said the new website will provide some of that same data.
“This website will be user-friendly for everyone and will allow people to see where they are and what is going on around them during times of crisis or even during regular times, to be able to see where the closest emergency department or the closest urgent care is,” said Khairat.
The website will also allow policymakers and health administrators to tailor their relief efforts, based on that real time data.
“So, this technology now allows us to zoom in onto areas of impact and understand who lives there,” Khairat said. “What is the level of access that we have to them, or they have to us. And then what are the means to communicate with them.”
Khairat said the website is expected to launch in a few months.
UNC’s ViVE center — that houses all the data — was partly funded through the National Institutes of Health for over $3 million over the course of five years.
