HURRICANE HELENE
PHEER ACTIVATION
The PHEER directors are activating the PHEER membership network in response to Hurricane Helene. This activation involves such activities as, (1) monitoring the track of Hurricane Helene as it has made landfall in Florida and is making its way northward through Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, and (2) engaging the full network in considering a comprehensive research response.
Given that the PHEER network is currently mobilized in response to Hurricane Beryl, we have explored ways that we can expand our current activities to include Hurricane Helene. PHEER presently has two active Task Forces engaged in disaster research activities: Beryl Task Force 1 examining public health system impacts and decision-making surrounding Hurricane Beryl, and Beryl Task Force 2 focusing on population health impacts, with the specific application of Location-Based Data (LBD) to estimate system disruptions and health effects. We have decided to expand the scope of both Task Forces to accommodate rapid research into Hurricane Helene’s public health system and population health impacts.
IMMEDIATE ACTION FOR HURRICANE HELENE:
The PHEER directors are immediately interested in establishing a Location-Based Data Operations Group that can rapidly carry out geospatial analyses of Helene’s impacts. This operations group would work with the PHEER directors, the LBD Task Force members, and local and state health officials and stakeholders to identify time-sensitive research questions. The PHEER directors anticipate that these analyses will be of immediate utility to local and state public health agencies.
If you have access to, or experience with such data, including aggregate cell phone data, social media data (such as that available on the Meta Data for Good portal, or the Twitter/X API), Point of Interest (POI) data, and satellite data, and are interested in joining this Location-Based Data Operations Group or the LBD Task Force that advises it, please respond to pheernetwork@gmail.com with your contact information and a brief description of the data or your experience.