High-tech effort underway to remap Bahamas after Dorian

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - Researchers at the University of South Florida are using high-tech data to aid in Hurricane Dorian recovery.

They are working to remap areas that seemed all but lost, where homes and potentially hundreds of lives are buried beneath a mountain of rubble.

“In this case, it’s really important because what’s on the ground today is not what was there subsequent to the storm,” said Lori Collins, director of the Digital Heritage & Humanities Collections.

By using before-and-after satellite images, they can mark where homes and buildings used to be. That information is then relayed to crews on the ground.

“People that are on the ground are not able to sort that out, there not able to know or orient where they are on the ground or what used to be there,” Collins said.

“This gives us perspective lets us know what we’re looking at and how we need to handle the situation,” said GIS analyst Denise Wright.

It will likely take years for the Bahamas to fully rebuild, but thanks to this technology, research teams will have a better idea of where to begin.

“It is really impactful when you know your work is actually being applied,” said Collins.