{"id":6115,"date":"2016-05-05T09:56:33","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T16:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/msr_er\/?p=6115"},"modified":"2017-05-17T15:08:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T22:08:37","slug":"preventing-flood-disasters-with-cortana-intelligence-suite-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/blog\/preventing-flood-disasters-with-cortana-intelligence-suite-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Preventing flood disasters with Cortana Intelligence Suite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Preventing<\/p>\n

By Kristin Tolle<\/a>, Director, Microsoft Research<\/em><\/p>\n

On October 31, 2013, the city of Austin, Texas, faced a destructive flood. At the time, I was visiting David Maidment, Chaired Professor of the Civil Engineering Center for Research in Water Resources on site at the University of Texas at Austin. The day before the flood, we had been discussing research and analytics around the long-standing drought conditions across western Texas. Overnight, a flash flood wreaked havoc on the Austin area, largely due to the failure of a stream gauge on Onion Creek, which prevented local emergency response officials from being properly informed about the situation.<\/p>\n

On the morning of October 30, the stream gauge monitoring Onion Creek\u2019s was operational and reporting that the stream level was rising to dangerous levels. First responders were monitoring the gauge so that they would be prepared for sending out support crews. However, around 5:00 a.m., the stream level reported by the gauge dropped to zero\u2014which is not uncommon in the southern United States, where washes and stream levels can quickly drop to normal levels once the initial precipitation pattern passes. With the disaster appearing to have been averted, emergency responder turned their attention elsewhere. In actuality, the gauge had failed, the stream overran its banks, and more than 500 homes flooded and five people died.<\/p>\n