Ohio River Flooding Emergency Aerial Imagery Services

GRW was called upon by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to assist with federal emergency response services including aerial photography of the 2011 record-breaking floods along the Ohio River and its tributaries. Businesses and residents were evacuated across the South and Midwest as flood waters threatened thousands of acres of land. The USACE requested high resolution imagery to document the historic flooding in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. The data can be utilized for flood planning, analysis, and emergency response services.

Flooded Locations

Within hours of the USACE phone call, GRW mobilized our flight crew and established a flight plan covering the requested flood areas. GRW photographed over 1,600 flight line miles of rivers and lakes including:

  • Ohio River from Tell City, Indiana, to Cairo, Illinois
  • Wabash River from Vincennes, Indiana, to the mouth of the Ohio River
  • Kentucky Lakes: Nolan; Rough River; Taylorsville; Cave Run
  • Indiana Lakes: Patoka Lake; Monroe; Brookville
  • Ohio: W.H. Harsha Lake

Several lakes had reached record-breaking levels, including Taylorsville Lake, which broke a record when it reached a high pool of 590.0 feet, and later crested at the full pool height of 592 feet.

Emergency Response Delivery Schedule

With over 40 years of service to FEMA and the USACE, GRW has the specialized experience necessary to offer services during emergency conditions. As part of this ongoing project, GRW delivered 1”=2,000’ color georeferenced digital images to the USACE in TIF and MrSID formats, involving over 800 exposures, as a record of the historical flooding in the Spring of 2011.

Read about another recent effort to assist with emergency response to the 2018 hurricane disaster recovery.