OneRain Announces Title Sponsorship of National Hydrologic Warning Council’s 13th Biennial Conference

OneRain Incorporated, a leading provider of software, instrumentation, and systems integration to the Water Resource Management, Flood Warning, Post-Wildfire Mitigation, and Road Weather industries, is the title sponsor for the National Hydrologic Warning Council’s 13th Biennial Training Conference & Expo, June 17-20, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky. More than 200 attendees from local, state, and emergency response agencies from around the U.S. and abroad are expected to attend the event being held in Galt House Hotel.

“This is a really important conference as we continue to see the growing risks of flooding with the steady increase in extreme hydro-meteorological events, dam failure and levee breach incidents, and destructive wild fires that are impacting the world.” said OneRain’s CEO, James Logan.

This year’s conference is devoted to real-time hydrologic warning systems and how these systems and associated technologies assist local officials with hydrologic hazard preparedness, emergency response, recovery and mitigation. It is the largest conference focused on this topic in the United States.

OneRain, part of the AE Monitoring family of companies, will present on best practices for creating more reliable decision support systems and risk reduction through innovative technologies used in real-time early warning systems. Several educational sessions and training workshops will be presented by the AE Monitoring family over the course of three days:

 

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

8:30 am – 10:00 am: “Enhancements to HSE Hardware“, presented by Carrie Lery and Tom Ogden, High Sierra Electronics, CA

8:30 am – 10:00 am: “How Do You Model a Flood Anyway?“, presented by Baxter Vieux, Vieux & Associates, OK

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm: “Twenty-Twenty Vision – Leveraging the Power of Live Cameras in Contrail®“, presented by Charles Yost and Scott Bores, OneRain Incorporated, CO

 

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

11:00 am – 11:30 am: “The Internet of Things and Seven Things You Should Know About How It Will Impact the Flood Warning, Dam Safety, and Levee Safety lndustries“, presented by James Logan, OneRain Incorporated, CO

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm: “Bexar County Texas HALT System“, presented by Dave Wegman, Bexar County, San Antonio, TX and Tom Ogden, High Sierra Electronics, CA

 

Thursday, June 20, 2019

9:00 am – 9:30 am: “South East Queensland ALERT2 Trial – Increased Reliability & Accuracy of Flood Warning Data in Australia“, presented by Mike Zucosky, OneRain Incorporated, CO

9:30 am – 10:00 am: “Enhancing Hydro-Met Warning Systems with the Internet of Things“, presented by Zoë Fyfe, FTS Inc., BC, Canada

10:30 am – 11:00 am: “System Resiliency, Eliminating Single Points of Failure“, presented by Scott Bores, OneRain Incorporated, CO

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm: “ALERT2 Network Design” presented by James Logan, OneRain Incorporated, CO and Carrie Lery, High Sierra Electronics, CA

 

The full conference agenda and schedule is available here.  For more information about the 2019 NHWC Training Conference & Expo and event registration, go to www.hydrologicwarning.org

 

About OneRain Incorporated
Since 1992, OneRain has been providing solutions that optimize water management, heighten regulatory compliance, achieve successful civil works, and save lives. Headquartered in Longmont, Colorado, OneRain’s software and services deliver mission critical information to serve clients responsible for flood early warning, dam safety and reservoir operations, water resources, stormwater and wastewater management. For more information, visit www.onerain.com or call 800-758-RAIN (7246).

Rapid Deployment of Flood Warning System for County of Sonoma Following Devastating Wildfires

In October 2017, the Sonoma County region experienced several firestorms that left a blazing path of destruction and killed at least 25 people. In the aftermath, the communities faced a new danger as they struggled to recover. The resulting fire burn scars and ground conditions throughout the Tubbs and Nuns area had left the region highly vulnerable to life-threatening flash flooding and debris flows during heavy rainstorms. As they headed into California’s rainy season, Sonoma County and City of Santa Rosa officials knew that a flood warning network was needed as quickly as possible to assist the County and National Weather Service in detecting potential flooding conditions.

rain-gauge-installed-after-wildfires-sonoma-county

Led by Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) and working collaboratively with a team from OneRain and other local agencies, a plan was put in place to implement a new flood warning network for the region that would provide advanced warning for potential flash flood threats to the communities as they struggled to recover.

The timing and speed of installation of the new ALERT2-based radio telemetry network was critical. Strategic monitoring site locations within and downstream of the burn scar areas were chosen. OneRain conducted a radio path analysis and designed an optimized network plan that would leverage other existing ALERT2 networks in the area.

More than 25 HSE automated rainfall and streamflow gauges were installed by OneRain’s Field Services team. Soil moisture sensors were later installed to track saturation and potential slope destabilization in at-risk areas. OneRain’s Contrail® software platform provides SCWA with secure 24/7 real time data collection, archiving, monitoring, and visualization used in decision support. SCWA and other officials and responders receive advanced notifications of potential flood-threatening conditions via email and SMS. The data feeds sent from Contrail to the National Weather Service are used in developing their official active hazardous weather warnings and advisories. The general public can also view up-to-the-minute rainfall, streamflow, and other data at https://sonoma.onerain.com/.

The entire ALERT2™ Flood Warning network was fully operational in less than four months.

 

“The need on the heels of the October fires was imminent, and the pace at which we had to act was daunting. OneRain definitely stepped up to the plate to help us navigate this rapid deployment of our gauge network. Their expertise and professionalism were invaluable throughout the process,” said Jay Jasperse, Chief Engineer, Sonoma County Water Agency.

 

 

In a press release issued by the County of Sonoma and City of Santa Rosa, Brian Garcia, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service said, “Knowing what is going on in real time is vitally important to the issuance of life-saving warnings, such as flash flood warnings. During rain storms we continually monitor the network of instrumentation across Sonoma County to maintain situational awareness.”

 

About OneRain Incorporated
Since 1992, OneRain has been providing solutions that optimize water management, heighten regulatory compliance, achieve successful civil works, and save lives. Headquartered in Longmont, Colorado, OneRain’s software and services deliver mission critical information to serve clients responsible for flood early warning, dam safety and reservoir operations, water resources, stormwater and wastewater management. For more information, visit www.onerain.com or call 800-758-RAIN (7246).

 

#wildfire #flashflooding #mudslide #debrisflow

Post Wildfire Flash Flood Warning System

Fire and Water: Hazards Management after Wildfires

Between shifting weather patterns and human activity, severe wildfires are becoming a more frequent occurrence. While the immediate effects of these fires are well known, it is the after effects, including flooding, that need to be closely managed.

Author: Anu Sood 

One such example is the Las Conchas fire in New Mexico. On June 26, 2011, a tree fell on a power line in Santa Fe National Forest, which ignited the parched vegetation. The forest burned at an astounding rate of one acre per second, and by the time it was over, an estimated 156,000 acres of land had been burned. Among the areas burned were parts of Bandelier National Monument, Santa Clara Pueblo and Cochiti Pueblo. At the time, it was the largest recorded wildfire in New Mexico.

The loss of vegetation from the fire was just one of the catastrophic outcomes. With much of the vegetation removed and the ground becoming hydrophobic (or vitrified), intense downpour in the Jemez Mountains in August 2011 led to flash floods. Although newly implemented flood protection had reduced damage to the recently renovated historic visitor center, many park trails had been severely impacted.

“Ground conditions drastically change following wildfires—greatly increasing the potential for life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides during heavy rain.”

The Challenge

Knowing that it could take many years, and possibly decades, for the terrestrial ecosystem to recover, the agency responsible for maintaining the park set about to implement a more effective way to closely monitor the area’s water cycle. They were concerned about heavy rains and rising upstream water levels that could once again cause flash floods or landslides, thereby threatening lives and damaging property and park assets such as the visitor center. “To more closely guard the park against post-wildfire hazards, the local agency was looking for a system that would allow them to receive real-time notifications of rainfall and water level changes in various parts of the park,” said James Logan, CEO of OneRain.

Many of the systems in the market collected data regularly but are only able to send it at specific times or at specific intervals. This did not meet the crucial requirement to receive level information in real-time since water levels can rise very quickly right before a flood.

OneRain’s StormLink® Satellite Telemetry installed in the Cochiti fire burn area in northern New Mexico for flash flood warning. Real-time data is transmitted to OneRain’s secure data storage center for viewing, alarming and monitoring on the Internet via Contrail®

The Solution

OneRain developed and deployed several of their StormLink Monitoring Stations around the Santa Fe National Forest at Bandelier National Monument, Santa Clara Pueblo and the Cochiti Pueblo. Each consisted of either a rainfall gauge or a stream gauge connected to a satellite messaging terminal manufactured by SkyWave Mobile Communications and powered by a 10-watt solar panel.

OneRain’s StormLink solution provided many key functions and benefits for effective flood warnings. Since the system relied on satellite communications to relay data, monitoring stations were set up in mountains, canyons and other remote areas where other services are not available. Data from water gauges can be received by the monitoring software within 20 seconds of being collected and sent. This allows authorities to receive immediate notification when water levels rise rapidly during heavy rains and when data are needed in order to quickly assess risk levels.

OneRain’s Unique StormLink Protocol Guaranteed Timely Data Delivery for Advanced Warning
To ensure that data were received by the flood monitoring software, OneRain implemented a unique StormLink® handshaking protocol between the satellite messaging terminal and their Contrail® monitoring software that guaranteed data delivery. If acknowledgement of data receipt was not received by the satellite messaging terminal, it would resend information.

Finally, OneRain devised the system so that water and weather data could be received, alarm thresholds defined and automated notifications for triggered alarm events delivered to any number of appropriate personnel to warn of possible flood conditions. Alarm notifications could be sent via both email and SMS text messages.

Intense Rainfall Event Puts the Advance Warning System to the Test

The remote monitoring solution’s capability was quickly tested for its effectiveness. On July 25, 2013, rains in the region led to a 17-foot (5.1-meter) high wall of water barreling through a local canyon towards the visitor center. “The real-time water level information allowed the local agencies to mobilize flood protection measures in advance,” said Logan “The early warning ensured that no one was hurt and damage to the visitor center and surrounding areas were minimized.”

For more information about this project

See OneRain Presentation: “Post Wildfire Flash Flood Warning System: A Case Study of Frijoles Canyon”

 

About the Author
Original story appeared in WaterWorld Magazine (www.waterworld.com). At the time published, Anu Sood was the Global Channel Marketing Manager at SkyWave Mobile Communications.

About OneRain Incorporated
For more than 20 years, OneRain has been providing private and public sector clients across the United States and around the world with solutions to optimize water management, heighten regulatory compliance, achieve successful civil works, and save lives. OneRain’s innovative products and services serve clients in Flood Early Warning and Emergency Management, Dam Safety and Reservoir Operations, Water Resource Management, Post Wild Fire Mitigation, Urban Pluvial Water Management, and Stormwater and Wastewater Management. For more information, visit www.onerain.com or call 1-800-758-RAIN (7246).