ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – A critical part of recovery from Helene is assessing the damage, but with such widespread destruction, where do you even begin?
Manoochehr Shirzaei is an environmental security expert at Virginia Tech.
He says Helene ranks among the worst disasters to ever hit our hometowns.And assessing the damage is a multi-faceted process.Shirzaei said aside from just figuring out immediate needs – like repairing roads and bridges – long-term recovery must also be considered.He said with destruction on this scale, that’s not feasible – at least in a short amount of time. But technology helps, and drones and A.I. tools have made it easier than ever to track even the most remote impacts.
“There was a time that, you’re right, a village was stranded, was abandoned for days or weeks because they didn’t know that village was affected by the disaster,” said Shirzaei. “But now, we can create some of the best maps available from everywhere. We can account for every single building, every single bridge, every infrastructure, every pipeline.”
Shirzaei said the damage estimate from Helene in our region is easily in the billions.He said recovery will take years, and that’s without any setbacks like more storms that could follow.
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