GIS Internship - Training and Hurricanes

The internship with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) at District 7 Headquarters has been quite eventful. I got started a bit later in the semester through the Volunteer Program, so I am approximately one third through the hours for GIS. Beyond mandatory training for state employees, I got started on putting together a training manual for ArcGIS Pro desktop to be used by the GIS Department in future classes for general employees. I also have partaken in weekly GIS Check-in and GIS Day Progress meetings.

Things changed two weeks ago with the expected development of what became Hurricane Helene in the Northwestern Caribbean Sea. From the beginning the projected path focused on the west coast of Florida and Big Bend region. Either way, the counties within District 7 would be affected, so the focus of FDOT shifted from routine day-to-day operations to storm preparation and emergency management applications.

Additionally the office closed for a couple of days and work-from-home was implemented for most employees. Being an intern, that left me waiting until the following week to resume work. But since I am considered an employee, I could still partake in Microsoft Teams communications from my home PC. So I was able to assist in putting together storm surge inundation graphics for upper management using raster data provided in the NHC Data in GIS Formats downloads page.

Potential Storm Surge Inundation for Hurricane Helene with Florida State Roads

Just over a week removed from Hurricane Helene, Tropical Storm Milton quickly formed within the Bay of Campeche over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. The initial forecast track immediately targeted the Tampa Bay region. So again the focus at FDOT D7 shifted to emergency management operations and storm preparedness. The biggest difference this time was that FDOT played a role in logistics with relocating the massive amount of debris along the Pinellas County coastline that was the result of Hurricane Helene's storm surge.

The office closed again on Tuesday October 8 and remained close through Thursday. This meant my internship was again on hold, but similar to Helene, I could still contribute GIS related graphics from home. Storm surge being the biggest concern again, I put together another storm surge inundation map with GIS data downloaded from the NHC.

Hurricane Milton NHC Storm Surge Inundation for Tampa Bay with Florida State Roads

With the knowledge gained from class, I can quantify this data to show the total mileage of Florida State Roads potentially inundated by storm surge. Then by Calculating Statistics, aggregate the percent of state roads effected by county. One thing I have learned thus far with my internship at FDOT is that the turnaround time for producing a deliverable is often very short. Any premade styling or formatting is absolutely necessary and fine tuning an output map is more of a luxury than a necessity.

10/15/24 Update, after 120 hours of no electricity, water or internet due to Hurricane Milton, I finally have the opportunity to created a LinkedIn profile! While I have known about this platform for many years, my internship and recent classes gave me the impetus for making an account.

My approach to setting up the initial profile was to cover as many aspects of my experiences with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and geography in general. Barring anymore hurricanes and as I get more time, especially as my internship with FDOT progresses, I will further expound upon my GIS work and classes with my profile.