An update from Esri describes their latest efforts to explore and share  information about the recent storms that devastated parts of the US

Explore the impacts of the recent storms with the Esri Story Map to which you can link as part of your online coverage. Preconfigured views for Washington, D.C. and Baltimore provide an in-depth look at vulnerable populations and health care access in these metropolitan areas.

This thematic map summarizes the social vulnerability index for populations within each state or county in the United States. It answers the question “Where are the areas of relatively higher risk within this state or county?” from the perspective of social vulnerability.

Social vulnerability refers to potential exposure due to population and housing characteristics: age, low income, disability, home value or other factors. For example, low-income seniors may not have access to a car to simply drive away from an ongoing hazard such as a flood.

Esri applied a model from Susan Cutter, University of South Carolina, Hazards Research Lab, Department of Geography (http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/), to generate this data using current year demographics at the block group level. The map is designed to be displayed with semi-transparency of about 50% for overlay on other basemaps, which is reflected in the legend for the map.