CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Just days before the anniversary of the most recent major flooding in southern West Virginia, Governor Patrick Morrisey unveiled plans for a pilot project aimed at improving the early warning for impending flood waters.
Morrisey introduced the Sentry system, which stands for Smart Environmental Notification Threat System. It’s a three year pilot program to use new and emerging technology to see if it’s possible to get word to people faster to get out of harm’s way amid fast rising water. He said traditional river gauges don’t provide the warning necessary to save lives.
“They can tell you when the water is already high, that’s useful, but it’s often a lagging indicator of what’s needed. SENTRY is trying to get out in front of the problem with leading indicators; more sensors, more data, and better modeling so that we might be able to recognize the risk before people die,” the Governor said in his Friday news conference.
The Governor said the program will utilize additional rain gauges, soil saturation sensors, wind data, and stream monitoring with artificial intelligence-driven modeling.
“The goal is to forecast elevated flood risk one to six hours ahead with a target accuracy of over 90 percent,” he said.
Morrisey said the sites where the pilot devices will be installed will be in flood prone areas, but so far have not been decided. He added they would start with about seven different locations for the devices. If successful, and as they are perfected, they would be added to other flood prone spots across the state.