Severe weather such as the recent atmospheric rivers in California can cause an influx of customer reports and alerts. Without details, it can be hard to know how to prioritize crew efforts. Visiting each site to determine the level of severity and equipment needed takes time.
Utilities and public works departments that use Daupler RMS can streamline this process with heat maps. With heat maps, supervisors can locate concentrations of issues. They can zoom in to each concentration to see specific properties impacted, and they can hover over each location to see the initial issue description.
Users can click into each individual incident report to view photos and additional notes provided by customers. Photos offer details that can be missing from initial reports, such as how deep the water is, how fast it is flowing, types of blockages, size of downed trees, or if there is sewage present.
These features enable supervisors to direct efforts more efficiently. Customers appreciate it.
Customer comments from a recent storm
"Road is clear! They deserve a raise and PTO!"
"Thank you so much for picking up the fallen tree. I know you must be so busy with this crazy weather. We really appreciate it. Stay safe."
"A tree services crew came by at 10:50am and removed most of the tree, leaving about an 8 ft. chunk of the base. So this issue is in your system already and is being dealt with. Thank you for the prompt work."
Get a better visual of how heat maps can help here.
Note: The examples in this visual represent issues from flooding, but heat maps and photos can also be helpful for other incidents. Part 2 of this series will feature examples from electric utilities.