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South Carolina's Hurricane Evacuation Web System Enhanced with Intergraph's SVG-based Solution Performs Successfully in Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Gaston
[August 31, 2004]

South Carolina's Hurricane Evacuation Web System Enhanced with Intergraph's SVG-based Solution Performs Successfully in Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Gaston

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. --(Business Wire)-- Aug. 31, 2004 -- Hurricane Charley and Tropical Storm Gaston Confirms Reliability of Enhanced Hurricane Decision Support Solution

Intergraph (NASDAQ: INGR) Mapping and Geospatial Solutions today announced South Carolina's Hurricane Evacuation Decision Support Solution, newly enhanced with Intergraph Web solutions that incorporate Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), has successfully met its first challenge. The South Carolina Hurricane Evacuation Decision Support Solution, managed by South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), provides government officials, the Emergency Preparedness Office and transportation executives with near real-time information on rapidly changing traffic and evacuation route information. With information provided by the Web-based system, officials successfully managed the mandatory evacuation of residents along the state's East coast during Hurricane Charley.



The system's intelligent maps incorporate live traffic volume and speed information from SCDOT's GIS; automated traffic recorders; evacuation route and detour maps; traffic cameras; and real-time weather data. This information gives officials rapid access to traffic volumes, collected speed data and other pertinent traffic information. The Web application integrates interactive maps with dynamic traffic volume and traffic speed charts and graphs. Using a combination of maps, charts and graphs, SCDOT personnel can analyze and estimate evacuation traffic. The system enables SCDOT to compare current traffic trends with normal loads, look for traffic slow-downs and determine if alternative routes should be opened and/or lane directions should be reversed on selected routes.

Donald McElveen, Manager of GIS and Mapping, SCDOT, noted how the speed and ease of use helped provide officials with traffic information during the evacuation. "Previously, when monitoring traffic for a hurricane, we pulled reports hourly and only in one set format. With the new system, we can pull our standard reports instantly and then also provide additional data or generate reports based on customized requests, thus allowing us to look at things differently and be more responsive during the emergency situation. We used the system again this past weekend with Tropical Storm Gaston and were able to provide traffic information easily with the new Web system."


The solution based on Intergraph's GeoMedia(R) WebMap, first implemented weeks before Hurricane Floyd in 1999, was recently upgraded to provide better interactivity for automating reports as well as simplifying non-technical user operation. New functionality added to the system extends reporting capabilities to give officials more flexibility for traffic analysis. In addition, the system can now generate analysis reports more quickly. For example, speed capacity reports previously took up to five minutes to download from the emergency center computers. Now they are available to download the reports within seconds. In a crisis situation, minutes saved are critical when making life-threatening decisions.

Scalable Vector Graphics is the new World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard for Web-based vector graphics, which was recently incorporated in Intergraph's GeoMedia WebMap version 5.1 and greater products. Based on Extensible Mark-up Language (XML), SVG provides dynamic segmentation capabilities that make an integrated environment of maps and charts more interactive. Coupling rich graphics features and the capacity to handle very large amounts of data, SVG saves time for users performing data analysis. Scalable Vector Graphic's powerful scripting and event support capabilities complement the Open GIS Consortium's GML format, which can be easily converted for high-quality online display.

For more information about Intergraph products, visit http://imgs.intergraph.com/products/. Detailed information about Intergraph solutions can be found at http://imgs.intergraph.com/solutions/.

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions is a leading geospatial solutions provider for the following markets: local, state and federal government; transportation; utilities; communications; location-based services; photogrammetry; remote sensing; cartography; and military and intelligence. For more information, visit http://imgs.intergraph.com.

Intergraph and GeoMedia are registered trademarks of Intergraph Corporation. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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