Hurricane Florence caused severe flooding and road closures across North Carolina. Decision-makers needed a detailed, evidence-based assessment of how freight movement was disrupted and how quickly the network recovered.
Approach
- Ingested and processed 587,000 GPS trip records from before, during, and after the hurricane.
- Aggregated movements to road segments and analysed intensity changes across three phases.
- Used spatial analysis in QGIS to map freight re-routing and traffic density shifts.
- Applied robustness metrics and mean time to recovery to quantify resilience of key corridors.
Key Insights
- Identified total shutdown of critical freight routes (I-95, I-40, US-17, US-70) during peak flooding.
- Documented significant re-routing, including a surge on NC-704 as an alternative corridor.
- Recovery rates varied — some routes restored in 11 days, others at partial capacity weeks later.
- Highlighted resilience gaps and provided evidence-based recommendations for future disaster planning.
Impact
This analysis demonstrated how high-resolution telematics data from 120,000+ connected heavy vehicles can be used to measure real-world freight disruption and recovery at a corridor level. The findings provide transportation agencies with a replicable framework for disaster impact assessment and resilience planning, enabling faster, more informed decision-making in future events.