Sometimes the biggest challenges come after the fire or the storm. That was the case for Marion County, WV, where a destructive flooding event on Father’s Day left teams not only managing a disaster, but also racing the clock to document and share its full scope.

For Marion County’s emergency management team, this was the moment to test how fast and clearly they could get critical information in front of those who needed it, and they used Nova to document the damage.

Why Centralized Data Matters in Emergency Management

After heavy rainfall swept through Ohio and Marion Counties, one apartment building bore the brunt with the first floor flooded, the parking lot overtaken, water ripping through windows and tearing part of the wall clean off. For responders and leaders alike, understanding the full extent of the damage quickly was essential.

But that clarity wasn’t easy to come by. Like many agencies, Marion County had relied on a patchwork system of hard drives and disconnected image files to manage disaster visuals. Sharing that information through these kinds of workflows can move slowly and quickly become overwhelming with a large emergency unraveling. 

They needed more than drone footage. They needed a way to turn it into something they could act on, brief from, and build a response plan around.

Transforming Drone Imagery into Actionable Insights

With no time to waste, the team deployed drones over the hardest-hit areas and uploaded visual and thermal imagery directly into Nova. Within minutes, they were creating:

• Orthomosaics of flooded zones

• Panorama overviews

• Points, lines, and polygons to outline damage

• Sharable links for command staff and stakeholders

We became their digital command center, making it possible to not only understand the situation on the ground but to present it clearly to anyone who needed eyes on the incident.

Briefing Leadership 

A few days later, with over 130 people gathered for a debrief (including state officials, media, and Governor Patrick Morrisey himself) the Marion County team used Nova to walk the room through exactly what happened.

They didn’t just describe the damage. They were able to show it frame by frame, with maps and annotations, ready to support funding requests, media coverage, and operational decisions.

Disaster Response to Strategic Planning

What started as a field tool became a strategic asset. Marion County now uses Nova not just for disaster response, but for pre-planning too such as for schools and critical infrastructure.

No more juggling external drives or digging through folders for footage. Everything is in one place, shareable with a click, and organized in a way that serves both responders and leadership teams.

Going Forward

For Marion County, Nova has helped the shift in how they document, brief, and prepare for critical situations. What started as a solution for post-flood clarity is now a go-to platform for everything from emergency mapping to pre-plan documentation. We love hearing how teams are integrating Nova to plan, communicate, and act.