Houston startup leverages technology to provide key data in wake of Hurricane Beryl

A Houston-based disaster management AI startup is using technology to aid in relief efforts following Hurricane Beryl and beyond.

Resilitix AI is an AI-powered digital twin for “disaster situational awareness” that partnered with local organizations to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, a Category 1 storm that hit Houston on Sunday, July 7, causing power outages for more than 2 million Houston residents and other structural and environmental damage. The storm is estimated to have had an impact of $3.3 billion.

“Our mission is to reduce the impact of disasters through intelligence, by knowing what is happening and giving emergency teams the information they need to identify the areas that need it, because the information they currently have is significantly delayed and the effort they have to put in to get that information is significant,” Ali Mostafavi, founder of Resilitix, tells InnovationMap.

Mostafavi is also a professor of civic engineering at Texas A&M University. After his research group at the university helped found the startup, within two years the organization had partnered with local agencies. Mostafavi says he has already helped Beryl in the Houston area and coastal counties.

Resilitix AI creates a space for AI digital imaging to leverage different datasets to provide situational awareness, meaning what is happening in an affected region in terms of the response of the population, affected businesses. The technology was deployed before Beryl made landfall to monitor voluntary and involuntary evacuation orders for coastal counties using the technology, users could see which areas responded.

Currently, the platform, which is web and mobile based, is available to government officials and emergency management teams who could see the consequences in terms of power outages, impact on technologies and ultimately provide multiple information on critical disaster areas to increase situational awareness of people, populations and infrastructure.

On July 9, Resilitix AI identified that 54% of food facilities in the Houston metro area were not fully operational. This impacts food service disruptions, and the company helps determine in real-time which grocery stores, restaurants, and pharmacies have experienced disruptions due to facility damage or power outages.

While the product is currently available to agencies and the private sector, Resilitix AI sees the need to explore expanding the product’s reach to the public, especially in times of severe disasters that are becoming all too common.

“What we’re learning now is that some of the components of our data products, like food facility disruptions, might be of interest to people and we could provide them with information about which stores are currently operational and which are not, as well as pharmacies,” Mostafavi says.

Satellite imagery and AI can also help assess property damage. Mostafavi says the results of his property damage data should be released within the week. Energy companies have the ability to use the technology provided, which can help streamline relief efforts and communications.

“This real-time intelligence automatically reduces the workload of collecting and processing information for emergency managers,” says Mostafavi. “These teams are exhausted as they move from one disaster to another. So we see this technology as fundamental to helping these private and public sector organizations better respond to these disasters more effectively and reduce the impact of disasters on communities by making the response smarter and more data-driven.”