Hurricane Beryl hit Houston, Texas, on Sunday, July 7, causing death and injury and leaving more than two million people suffering power outages and structural and environmental damages estimated at $3.3 billion.

To aid in the relief effort, local startup Resilitix Intelligence partnered with local organizations to assist with "disaster situational awareness," described by Resilitix's founder, Ali Mostafavi, as information for emergency teams to identify areas in need and reduce the response time typically experienced in emergencies. The technology promises effective aid for emergencies beyond Hurricane Beryl.

Credit: Resilitix Intelligence LLC

Resilitix (NSF-2335269) uses U.S. National Science Foundation-funded digital twin technology that harnesses community-scale big data and machine intelligence, offering a proactive and predictive lens on community preparedness, evacuation measures, protective actions and post-event recovery. Mostafavi, a civil engineering professor, spun out the company from his work at Texas A&M University. Through its Small Business Innovation Research program, NSF supports startups like Resilitix with up to $2 million in research and development funding. Also known as America's Seed Fund powered by NSF, the program focuses on transforming scientific and engineering discoveries into products and services with commercial and societal impact.