LSU HURRICANE CENTER

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LSU HURRICANE CENTER
2001 Survey of State Evacuation Practices
Planning, Operations, and Needs
Brian Wolshon, Ph.D., P.E. Dept. of Civil and
Env. Engineering
Addressing Hurricanes and Other Hazards and Their
Impacts On the Natural, Built and Human
Environments
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Who Are We?

• LSU Hurricane Center
• Multidisciplinary research and teaching program
• 500k NSF grant to establish the discipline of
  Hurricane Engineering
• Research
• All aspects of hurricane hazards
• Engineering, Meteorology, Coastal/Environmental,
  Sociology, Architecture, Planning, etc.
• Teaching
• Nations first u/g and graduate degree program in
  Disaster Science and Management (Fall 2001)
• Service

LSU HURRICANE CENTER

• To learn more about Hurricane Engineering watch
  for the August/September 2001 ASCE CE Magazine

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Discussion Topics

• Survey Objectives and Methods
• Comprehensive literature review
• Unpublished literature search
• State-by-state questionnaire survey

• Responses and Findings
• Initial responses for discussion stimulation
  purposes, analysis and follow has just started
• Similarities and differences in practices between
  states

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• Needs
• Information/Guidelines
• Future Research

• Whats New and Whats Next?

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Methods and Objectives

• Goal
• Conduct a review of evacuation practices in the
  U.S. from a transportation perspective

• Review of Published Literature
• Library and Internet searches
• Included both transportation and
  non-transportation sources

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• Review of Unpublished Literature
• Phone/mail/email survey
• Included state DOT and EMA reports and plans

• Questionnaire survey
• Email survey targeted at state DOTs and EMAs
• Identify needs, developing plans, fill in gap
  details

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Survey Questions

• Identification of Practices
• Planning and command/control/decision structures
• Operations
• Contraflow details
• Traffic control and enforcement
• Information Exchange
• Data inflow, information outflow, ITS usage
• Public Transportation Services
• Mass transit use, low mobility evacuees
• Interstate Coordination
• Similarities/Differences
• Best practices

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• Identification of Needs and Problems
• Information, Practice Guidelines
• Research

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Responses and Findings

• Survey included every state from Maine to Texas
• At this time we have received at least one
  response from every state, except Maine,
  Delaware, and Texas

• General Findings
• Relatively little published literature in
  established transportation journals
• Relatively low levels of involvement from
  transportation agencies (pre-Floyd/Georges)
• Evacuation remains the responsibility of
  non-transportation professionals
• Many similarities and some differences in
  practices
• Most states appear confident in their plans and
  ability to react to evacuation needs (is it
  justified?)
• Amount of planning proportional to perceived
  level of threat

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Responses and Findings

• Extensive use of the Internet
• Evacuation announcements
• Preparedness information
• Evacuation route maps
• Real-time information (travel time, incidents,
  weather, construction zones)

• Limited plans for mass transit
• Buses, National Guard Vehicles
• Special Needs Evacuees (elderly, infirm,
  prisoners, tourists)
• Local Responsibility

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• ITS Usage
• Primarily surveillance, VMS, HAR, r/t flow rates

• Evacuation Route Work Zones
• Contract Provisions to Open Lanes

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Responses and Findings

• Contraflow Usage

• All states south of NY have plans, except MS

• Only GA and SC have actually used it (Floyd 1999)

• Only SC is planning to use it for re-entry

• Southern (higher threat) states plan to use all
  lanes outbound, some northern states plan to
  maintain one inbound lane

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• Most states have developed plans in conjunction
  with the state police agencies

• In most states, the Governor initiates it and the
  DOTs or State Police end it (in several states,
  the Governor does both)

• Initiation and termination criteria vary widely

• Contraflow perspectives also vary widely

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Needs
Overall, survey respondents did not express a
great need for more information or research into
problems

• Those that did, expressed the need for
  information related to

• Interstate coordination of evacuations

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• Better use of contraflow and contraflow for
  re-entry

• Guidelines for signing on evacuation routes

• More effective communication mediums for public
  information
• Including shelter availability, personal
  services, etc.

• Construction zones on evacuation routes

Is this because there are not any problems, or
is it because evacuations are somewhat
overlooked. Was contraflow perceived to be a
need before Floyd and Georges?
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Whats New and Whats Next?

• LSU Evacuation Research

• Contraflow Measurement and Modeling

• Remote Monitoring for Evacuations
• Traffic/Weather/Flooding

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• ITS for Evacuation Management and Control

• Effective Use of Secondary Evacuation Routes
• Parallel Routes and Coordinated Traffic Control

• Other Activities

• TRB Subcommittee on Emergency Evacuation

• ASCE World Congress on Hazard Mitigation

• Future ITE Working Group on Evacuation Issues