If any incident occurred that required the evacuation of a large section of your city or the entire city, are you ready? A mass evacuation of any location, whether it be a small town or major city, requires a lot more than just moving the residents from one location to another. There are many different issues to consider before a mass evacuation can be instituted.
A mass evacuation could be ordered for an approaching hurricane with several days or more of warning, or a no-notice event such as a terrorist attack. For the purpose of this column, the hurricane with an advance notice will be used to demonstrate that even with several days notice, there are many variables that need to be addressed.
First, the determination has to be made if there is enough time for a safe evacuation. If you are located in Florida or one of the other Gulf States, you may have up to five days or more to evaluate the possibility of evacuating and then having several days to conduct the evacuation. But if you are located in one of the Mid-Atlantic to Northeast states, you may have less than three days to plan for and implement a mass evacuation as hurricanes move much faster the more they head north.
The decision to evacuate also must consider where the evacuated citizens are going and how are they going to be transported there. Will the evacuation primarily involve private autos, or will it also involve trains, buses and planes, both commercial and military? What will be the destination of those involved? If they are traveling by private auto, will they be heading to hotels or friends with whom they have made arrangements, or will they be heading to public shelters? Will those being relocated by the government be going a short distance away, or will they be going hundreds of miles away to a host state? What planning needs to take place in the host state, and who is responsible for that? What about those with special needs; do they require extra help with transportation or medical needs?
Let's go back to the evacuation, using private autos as the primary means for this discussion. Before the evacuation order is given, what needs to be done? The primary evacuation route has to be established. Ideally this route will have been identified and evaluated long before an actual event. In hurricane-prone areas, these routes are usually marked with the blue and white hurricane evacuation route signs and are supplemented with low-powered highway emergency radio stations.
Before the evacuation can begin, the route needs to be checked and prepared. The route needs to be driven to see that there are not impediments along the route, such as road construction or low wires that would prevent trucks from traveling it. The roadway and the shoulders need to be swept of road hazards, such as broken glass and nails, that could cause flat tires and then cause backups due to disabled vehicles. Regarding disabled vehicles, tow trucks and service vehicles need to be staged along the route to quickly remove vehicles that break down to prevent major traffic delays.
If a contraflow (reverse traffic) plan is put into effect, all related agencies such as the Department of Transportation have to be in synch for the proper placement of signage and blocking off of exit-ramps. The advantage of contra flow is still being debated as it appears the recent evacuation of Galveston and Houston for Hurricane Ike went better this time than last time for Hurricane Rita, when contraflow was put into effect.
One of the shortcomings with contraflow is that sometimes traffic flows slower when contraflow is put into effect. This is because when a ramp is closed with a police car with emergency lights flashing, the motoring public will slow down to see what is going on. They will stop to ask directions, and they may want to challenge the officer who is blocking the exit to get off the roadway.
Once the decision and preparations are in place for the mass evacuation, how is the public notified that it is to be evacuated? Does your jurisdiction have a high-speed community notification system, often referred to as reverse 911? Is there a plan to coordinate with the local radio and television stations to get the word out to the public? Is the highway department ready to post messages on the variable message signs (VMS) that the evacuation will be taking place and what instructions are to be followed?
One of the consequences of an evacuation is the public that self-evacuates without being requested, when it's unnecessary. This causes more traffic on the evacuation routes. Another "roadblock" in any evacuation is that some families take every vehicle, no matter what the condition of the vehicle is, rather than everyone going in one vehicle.
Once the evacuees reach their final locations, how are they cared for? How do their sheltering and other mass care needs get addressed at the shelter? Will these shelters be used for a few days or a few months? Again, more concerns that have to be addressed before the order to evacuate is given.
Now that all these issues are addressed and the evacuation is in place, there is one other matter that you need to be aware of. How do you get everyone home when the emergency is over?