National review of hurricane evacuation plans and policies: a comparison and contrast of state practices

The events of recent hurricane seasons have made evacuation a leading emergency management issue. In 1998 and 1999, Hurricanes Georges and Floyd precipitated the two largest evacuations in the history of the United States and perhaps, its two largest traffic jams. In response to the problems experienced during these events, many state departments' of transportation have begun to take a more active role in the planning, management,. and operation of hurricane evacuations. This is somewhat of a departure from prior practice when emergency management officials directed these tasks almost exclusively. Since the involvement of transportation professionals in the field of evacuation has been a fairly recent development, many of the newest practices and policies have only been used once, if ever. They also vary widely from state-to-state. To determine what the latest policies and strategies are and how they differed from one location to another, a national review of evacuation plans and practices was recently undertaken. The study was carried out from a transportation perspective and included both a review of the traditional transportation literature and a survey of department of transportation and emergency management officials in coastal states threatened by hurricanes. This paper highlights the findings of the survey portion of the study. It focuses mainly on current state practices, including the use of reverse flow operations and intelligent transportation systems. It also summarizes current evacuation management policies, methods of information exchange, and decision-making criteria. This paper presents the general similarities and differences in practices and gives particular attention to unique, innovative, and potentially useful practices used in individual states. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.