Highway Evacuations in Selected Metropolitan Areas: Assessment of Impediments
While localized evacuations occurred in the fall of 2009 due to inundating rain, Georgia's most recent large-scale, mass evacuation occurred in 2004. A chemical fire impacted Rockdale County, to the east of Atlanta. Authorities evacuated approximately 8,000 people, giving instructions based on the direction of the plume. Since then, the State and local jurisdictions have discussed how best to update evacuation plans.
The March 2009 plan provided to FHWA for this study represents the Atlanta Region's most current evacuation plan proposal. This plan assumes a no-notice trigger. Once local plans are updated and the regional plan has more detail, the goal is to incorporate the plan into the State plan. It includes the 10 counties of the Atlanta Regional Commission's (ARC) planning area and 10 of the transportation planning area's 18 counties. The ARC6, one of 12 regional commissions in Georgia and a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), led this planning effort. Several years ago, the Georgia DOT (GDOT) hired a consultant firm to undertake an evacuation study of a 1-mile radius around the State Capitol in downtown Atlanta. The study provided data and input into the Atlanta Regional Evacuation Plan.
The March 2009 plan resulted from an 18-month effort that included transportation staff, public officials, emergency management agency directors, American Red Cross representatives and Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) staff. The mayor of Atlanta asked the ARC Board to work cooperatively to develop a regional evacuation plan, resulting in the strong support of elected leadership. The GEMA and the Fulton County Emergency Management Agency pooled funds and leveraged DHS grants with ARC transportation funds, using an MPO staff representative to participate on the Planning Advisory Team to develop the plan. The Fayette County manager, a former county Emergency Management Agency director and a former chair of the Area 7 All Hazards Council was a key leader and visionary of regional evacuation planning and participated in the process. The ARC has a strong history of developing multidisciplinary plans as an MPO, an Area Agency on Aging, and other planning responsibilities in the areas of workforce development, regional development planning and water supply planning.
The most recent planning effort used a community-wide workshop concept, drawing more than 100 representatives from all levels of government, the United Way, the American Red Cross and other private and non-profit stakeholders. As a result, the plan emphasizes roles and responsibilities among responders. The Atlanta Regional evacuation plan includes a discussion of mutual aid agreements that arose from post 1996-Olympics legislation, as well as a discussion on how to incorporate the concerns of the special needs population into the plan.
Currently, authorities plan to include the following in the next iteration of the March 2009 plan:
The next revision will be done within 3 years. The current plan identifies 12 evacuation zones and describes how people should travel out of those zones. Interviewees noted that the revised plan should include local participation to ensure that the localities agree with those evacuation zones. During the next planning cycle, officials will update the regional transportation plan by addressing the next level of detail, specifically at the local government level. The ARC notes that the next Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) will include activities that support the following goals: promote safety, improve congestion, and integrate public safety and transportation efforts. Also, ARC will incorporate evacuation policy and assumptions into the next update of the 2005 Regional ITS architecture.
The GDOT is currently implementing a coordinated traffic signal project that will allow the Department to actively manage 300-400 traffic signals on certain key, cross-jurisdictional corridors. The corridor identification has not been finalized, but evacuation route designation was not a criterion for selection. It is possible that one or more routes selected by GDOT are designated for primary evacuation purposes. While the primary purpose of the project is to alleviate peak-hour congestion, it could also serve as an improvement for evacuation purposes.
Top Highway Impediments
Top Highway Impediments
United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration