Too Few U.S. Cities Have Good Hurricane Evacuation Plans

FRIDAY, Aug. 26, 2022

This year's hurricane play has been quiescent truthful far, but if and erstwhile it cranks up galore American cities won't beryllium prepared to execute wide evacuations, a caller survey finds.

After Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans successful 2005, the state bore witnesser to the pitfalls of not having an effectual evacuation plan. Since past lone marginal improvements person been made successful the 50 largest U.S. cities, researchers report.

For the study, they reviewed metropolis exigency plans from the clip framework aft Katrina and earlier the COVID-19 pandemic.

The researchers scored the 50 cities based connected a standing strategy that includes 4 designations: weak, 0-4 points; moderate, 5-7 points; strong, 8-10 points; and N/A, plans that were not reviewed.

The researchers recovered that lone 7 cities had beardown plans, including Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland; Jacksonville; Miami; New Orleans; New York City, and Philadelphia.

Twenty cities had a mean rating, six cities had a anemic standing and 17 had plans that were not disposable oregon bash not exist. Cities wherever plans were not recovered see Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

"While it is promising that much cities are processing evacuation plans, wide it remains disheartening that not each metropolis was capable to larn the lessons of not being prepared, particularly for carless and susceptible populations, arsenic showcased to the federation during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina successful 2005," said researcher John Renne. He's manager of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions astatine Florida Atlantic University.

The wide extremity of the survey was to make a mode to comparison plans, and to enactment toward a modular attack for evaluating evacuation plans for susceptible populations and radical without cars.

"In reply to the question we posed successful our paper, 'What has America learned since Hurricane Katrina?' -- the reply based connected our findings is clearly: not enough," Renne said successful a assemblage quality release.

"Many cities that person beardown plans, including Jacksonville, Miami, New Orleans and New York, are coastal cities that person experienced beardown hurricanes successful the past," helium said. "This survey lends enactment to the mentation that cities bash not make beardown evacuation plans, ones that accommodate the needs of each people, unless they person already experienced a large catastrophe oregon are nether a threat."

The study was published precocious successful the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction