Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

POPULATION EVACUATIONS

OSCAR FRANZESE

Center for Transportation Analysis, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, National Transportation Research Center, Knoxville, Tennessee

1 INTRODUCTION

For any emergency, originated from either a natural disaster (hurricanes, floods, forest fires, etc.) or a man-made event (a release of a toxic gas to the atmosphere, a radiological accident at a nuclear plant, etc.), there are six basic aspects that need to be considered: prevention, preparedness, detection, protection, response, and recovery. Different emergency management activities are associated with each one of these six aspects and many agencies at local, state, and federal levels cutting across several jurisdictions are generally involved.

Specifically related to the preparedness, response, and recovery tasks, emergency evacuation is, perhaps, the most viable alternative that can be undertaken in response to natural and man-made disasters involving large geographic areas. Other significant protective actions include sheltering in place and sheltering at public (government designated) facilities. Depending on the type of event, these two protective actions (evacuation and sheltering) can be combined and integrated to achieve the maximum risk reduction of the threatened population. In any case, sheltering always requires the mobilization of the population either at the beginning (sheltering at a public facility) or at the end (evacuation of the area in which shelter-in-place has been implemented ...