THINKING LOCALLY: Effective Evacuation PlanFri Sep 23, 2005 18:0864.140.159.184
THINKING LOCALLY: Effective Evacuation Plan Relies on Community, not FEMA
By Cheryl Seal
As we all saw as Katrina unfolded, the people who were most dedicated and effective throughout the darkest days of the disaster were local folk - police, emergency responders, neighbors, etc. The next-most-effective responders were state-level. Had these people had their OWN plan, the outcome of Katrina may have been very, very different. Instead, the Bush administration, once pledging to reduce the influence of the federal government, created a system that has placed local communities and state governments at the mercy of the federal government, in the name of Homeland Security.
It's time to put the focus and responsibility back on communities. The biggest contribution required from the federal government is that it turns tax dollars back over to the people through their local and state governments so that it can - FINALLY - be put to better use than funding Dick Cheney's pals at Halliburton.
SAFE HAVEN SYSTEM
1. Create a database of lmotels, hotels, malls, large restaurants, libraries, and community centers, within a concentrically radiating areas around an "at risk" city. These establishments would fall in ring-shaped "zones". In cases of a storm like Katrina, the zones closest to the at-risk area couldn't be used as safe havens, while in milder scenarios, they could be included along with all the other outwardly radiating zones. Any commercial establishment that is an officially designated safe haven would receive an annual tax credit, while any public building would receive additional funding in its annual budget.
2. Create a system, similar to (but much more targeted and thus far more effective and meaningful than) the Bush administration's "color-coded alert." The owners of safe haven establishments would know that when there was a disaster "watch" that they should be prepared to go into "safe haven mode". When a top-level warning was issued, these safe haven owners would clear their establishments of all customers who had homes to return to in safe areas and standby to receive evacuues.
EMERGENCY PLAN COMMUNITIES AND DESIGNATED TRANSPORT
1. Create a mass transit scheme for evacuation. In this scheme, parking garages and large mall/shopping center parking lots - or, in towns that have them, train stations - would be put on the same alert system as the safe haven establishments. There would be sufficient parking sites targeted for each designated "emergency plan community" in an at risk city to accommodate most of that community's cars if need be. When a top alert went out, these parking site owners and managers would be ordered to clear garages and parking lots of all cars belonging to people who live outside the at risk city. These non-residents would be the first, essentially, to be evacuated.
2.. Residents of each community would be given notice to begin the evacuation procedure. This notice would be transmitted by the media, but also, each community would have designated teams to go door to door and/or make phone calls to residents.
3.. Each emergency plan community would have local National Guard, police, or neighborhood watch groups (see article footnote) assigned to them so that there would be one guard/police person per so many residents.
4. Residents of each emergency plan community who have cars would drive to the designated parking areas. From there, buses would be waiting to take them to designated safe havens. The carrying capacity of each establishment would have been predetermined, so each bus would have a predetermined destination. Local people who have vans and other large passenger vehicles could be designated "emergency drivers" and take on passengers. Pets would be allowed on buses, but there would be "pet-free" buses designated, as well, for allergy sufferers and people with issues about animals.
5. Residents without cars, residents of nursing homes, etc., would also come to the designated parking areas for evacuation. Nursing homes would be preassigned transport as part of emergency planning. Shuttle busses - possibly vans driven by local militia/police would make multiple runs to help the carless get to evacuation parking sites. Because each emergency plan community would encompass a relatively small area (say 10-20 square blocks), it will be much less difficult to coordinate and account for evacuues.
6. Everyone who leaves their car at a designated parking area would be be "checked in" and put into a database, with the car owners given a receipt. These people will receive compensation from FEMA and/or insurance companies for cars lost or damaged during the storm, while people who do not use designated parking will be on their own re: damages.
7. By eliminating individual cars, sometimes carrying just one or two people, or poorly planned bussing, which can end up with a few people per bus, this system would save huge amounts of gasoline and reduce the nightmarish highway congestion seen in Katrina and Rita. To reduce congestion even more, there could be a preplanned timing sequence, with communities furthest from safe havens scheduled to depart first, if even by a few hours, with communities closest to safe haven zones leaving last.
8. In addition, each emergency community would have a predetermined destination (assigned safe havens) and route. HOWEVER, if evacuees from an emergency plan community did not want to stay at the assigned safe haven and had somewhere else to go, then they could arrange to be picked up AT THE SAFE HAVEN by someone - friends, family, taxi to bus station or airport, etc.
By using community-based safe haven destinations, neighborhoods will be kept together during the evacuation period, which would be provide an atmosphere of greater famliarity and emotional support.
NOTE:
A good question to ask re: this plan would be, where would the extra manpower come from? I believe that more local communities need to establish civilian emergency response/neighborhood watch groups. In one community in northwest Baltimore, for example, there is a very active neighborhood watch group that even has its own little "patrol car" and works closely with the police. Crime in this neighborhood is routinely the lowest in the city. Many of the members of the patrols are young men 18-24, who take great pride in participation. I have no doubt the neighborhood patrols in this community would be very active in a disaster situation.
In the original conceptualization of local militia (back in the early days of our nation), men, and now women, from each community would be ready to spring into action during a disaster threat, acting immediately as the National Guard now acts too late, and too thinly spread. Maybe its time to reestablish a modern version of local militia. In an ideal world, these people would be the only ones in a community allowed to possess firearms, and would be screened to insure they were sober, with no criminal record or history of psychiatric problems. They would also receive ongoing training in emergency preparedness, evacuation procedures, crowd control, etc. During a disaster, this militia would automatically be activated ("deputized") and be present to help load buses, help with door-to-door searches for residents in need of aid, help maintain law and order, in the post-disaster community and at large safe havens, etc.
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