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Emergency evacuation is the movement of persons from a dangerous place due to the threat or occurrence of a disastrous event. Examples are the evacuation of a building due to a bomb threat or fire and the evacuation of a district because of a flood or bombardment or an evacuation from a city due to a Hurricane. In situations involving hazardous materials or possible contamination, evacuees may be decontaminated prior to being transported out of the contaminated area. Evacuation can have several meanings: In wilderness first aid, evacuation is the transport of a seriously injured person out of the wilderness to the nearest point an ambulance can reach to take them to the hospital, or to the nearest emergency room. ...
This article is about weather phenomena. ...
The Lachine Canal, in Montreal, is badly polluted Pollution is the release of harmful environmental contaminants, or the substances so released. ...
Decontamination is the process of cleansing to remove contamination, or the possibility (or fear) of contamination. ...
Evacuation preparation In areas threatened by disasters evacuation plans are established to prepare for an efficient evacuation and to avoid panic. Evacuation simulations, trials, and emergency plans are further measures of preparation. Panic is a sudden fear which dominates thinking and often affects groups of people or animals. ...
The duration of an evacuation is called the evacuation time. There are several methods to forecast evacuation times such as full scale trials, calculations based on the flow of persons (hydraulic models) or evacuation simulations. Evacuation simulation is a method to determine evacuation times for areas, buildings, or vessels. ...
Reasons for evacuation Evacuations may be carried out before, during or after natural disasters such as: - eruptions of volcanoes,
- cyclones
- floods, or
- earthquakes.
Other reasons include: - military attacks;
- industrial accidents;
- traffic accidents, including train or airplane accidents;
- fire;
- bombings;
- terrorist attacks.
- military battles
Sequence of an evacuation The sequence of an evacuation can be divided into the following phases: - detection
- decision
- alarm
- reaction
- movement to an area of refugee or an assembly station
- transportation
The time for the first four phases is usually called pre-movement time.
The particular phases are different for different objects, e.g., for ships a distinction between assembly and embarkation (to boats or rafts) is made. These are separate from each other. The decision whether to enter the boats or rafts is thus usually made after assembly is completed.
Evacuation of districts The evacuation of districts is part of civil defense. Many of the largest evacuations have been in the face of war-time military attacks. The old United States Civil Defense logo. ...
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina lead to a mass evacuation of the city of New Orleans in the US state of Louisiana, with approximately 80% of the city´s population of 484,000 evacuating before the storm struck. ...
Contraflow lane reversal is a technique for speeding the mass evacuation of a district by road. Contraflow lane reversal is a program designed for quick emergency evacuation of an area. ...
Evacuation of buildings The strategy of individuals in evacuating buildings was investigated by Abrahams (1994). The independent variables were the complexity of the building and the movement ability of the individuals. With increasing complexity and decreasing motion ability, the strategy changes from "fast egress", through "slow egress" and "move to safe place inside building" (such as a staircase), to "stay in place and wait for help". The last strategy is the one of motion impaired persons, who must be saved by nursing staff or first responders.
Evacuation of ships The main difference between the evacuation of buildings and the evacuation of ships is the availability of an area of safety. The first phase, i.e., the assembly phase, of a ship evacuation is to some extent comparable to building evacuation. The evacuation to the boats (embarkation) starts after the assembly (at least for one assembly station) is completed.
Sociology of hurricane evacuations Despite mandatory evacuation orders, many people did not leave New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina approached. Even after the city was flooded and uninhabitable, some people still refused to leave their homes. "New Orleans rescues continue, but some won't go" NPR 9-6-05, "Rescuers urge residents to leave New Orleans" NPR 9-6-05 If one is unfamiliar with hurricanes or evacuations, disasters like Katrina can make evacuation seem like an obvious choice when a hurricane is approaching. Why don't people evacuate in the paths of hurricanes? What can be done to get more people out of harm's way? New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ...
Lowest pressure 902 mbar (hPa) Damages $75 billion (2005 USD) (costliest Atlantic hurricane in history) Fatalities ≥1,605 Areas affected Bahamas, South Florida, Cuba, Louisiana (especially Greater New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Panhandle, most of eastern North America Part of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season Hurricane Katrina was the costliest...
This article is about weather phenomena. ...
Reasons people don't evacuate
Experience The longer a person has lived in a coastal area, the less likely they are to evacuate. A hurricane's path is difficult to predict. Forecasters know about hurricanes days in advance, but their forecasts of where the storm will hit are only educated guesses. Hurricanes give a lot of warning time compared to most disasters humans experience. However, this allows forecasters and officials to "cry wolf," making people take evacuation orders less seriously. Hurricanes can be predicted to hit a coastal town many times without the town ever actually experiencing the brunt of a storm. If evacuation orders are given too early, the hurricane can change course and leave the evacuated area unscathed. People may think they have weathered hurricanes before, when in realiy the hurricane didn't hit them directly, giving them false confidence. Those who have lived on the coast for ten or more years are the most resistant to evacuating. [1]
Lack of transportation If a person doesn't have a car, they generally have no way to evacuate. In New Orleans, the poorest neighborhoods were traditionally at the lowest elevations. This meant that those who were the least likely to have a car, and were therefore unable to leave, were also the least likely to be able to weather the flooding in their homes.
Traffic Even if one does have a car, it may not be an efficient means of evacuating. The traffic jams that thousands of motorists experienced in South Carolina while fleeing Hurricane Floyd exemplify the frustration of people trying to evacuate. Hurricane Floyd was the sixth named storm, fourth hurricane, and third major hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. ...
Limited social capital Social capital refers to the connections between people: social networks and the receprocity and trust within them. The social systems of communities can have a large impact on their ability and willingness to evacuate. Weak social networks within a community can make evacuation difficult. If people don't trust each other, then they are likely to fear that their homes or stores will be looted if they evacuate. Communities that have the physical capital, such as cars, to evacuate everyone may not have the social capital to facilitate sharing these resources. Weak connections with people in other regions of the country also make evacuating difficult: if you don't have friends or family you can stay with, you'll have to find and pay for a hotel room. However, strong social networks within a community can also hinder evacuation: if a person has strong ties to their neighbors but not to anyone outside that small community, they are more likely to stay where they are, with the people they can rely on, rather than evacuate and leave their social network. [2] Social capital is defined as the value that is created through the application of social networks during non-organizational time. ...
Many of these reasons for not evacuating can be attributed to low income. Poverty is much more prevalent among minorities, which means that minorities are more likely to be in physical danger during hurricanes. World map showing percentage of people living under national poverty lines. ...
In sociology and in voting theory, a minority is a sub-group that is outnumbered by persons who do not belong to it. ...
Suggestions for improving evacuation systems
A bussing plan needs to be in place so that people who don't own vehicles are able to evacuate. These plans need to be worked out and publicized well before the threat of a hurricane. Bussing would be most effective if there was an easy-to-remember meeting place--for example, every elementary school could be a designated pick-up area. A taxi serving as a bus Public transport comprises all transport systems in which the passengers do not travel in their own vehicles. ...
Find out who will need assistance The city should know who is likely to need help during an evacuation. Before every hurricane season, the city should canvass its citizens to find out who doesn't have a car, who has health problems that would make travel difficult, and who doesn't have a place to go or money to pay for a hotel. People would report where they would be likely to go during an evacuation, so that officials could better anticipate traffic patterns. Those who were elderly or disabled would report whether they had friends who could help them evacuate, so that aid workers would know who was likely to be alone and in need of assistance. Public transportation could be planned for, based on where the need was greatest, and officials would know where they needed to concentrate their evacuation education efforts. The need for shelters and hotel rooms could be predicted, so that the facilities could be prepared to serve evacuees.
Help evacuees find each other In New Orleans, many families were separated and had no way of finding each other. A website made specifically to help people find each other could provide peace of mind for many. A person could post a simple profile listing their location and contact information. Their family and friends could search for their name or home address to find them. Of course, internet access can be hard to come by during emergencies, but this would be better than nothing, and computer stations could be set up at shelters so that people could update within a reasonable amount of time. This website should be highly publicized, so that even people who were not tech-savvy would know about it. It would have to be well-designed so that even people who had no computer experience could navigate it. It would also need a reliable server that wouldn't be overwhelmed during heavy use. After Katrina, there were many places on the internet where do-gooders listed housing offers, but these resources could have been better utilized if they were consolidated into one easy-to-navigate site that evacuees knew about.
Convince people to leave In coastal Virginia, rescue workers gave hand markers to people who wouldn't evacuate, and told them to write their social security number on their bodies so they could be easily identified. "Magic Marker strategy" New York Times 9-6-05
See also The old United States Civil Defense logo. ...
Evacuation simulation is a method to determine evacuation times for areas, buildings, or vessels. ...
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina lead to a mass evacuation of the city of New Orleans in the US state of Louisiana, with approximately 80% of the city´s population of 484,000 evacuating before the storm struck. ...
References - Abrahams, John: Fire escape in difficult circumstances, chapter 6, In: Stollard, 1994, Design against fire.
- Gershenfeld, Neil, Mathematical Modelling. OUP, Oxford, 1999.
- Hubert Klüpfel, A Cellular Automaton Model for Crowd Movement and Egress Simulation. Dissertation, Universität Duisburg-Essen, 2003.
- Stollard, P. and L. Johnson, Eds., Design against fire: an introduction to fire safety engineering design, London, New York, 1994.
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