Evacuation: An assessment of planning and research

This research assesses issues and criticisms of evacuation planning for all hazards under an integrated emergency management concept and reviews research that addresses those issues. The work identifies gaps in knowledge about evacuation planning issues and research that can address these gaps. Over 300 documents were reviewed and abstracted, and key findings were summarized. Issues were identified by review of hearings, litigations, critiques, and discussions with planners and experts. Evacuation planning for some hazards has integrated physical risk studies with quantitative evacuation traffic modeling and behavioral research to produce comprehensive planning guidance. The adoption of an integrated or generic emergency management approach has bolstered and will further bolster the expediency of evacuation planning. Over the past ten years, most aspects of evacuation logistics have been defined and researched. There are indications that the local implementation of evacuation procedures has improved. People who could have evacuated to safety continue to die in disasters. Our research identified ten major issues in evacuation planning that cut across hazards. Planning for large-scale evacuations requires improvement. A better understanding of special evacuation planning needs for fast-moving events is needed. Evacuation planning for concurrent hazardous events is lacking. A better understanding of human behavior in evacuationsmore » is desirable. The accuracy of evacuation time estimates should be established. Guidelines on reentry after an evacuation should be improved. Special populations planning requires further investigation. Liability for evacuation decisions should be resolved. Uncertainties and problems in evacuation decision-making need greater attention. Adoption and implementation of integrated evacuation plans should be investigated. 222 refs., 12 figs., 6 tabs.« less