Evacuations in the News

A 2003 report issued by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) provided selected case studies on evacuations that occurred across the country from January 1, 1990, through June 30, 2003. The NRC observed that a large-scale evacuation involving 1,000 or more people occurs approximately every three weeks. The leading cause of evacuations was natural disasters (58%), with wildfires accounting for 23% of these evacuations. Technological disasters accounted for 36% of evacuations. These causes included hazardous material releases, train derailments and traffic incidents. Malevolent acts—including terrorist attacks—accounted for 6% of evacuations. Due to the frequency of events leading to localized evacuations, local and State agencies, particularly in larger metropolitan areas, have become familiar with evacuation planning and its related issues and areas of concern such as transportation-disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, identification of decision makers, and the effects of an evacuation order.

Given these statistics, it is clear that many local and State agencies handle evacuations from wildfires, floods, tornadoes, hazardous materials accidents, or significant transportation crashes. The following information is provided to demonstrate the various types of evacuation operations that occur routinely throughout the United States, as well as mass evacuations (10,000+) occurring internationally during the week. The numbers affected will be in terms of individuals, unless otherwise stated. Many articles give the number of homes or business, not the number of individuals impacted by an evacuation.

The following is a summary compiled from a weekly review of news reports. Individuals interested in additional information may "google" the word "evacuations" and check under the news portion of the results, where they may find related articles. If you should have questions about the content or the information, please feel free to contact the Emergency Transportation Operations Team Leaders, Kimberly Vásconez, at (202) 366-1559.