3.4 Transportation Impacts
There appeared to be no impact to the transportation system due to the El Dorado incident. The police department cordoned off the evacuation zone, and traffic was re-routed through town. The main north-south roadway, US 167, was closed, but traffic was rerouted around the downtown. This incident happened on a Sunday morning, but if it had occurred during the week, there still would have been little impact on the traffic system.
However, since the residents of the nursing homes and prisoners at the county jail facility are without personal vehicles, ambulances and school buses were used to evacuate the nursing home residents and school buses were used to evacuate the prisoners.
Predominately, the method of transportation for the nursing home residents was the use of buses; however, there were approximately 15 to 33 residents that required the use of ambulances for their evacuation. Six ambulances were used to evacuate these residents. Four ambulances were from the city and two were from the county.
More information will be found later in this section on the evacuation of the nursing homes and the county jail.
February 6, 2006
Publication #FHWA-HOP-08-014
