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Be Prepared to Adjust Thinking – “The values at risk in these fires placed firefighters in new risk and decision-making territory that current wildland firefighting doctrine and training have not necessarily prepared them for. Firefighters had to adjust their thinking to triaging city blocks and whole neighborhoods.”
Southern California Firestorm 2003: Report for the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center
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Communicate with People Who Did Not Evacuate – “Communicating with and involving residents who decide to stay behind were effective ways to mitigate the danger and distraction they presented to firefighters. It was important not to use language like “loser” to triage when residents could overhear.”
Southern California Firestorm 2003: Report for the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center
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“Efficiently Utilize the Available Capacity to Reduce the Potentials for Operational Failures During Evacuation – For example, review and terminate work zone closures where possible along the evacuation routes to maximize capacity of these routes and use transit services to the extent possible to optimize the use of available capacity. Operational failures can cause gridlock, long hours of delays, vehicle breakdowns, frustrated travelers, and significant risks to the evacuees.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Ensure the Efficient, Safe, and Secure Reentry of the Evacuees to Their Counties – This includes preventing unauthorized people from entering a disaster area, clearing dangerous debris, and restoring electricity. The reentry decisions must balance safety and security with the public’s desire to return home.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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Establish and Communicate Clear Engagement Criteria – “There were incidents where engagement criteria concerning the increased values at risk did not reach the tactical level. A lack of clear engagement criteria concerning residents who would not evacuate led to firefighters placing themselves in extreme risk situations.”
Southern California Firestorm 2003: Report for the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center
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“Improve the Efficiency of Detecting, Responding to, and Clearing Incidents on Evacuation Routes – The drop in evacuation route capacities due to incidents could result in the failure of the evacuation process, even if the analysis performed during evacuation planning indicates that the routes can accommodate the traffic in non-incident conditions.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Improve Management of the Evacuation Process – Strategies to reduce the demand must be considered including identifying shelters near evacuation origins, increasing the use of transit, and evacuating in shifts rather than all at once.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Improve Management of Evacuation Routes – In order to accommodate evacuation for events of various severities ranging from small localized flood evacuations through large-scale weapons of mass destruction evacuations evacuation routes must be efficiently managed.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Improve Management of Evacuation Termination under Emergency Circumstances – This includes decision support to determine when to terminate an evacuation; communication of salient emergency public information to motorists; and roadway management including interchange shutdown, traffic diversion, and the opening of ‘refuges of last resort’ or other safe havens.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Improve Management of the Local Streets that Provide Access to and from Evacuation Routes – The capacity of these streets should be increased and efficiently used to prevent creating bottlenecks at the access points. In recent evacuation operations, queues from surface streets extended to limited access facilities, resulting in a decrease in the capacities of evacuation routes.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Improve the Warning and Preparation Information Provided to Evacuation Destinations – Evacuee traffic information can be used by transportation management at the destination to pre-configure their systems to anticipate and better handle the increased demand.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Maintain Emergency Services Access to the Disaster Area and the Evacuation Routes Themselves – Provide for and manage emergency service access routes in the opposite direction and/or across the major evacuation routes where necessary.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
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“Provide Shelter-in-Place Information and Use Transportation Resources to Expedite Relief – When evacuation is not possible because little to no warning is provided and transportation resources are limited or severely impacted, shelter-in-place information and use of transportation resources must be provided to the endangered population.”
Disaster Response and Evacuation User Service: An Addendum to the ITS Program Plan
