Temporospatial Analysis of Hurricane Katrina Regional Evacuation Traffic Patterns
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 15, Issue 1
Abstract
Between the fall of 2004 and spring of 2005, a plan was developed to facilitate the evacuation of southeast Louisiana, including the City of New Orleans, when under the threat of a hurricane. The plan was created by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the Louisiana State Police with the goal of eliminating or mitigating the traffic problems that were a part of the Hurricane Ivan evacuation that occurred in Sept. 2004. The cornerstone of the plan was to maximize the available roadway infrastructure within the region to move nearly the entire population in the most rapid and efficient manner. It incorporated the reversal of about of interstate freeway across two states, restricted access to nearly 100 additional miles of freeway, while coordinating the transportation assets on a region-wide basis. This paper summarizes an effort to describe and quantify the effect of this regional evacuation plan on the movement of traffic across roadway infrastructure covering an area of nearly 75,000 square miles and a period of . The analyses illustrate the extent to which the evacuation impacted the roads in Louisiana, where these impacts were the most significant, how long they lasted, and how they compared to a prior evacuation plan in which a much lower level of management was used.
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Acknowledgments
The writers gratefully acknowledge the individuals who were instrumental in providing traffic volume data and other materials, including Dr. Eric Kalivoda, Stephen Glascock, and Joan Black from the LA DOTD and Bob Chapman and John Smith of the Mississippi DOT. The writers would also like to recognize members of the Louisiana Evacuation Task Force, who have made numerous contributions over the years to support the efforts of the writers. These include, but are not limited to Gordon Nelson, Steve Strength, and Peter Allain of the LADOT, and Lt. Chris Bodet and Maj. Mickey McMartin of the LSP.
References
Louisiana State Police (LSP). (2000). “New Orleans emergency evacuation plan.” Troop B, Kenner, La.
Post, Buckley, Schuh, and Jernigan, Inc. (PBSJ). (2001). “Southeast Louisiana hurricane evacuation study: Abbreviated transportation model development and format.” Tallahassee, Fla.
Post, Buckley, Schuh, and Jernigan, Inc. (PBSJ). (2002). “Analysis of Florida’s one-way operations for hurricane evacuation.”
Wolshon, B., Catarella-Michel, A., and Lambert, L. (2006). “Louisiana highway evacuation plan for Hurricane Katrina: Proactive management of regional evacuations.” J. Transp. Eng., 132(1), 1–10.
Zaragoza, D. P., Burris, M. W., and Mierzejewski, E. A. (1998). “Hurricane evacuation analysis and operational measures.” Center for Urban Transportation Research, Univ. of South Florida.
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© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 12, 2006
Accepted: Mar 18, 2008
Published online: Mar 1, 2009
Published in print: Mar 2009
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