Report: Few Cities Prepared for Evacuation Procedures

to gain an edge, know the strengths and weaknesses of your area — before disaster strikes

October 13, 2006
USA Today

WASHINGTON — Most of the nation's largest cities got flunking grades on a report card released today that measures how well each city can evacuate its population before or after a major disaster.

Photo: Evacuees stream northward from Houston on I-45 on Sept. 22, 2004 ahead of Hurricane Rita. To speed the evacuation, the governor halted all southbound traffic into Houston along I-45 and opened all eight lanes to northbound traffice out of the city for 125 miles. The highway is the primary evacuation route north from Houston and Galveston. (By Jim Olive, Reuters)

Ten urban areas received grades of "B" or "C," six got a "D," and 20 got an "F" in the report by the American Highway Users Alliance. Only Kansas City, Mo., got an "A."

MOST MAJOR AREAS RECEIVE FAILING GRADES

Among those that failed the test: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, Miami, Philadelphia, Denver, Atlanta and Boston.

"The potential for terrorist attacks and last year's New Orleans flood destruction underscore the necessity for providing sufficient evacuation capacity from the nation's urban areas," according to the alliance, a non-profit organization that promotes highway safety and construction to reduce congestion.

The report follows the release in June of a review by the Homeland Security Department that examines the ability of all 56 states and territories and 75 urban areas to respond to catastrophes. "Significant weaknesses in evacuation planning are an area of profound concern," that review concluded.

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The American Highway Users Alliance has rated the emergency evacuation capacity of the USA's 37 urban areas with more than 1 million people. It created an Evacuation Capacity Index and assigned the cities letter grades based on the index scores. The index was based on factors such as the ability of routes leading out of the urban area to accommodate heavy traffic; the ability of internal roadways to deliver traffic to those exit routes; and the percentage of the population with access to automobiles. How the urban area ranked, by grade and score:

Rank	Urban area	Score		Rank	Urban area	Score
Grade: A				Grade: F
1	Kansas City, Mo.	90.0		18	Denver	59.8
Grade: B				19	Tampa-St. Petersburg	58.9
2	Columbus, Ohio	82.3		20	Virginia Beach	57.4
3	Memphis	80.5		21	Houston	54.8
4	Pittsburgh	80.4		22 (tie)	Boston	49.4
Grade: C				22 (tie)	Philadelphia	49.4
5	Indianapolis	79.2		24	Atlanta	48.1
6	Cincinnati	79.0		25	Portland, Ore.	47.7
7	Cleveland	74.5		26	Minneapolis-St. Paul	47.5
8	Orlando	74.1		27	Las Vegas	47.4
9	San Antonio	73.5		28	Detroit	47.3
10	St. Louis	70.6		29	Washington	44.9
11	Dallas-Fort Worth	70.5		30	Phoenix	43.6
Grade: D				31	Seattle	39.9
12	New Orleans	67.3		32	San Diego	37.8
13	Austin	66.2		33	San Francisco-San Jose	37.2
14	Providence	65.9		34	Miami	36.9
15	Milwaukee	65.2		35	New York	31.5
16	Baltimore	62.6		36	Chicago	28.0
17	Sacramento	60.3		37	Los Angeles	25.6
Source: American Highway Users Alliance

The alliance's report blames several factors for cities' poor grades, including the number of major highways out of a city and whether the city is partially hemmed in by water or mountains. Other factors included how well internal roads are laid out; how densely populated the city is; and the percentage of residents who have cars.

Kansas City scored high because it's not densely populated, there are no geographical barriers on any side of the city and it has a good intra-city road system, said Greg Cohen, president of the highway users alliance. New York City ranked low because it's so densely populated, congested and surrounded by water, and it has a higher percentage than most cities of residents who rely on public transportation.

In Atlanta, planning an evacuation is complicated by the fact that two major highways converge in the middle of the city, says Alfred Moore, director of the Atlanta-Fulton County Emergency Management Agency. He says the city has a plan on paper, but "have we exercised the plan yet? Nope. Have we trained on the plan? Nope."

Among the recommendations made by the alliance:

• Building new highways leading out of cities, where possible.

• Putting timed lights and gates on highway entrance ramps to limit congestion during evacuations and keep traffic flowing.

• Developing more ways to get information to drivers about alternate routes and traffic conditions.

• Creating government programs to increase car ownership among low-income people.

Justin DeMello, director of Denver's Office of Emergency Management, said evacuation planning is the most difficult part of any emergency-preparedness effort.

"There are just so many factors that come into play," he said. "And there are no easy solutions."

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