using highways for no-notice evacuations - FHWA Operations - U.S. ...

of the transportation network, such as traffic counters andtraffic camerasn Command facilities such as EOCs and TMCsn Decision support tools and modelsn Communications systems for the sharing of information both withinand between agencies and organizationsn Advance Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) for sharing informationwith the public, such as 511 systems, DMSs, and traffic andtransit Web sitesn Vehicles to transport personnel, evacuees, and suppliesn Fuel, food, water, and other supplies to support evacueesn Barriers, cones, and other devices to divert and direct trafficAn absence or shortage of these types of resources can significantly hindercertain phases of operations during an evacuation.No-notice incidents and the need for immediate response activity,including evacuation, leave little time to procure and position neededsupport resources after the precipitating incident occurs. For theearly phases of response, if not for significantly longer periods of time,emergency managers and transportation officials will have to rely onthe assets and resources at hand, namely those that are used in theirdaily operations or are pre-positioned on a more or less permanent basis.Since many assets, such as vehicles and specialized equipment, areoften stored in remote locations or assigned elsewhere during normaloperations, they may not be available right after an incident occurs.The limited immediate availability of personnel and equipment tosupport the evacuation effort emphasizes the importance of identifyingneeded resources in advance and planning for their availability throughprocurement and logical pre-positioning.The emergency management structure will likely face the same types ofchallenges for staffing. Many personnel may be off-duty and locatedoutside the area at the time the precipitating incident occurs. Thesepeople may be unable to report to their duty assignments for a varietyof reasons: they may be prevented from traveling into the affected areato reach the management facilities due to travel restrictions imposed aspart of the emergency response; they may have been injured in the pre-46 USING HIGHWAYS FOR NO-NOTICE EVACUATIONS