Assessment of Post-disaster Re-Entry in Megaregions: A Pilot Study

Post-disaster reentry plans are essential to ensure the safety of returning evacuees and the effectiveness of recovery/restoration processes (Wolshon, 2009, Texas Division of Emergency Management, 2013). After an evacuation, potential hazardous conditions may pose a risk to evacuees returning to their homes, businesses, or properties. For example, downed electrical lines, gas line leaks, collapsed bridges, flooded roads, landslides, washed-out roads, etc. may create hazardous environments for returning evacuees (Wolshon, 2009). These conditions may also challenge the recovery/restoration processes as additional personnel, special machinery, etc. may be required. In addition, post-disaster reentry, in some cases, may be challenged with a large number of evacuees that may be returning from distant communities across multiple regions or states (Lin et al., 2013). As such, the transportation system could be significantly congested due to high demands in transportation network that may not be fully functional. Although post-disaster reentry could be more challenging and complex than evacuations (Lin et al., 2013), it was evidenced in the literature that re-entry research is limited and there is, in most cases, a lack of formal planning (Wolshon, 2009). Therefore, this project seeks to assess various post-disaster reentry scenarios that could be used to support transportation agencies as they assist emergency management and law enforcement agencies in post-disaster reentry efforts. The scenarios to be assessed in this project could include various re-entry procedures, demand/response rates, network accessibility conditions, road blockages, etc. which could be used to support traffic management plans for reentry.

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $ 96078
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747135

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Department of Transportation

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  Department of Transportation
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  University Transportation Centers Program

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Department of Transportation

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  Department of Transportation
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  University Transportation Centers Program

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Stearns, Amy

• Performing Organizations:

  Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions

  University of Texas at Austin
  Austin, TX  United States  78712
• Principal Investigators:

  Wolshon, Brian

• Start Date: 20170901
• Expected Completion Date: 20180930
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Disaster preparedness; Disasters and emergency operations; Evaluation and assessment; Forecasting; Highway traffic control; Transportation planning
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01650961
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747135
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Nov 15 2017 5:02PM