Overview
Between May 2007 and September 2008, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) conducted multi-state workshops on Transportation Evacuation Preparedness and Response in four regions across the United States. The objectives of these workshops were to:
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Develop the responsible agencies' awareness of the critical evacuation processes, issues, and activities that arise before, during, and following an emergency evacuation and discuss possible approaches to addressing these issues.
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Foster and support institutional relationships among transportation, emergency managers, law enforcement agencies, and emergency responders for planning and executing a mass evacuation.
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Encourage an environment supporting sustained information sharing and routine interaction among the agencies involved in managing transportation during evacuations.
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Develop a set of next steps to improve transportation-specific evacuation operations before, during, and after an emergency event.
The locations and dates for the workshops were as follows:
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Tallahassee, Florida - May 30-31, 2007
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Long Beach, California - January 29-30, 2008
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Richmond, Virginia - June 2-3, 2008
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Chicago, Illinois - September 16-17, 2008.
The purpose of this report is to consolidate the good practices identified during the four regional workshops. Practices are not presented in priority order, but rather have been grouped into the three workshop phases as follows:
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Preparation and Activation
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Response
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Re-entry and Return to Readiness.