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Volpe Center Highlights - March/April 2006

Focus

Letter from the Director | Focus | Safety | Security | Published and Presented
Volpe Contributes to Annual TRB Meeting

A critical lesson learned from the hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in September 2005 is the importance of robust transportation systems for disaster response and recovery. Demonstrating its wide range of capabilities, the Volpe Center provided FEMA with immediate emergency assistance and long-term transportation recovery planning support in the wakes of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Volpe planners also helped FEMA identify needs and plan transportation services to meet the needs of temporary housing-site residents. Other Volpe Center staff are helping to ensure that federal, state, and local agencies in all regions are prepared for emergency evacuations. Above, infrastructure damage from Hurricane Katrina. (iStockphoto)

Hurricane Preparedness, Response, and Recovery: the Volpe Center's Expertise

During a disaster, emergency evacuation and logistic support can reduce the number of casualties and ameliorate suffering. In the aftermath, damaged transportation links must be restored as people rebuild their lives and their businesses. Moreover, comprehensive planning is needed to ensure that the transportation infrastructure is rebuilt to meet future needs—both normal and disaster related. As a multimodal transportation systems center, the Volpe Center understands the interrelated system components needed to restore the vitality of a region hit by disaster and protect it from future catastrophes.

The Center demonstrated this ability in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Representing DOT in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Volpe Center experts in transportation and logistics provided key support in the following areas.

• Logistics management and emergency evacuations: planning and coordinating
• Transportation for displaced residents: implementing an emergency bus service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans
• Transit service planning: identifying and optimizing transit routes for temporary housing residents by using geographic information systems and innovative transit planning methods
• Participation in Louisiana Long-term Community Recovery: coordinating the roles of DOT agencies in support of state and local transportation planners
• Sharing lessons learned from the hurricane recovery effort with colleagues at the state and local levels

The Volpe Center was ideal for this role because of its multimodal expertise in transportation planning and operations, including emergency preparedness and response; experience with all levels of government and industry; and ability to foster collaborative working relationships among diverse partners. Addressing a range of problems in the Gulf region, Volpe teams demonstrated initiative in solving problems as they arose. From the days immediately preceding Hurricane Katrina landfall in late August 2005, through June 2006, more than 40 Volpe Center staff members utilized their expertise and extensive professional networks to summon transportation specialists in other agencies as needed, engaging and deploying a substantial number of transportation specialists to help in the response and recovery effort. (Volpe Center staff members involved in the FEMA emergency response and recovery effort are listed at the end of this article.)

Immediate Response: Hurricane Katrina

Logistic Management of Evacuation and Emergency Supply Delivery
Mr. Terry Sheehan of the Center's Service and Operations Planning Division is the Regional Emergency Transportation Representative (RETREP) for DOT Regions I and II. On August 30, Mr. Sheehan was deployed to Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, Louisiana, to help organize the Hurricane Katrina response and recovery effort. Shortly thereafter, he helped establish the FEMA Joint Field Office in Baton Rouge, where he "stood up" transportation operations. He worked closely with the DOT Region VI RETREP and related management to provide situational awareness for key decisionmakers, coordinated and tracked FEMA mission assignments, and compiled personnel and commodity movements.

Staff from government agencies and private organizations worked around the clock at the Louisiana Emergency Operations Center (shown above) and the FEMA Joint Field Office to evacuate and shelter displaced residents and provide emergency supplies. A Volpe Center team was responsible for logistic management of evacuation and emergency supply delivery.

As part of the DOT Regional Emergency Transportation Coordinator (RETCO) program, Mr. Sheehan played a major role in coordinating Hurricane Katrina evacuation activities among FEMA, Louisiana state agencies, parishes, cities, and towns. The scale of the disaster required an unprecedented response: in the first few days, 25,000 people were evacuated on 132 flights to locations all over the country, and 200,000 people were evacuated by bus, mainly to shelters in Louisiana and surrounding states. Mr. Sheehan also provided managerial and logistic support for 11,300 trucks, 40 helicopters, 7 jet aircraft, 1,355 buses, 7 Maritime Administration (MARAD) berthing ships, 2 Amtrak passenger trains, and 60 urban transit buses from around the country. By September 14, the emergency response team had delivered 19.6 million meals, ready-to-eat; 24 million liters of water; 13.8 million pounds of ice; 2,000 mobile homes; 5,400 travel trailers; and 150,000 rolls of plastic sheeting.

The Volpe Center's ability to react quickly and effectively also was demonstrated by the response to the DOT Chief of Staff's request for staff to assist FEMA in emergency relief activities. Nine Center staff members answered the call and were sent to a number of Gulf Coast sites during the weeks following landfall of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Their efforts were directed toward immediate emergency relief, and included matching hurricane victims to housing and other social services, as well as providing technical assistance in setting up computer networks and databases.

The Volpe Center collaborated with FEMA and the local transit systems to plan and implement LA Swift, an emergency bus service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans designed to help displaced New Orleans-area residents look for work, get to work, and attend to other recovery-related matters.

Hurricane Rita: Evacuation Plan Works

The Hurricane Katrina evacuation made it clear that more effective coordination was needed among federal emergency response agencies and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD). As the DOT RETCO's representative, Mr. Sheehan played a lead role in effecting improved emergency evacuation procedures before Hurricane Rita's storm surge hit coastal areas of Louisiana. Mr. Sheehan laid the groundwork by meeting with LADOTD officials as soon as it was evident that another hurricane was approaching. A comprehensive evacuation plan was prepared and guidance distributed to all the parishes that might be affected. As a result, despite some initial delays, 250,000 people were evacuated ahead of Rita's storm surge and no lives were lost in Louisiana.

After the Hurricanes

Rebuilding Lives and Restoring Livelihoods: LA Swift
People who were evacuated from the New Orleans area to Baton Rouge were displaced not only from their homes, but also from their jobs. At the same time, recovery efforts in New Orleans needed workers, but the devastated city lacked housing. Volpe Center staff—in concert with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)—collaborated with FEMA, LADOTD, and the public transit system operators in Baton Rouge and New Orleans to plan and implement "LA Swift," a bus service to transport displaced residents between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and points between. As a result, many displaced New Orleans residents were able to access job opportunities associated with the reconstruction effort in the New Orleans area despite their temporary relocation to Baton Rouge. Total LA Swift ridership to date exceeds 70,000.

Providing Access to Essential Services: LA Moves
Many displaced Louisiana residents initially were evacuated to evacuation centers or hotels before being relocated to one of more than 450 FEMA temporary housing sites established throughout Louisiana. For the most part, temporary housing sites are located in areas not adequately served by transit. To help FEMA provide access to essential services for evacuees living in temporary housing, Volpe Center transportation planners, under the leadership of Mr. Matthew Rabkin of the Planning and Policy Analysis Division, working in conjunction with FTA regional staff, assisted in the design of a transportation service known as "LA Moves." The Center staff worked quickly to establish an overall concept of operations and demonstrate a proposed service and route planning methodology in one of the most devastated parishes within 30 days. Based on the initial results, FEMA requested that the Center develop more than 100 routes across the state. Within 45 days, the Center developed and verified data about temporary housing populations and corresponding essential service locations (supermarkets, pharmacies, and banks) into planning deliberations and developed an overall acquisition management plan, including service requirements, performance measures, cost estimates, proposal evaluation criteria, a contractor selection plan, and a contract monitoring plan. The Volpe Center team helped develop a plan that allows FEMA to provide essential transportation service to temporary housing residents for a fraction of the $225 million estimated initially by a logistics contractor.

The Volpe Center team served as a liaison for DOT, FEMA, and the other federal agencies working with Louisiana's hardest-hit parishes on long-term recovery planning. The team quickly developed a website and other outreach materials that enhanced communications.

Long-Term Community Recovery Planning
The most recent version of the National Response Plan outlined a new emergency support function: Long-Term Community Recovery. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA activated this function for the first time to create the structure under which federal agencies would work with Louisiana's hardest-hit parishes on long-term recovery planning.

Eight federal agencies, including DOT, participated in the recovery planning effort. Mr. Eric Plosky of the Volpe Center's Service and Operations Planning Division served as DOT's overall coordinator; reporting to the DOT modal administrations and to the Office of Intelligence, Security, and Emergency Response, he led a combined field and support team that included Volpe staff and personnel from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), MARAD, and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The Volpe Center team served as a liaison for DOT, FEMA, and the other federal agencies participating in the recovery planning effort; coordinated with DOT's modal administrations; and facilitated communications with the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, transit agencies, and port and airport authorities. The team quickly developed a website and other outreach materials that enhanced communications. In February 2006, a two-day meeting was conducted in Baton Rouge and in Lake Charles to bring together FEMA planners from 19 Louisiana parishes and staff from seven DOT administrations—FHWA, FAA, MARAD, PHMSA, FTA, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration. The team worked closely with parish planning teams, helping them to determine their transportation needs, issues, and opportunities; working to ensure consistency with DOT programs, planning processes, and project criteria; making connections between local, state, and federal transportation stakeholders; and scoping the implementation of projects and the realization of their recovery priorities.

Sharing Lessons Learned
The scale of the 2005 hurricanes, and the ensuing suffering, loss of life, and loss of property, have led all levels of government to reexamine their disaster response and recovery plans and procedures. At the federal level, the White House issued a report in February 2006 on lessons learned from the response to Hurricane Katrina. (Find The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned at http://www.whitehouse.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned.pdf.) The report concludes that there can be immediate improvements, but that a long-term, sustained commitment is required to transform the disaster response and recovery process and minimize the impact of future disasters on lives, property, and the economy. Key recommendations are to institutionalize a comprehensive National Preparedness System that includes integrated plans, procedures, training, and capabilities at all levels of government and incorporates the private sector, non-governmental organizations, faith-based and other grassroots groups, communities, and individual citizens; and to foster a new Culture of Preparedness emphasizing that the entire nation shares common goals and responsibilities for homeland security.

The report also recommends that the DOT, in coordination with other appropriate federal agencies, must be prepared to conduct mass evacuations when natural disasters or emergencies overwhelm or incapacitate state and local governments. As the DOT RETREP for Regions I and II, the Volpe Center's Terry Sheehan is working to develop, manage, and train a multimodal response cadre to carry out the DOT emergency response mission throughout New England, New York, and New Jersey.

At the local level, cities and states are reevaluating their emergency preparedness plans, and the Volpe Center is sharing lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Mr. Sheehan recently spoke to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Discussing the White House report, he highlighted some of its recommendations pertaining to transportation in emergency evacuation: local transit officials should review emergency plans and existing infrastructure to identify and address deficiencies; local transit staff should be trained and exercised regularly in emergency procedures and evacuation plans; and the public and private sectors should collaborate to develop comprehensive urban evacuation plans.

Presenting lessons learned from his experience in Louisiana and discussing how to apply them to other localities, Mr. Sheehan covered three topics: planning and management, general operations, and site-specific operations. He stressed the importance of involving all appropriate sectors, agencies, and personnel in evacuation decisionmaking and management to ensure coordination among federal, state, and local evacuation plans; developing procedures for managing operations during evacuations; and developing effective protocols for communicating evacuation decisions to evacuees. For site-specific situations, responders must try to determine the scale of the evacuation and who needs transport. Evacuation plans should encompass all available transportation modes; designate evacuation routes and shelters; have security provided at all stages; provide guidelines for what people can bring with them; account for companion animals and pets; accommodate people with special needs and/or who are transit dependent; and include plans for orderly re-entry into the evacuated area.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting an above-normal tropical storm season for this year, with major hurricanes likely, and a similar pattern for several more years. The Volpe Center is confident of its ability to provide experienced support to prepare for or respond to future storms.

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