National Conferences Focus on Hurricane Season Preparedness
With the commencement of hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, transportation users and service providers need to pay heightened attention to tropical weather forecasts and the potential for damaging storms along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts. A leader in emergency transportation, the Volpe Center recently participated in two national meetings on hurricane preparedness.
The 31st National Hurricane Conference in Austin, Texas provided the Volpe Center with the opportunity to meet with other federal, state and local government colleagues and attend training and workshops on improving hurricane preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation in order to save lives and property in the U.S. and the tropical islands of the Caribbean and Pacific. Transportation, evacuation, business, industry and economic stability, public awareness/media, and sheltering and mass care were workshop topics.
The Hurricane Gustav and Ike After Action Meeting focused on response and recovery activities in Texas and Louisiana in the wake of these two storms.
Mr. Terry Sheehan, Volpe Center staff member and U.S. DOT's Region 1 and 2 Regional Emergency Transportation Representative and Transportation Emergency Support Function (ESF) lead for the Northeastern U.S. under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Response Framework contributed to the meetings. During Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008, Sheehan was the lead manager at the Baton Rouge LA Joint Field Office for the ESF-1.
Knowledge gained from these conferences will be used to enhance regional emergency transportation response cadre training, which will be offered at the Volpe Center this summer.
Bay St. Louis Beach Boulevard in Bay St . Louis, Mississippi during recent hurricane. (
Volpe Center photo by Terry Sheehan)
