Emergency Transportation Operations
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Evacuations in the News

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Evacuation operations occur throughout the nation on a daily basis. Local jurisdictions manage evacuations, whether a solitary building with 50 to 100 residents or an entire city. Expertise in evacuation planning and operations lies with local authorities. State and Federal governments can only support local jurisdictions in their efforts to safeguard their citizens through evacuations. To demonstrate the fact that evacuations constitute daily emergency operations throughout the United States, the Federal Highway Administration offers a synopsis of where the events occur and hope that peer to peer exchanges may be generated through this knowledge.

FHWA collects Google alerts on evacuations and encourages readers to use the web tool to research additional information on topics of interest. While most events occurred within the United States, FHWA will occasionally include international events of significance that offer unique perspectives on evacuation operations or that may result in after-action reports. For additional guidance on transportation-specific evacuation planning and operations, we invite you to search this web site.

The following evacuations took place during the past week.

April 23-29, 2012

Structural or Chemical Fires or Explosions

  • Riverside, California (building fire)
  • Flint, Michigan (senior living facility fire)
  • Sioux Falls, South dakota (building fire)
  • Wichita, Kansas (building fire)

Brush or Wild Fires

  • Mentor Township, Michigan (wildfire)

Hazardous Materials

  • Princeton, New Jersey (smoke inhalation)
  • Duluth, Minnesota (gas leak)
  • Fresno, California (gas leak)
  • Cheyenne, Wyoming (gas leak)
  • Muncie, Indiana (gas leak)

Malevolent Events

  • Sudbury, Massachusetts (bomb threat)
  • Carlisle, Iowa (bomb threat)
  • Hickory, North Carolina (bomb threat)
  • Charlottesville, Virginia (bomb threat)
  • Minneapolis, Minnesota (suspicious bag)

Planning and Analysis

  • Philippi, West Virginia (school evacuation planning) - Barbour County public schools in West Virginia are planning to conduct emergency evacuation drills after an unplanned emergency evacuation took place last fall.

Previous
April 16-22, 2012

Structural or Chemical Fires or Explosions

  • Fresno, California (business fire)
  • Salmon, Idaho (research lab fire)
  • Wilmington, Delaware (school fire)
  • Charleston, West Virginia (capitol building fire)
  • Basking Ridge, New Jersey (condominium fire)
  • Milton, Vermont (garage fire)

Brush or Wild Fires

  • Windsor, Virginia (brush fire)
  • Wilmington, North Carolina (brush fire)

Hazardous Materials

  • Salt Lake City, Utah (chemical leak)
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (noxious fumes)
  • Marietta, Georgia (chemical exposure)
  • Fridley, Minnesota (mercury spill)
  • Phoenix, Arizona (carbon monoxide leak)

Malevolent Events

  • West Chester County, New York (bomb scare)
  • Ware Shoals, South Carolina (bomb threat)

Planning and Analysis

  • New Orleans, Louisiana (nursing home hazards) - A study has found that nursing homes are one of the most vulnerable residences in terms of evacuations during an emergency.

Archives

An archived listing of Evacuations in the News.
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