Coastal Mass Evacuation

Revision with unchanged content. Recent tropical cyclone landfall events provide stark reminders of the immense importance of effective coastal mass evacuation plans. Lives hang in the balance when catastraphic winds and storm surge bear down on populated coastlines. Therefore, throughout the areas of the world threatened by these potentially devastating storms, responsible government agencies at all levels must work together to develop and execute efficient and workable plans. The state of North Carolina developed such a plan for the Wilmington area following the unprecedented scale of the evacuation of the southern Atlantic coast in advance of Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The plan included reversed lane operations on Interstate 40. This study provides a detailed evaluation of the North Carolina plan using microsimulation traffic modeling tools. The detailed evaluation was designed to answer serveral questions regarding how well the plan would work under evacuation conditions. This book is targeted toward emergency managers and transportation system officials as well as professionals and academics practicing and conducting research in the area of mass evacuation planning.