Federal Highway Administration Resource Center

Resource Center Assists During Hurricane Evacuation

The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the busiest and most destructive in history. For the largest such storm, some 2.5 million residents were told to evacuate a 310-mile stretch of Florida’s eastern coastline in advance of Hurricane Frances.

Florida was hit with hurricane after hurricane in ’04, forcing residents to flee their homes and businesses en masse. The numbers of people evacuated reached record highs for Florida, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

During the time of impending destruction, three members of the FHWA Resource Center assisted in the evacuation process. Greg Jones, Grant Zammit, and Daniel Grate are members of the regional emergency transportation team. As representatives of the U.S. Department of Transportation, they serve whenever an emergency involves transportation issues in more than one State.

The group met in Atlanta at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Operations Center, away from the storm area, in order to avoid power outages. Their job was to provide coordination between adjoining States.

Conditions were heightened because of Frances, which was the most devastating of storms and potentially involved multiple States. There was a higher volume of people and traffic leaving the State than during a typical hurricane. “We were notified of a 20-mile back-up starting in Valdosta, Georgia,” said Jones. “We were then able to notify the appropriate authorities and reverse the north lanes long enough to relieve the congestion.” The reversal was for a 40-mile stretch of highway. The team’s resources and contacts were such that they could make adjustments very quickly and efficiently.

This dedicated team worked 36 hours in advance of the storm in 24-hour rotations as the situation warranted.

Another example was the storm’s destruction of the Interstate 10 bridge. The FHWA Resource Center team was one of the first to notify the Alabama Highway Patrol and Department of Transportation, arranging for rapid closure of I-10 and mapping appropriate detours.

When It Rains, It Pours...Resource Center in Action
Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne brought an unprecedented series of challenges to the doorstep of the U.S. Department of Transportation, other Federal agencies, the State of Florida, and other State and local governments. The FHWA Resource Center is home to the DOT’s Region 5 Regional Emergency Transportation Representative (RETREP) — one of nine such professionals in the Department. The RETREPs are dedicated to planning, exercising, and responding to the Department’s requirements under the National Response Plan (NRP).

In support of U.S. DOT Region 4, the Region 5 RETREP responded, as did many U. S. DOT employees. After arriving in Tampa shortly after the airport reopened on August 14 (the day after Charley struck Punta Gorda), the Region 5 RETREP spent 31 of the next 38 days providing leadership and technical knowledge of the NRP and rigorously responding to requests for assistance from the State of Florida via FEMA. The main focus was the extensive logistical challenge involved in coordinating the tracking and contracting of thousands of truckloads and air shipments of water, ice, meals, generators, and numerous other commodities among many Federal, State, local, and private organizations. Additional duties included relaying transportation infrastructure assessments and waiver/statutory information regarding hours of service, size and weight, and the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA).

Taken together, the efforts of the FHWA Resource Center and various other agencies helped to mobilize a massive, well-orchestrated response to an unprecedented series of weather-related obstacles. These efforts helped to make a bad situation much more bearable and safe for a frightened and displaced traveling public.

For more information, contact:

Daniel Grate
Rural ITS Specialist
Operations Technical Service Team
FHWA Resource Center, (404) 562-3912
daniel.grate@fhwa.dot.gov

Gregory Jones
Traffic Management/Systems Operations Engineer
Operations Technical Service Team
FHWA Resource Center, (404) 562-3906
gregm.jones@fhwa.dot.gov

Grant Zammit
ITS Specialist
Operations Technical Service Team
FHWA Resource Center, (404) 562-3575
grant.zammit@fhwa.dot.gov