Harris County Office of Homeland Security

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Harris County Office of Homeland Security
Emergency Management www.hcoem.org
Hurricane Rita Evacuation of a Major Urban Area
6922 Katy Road, Houston, TX 77024 Phone (713)
881-3100
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Task

• How to evacuate 1.1 Million people from the Storm
  Surge Area

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Timeline

• Monday, 19 August 2005
• Rita enters the Gulf of Mexico as a Tropical
  Storm. Rapid strengthening is forecasted.
• All computer models show an impact on the Texas
  Coast, with Galveston being centered in the
  storms projected path.

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Tuesday, 20 September 2005

• All area elected officials task their Emergency
  Management Departments to brief them on plans and
  available options.
• The Emergency Management Coordinators are then
  told to conference and make appropriate
  recommendations.

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• Hurricane Rita Area Evacuation Command
• TranStar
• Declarations of State of Emergency
• Galveston and Brazoria County Judges have
  indicated they will make Declarations of
  Emergency for their respective jurisdictions this
  afternoon.
• Traffic Management Plan for Galveston and
  Brazoria Counties will commence at 600 PM, 21
  Sept 2005.
• Evacuations from Galveston and Brazoria
  Counties
• Voluntary evacuations will be recommended by the
  Judges for their Counties later today.
• Mandatory Evacuations
• 600 AM, 21 Sept 2005 for persons in
  Fixed Health Care Facilities
• 600 PM, 21 Sept 2005 for persons in Evacuation
  Zone A
• 200 AM, 22 Sept 2005 for persons in Evacuation
  Zone B"
• Noon, 22 Sept 2005 for persons in
  Evacuation Zone C
• Evacuations are to be completed by midnight 22
  Sept 2005
• TxDot preparations
• All signage and low wattage radio signals will be
  in place by 600 PM, 21 Sept 2005.
• Shelter Hubs
• Lufkin
• Huntsville
• Bryan-College Station

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Available Evacuation Routes

• Interstate 45 (the central evacuation corridor,
  and the primary evacuation route) two (2) lanes
  from the Gulf of Mexico to just South of Houston.
  Four (4) lanes through Houston to just North of
  Houston. Two (2) lanes from North of Houston for
  approximately 200 miles, then one (1) lane for
  twenty (20) then two (2) lanes into Dallas,
  Texas.

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• Hwy 146 (eastern evacuation corridor) One (1)
  lane for approximately seventy (70) miles then
  two lanes (2) to Texarkana.

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• Hwy 290 Four (4) lanes through Houston,
  narrowing to two (2) just outside of Houston for
  forty (40) miles then a decision take one (1)
  lane due North to Waco, or go on two (2) lanes
  due west to Austin, the State Capital.

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Air

• Three (3) major airports.
• One has no passenger terminal.
• Numerous helipads.

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• Rail
• One (1) track running north
• One (1) track running East West
• Train station can accommodate one (1) train at a
  time and approximately fifty (50) passengers.

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Wednesday, 21 September 2005

• 1000 AM Press Conference to announce the
  Agreed Evacuation Timetable. We learned there
  needs to be only one elected official speaking to
  the public.
• By 200 PM traffic was congested.
• By Midnight traffic was at a standstill.

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Thursday, 22 September 2005

• 200 AM the Political leaders are briefed.
  Traffic has not moved in last two (2) hours.
• 400 AM Decision is made to contra-flow all lanes
  on the evacuation corridors outbound from
  Houston.
• 1000 AM Contra-flow is implemented.
• 400 PM Fuel, Water and Ice is delivered to
  stranded motorists.
• 800 PM Final sweep of evacuation corridors.

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Friday, 23 September 2005

• Identified Wind Shelters (Shelters of Last
  Resort)
• Populated Wind Shelters with stragglers
• 1000 PM received forecast Rita had shifted to
  the East, minimal impact expected to Houston area.

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Saturday, 24 September 2005

• Damage assessment.
• Planning for the return of the evacuees.
• Draft Timetable for the return.
• Establish relationships with the motor
• fuel delivery and sales industry.
• Provide law enforcement security for the
• fuel delivery trucks and petrol stations.
  

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Transportation Vehicles Used

• Private motor vehicles carried Ninety Percent
  (90) of all evacuees.
• Buses Commercial buses carried Forty thousand
  or more evacuees.
• School Buses carried approximately Five Thousand
  souls and were the strategic reserve for the
  assisted care/nursing homes.

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• Aircraft evacuated the remaining 2100 Katrina
  Evacuees.
• To the extent possible all Medically Frail
  evacuees from Hospitals were moved by air,
  primarily air ambulance.
• Rail two (2) trains
• Union Pacific 967 souls
• Amtrack 957 persons

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Issues with Evacuation Vehicles

• School Buses Not Air Conditioned.
• C 130s For Special Medical Needs?
• 727s Not configured as an air evacuation
• asset. Who loads baggage?
• Staging areas without proper passenger handling
  facilities and equipment

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PETSAre not allowed in emergency shelters.
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The Bottom Line

• The Plan was to evacuate 1.1 million people
  from the surge zone area. This included six (6)
  hospitals and several licensed assisted
  care/nursing homes, and approximately 20,000
  people without adequate transportation.
• The pre-emergency identification of, and the
  planning for Homebound persons with Special
  Medical Needs, or the ability to evacuate
  themselves, was wholly inadequate.
• During an emergency is not the time to call an
  emergency operations center to tell them about a
  loved one/family member needing assistance with
  evacuation.

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What we did was

• An estimated 3 million people evacuated, of this
  approximately 50,000 had no transportation.
• All 100 or so hospitals evacuated or severely
  reduced operations.
• All known assisted care/nursing homes evacuated,
  even though the majority did not need to.
• At least 3,500 were evacuated from their homes
• with special medical needs.

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The Cost

• 134 people died in transit during the evacuation.

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• Was the Hurricane Rita evacuation from the
  Houston area a success?

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• Assessed on a pass-fail analysis, we passed.

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Ranked on a grade system, we got a D-.