Buffalo Ill-prepared For Disaster
After completing extensive research on evacuation planning and studying the ability of central upstate cities to perform a complete evacuation, Daniel B. Hess, Ph.D. has come to one conclusion: Upstate New York is wholly unprepared for a possible evacuation in the event of a severe storm.
Hess cut his teeth studying the effects of Hurricane Katrina. After that devastating storm, he saw the errors in the New Orleans’ evacuation plan. After Hurricane Gustav, he returned to New Orleans to see what improvements had been made and what had been lacking. Using the data he gathered from years of studying Hurricane Katrina, Hess was able to figure out where upstate NY may go wrong. The biggest issue is cars – but not for those who have them.
Hess concluded that the percentage of households without vehicles in upstate NY cities meets or exceed the percentage of carless homes in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck. The most disparaging part about the number of carless people in Buffalo and other upstate cities are that they are poor, elderly, and disabled people. In Buffalo’s population, that adds up to 31.4 percent of people without cars.
Though Buffalo may not be prone to hurricanes, it is still necessary to plan for mass evacuations for severe storms, flooding, fires, chemical spills, nuclear accidents, other man-made events, and earthquakes as the region is crisscrossed with fault lines. However, the problem extends beyond the issue of cars. Even without cars, it is still possible to evacuate people safely from a city. According to Hess, the real problem lies in that there is not enough written plans for mass evacuations.
Hess believes that emergency planners need to employ a variety of methods to move the public to safety. After studying the evacuation plans of four upstate cities, Hess has concluded that the transportation needs to be addressed. High capacity vehicles – public transport, private buses, vans, and long-distance trains – need to be prepared for such an emergency. Not to mention, even a walk-out plan for downtown needs to be drawn up.
To learn more about Hess’ report, visit the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s website.
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sbrof
Considering that people spent hours on end of bumper to bumper traffic going nowhere fast, I don't feel the problem here is the lack of cars but as the article points out, the lack of planning for any other modes of evacuation besides cars.
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WhatRUsmoking
Somebody please tell me that these are not my tax dollars at work. At least with hurricanes there is several days advance warning to coordinate evacuations. In the case of “…fires, chemical spills, nuclear accidents, other man-made events, and earthquakes as the region is crisscrossed with fault lines…” there is no advance warning.
Everybody would jump in their cars, immediately clog the highways, and it won’t matter if the rest of the people have access to busses or not. Nobody will be going anywhere fast, leaving these PhDs plenty of time to call a bus company and try to make arrangements.
Let’s take those existing (and SO useful) “Snow Emergency Route” signs, paint over the word “Snow,” and we’re done. Then, take your free time, calculate how many lives are saved by the fact that these “elderly and disabled” people don’t have cars, and relax. You’ll live longer.
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onestarmartin
When did we become "upstate" growing up we were always western NY and the area above the Hudson river vally was upsate...which is across state and up from us by about 7 hours. Is this a new term being used to make us sound quaint?
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tzone
The key part missing in this story would be the type of disasters faced in the region. During an icestorm or blizzard, you just stay in your home. Not having a car isn't much of an issue when you can't drive anywhere in the first place. Also, I think that many of our communities have extensive disaster response plans in place, coordinated with the federal, state and local governments, and the red cross. "Though Buffalo may not be prone to hurricanes, it is still necessary to plan for mass evacuations for severe storms, flooding, fires, chemical spills, nuclear accidents, other man-made events, and earthquakes as the region is crisscrossed with fault lines." - It's that kind of mentality that had kids int he 60's holding their necks under their desks in school. If ANY of these things ever happened here, I think our issues would be slightly more severe than lacking a car. Unless you can drive really, really fast.
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dagner
In NYC/Long Island, anything north of the Weschester county line (and Orange county across the Hudson) is called "upstate". They are "downstate". This isn't new - its been true for the 30+ years I've visited and/or lived downstate. Speculate as you like on the cultural meaning attached to those labels.
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dagner
In NYC/Long Island, anything north of the Weschester county line (and Orange county across the Hudson) is called "upstate". They are "downstate". This isn't new - its been true for the 30+ years I've visited and/or lived downstate. Speculate as you like on the cultural meaning attached to those labels.
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MJWorthington
I agree, more vehicles would just clog the roads and slow everything down. Best scenario here is those with no cars hop into the emtpy seats in those with cars. Emergency car pooling.
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al-alo
while blizzards are common, a real danger is likely from a hazmat spill on the highways and railways that crisscross the region. like a terrorist attack or nuclear accident, hazmat spills give no warning, and offer no time to organize any evacuation.
Ive worked on 5 disaster relief operations. not that im a disaster relief expert, but in my experience they are NEVER EVER well organized in the beginning, and the operations i have been a part of have generally had some warning (wildfire, hurricanes, flooding). even with a little forewarning, efforts tend to be piecemeal and overlapping. some problems remain weeks into the recovery. now imagine how a sudden event with mass casualties would magnify planning inadequacies?
as far as a mass evacuation goes - could city buses be used? possibly. metro rail? nope - the light rail vehicles require overhead power and are not designed to be used on main lines. where would they go? have large shelters been identified? or how about mutual aid agreements with other cities within the region? who would run shelter operations? the WNY Red Cross? the Natl Guard? who is in charge? the mayor? the county exec? the sheriff?
im sure somebody, somewhere has thought about these questions. have they been answered? that is the most important question.
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