Carless and Special Needs Evacuation Planning

Abstract

For this review, we included a wide range of literature related to emergency preparedness planning and information on the evacuation of carless residents, including minority, low income, elderly, disabled, and residents with limited mobility and health problems. The review includes sources that highlight best practices, and identify areas of weakness within the field of emergency preparedness with respect to the target population of this study. This review discusses different needs for different types of natural and human-induced disasters. It also discusses the role for an integrated, multimodal approach for evacuation planning to assist with evacuating people in the most efficient manner possible. This literature review serves to characterize the current state of thinking and practice on the subject of carless and special needs evacuation planning. The focus of the literature review is on the role of government and public agencies. Overall, the literature related to carless evacuation planning is multidisciplinary and wide ranging. The events surrounding Hurricane Katrina motivated this review of existing research and provided an opportunity to synthesize other earlier related research. The process is important for finding gaps in the contemporary understanding of these issues, especially given more recent evacuations.