Some major cities have no evacuation plans at all.
Seventeen years ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall, bringing with it widespread devastation to the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Research from a team at Florida Atlantic University shows that even though Katrina is considered among the greatest natural disasters to ever hit the U.S., over the past two decades the country has not made significant changes in disaster preparedness. “Only marginal improvements have occurred with respect to evacuation planning in America’s 50 largest cities,” their report states.
The analysis shows only seven major cities have strong plans for evacuations: Charlotte, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, and Philadelphia.
The six cities with the weakest ratings were Colorado Springs, Honolulu, El Paso, San Antonio, Memphis, and Indianapolis. A total of 17 cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, either did not make plans available to researchers or did not have plans at all.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For U.S. governing officials as they encourage major metropolitan areas to prepare for potential disasters.
- For Administrator Spinrad as he oversees the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.
- for Administrator Criswell as she heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Sources: The Hill, Science Daily
