Does your town have a evacuation plan?

I got so mad just reading that Racism thread I didnt even replie, so I thought I'd just start a new thread to get pee'd off about

So after the Hurricane I was curios if we have a evac plan here in St Louis, being on the meridian fault seams like we should.

I called the Metropolitian City Hall after my local county city hall told me to, they told me to Call FEMA(Federal Emergency Managemnt Agency)
Ok guess what they said...???...any other guesses???

The person that answered the phone...lets repeat that
The person that answered the phone ...said this

"Im sorry sir we dont have that information here, but if you go to your local library they might be able to help you"

Excuse me mam...mam...isnt that what you do there?

"Im sorry sir youll need to go to your local library for that, is there anything else I can help you with?"

So were do you live?
Id be curios to see what your cities evac plans are.
I now know why it took so long for FEMA to get going, they were all at the local library trying to find out what to do...oh I know, it was under water.
[emoticon bashing his little round head on a wall]

Interesting question. The next time I go to the library I'm going to have a look.

Something tells me I'll find plans from the cold war. I believe that re: the north east there are no plans - it is considered impossible iirc.

Pete

Boy is that ever a good question! Frankly, I have no idea. In Cali, I believe that every city does have to have some kind of emergency response plan in place. No idea though if the plan is required to correlate in any way with resources. A lot of articles have been written about earthquake preparedness in the past week, since that's our biggest natural disaster risk.

I know that a lot of towns have civil defense plans that dated back to the Cold War days, with local systems of civil defense shelters that would kick into gear during disasters (older parts of town might still have those old yellow and black civil defense shelter signs hanging on some buildings). But, even before the Soviet Union collapsed, those plans and shelter networks had already begun to go by the wayside.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the interstate highway system was originally pushed through as a "defense highway" network, which would be used for evacuating urban centers during a nuclear war. It would also be used for transporting nuclear missiles, troops, and military logistics. Obviously, the population has grown considerably since the interstate highway system was first written up.

...disaster plan. I seriously, let me repeat SERIOUSLY (I've done my homework), disbelieve that your local, state, or federal governments are there for you. They have IMO, other agendas. FEMA is not there for its stated purpose. The ARC, is not there for disaster help, at least that's not its main purpose. Figure out your own way out of town, and if your town is so large or you are so far from the edge of it that getting out is impossible in a disaster, MOVE! Me? I'm debating various routes and directions out of town ON FOOT and by car. Here's a simple plan off the top of my head, it may give you ideas: buy canoe/jonboat
disaster comes
load car with gear, food, canoe/jonboat
haul ass to Parkville and put in at English Landing Park
float downriver to (hopefully) safety

This plan is specific to Kansas City North, but wherever you are, planning ahead can save your life. Know ahead of time what you are going to do, because it is so hard to be cooly rational in a severe emergency. New Orleans teaches us that we are going to have to rely on ourselves.

Laz

Being in LA my evacuation plan includes the I-15 and Vegas. No…wait…That's my weekend plan. As Wooch suggested, I'd be stuck on some interstate a la Independence Day.

Our state has been fine-tuning its evacuation plans since last hurricane season. The southernmost part of the state is divided into numbered zones with the coastal zones having the lowest numbers. Evacuations are ordered by zone numbers. The only problem is very few people know what zone they live in.

I live in a rural area about 60 miles from the coast. We're far enough away to not have to worry about a storm surge, but we still get the high wind speeds and rain. For most storms we stock up on supplies such as bottled water, batteries, candles, charcoal, non-perishable foods and snack foods. A battery powered radio, wet wipes, work gloves, panchos, folding chairs, an axe and tiki torches come in handy.

The main thing that kept me sane after Hurricane Ivan was a metal percolating coffee pot made for camping. You can put it on your grill for about 15 minutes and it's better than that automatic drip crap.

Some of the things I plan to get: generator and chain saw. Fortunately, I've had access to these in past emergencies, but I'd rather not depend on others.

We also fill our bath tubs with water. If you lose water to your house, you can still flush a toilet many times with a couple of full tubs and a bucket.

Of course all of the above is for the "hunker down" plan. I'm about 7 minutes from I-65 which runs north and south and about 50 minutes from I-10 running east and west. I haven't selected destinations yet. Depending on the emergency and its place of origin, I would probably head to north Alabama into the foothills of the Appalachians and live like Grizzly Adams. Being in Alabama, we naturally have guns (for hunting) and fishing gear.

Overlooked in all the bitter aftermath of Katrina is the fact that about 75-80% of the New Orleans area did evacuate before the storm arrived. That is actually very good. I wonder if other large cities in the US could do as well. Despite that, the remaining people who did not or could not evacuate experienced the worst urban disaster in the US since the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906 and the destruction of Galveston by hurricane in 1900. If 20% of the people of, say New York or Los Angeles, experienced the same as what happened in NO, it would still involve about 1 million people.

It also should remind anyone paying attention that plans to evacuate major cities in case of disaster are at best poorly thought out, and at worst have been "on file at your local library" without modification since the 1950's. Evacuation plans are not a realistic way to deal with urban disasters.

Wooch I was talking to a couple of friends about the west coast the other day, about the "big earthquake" theory. I feel for you man, that is truly a scary thought!

I remember those fallout shelter signs, it would be very cool to have one imo. I'll have to go to the old industrial areas and scope out abandoned buildings. Prolly get mugged :rolleyes: .

Dean from here it looks like you're in a good position, really. Truly rural areas are quite far from Cleveland, as the whole of NE Ohio is thoroughly settled (not like the NE coast, though. This has GOT to shake them up). A gun is a great thing for unsettled times: "Home security on the road" (Steven King).

Laz I'm thinking jetpacks :D . There's really no good way out, the Cuyahoga river goes south, then circles around and back up! Maybe I can make it across Lake Erie to Canda lol. The good news is we've only got tornados and winter.

This may interest some:

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26

Pete

I live in a small town now, and am moving to an even smaller town next spring. Not too many natural disasters in this area. It's not that hard to outrun a snow storm. But one never knows what the future will bring.

I doubt there is any kind of plan on file anywhere here.