THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407230162
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Last August, with Hurricane Emily headed for the North Carolina coast, Dare County emergency management officials directed the evacuation of about 150,000 people from local beaches in just 10 hours.
The evacuation went smoothly, in large part, thanks to a computer-generated evacuation plan that was the result of a four-year study by state and federal emergency management coordinators, said N.H. Sanderson, Dare County emergency management coordinator.
``We followed our plan,'' Sanderson said in an interview Friday. ``We think we're getting it down to a pretty good science.''
This year, state emergency management coordinators and federal officials have begun a four-year, $1.7 million update of hurricane evacuation measures in place along North Carolina's coast.
The study, to be completed in 1997, will replace a plan in use since 1987 and could lead to changes in evacuation schedules and some evacuation routes used along the coast, according to state and local emergency management officials.
The General Assembly appropriated $105,000, a fourth of the cost of the state's share of the study, in the budget it approved last week. Added appropriations are expected to be made in coming years until the study is completed.
The study is needed to ensure that evacuation plans remain current in the face of changing conditions - such as increased population and new transportation routes - along the coast, according to Thomas Ditt, public information officer for the state emergency management office in Raleigh.
``You can imagine the growth in North Carolina since 1987. . . plus the technology of mapping has changed,'' Ditt said. ``That's why we're doing it.''
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already begun mapping some areas of the coast. They and the state will be joined by the Federal Emergency Management Administration, with the vast majority of the expense going for the creation of updated maps, Ditt said.
By using the maps, local emergency management officials can coordinate the expected rates of flooding of an area, the likely destinations of people on the coast who have been asked to evacuate and transportation routes, Ditt said.
Past studies have shown that some parts of coastal roads - such as U.S. 264 between Swan Quarter and Stumpy Point - tend to flood earlier and in lower intensity storms than sections of U.S. 64. Local emergency management coordinators have used this information in planning their evacuation routes, Ditt said. Past studies have also helped in public education campaigns, Ditt said, because emergency management workers can show local residents examples of what will happen to their property in storms of various intensity.
Sanderson said that some transportation changes along the Outer Banks since the 1987 study may indicate that less evacuation time is needed. But those changes may be offset by the increase in population along the coast, he said.
``We want to make sure that with any increases in numbers of people. . . we're still well within our parameters for making decisions,'' Sanderson said. by CNB