State Public Transportation Division Involvement in State Emergency Planning, Response, and Recovery (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Research Results Digest 326 Subject Areas: IA Planning and Administration; VI Public Transit Responsible Senior Program Officer: Gwen Chisholm Smith May 2008 STATE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION DIVISION INVOLVEMENT IN STATE EMERGENCY PLANNING, RESPONSE, AND RECOVERY This digest summarizes the findings of NCHRP Project 20-65 (13)
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American Public Transportation Association's (APTA) national emergency response network.1 • Develop an inventory database of transit agency resources and share the inventory database with state and local EMAs.
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The vast majority of emergencies can be easily managed. A disaster is an emergency event that is of such magnitude that it overwhelms the local emergency response capacity to manage the event without outside assistance.
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officials may be included in disaster planning and exercises, as appropriate. Recognizing this issue, the researchers interviewed representatives from state public transportation divisions, local transit agencies, and state emergency management and local emergency management agencies.
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operators, and local emergency management agencies were surveyed and/or interviewed. Several research instruments were developed to facilitate these surveys and interviews: • A web-based survey on state transit division involvement in emergency management was distributed to the state transit division of all 50 states.
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The FTA report on disaster response and recovery resource recommended transit agencies should, either by themselves or through their local government, develop pre-established Mutual Aid Agreements with other key agencies in the same and adjoining areas. The FTA-funded report on transportation equity in emergencies suggested that targeted outreach and assistance measures, as well as coordination among local transportation and emergency management agencies would help local agencies be better prepared to assist populations with specific needs in emergencies.
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activities should be coordinated with local EMAs in order to ensure the eligibility of transit expenses." Approximately 20% of the survey respondents believed they have best practices that they would consider worthy of adoption by other state public transit divisions. Six state transit divisions have developed safety, security and emergency management programs to guide the emergency planning and response for local transit and intercity public transportation.
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Florida The state transit division in Florida DOT has grown into a leading player in all phases of emergency management since 2004 when the state was hit by five storms in 6 weeks. The division united transit systems throughout the state to function as a connected and smoothly running organization in emergency situations.
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The transit division's role is not clearly defined in the state emergency operations plan, but the state emergency management office is in contact with the state transit office and could call upon them if necessary to assist in coordination if transit resources are deemed necessary. Some transit systems in the state are not connected to their local EMA, especially small and rural agencies.
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Washington The Washington state transit division encourages transit systems to get involved in regional emergency management. The division also realizes the need to promote the awareness of public transportation's role in emergency planning, response and recovery.
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The first model shown in Figure 4 reflects the maximum level of coordination between emergency agencies and the transportation sector in emergency response; thus, most lines in Figure 4 are solid to demonstrate these direct links. This is characteristic of Florida's emergency management structure.
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division is activated by the state EMA and DOT when transit resources are requested by the local EMA. Under these circumstances, the state transit division works with state EMA through the emergency coordinator in the state DOT.
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Emergency Response • Coordinate public transportation emergency response, mainly with state DOT, state EMA, and transit systems as needed, including asset coordination to support special needs populations. Emergency Recovery • Coordinate with FEMA and other EMA organizations and assist transit systems in understanding and accessing FEMA reimbursement processes.
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capabilities of state transit divisions to support their state and local emergency management efforts. The primary role that state transit divisions exercise to support the population in dealing with emergencies is to provide leadership and education to transit systems in their state on emergency preparedness, response and recovery and to encourage proactive emergency planning and mitigation efforts.
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local EMA advertises evacuation assistance annually through the media, encouraging people with specific needs to register at their local EMA. A study might examine the best practices in outreach to people with special needs and determine what role transit should play in developing, administering, or maintaining a special needs population database, and how to integrate the knowledge of special needs populations into evacuation plans.
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16 APPENDIX: LITERATURE REVIEW A complete list of literature reviewed is as follows: 1. Senate Report, "Hurricane Katrina: A Nation still Unprepared, Executive Summary and Findings, Report of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs" (May 2006)
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• DHS should, in coordination with U.S. DOT, evaluate all state evacuation plans as well as the evacuation plans of the 75 largest urban areas.
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8. State Emergency Operations Plan • Virginia http://www.vaemergency.com/library/index.cfm • Ohio http://www.ema.ohio.gov/plans.asp • North Carolina http://www.nccrimecontrol.org/index2.cfm?
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Transportation Research Board 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 These digests are issued in order to increase awareness of research results emanating from projects in the Cooperative Research Programs (CRP)
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