Washington – Denver could face greater challenges with evacuation efforts than New Orleans dealt with during Hurricane Katrina, a report released Thursday found.
Denver received an F and ranked 18th among 37 urban areas with more than 1 million residents in the American Highway Users Alliance’s 2006 Emergency Evacuation Report Card. New Orleans ranked 12th for its evacuation capacity.
“As bad as things were in New Orleans, 25 cities could face a worse situation,” said Gregory Cohen, president and chief executive of the American Highway Users Alliance.
The alliance lobbies for increased development of highways.
The report assigned urban areas scores for their ability to evacuate residents within 12 hours of a natural or man-made disaster. Scores were based on the ability of major roadways leading out of the area to handle a large-scale evacuation, internal traffic flow, and residents’ access to automobiles.
Twenty cities scored in the F range. Kansas City was the only urban area in the nation to score in the A range, followed by Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Tenn.; and Pittsburgh – each earning scores in the B range.
The report used population data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2003 Travel Time Index, which estimates travel delays on urban highway systems during peak hours.
Denver received a 59.8 score out of a possible 100.
Cohen told reporters Thursday that all of the urban areas that failed had traffic-flow problems on a daily basis that would make massive evacuation efforts more difficult.
“When America first examined the need for an Interstate Highway System, mobilization for national defense was a key consideration,” Cohen said. “In the last five years, we’ve been looking back at that.”
Peter Pantuso, president and CEO of the American Bus Association, urged emergency officials to establish bus-only routes so that coaches could avoid the worst traffic and make return trips to affected areas.
Pantuso said buses were key during Katrina to efforts to evacuate residents without access to a car.
