Reflection on Lessons Learned: An Analysis of the Adverse Outcomes Observed During the Hurricane Rita Evacuation

Abstract

In September 2005, nearly 3.7 million people evacuated the Texas coastline in advance of Hurricane Rita's landfall, making the event the largest emergency evacuation in US history. The Rita evacuation underscored the importance of planning for domestic mass-evacuation events, as the evacuation itself led to over 100 of the at least 119 deaths attributed to the storm. In the days preceding Rita's landfall, several cascading, interrelated circumstances precipitated such adverse outcomes. This article explores the series of events leading up to the evacuation's poor outcomes, the response following Rita to amend evacuation plans, and how Texas successfully implemented these changes during later storms to achieve better outcomes. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:115-120).

Decision Making in Disaster Management Cycle of Natural Disasters: A Review

“…(Yates & Paquette, 2010) Earthquake Haiti Decision-makings with the aid of social media helped in the response phase in terms of delegation. (Baker, 2017) Hurricane Texas, United States Mitigation and preparedness were developed following hurricane Rita. This led to good response during subsequent hurricanes, Hurricane Dean and Ike.…”

“…Most recent disasters, such as the hurricane at United States, require each management level to make an unstructured decision (Baker, 2017;Burby, 2006;Kapucu & Garayev, 2011). The most obvious examples of hurricane disaster in the United states that are reported (Baker, 2017;Burby, 2006;Chandler et al, 2016), that need decisions to be made on that time for victims and property to reduce the effect of disaster on them, such as places of transfer, safe areas, daily assistance and their health. Mitigation decisions made after the disaster happens in the future as the federal government has pursued a policy toward the use of hazardous areas for safe development.…”

“…To minimize damage, they include federal financial support for flood and hurricane protection works through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for safe building practices (Burby, 2006), starting with a Task Force to investigate the challenges observed during the evacuation. To avoid the fuel shortages and problems it precipitated, state agencies collaborate with the private sector in detailing a plan to provide sufficient fuel along major evacuation routes (Baker, 2017). Each decision during mitigation regardless of structured or unstructured decision by top, middle or bottom management requires accurate and quick decisions to ensure that every decision taken reduces disaster impact to human life.…”

“…Among the reasons why unstructured decision making is needed in a sudden and huge disaster, and not a routine decision-making as stated in the study titled Collaborative Decision-Making in Emergency and Disaster Management regarding hurricane is unstructured decision making involved by top management which is before the advent of hurricane, training and simulation need to be conducted to increase understanding in making a decision during disaster (Baker, 2017;Burby, 2006;Kapucu & Garayev, 2011 (Shafiai, 2016;Mahmood et al, 2017). Simulation or implementation is not only performed in one agency, but it includes the cooperation of all organizations that are expected to be involved in disaster-based decision-making.…”

“…Another circumstance is when from previous experience the situation is more certain and predictable as in the case of three disaster events i.e. the Popocatépetl volcano eruption in Mexico, Hurricane Dean and Ike in Texas and flood disaster in Netherlands (Baker, 2017;Cruz-reyna & Tilling, 2008;Kolen & Helsloot, 2014). Evacuations of all three disasters had good outcomes since decisions made were of a structured nature since the local and state officials of the districts involved were well-experienced and the disaster was similar to what was handled before.…”