Transportation and Emergency Management Tool Kit for Communications with Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

Communication with vulnerable populations about transportation in emergency situations contains serious gaps. Earlier case studies notwithstanding, the lessons of Hurricane Katrina provided a major impetus to legislation, studies, and action. Much legislation advises that community-based organizations should be worked with to bridge the gaps, but little guidance is given. TCRP funded an effort to create such a tool kit for transportation and emergency managers. The study culminates in spring 2011; this paper presents interim findings from a literature review and interviews. Transportation agencies are not in charge of communication with vulnerable populations during emergencies; emergency management agencies are in charge, but they may delegate such communication. However, transportation, public health, public information, and other agencies have significant community outreach capabilities inherent in their nonemergency roles. The most effective ways for transportation and emergency managers to communicate with vulnerable populations about their transportation options before, during, and after an emergency are learning how to identify and tap into existing resources and the networks of public, private, and nonprofit agencies that work with vulnerable populations and learn how to establish and maintain relationships with those entities. Inclusive planning helps everyone. Creation of accommodations for people who cannot hear or understand the primary language also helps tourists and residents who may lose their hearing aids, their hearing, or their composure in an emergency. Likewise, inclusively planning for people with personal mobility challenges helps accommodate people with temporary mobility problems, such as recent surgery or injury or loss of their vehicles during the event.

Enhancing Capacity for Emergency Evacuation through Resource Matching and Coordinated Volunteerism

“…Characteristics common among carless populations-including disability, isolation, age, poverty and language barriers-often impede communication between community leaders, government officials and individuals [29,31]. Secondly, (2) inventorying available transportation resources and matching these resources with evacuation demand at a regional scale is necessary to systematically execute a large-scale evacuation [23], but is typically not undertaken by local officials [43].…”

Improving Transportation Resource Coordination for Multimodal Evacuation Planning

“…People with barriers to accessing transportation in an emergency may also experience obstacles to receiving information about how to accept assistance before and during an emergency. Communication barriers are often caused by the same factors that affect the carless population; these barriers may include disability, limited English proficiency, isolation, age, and poverty (42,43).…”

Principles for collaborative risk communication: Reducing landslide losses in Puerto Rico

“…9p601 For risk communication involving the general public and vulnerable populations, Campbell et al 17p2 underscore the need to adhere to three common and long-standing principles: "Communicate through familiar and trusted messengers; provide clear, actionable information; and tailor messages and information pathways for target audiences." Best practices recommended by others include: maximizing the use of trusted local media channels, developing risk communication products through collaborative partnerships with local organizations, 18 understanding the needs and priorities of partners, 18,19 and ensuring the risk communication process and products are context-specific. 13,20 Risk communication research has also demonstrated that effective disaster preparedness campaigns require multiple vectors of credible and consistent information delivered by trusted messengers.…”