Federally supplied aircraft has been and can be an effective means of supplementing surface transportation modes for moving people who need assistance in evacuation prior to a disaster. It is easily integrated into a multi-modal mass evacuation transportation system. Planning and execution of air evacuations in Louisiana and Texas will be reviewed as well as future concepts for catastrophic disasters such as a New Madrid earthquake. Key components and processes essential to successful implantation of an air evacuation plan will be identified and discussed.
Keywords: evacuation transportation, air evacuation, planning
Author Notes: This paper does not necessarily represent the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), any state or other government agency’s position or stance. This paper is expressed solely as the opinion of IEM based on experience over a variety of projects and disasters.
Recommended Citation: Robertson, Stephen; Donald Griffith (2010) “Air Evacuation Operations,” Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 6. DOI: 10.2202/1944-4079.1024 http://www.psocommons.org/rhcpp/vol1/iss2/art 6
Introduction Although the use of aircraft to move large numbers of people began to flourish during the “Golden Age” of aviation—the years between World War I and II—the use of aircraft to support mass evacuations prior to or following a disaster did not assume significant proportions until 1944. Since that time aircraft have been and continue to be an effective means of supplementing surface transportation modes, with examples ranging from small evacuations conducted by general aviation aircraft to large-scale evacuations using commercial and military aircraft in an integrated multi-modal system. This paper will review current planning efforts and recent execution of air evacuations in Louisiana and Texas as well as future concepts for catastrophic disasters such as a Midwestern earthquake along the New Madrid fault. The key components and processes essential to successful implementation of an air evacuation plan will be highlighted. Aviation Use in Evacuations The use of aviation to support mass evacuations dramatically increases the options available to emergency planners to move large numbers of evacuees during a given time period than just using surface-based transportation modes. Normally an enhancement to a surface-based evacuation plan, the use of aviation may become the only transportation mode available when surface transportation infrastructure is damaged or destroyed as might occur with a catastrophic New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquake. Additionally, air evacuations have proven an economical mode for evacuation. A recent air evacuation was accomplished at a lower cost per evacuee than the motorcoach and rail evacuations. In addition to air evacuations for hurricanes being potentially more cost efficient, they also add greater physical comfort to evacuees having to travel to out-of-state shelters. The shorter flight times are more comfortable than the longer motorcoach and train trips. This is especially true for the elderly and small children. Additionally, the air evacuation is not affected by contraflow or limited to predetermined destinations and evacuation routes. A disadvantage to air evacuations is the logistical support required at the airports.
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Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms to impact the United States with sustained winds during landfall of 125 mph.1 Although not well known, there was a post-landfall air evacuation of New Orleans area residents. The Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was significantly damaged during Katrina, requiring 24 hours to open one runway and 48 hours to open the second runway. The Federal Aviation Administration worked with Air Force personnel to install temporary runway, taxiway, and ramp lighting.2
The New Orleans airport worked closely with the local and state authorities, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Defense, and commercial air carriers to restore air transportation needed to support the post-landfall evacuation of the New Orleans area.
By working together, almost full air traffic control and navigational aid capability was restored to the New Orleans airport in less than one week. During that first week, an estimated 400 civilian and military flights safely evacuated more than 24,000 Katrina victims.
Of the 24,000-plus Katrina victims that were air evacuated from the New Orleans area, more than 13,000 were evacuated under Operation Air Care.3 At least 15 commercial air carriers volunteered for the program, operating more than 130 flights.4
1 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate of 2005: Summary of Hurricane Katrina, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2005/katrina.html. 2 Federal Aviation Administration, “FAA Response to Hurricane Katrina,” September 15, 2005, http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=6286. 3 Operation Air Care was the largest airlift in U.S. history. The purpose of Operation Air Care was to air evacuate Katrina victims out of New Orleans. Both commercial (U.S. and foreign) and military aircraft were involved in the round-the-clock airlift from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, bringing in supplies and taking people out. (http://www.disastercenter.com/Department%20of%20Transportation%20Hurricane%20Katrina%20Efforts.html). 4 Air Transport Association, “ATA Statement: Operation Air Care Evacuates 13,000+,”September 13, 2005, http://www.airlines.org/news/releases/2005/statement_9-13-05.htm.
Hurricane Rita—Louisiana and Texas 2005 Hurricane Rita followed less than a month after Hurricane Katrina and devastated large parts of the central Gulf Coast region. Like Katrina, Rita also reached Category 5 strength in the Gulf of Mexico (the first time two hurricanes achieved this rating in the Gulf of Mexico during the same season).5 Before Hurricane Rita made landfall, the FEMA mission assigned the Department of Defense to air evacuate an estimated 4,000 residents (including medical patients). These FEMA-tasked evacuation flights flew evacuees to other cities in Texas and Fort Smith, Arkansas, during a two-day period.6 Rita’s air evacuation was conducted pre-landfall unlike the air evacuation conducted for Katrina. The federal, state, and local authorities were well prepared for Hurricane Rita. The Department of Defense evacuated nearly 2,000 Texas and Louisiana residents from the path of Hurricane Rita on September 22, 2005. The Department of Defense prepositioned aircraft, personnel, and equipment to further assist with the relief effort.7 In a 24-hour period, Air National Guardsmen, Air Force reservists, and active-duty Airmen conducted aeromedical evacuations of nearly 1,240 special needs individuals threatened by Hurricane Rita. Officials estimate that more than 1.5 million people fled the Gulf region because of Hurricane Rita.8 Hurricane Gustav—Louisiana 2008 For nearly three years, the southern coast of Louisiana was unthreatened by a major storm (i.e., a Category 3 or higher hurricane). During those three years, federal, state, and local authorities worked together to apply the lessons learned about mass evacuations following the 2005 hurricane season. Under the Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006,
5 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate of 2005: Summary of Hurricane Rita, September 22, 2005, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2005/rita.html. 6 Federal Aviation Administration, “FAA Response to Hurricane Rita,” September 25, 2005, http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=6290. 7 United States Department of Defense, Air Force Evacuates Thousands; Crews, Aircraft Standing By, September 24, 2005, http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=17224. 8 Department of Defense, “Air Force Evacuates Thousands; Crews, Aircraft Standing By,” September 24, 2005, http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=17224.
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FEMA assumed statutory authority to provide technical assistance and planning for mass evacuations. In 2007, FEMA worked with stakeholders to create Federal Support Plans that included federally supported general population evacuation of critical transportation needs or those New Orleans area residents that lack a viable means to self-evacuate.
Hurricane Gustav made landfall in southwest Louisiana on the morning of September 1, 2008.9 However, the state had already mandated an evacuation of 12 at-risk parishes based on lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina. In addition to nearly two million people evacuating the Gulf Coast, President George W. Bush issued emergency declarations at the request of the affected governors for Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas ahead of the storm.10
The FEMA mission assigned the Department of Defense to provide military and commercial charter aircraft to support the planned evacuation of up to 20,000 New Orleans area residents. Once the air evacuation commenced, the Transportation Security Administration processed more than 32,500 passengers during a two-day period.11 These numbers included ticketed tourists and conventioneers as well as critical transportation needs evacuees. While the airlines evacuated their own ticketed passengers, FEMA was prepared to evacuate any remaining ticketed passengers in the event the airlines were unable to evacuate all of their passengers prior to the arrival of tropical storm force winds.
While the air evacuation was successful, it was not without its own lessons learned. Two problems that were noted were the coordination with the host state airports and the re-entry plan to return critical transportation needs evacuees to their homes following the storm.
Hurricane Ike—Texas 2008
Hurricane Ike quickly followed Hurricane Gustav in a similar fashion as Rita followed Katrina in 2005. On September 9, Hurricane Ike emerged into the southern Gulf of Mexico and made landfall at Galveston Island on September 13 as a large Category 2 storm. The strong winds and storm surge
9 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “State of the Climate: Hurricanes & Tropical Storms August 2008,” August 2008, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=tropical-cyclones&year=2008&month=8&submitted=Get+Report. 10 Department of Homeland Security, “Hurricane Gustav: What the Government is Doing,” September 14, 2008, http://www.dhs.gov/files/gc_1221144856738.shtm. 11 Ibid.
caused major damage to the high-rise buildings in the downtown Houston area as well as some of the oil refineries in Texas City.12 The Air Force was prepared to support a possible air evacuation of special-needs evacuees13 just as they had done for Louisiana. The Air Force was ready to mobilize Airmen, equipment, and aircraft in full support of hurricane evacuation operations as Hurricane Ike approached the Gulf Coast.14 In preparation for Hurricane Ike, the Department of Defense was planning, contracting, and alerting personnel to support any evacuation requirements if mission assigned to do so by FEMA. Prior to Ike’s making landfall, the military prepositioned personnel, equipment, and aircraft for possible relocation of medical patients and special needs evacuees.15 While a federally supported air evacuation of special needs evacuees was not necessary, military aircraft and personnel did support the evacuation of hundreds of critical care and special needs patients from Corpus Christi, Texas.16 Local Texas officials ordered the mandatory evacuation of Brazoria, Galveston, Jefferson, Orange, and Chambers counties, as well as parts of Harris and Matagorda counties. Voluntary evacuation orders were also issued for Victoria, Hardin, and Jackson counties.17 Up to 7,500 guardsmen from Texas Military Forces assisted with air evacuations of medical and non-medical special needs evacuees from the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston using C-130 transport aircraft.18
12 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “State of the Climate: Hurricanes & Tropical Storms September 2008,” September 2008, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=tropical-cyclones&year=2008&month=9&submitted=Get+Report. 13 Special needs evacuees (SNE) are Texas-specific residents that lack the means to self-evacuate. The federal government and Department of Defense call to SNEs in the generic as general population. 14 U.S. Air Force Website, “AMC Aircraft, Airmen Supporting Hurricane Ike Evacuations,” September 11, 2008, http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123114798. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Office of the Governor Rick Perry, “Gov. Perry Suspends Hotel Motel Tax for Victims of Hurricane Ike,” September 12, 2008, http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/11131/ 18 Ibid.
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There are a number of current efforts to prepare for aviation operations in advance of specific and all-hazards disasters. The State of Arkansas and FEMA Region VI are cooperatively working on a State Aviation Operations Plan that will be robust enough to be effective for a catastrophic New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquake, but written with an all-hazards approach. Led by the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and the Arkansas Department of Aeronautics and supported by contractors from IEM, this plan will combine the civil airports and aviation aspects of the old Federal Aviation Administration’s State and Regional Disaster Airlift plan (now FEMA State and Local Aviation Planning guidance) with the response aspects of an air operations branch plan. Cooperation between FEMA Region VI and the State of Arkansas in developing the Arkansas State Aviation Operations Plan facilitates easy assimilation of the plan into the Aviation Operations Plan for Region VI.
This is not a new concept in FEMA Region VI, having evolved from a multi-year coordinated effort between FEMA Region VI and the State of Louisiana to develop and execute the Federal Support Plan for air evacuations out of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. This was part of a three-prong multi-modal plan involving motorcoach, rail, and air evacuation of the New Orleans metropolitan area prior to a catastrophic hurricane. This plan has been successfully executed during Hurricane Gustav and refined with lessons learned, and serves as the basic framework for pre-incident air evacuations.
The State of Texas has more than 600 miles of shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico and five different geographic areas that might require air evacuation support ahead of a catastrophic hurricane. From the Lower Rio Grande Valley near the border with Mexico to the sixth largest metropolitan area in the United States at Houston/Galveston, the State of Texas faces some unique challenges in pre-hurricane evacuations. The Federal Support Plan for air evacuation in Texas is the result of lessons learned and refined by the Texas Department of Emergency Management, the Texas Military Forces, and FEMA Region VI.
The concept of the Aviation Coordination Group is used by Texas. The Aviation Coordination Group is the air coordination element at the state level. The Aviation Coordination Group is staffed by decision-making level personnel from all state and federal agencies that will operate aircraft in the disaster area. The Aviation Coordination Group facilitates headquarters-to-headquarters coordination in order to provide efficient planning and execution of air support to requestors in the field. By having all the aviation
players handling aviation requests and tasking in one room face-to-face, the Aviation Coordination Group crosses functional lines to prevent “stovepiping” or single-source “missioning.” The Aviation Coordination Group does not command or control; operational control and administrative control remain with the owner/operator of the aircraft. Keeping within Incident Command System principles, the size of an Aviation Coordination Group is dependent on the size of the response. The Aviation Coordination Group only addresses air issues and synchronizes agreeable solutions across local, state, federal, military, and civilian air partners toward a common goal. As the Aviation Coordination Group is a coordination entity, communication and information flow to and from the Aviation Coordination Group is paramount. Command and control decisions and mission assignments remain with the State Emergency Operations Center and the agencies controlling the aircraft. The Aviation Coordination Group serves to take those mission requirements and assign them to the best aviation resource available to accomplish the mission. This results in deconflicting multiple aviation resources being assigned the same mission; sharing of the results of missions across agencies; and deconflicting multiple aviation resources in the impacted airspace. Requests for aviation resources will come through the State Emergency Operations Center to the appropriate state agency or to the Joint Field Office for federally supplied resources. The mission request and assignment processes remain the same. The State Emergency Operations Center will consult with the Aviation Coordination Group for a recommendation on the most appropriate aviation resource to request and whether or not the requested mission is already being accomplished by other aviation resources. All aviation resources operating in the impacted airspace coordinate activities through the Aviation Coordination Group. All agencies providing significant aviation resources or conducting significant missions should provide a liaison officer to the Aviation Coordination Group for coordination. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands present unique challenges in population evacuation in the face of a hurricane (or earthquake) and the movement of response personnel and supplies after an incident occurs. Another unique challenge that aviation planning may address is the limited housing available for response personnel. Those responders may be housed on an island not impacted by an incident and shuttled by air to the impacted island.
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Critical Operations Processes for a Successful Air Evacuation
In the past, some air evacuations have been conducted (without detailed prior planning) when needed. However, air evacuations will greatly benefit from advance planning. Air evacuation planning requires close coordination between emergency planners at local, state, and federal levels as well as their transportation counterparts and the private sector owner/operators of airports and aircraft.
Pre-Incident Evacuation of Ticketed Passengers
Pre-incident evacuations such as for hurricanes can start with planning to surge commercial ticketed passengers. Often this can be accomplished by the airlines simply using existing scheduled flights to full capacity. Coordination between the airport operator, the air carriers, and Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration officials is critical. In cities with large tourist and convention populations, including those businesses in the planning process will make for smoother operations and minimum future economic impact. All stakeholders should have a clear understanding of their interdependencies and expectations for operations. If the airport operator intends to declare the airport closed at some point prior to the incident, that time frame needs to be clearly communicated to all stakeholders.
The air carrier should balance the capacity of the existing flight schedule with the cost of adding additional aircraft to the schedule, the availability of gates and ground support services, and the ability of gate agents and other employees to effectively handle an increased passenger flow.
Transportation Security Administration officials should work closely with both the airport operator and the air carriers to ensure the throughput of screening checkpoints balances with the expected surge in ticketed passengers. Federal Aviation Administration officials should communicate any plans or policies to shut down air traffic control towers or other air traffic control services.
Pre-Incident Evacuation of Non-Ticketed Passengers
Non-ticketed passengers are generally those who require government (transportation) assistance with evacuation. There are a number of reasons
why citizens require assistance with evacuation, including special medical needs, disabilities, or simply having no viable means to self-evacuate. Citizens requiring assistance should be evacuated using surface transportation. When aviation is considered for evacuating non-ticketed passengers, a number of critical issues must be planned and coordinated across a broad range of stakeholders. One of the most critical issues to be determined in any evacuation, regardless of transportation mode, is when to start. The order to evacuate will come from the chief elected official of a state or local jurisdiction and may be voluntary or mandatory in nature, depending upon the laws of that state/county. It is significant that all chief elected officials understand the impact of the timing of their decision to act. In hurricane events, it is common for elected officials to delay ordering an evacuation while waiting to see what track an incoming storm will actually take. No one wants to order an unnecessary evacuation; however, there is a finite amount of capacity in aviation evacuation operations, and elected officials must have a clear picture of exactly what delaying past the recommended start time means in terms of people not moved out of harm’s way to guide their decision making. Air evacuations planning ideally will occur in advance of known hazards, such as hurricanes. It should include all possible evacuation areas and should be flexible enough to move with a hurricane track. For example, the State of Texas has such a long coastline on the Gulf that there have been a number of times where a hurricane track moved from Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley area to Corpus Christi to the Houston-Galveston area and then into Louisiana. Integration with Surface Transportation The movement of ticketed passengers to airports should be closely coordinated with local transportation and law enforcement services to manage the traffic flow. Tourists and conventioneers will likely move to the airport via taxi, shuttle bus, and rental cars. An increased amount of traffic from ticketed passengers should be anticipated and coordinated with transportation and law enforcement services to avoid major traffic backups. Transportation and shelter away from the airport should be planned for the passengers who remain in the airport terminal at the time aircraft stop flying as might be caused by weather issues. Likewise, the movement of non-ticketed passengers to the airport should be closely coordinated between the collection point and the airport incident command post so that the arrival of aircraft and evacuees coincide.
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A clear plan of coordinated movement and communication should be prepared and practiced.
In many cases, a combination of local and state government agencies will have responsibility to collect and process non-ticketed evacuees. A common model seen is for local jurisdictions to use transit systems and/or school buses running routes to collect evacuees and transport them to an evacuation hub. Public information messaging is critical prior to the event so evacuees understand how to get assistance and what they should bring with them, including any limitations on what not to bring. An evacuation hub is usually a joint operation between local, state, and federal agencies. Evacuees arriving at a hub will need to be assessed by local health department officials to determine if it is safe for them to travel and by what mode of transport. If they are to be moved by aircraft, then they should be processed through security screening of themselves and their baggage and manifested for a specific aircraft.
Security and passenger screening may be handled off-airport at the evacuation hub or on-airport following surface movement to the airport from the evacuation hub. Screening at the evacuation hub is usually facilitated by the Transportation Security Administration who may set up temporary screening lanes. The capacity of the security screening needs to be matched to the expected flow of evacuees. It should be noted that in actual evacuations of non-ticketed passengers, individuals may arrive at an evacuation hub with a variety of baggage styles from standard luggage to kitchen garbage bags. The site will need to be prepared to deal with non-standard baggage situations and breaking garbage bags.
Manifesting Non-Ticketed Passengers
Federal Air Regulations Part 121.693 requires that each part 121 (Commercial Air Carrier) operator must have a load manifest that lists each passenger and crew member by name unless they are maintained by some other means. This includes all crew members, all revenue passengers, all non-revenue passengers, children being held in the lap of an adult, and persons occupying cabin or cockpit jumpseats. By contrast, Federal Air Regulations Part 135.63 requires that each part 135 (Charter or On Demand) operator only manifest the total number of passengers and the identification of the required crew members.
Air Traffic Flow Management Air traffic flow management is the metering of air traffic in order to avoid exceeding airport capacity in handling traffic and to ensure that available capacity is used efficiently. Since only one commercial aircraft can land or take off from a runway at a time, and those aircraft must also be separated by time, every airport has a finite capacity; in other words, each airport can only safely handle so many aircraft per hour. This capacity also depends on other factors such as the number of runways available, the layout of taxiways, the amount of ramp space available for parking, and the availability of ground support services and material handling equipment. Air traffic control can also be limiting as there are only so many aircraft an air traffic control tower can safely handle. In pre-incident evacuation planning, it is assumed that the airport will be operating at its maximum capacity for normal ticketed passenger service. This will most likely be achieved by filling all seats in existing scheduled flights but can also be achieved by adding flights to the schedule. Disruptions, such as equipment breakdown, weather, or lack of ground support services, will cause delays in service. Weather and Safety Safety is the paramount concern in all aviation operations, and few elements affect operations as much as weather. Recent pre-incident air evacuations have all been in advance of hurricanes impacting coastal areas. Wind speed and direction and thunderstorms influence aviation operations. Aircraft have a not-to-exceed safety factor known as the crosswind component. Crosswind is the wind blowing across the landing or departing runway, and each aircraft has a published wind speed across the runway that it cannot exceed. Post-incident evacuations may occur in situations other than hurricanes and could involve any type of weather or incident (e.g., catastrophic earthquakes). While wind and thunderstorms will continue to be primary safety considerations for aviation operations, additional factors such as ceiling, visibility, functioning air traffic control services and aids to air navigation will also have a great impact on whether or not operations are even feasible. Host State/Airport Coordination Major operations to move evacuees by aircraft from a hazardous area require a suitable place to take them. It is critical that the same level of coordination
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that goes into planning the departure end of an air evacuation go into the arrival of those evacuees to a host airport and city. If evacuees are being moved from one state to one or more host states, coordination needs to start between those states. The host city’s human service agencies are a critical part of the planning component to determine where evacuees may be housed and fed, how they may be moved from the arrival airport to various housing locations, how they may receive medical and pharmaceutical services, and how they may be kept informed of what may happen in terms of return movement. These will likely all be short-term operations, and if the disaster causing the evacuation is such that a return movement is unlikely or may be long delayed, immediate consideration for long-term housing and integration into the host city must begin.
While the return movement of evacuees need not be at the emergent pace of the evacuation, it requires no less detail in its planning. To start with, a decision should be made as to the mode of return transportation. Socio-political considerations may dictate that evacuees are returned in the same manner as they were moved out; in other words, if they were evacuated by air they would be returned by air.
Aeromedical Evacuations
Transportation of sick or injured persons may have originated during World War I when wounded soldiers were transported from battlefronts to field hospitals in open cockpit biplanes. Since that time, the transportation of medical patients has developed into a significant operation, with modern aircraft equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment. A modern aeromedical evacuation can move sizeable numbers of hospital patients from city to city or from remote sites to urgent care facilities while providing en route patient care.
Aeromedical evacuations are a highly specialized area of air movement, so they will be covered here only in the most general terms. Aeromedical evacuations will generally take one of two forms: pre-incident evacuation of medical facilities or post-incident evacuation of casualties or medical facilities that have become untenable. Like all major movement operations, aeromedical evacuations require coordination between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, the impacted state’s Departments of Health and Emergency Management, the impacted hospitals or other medical facilities, the local emergency medical services system, and emergency management on both the evacuation and receiving ends of the movement. The known patient movement may include hospital, nursing home, hospice, psychiatric care, and prison facility patients.
The unknown patient movement may include casualties caused by the incident as well as homecare or medically fragile patients. As pre-incident aeromedical evacuations and general population evacuations may use the same airport(s), coordination between these two operations both on the field and with air flow management is an important planning piece. The logistics of non-ambulatory patient evacuation by aircraft is much more complex than that of general population evacuation and will require different facilities at the airport. As with any mass evacuation operation, the sooner the decision is made to move patients, the number of patients that can be moved increases. Likewise, the return movement of patients must be based upon the capabilities of the impacted medical facilities to receive patients. Post-Incident Mission Sets A number of post-incident aviation missions and issues require the specific expertise of aviation planners. The first should be damage assessment of the impacted area and rapid needs assessment of airports concurrent with search and rescue and aeromedical evacuations. There will likely be airlift requests to move response personnel and life-sustaining commodities, and there may be a requirement to evacuate a population from an impacted area. While these missions should be familiar to emergency planners, the issues of an airspace coordination plan, temporary flight restrictions, air flow management, airfield assessments, and air traffic control are much less familiar, and yet they are critical to the successful use of aviation assets in any response mission. Conclusion Aviation has proven to be a valuable and extremely flexible component of pre- and post-incident mass evacuations and aeromedical evacuations. To successfully use aviation as a standalone asset or as part of an integrated multi-modal transportation system requires specialized knowledge and experience for those who plan and carry out evacuation operations. Our past experience and current efforts in the area of aviation-supported operations shows a strong need for a regional and national approach to air operations for large-scale disasters.
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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2008. “State of the Climate: Hurricanes & Tropical Storms September 2008.” September. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=tropical-cyclones&year=2008&month=9&submitted=Get+Report.
Office of the Governor Rick Perry. 2008. “Gov. Perry Suspends Hotel Motel Tax For Victims Of Hurricane Ike.” September 12. http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/11131/.
