Temporospatial Analysis of Hurricane Katrina Regional Evacuation Traffic Patterns

Abstract

Between the fall of 2004 and spring of 2005, a plan was developed to facilitate the evacuation of southeast Louisiana, including the City of New Orleans, when under the threat of a hurricane. The plan was created by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the Louisiana State Police with the goal of eliminating or mitigating the traffic problems that were a part of the Hurricane Ivan evacuation that occurred in Sept. 2004. The cornerstone of the plan was to maximize the available roadway infrastructure within the region to move nearly the entire population in the most rapid and efficient manner. It incorporated the reversal of about