Abstract
Hurricane Irma caused widespread evacuation activity across Florida and some of its neighboring states in September of 2017. The researchers gathered estimated travel times from the Google Distance Matrix API over about a month to identify and analyze evacuation periods on roads in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina during this time. Travel time data were mathematically adjusted to show more realistic estimations. Both sets of travel times were then graphed, with the assumption that elevated travel times prior to and during hurricane landfall were indicative of evacuation activity. The study generally corroborated the well-established daytime evacuation preference. However, not all evacuation periods followed the daytime travel preference, and at least one nighttime evacuation may have been caused by flooding. In another case, later elevated travel coincided with significant power loss. Finally, the Florida data suggest that most of the evacuation traffic departed before local jurisdictions’ recommended evacuation start times.
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Data Availability
The travel times and calculations are available from the authors upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This paper is associated with the National Science Foundation grants CMMI – 1822436 and 1638197 CRISP Type 2 Coordinated, Behaviorally-Aware Recovery for Transportation and Power Disruptions. The content of this paper does not necessarily reflect the views of NSF, and the authors are solely responsible for its contents.
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Marasco, D., Murray-Tuite, P., Guikema, S. et al. Time to leave: an analysis of travel times during the approach and landfall of Hurricane Irma. Nat Hazards 103, 2459–2487 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04093-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04093-7