Changing Logistics of Evacuation Transportation in Hazardous Settings during COVID-19 Saige Hill 1 ; Nicole S. Hutton 2 ; Jennifer L. Whytlaw 3 ; Juita-Elena Yusuf 4 ; Joshua G. Behr 5 ; Eduardo Landaeta 6 ; and Rafael Diaz 7 Abstract: The logistics of public-sponsored evacuation include transportation assets, personnel, and infrastructure. Effective orchestration leading up to a severe weather event is a complex undertaking requiring capacity that is matched to needs. However, under the compound hurricane-pandemic scenario, the demands for evacuation assistance and the capacity to meet demands change. Pre-event planning must be adjusted and transit modified to reduce risks posed to evacuees and essential workers. This study explores how visualizations of redistributed vulnerability and transportation resources influence planning. The research identifies how transportation, emergency management, and public health officials are adapting hurricane evacuation resources during the COVID-19 pandemic using original data from compound hazard workshops and participatory stakeholder focus groups. Findings show that by the peak of hurricane season, local evacuation recommen- dations were favored by officials, contracts were in place for noncongregate options, and public resources were adjusted to account for those requiring congregate sheltering. A need remained for coordinating interjurisdictional information about real-time weather, resources, staffing, and traffic as well as local knowledge of roadway flooding with ongoing hazard planning. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000506. © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers. Introduction Limited transportation options contribute to poor societal outcomes even absent any hazard (Syed et al. 2013). Transportation is critical for accessing medical care and other life-sustaining resources, and vulnerable populations may depend on public transit resources to evacuate. Transportation issues are addressed using an all-hazards approach that coordinates with federal, state, and local authorities to ensure provision of services for evacuation (FEMA 2018). Re- sources need to be deployed to areas vulnerable to an emergency in advance of a hazard impact. Moreover, residents of the at-risk area must prepare for the logistics of evacuation in advance, especially if they have family members with disabilities or other specific needs. For example, vulnerable populations relying on public transporta- tion need to know ahead of time the location of the nearest pick-up point (Bian and Wilmot 2018). Additional planning items include identifying the best time to leave, determining if multiple vehicles are needed, compiling trusted or reliable sources of information re- garding evacuation, and estimating how much evacuation will cost (Lindell et al. 2019; Watts et al. 2019). The transportation sector has a significant community outreach role during emergencies. After Hurricane Katrina, evacuation ap- proaches where individuals or households were reliant on their own vehicles were overhauled and use of public transportation empha- sized to accommodate populations without cars (Deka and Carnegie 2010). Contributors to household evacuation and resource-sharing decision making include source of information, risk perception, social connections, location, employment requirements, past expe- rience, nature of evacuation order, pets, and other indicators of vul- nerability (Hasan et al. 2011; Bowser and Cutter 2015; Huang et al. 2016; Sadri et al. 2017; Collins et al. 2018; Ahmed et al. 2020; Lindell et al. 2020). However, unprecedented factors, such as fears during a concurrent pandemic, make actual evacuation logistics dif- ficult to model. Various hazard assessment and emergency response manuals (e.g., FEMA 2018) include information regarding safety but need to be adapted to consider issues related to long-term and compound hazards, especially where underlying medical conditions increase risk (Clark et al. 2020). A pandemic, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, alters supply chains, changes the density of vehicles on roadways, and limits the number of seats available on public transit (Pei et al. 2020; Cowling and Aiello 2020; Fong et al. 2020; Parr et al. 2020). It also increases the burden on public-facing transportation workers to pro- vide safe options (Capano et al. 2020; Chu et al. 2020; Cai et al. 2020). The performance of the transportation sector during an emer- gency has significant public health and economic implications, especially during a compound hazard such as a hurricane-pandemic. Local operations during a pandemic and hydrometeorological hazard may strain resources including budgets for transportation and emergency management departments alike (Andrews 2020). 1 Ph.D. Student, Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Service, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA 23529. (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8263-141X. Email: shill054@odu .edu 2 Assistant Professor, Geography, Dept. of Political Science and Geogra- phy, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA 23529. ORCID: https://orcid.org /0000-0003-3623-8849. Email: nhuttons@odu.edu 3 Assistant Professor, Geography, Dept. of Political Science and Geogra- phy, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA 23529. Email: jwhytlaw@odu.edu 4 Professor, School of Public Service, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA 23529. Email: jyusuf@odu.edu 5 Research Professor, Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA 23529. ORCID: https://orcid .org/0000-0002-0472-3068. Email: jbehr@odu.edu 6 Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Political Science and Geography, International Studies, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA 23529. Email: eland004@ odu.edu 7 Research Associate Professor, Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center, Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA 23529. Email: rdiaz@odu.edu Note. This manuscript was submitted on November 9, 2020; approved on May 7, 2021; published online on May 26, 2021. Discussion period open until October 26, 2021; separate discussions must be submitted for individual papers. This paper is part of the Natural Hazards Review, © ASCE, ISSN 1527-6988. © ASCE 04021029-1 Nat. Hazards Rev. Nat. Hazards Rev., 2021, 22(3): 04021029 Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by 3.209.80.11 on 06/21/22. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.