Emergency management

This dissertation explores how local government policies affect pre-and postdisaster business resilience, in the context of institutional and neo-institutional frameworks. The study builds on past research on business vulnerability and resilience to examine government policies in the pre-disaster and response and recovery periods, and explore how government responses of varying types can contribute to different outcomes for local small businesses in the recovery period following hurricane disasters. The project examines two cases surrounding events in 2005 and their impact on business resilience: Hurricane Katrina and its effects on the New Orleans metropolitan area; and Palm Beach County's experience with Hurricane Wilma. The dissertation involves a mixed-method approach to the subject matter. The statistical analysis portion uses multiple regression analysis of surveys of government-registered business owners in the affected areas. Business resilience is examined in light of the p redictive power of the size of the disaster; the influence of the institutional policies in public procurement, and vii economic development through small business programs; the role of institutional culture; and finally business vulnerability. The interview portion involves interviews with public officials, and coding and analysis of the field texts of these discussions, for additional information about the role that institutions play in the resilience of businesses before and after disaster. The statistical results suggest that institutional culture; size of disaster, institutional policies (particularly in procurement practices), and vulnerability can play a role in determining the resilience of a local business community.

The need to have evacuation plans in place for readily implementation for special need populations has become evident after catastrophic events such as Hurricane Katrina. For the purpose of this research special need populations will include, but are not limited to, people with physical disabilities, senior citizens, non-English speaking populations, residents and employees without vehicles, and tourists. The main objective of this research is to evaluate different evacuation procedures for special need populations from large urban areas utilizing current public transit systems. A microscopic simulation model was constructed to analyze real life scenarios for evacuation methodologies. A linear programming optimization model was developed to find the optimum locations for evacuation bus stops for the case study area. The results from this research were very interesting and can aid evacuation planners in the future.

The goal of this research is to answer a single question. During an urban evacuation, is it advisable for regional planners to allow transit units signal priority in cases where police assisted traffic controls are not an option? Standard practice for emergency evacuation is to place police officers at intersection throughout the evacuation area. However, this is not always an option where environmental factors such as the presence of fire, chemical plume, radioactive fallout (nuclear contaminated wind and dust) do not permit police presence. Results from a case study conducted on Washington D.C. show that it would take four non-prioritized transit units to accomplish the same task as three prioritized vehicles. Furthermore, allowing transit signal priority during an urban evacuation has little to no effect on evacuation clearance time or evacuee travel time. Moreover, when transit signal priority is restricted to operate only on evacuation routes, evacuee travel and delay time decreases.