Boston Globe December 7, 2005
Menino details emergency evacuation plan
City marks routes, sends out brochures
By Andrea Estes
Mayor Thomas M. Menino detailed an $827,500 emergency preparedness plan yesterday that could evacuate Boston within hours, notifying residents by automated phone calls, directing traffic to evacuation routes marked with 400 new blue-and-white signs, and putting residents without cars on buses and other city vehicles.
Some 74 schools and community centers across the city would offer shelter to those stranded or would be staging areas for residents needing transportation. Tow trucks and gasoline tankers would line evacuation routes to keep the road clear of stalled or out-of-gas vehicles, and police would strictly control traffic flow to avoid gridlock and the breakdowns that plagued the evacuation of Houston prior to Hurricane Rita.
City workers began installing the new evacuation route signs and mailing brochures with emergency instructions to city residents yesterday.
Menino, who released a different evacuation plan earlier this year that was criticized as inadequate by election rival Maura Hennigan and as ''problematic" by his own director of homeland security, cautioned that the plan is a work in progress.
''We're looking for feedback," he said. ''We know there will be critics."
Outside security consultants did not assess the plan before it was released, but Menino said city police, fire, transportation, and health specialists, as well as officials from the MBTA and several other state agencies, had input on the plan or reviewed it.
''This is not a panacea," said Menino. ''It's a plan we believe makes a lot of sense. The experts have looked at it and analyzed it and are satisfied this plan works."
The blueprint, which rewrites an evacuation plan developed for the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, is meant to be adaptable to ''all hazards," Menino said. The hazards include natural disasters such as snowstorms or hurricanes, infrastructure failures such as blackouts or computer failures, and manmade disasters such as fires or terrorist attacks. Boston police would coordinate any evacuation, drawing on all available personnel from other city and state agencies.
Officials said the plan, which was devised by the heads of the city's police, fire, emergency management services, and transportation departments, as well as the Red Cross, should calm people, rather than alarm them.
''Post Katrina, people are very open to messages that in the past might have frightened them," said Deborah Jackson, chief executive of the Red Cross-Massachusetts Bay, which would operate the 74 emergency centers with city officials. ''They want to know that people are planning. I think it's more reassuring than frightening."
The plan seeks to involve the public in the disaster planning process. It seeks to ensure that residents are made aware of the plan and are notified quickly in the event of an emergency.
Under the new Mayor's Emergency Alert Notification System, or MEANS, the city would notify all residents by phone within a few hours. The system, to take effect in January, can automatically telephone up to 60,000 residents an hour, leaving an automated message.
Officials also began mailing a brochure detailing the evacuation plan to all of the city's 280,000 households. The brochure has been translated into Spanish and includes a map of the evacuation routes. A new city website, www.cityofboston.gov/emergency, will offer the same information translated into six languages, Menino said.
In addition, the city plans to take bids soon from private organizations for city grants to familiarize residents with the evacuation plan. In addition, the neighborhood groups would distribute special disaster preparedness kits to low-income families. The city has purchased 10,000 kits from the Red Cross, red backpacks that contain portable radios, flashlights, gloves, first aid kits, batteries, plastic drop cloths, and other necessities.
Grants will also be provided to groups that will work with the city's largest private employers, biolabs, and providers of care to the disabled and elderly to craft plans that meet their special needs.
The plan does not include any shelters where thousands of people could flee in an emergency. Carlo Boccia, director of the mayor's Office of Homeland Security, said the city is working to adapt the Massachusetts Convention Center in South Boston so it could accommodate refugees, even if the city were without water, power, or a communications network.
Menino said the city's colleges and universities will also be required to submit their own evacuation plans to the city within 45 days. Several colleges contacted said they will comply.
''Campus officials have met with the Boston Fire Department to develop effective evacuation plans in the event we have to empty one building or evacuate the entire campus," said Ed Hayward, spokesman for the University of Massachusetts at Boston. ''Those efforts are ongoing, as we further refine our crisis management plan. We're very supportive of the mayor's plan, and we will continue to work closely with city officials to ensure the safety of our students and employees."
Said Boston University spokesman Colin Riley: ''We haven't seen the mayor's plan, but will continue to work with the city to coordinate plans and will comply with his request."
According to Boccia, city officials have already conducted three ''tabletop exercises" to hash out the plan and will conduct a fourth session. After that, he said, they will test the plan in a drill, he said. One of those drills will take place in the city schools, which have their own evacuation plans that are designed to mesh with the city's, officials said.
But at least one security specialist thinks the plan is more style than substance.
John Pike -- director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, Va., think tank -- said the brochure being distributed to residents doesn't give clear instructions on what to do if disaster strikes. ''This is no plan," said Pike. ''I'm turning to the government to tell me what to do, and all they're doing is confusing me."
The website, for example, tells people to have enough food on hand to last three to seven days. ''Which is it?" Pike said. ''That's a big difference. Historically the number was three. But post-Katrina, I think there is a view that the cavalry might take more than three days to get to you."
The city's website tells residents to pack toiletries in the event of an evacuation, for example, but doesn't mention toilet paper, he pointed out. The map shows residents the routes out of town, but doesn't tell them which way to go.
''In Washington, D.C.,'s plan, they tell people which direction to drive. If you're north of Pennsylvania Avenue you drive north. If you're south you drive south."
''I haven't seen anything that inspires confidence," he said. ''At least in the case of the Washington plan, they told you which way to drive. [Boston's planners] haven't passed the smell test."
He said many cities have similar problems with their emergency plans.
Boccia said the plan will cost roughly $827,500: $220,000 for the disaster kits; $130,000 for the brochures; $250,000 for the MEANS telephone system; $220,000 for the training grants; and $7,500 for the new signs.
Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the City Council's public safety committee, said he will hold hearings on the plan.
''There have been improvements made to the plan that was in existence," he said. ''I like that they will notify people by automated call and that they're preparing a booklet to be distributed to people."
He praised Menino for asking private colleges and employers to work together with the city. ''What good does it do for us to go to Code Orange if 75 percent of the land and buildings in the city are in private hands?"
© Copyright 2005, The New York Times Company
