BOYD, Ezra <br/><br/>
Risk communication and public response during evacuations :  the New Orleans experience of hurricane katrina 

 - Armonk, NY :  M.E. Sharpe,  March 2009 
<br/><br/> The evacuation efforts preceding Hurricane Katrina represented the largest concentrated movement of traffic in the history of the state and one of the largest in the history of the United States. It also demonstrated many limitations of current evacuation plans and capabilities. Understanding of the relationship between emergency communication and response is important for disaster planning and response. This article presents the results of an effort to examine how the storm's development and movement, the announcement of warnings and evacuation orders by government officials, and the highly visible media reports impacted the temporal and spatial movement of evacuation traffic in southeast Louisiana during the 48 hours prior to Hurricane Katrina's landfall. It also highlights how public outreach and education efforts by academic groups were used to support emergency planning and response.