Management of Evacuee Ingress during Disasters: Identifying the Determinants of Local Government Capacity and Preparedness

Evacuations on a large scale are complex and difficult enterprises. While facilitating the egress, or removal, of people from a hazardous incident site is a major challenge, accommodating a wide range of evacuee needs as they temporarily shelter away from their homes is an equally significant challenge. However, the ingress dimension of evacuations is not as well studied nor understood as its more familiar counterpart. This paper addresses several basic questions about community capacity and preparedness for hosting large numbers of evacuees as the result of disaster incidents. Using evaluations made by local government officials, the analysis presented here indicates reported hosting capacity of evacuees on a large scale is related in part to aspects of the built environment and to geographic effects. Likewise, indicators of local government evacuation preparedness for evacuations generally and evacuation ingress specifically are related to aspects of community hazard vulnerability and administrative capacity. These findings provide a basis for future work investigating other critical dimensions of evacuation ingress management.