In Louisiana's hierarchy of emergency operations, the Department of Transportation and Development's (DOTD) primary responsibilities are to facilitate transportation and infrastructure needs during an emergency, such as ahurricane. DOTD's emergency plan includes providing transportation to individuals who cannot evacuate on their own, managing traffic during an evacuation, securing the State's infrastructure and restoring infrastructure and transportation services during recovery. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused unprecedented damage to the state, but DOTD's pre-event planning and post-event response helped mitigate damage and speed recovery. Before Katrina made landfall, DOTD and the Louisiana State Police activated its emergency evacuation plan. Within 30 hours of implementing contraflow (reverse lane operations), more than 1.3 million people were safely evacuated from Southeast Louisiana, which includes the urban area of New Orleans. Immediately after the storm, DOTD assessed damage to critical infrastructure and began planning repairs to aid in the recovery efforts. Approximately 3 weeks later, Hurricane Rita struck Southwest Louisiana, prompting a similar evacuation and recovery effort. As a result of both storms, DOTD repaired and replaced more than $1 billion in damaged infrastructure and removed 3.6million cubic yards of storm-related debris, representing enough debris to fill several outdoor sports stadiums. For the covering abstract see ITRDE139491.
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