Don't forget Susan, deciding to implement something is easy. Actually implementing something, especially something as big as contraflowing 100+ miles of freeway takes time to make happen. They had to seal exits, move jersy barriers, get police in place to direct traffic, etc. The only reason they were able to do it as fast as they did was because they had there were canes and other heavy equipment available nearby to make it happen. If they had needed to bring in the cranes from somewhere else through the blocked traffic they never would have accomplished it in time.

Since then they've rebuilt sections of the freeway to make it easy to set up a contraflow escape system.

-Blast

Hello Newperson *waves*.

The last large scale evacuation that occurred in the U.S. was during Hurricane Ike. Texas implemented an multi-modal evacuation process for both Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike including an air medical evacuation system. Airports both coastal and inland were selected to become evacuation hubs:
TX Medical Evacuation Airport Hubs

DFW as evacuation hub

Any successful evacuation system will use a multi-modal approach. Contra-Flow is one part of that system. Florida has created www.onewayflorida.org for a link to their Contra-Flow plans. Click on Route Maps to see the list of routes. While contra-flow increases capacity emergency managers will not implement contra-flow immediately, as this would trap more people. The idea is that you let traffic build up on your interstate network (that's now 50% capacity ). At a critical point, you open up contra-flow. You now have 100% network capacity all leaving at one point. If it is timed correctly all traffic that was present (and a little waiting on feeder roads) would be clear of the interstate by the time tropical storm force winds come. If you did this too early, people would not feel "rushed" to get out. Evacuation from man-made disasters is different for timing and would probably have contra-flow open immediately.

The biggest problem after a mass evacuation, people want to come back, and they want to come back today. So, to help that, please choose your evacuation locations in the following order:
- Shelter In Place
- Local Evacuation
- Distant Evacuation ( Abandonment )

For an additional reference, Savannah, GA also has a contra-flow plan in place along Interstate 16.

GA Hurricane Evac Presentation - Pics & Maps

2006 Contra-Flow Workshop in Florida
http://www.teachamerica.com/ContraFlow/ContraFlow.pdf