Title: Use of a parking garage as a hurricane evacuation 'Refuge of Last Resort'

Authors: Thomas W. Schmidlin, Barbara O. Hammer, Paul S. King, L. Scott Miller, Gregory Thumann, Helene Wetherington

Addresses: Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA. ' Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA. ' Boyce Thompson Institute, Tower Road, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. ' Department of Aerospace Engineering, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260, USA. ' Department of Aerospace Engineering, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260, USA. ' Palm Beach County Division of Emergency Management, 20 S Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL 33415, USA

Abstract: When a hurricane evacuation is halted, large numbers of motorists may be stranded without official shelter. Multilevel aboveground parking garages may be feasible |Refuges of Last Resort| (RLR). Our goal was to assess the relative safety of using a parking garage as an RLR through fieldwork on the wind patterns inside a parking garage during hurricane Isabel. Mean wind speed inside the second floor of the garage, 6 m (20 ft) from upwind openings, was 26% of the outdoor mean. Gusts averaged 33% of outdoor gusts. Wind measurements on the second floor of the garage showed that gusts inside the garage were 10% to 30% of outdoor gusts. These results were supported by testing a model parking garage in a wind tunnel. Motorists inside a vehicle using a parking garage as a |refuge of last resort| during a hurricane are relatively safe with respect to wind.

Keywords: refuge of last resort; RLR; parking garages; wind patterns; wind speed; gusts; shelter; preparedness; hurricanes; severe storm evacuation; planning; hurricane sheltering; USA; United States; hurricane Isabel; emergency management; disaster management; multi-storey car parks; safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEM.2005.008738

International Journal of Emergency Management, 2005 Vol.2 No.4, pp.249 - 262

Published online: 20 Jan 2006 *

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