The Bi-State Regional Commission’s Evacuation Plan for the Illinois Bi-State Region serves as a comprehensive and cohesive resource for evacuation planning in Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island counties. Given the unique capacity challenges often faced by rural areas, the response framework and data analysis provided within this resource ensures that local leaders have easy access to the critical information they need for preparedness planning within their community.
Funded through Illinois Department of Transportation’s rural planning program, the Bi-State Regional Commission relied heavily on stakeholder engagement for the creation of this planning resource. The Commission convened representatives from rural transit agencies, school districts, animal shelters, fire and emergency departments, and many other stakeholder groups to guide the plan’s development. The document itself provides a framework for identifying and establishing operation procedures, communication plans, transportation coordination, shelter strategies, security protocols and resources for implementation. The guide also recommends facilitating local trainings and performing ongoing plan maintenance. The more pre-planning that occurs, the more quickly and efficiently local jurisdictions can work together to implement an evacuation.
The Rural Evacuation Planning effort was awarded a 2014 Excellence in Regional Transportation Award. View descriptions of other award winning projects here.
