Developing an evacuation plan for the Obama presidential inauguration
Abstract
When the data came in for the expected crowd estimates at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration and predictions pointed upwards of 2 million visitors arriving in the District of Columbia (District) on 20th January, 2009, it quickly became apparent that the current District evacuation plan would not be able to support the influx of visitors congregating on the National Mall. The District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) called for the development of a new evacuation plan. With a limited amount of time remaining, the District faced many barriers in the planning process, but managed to overcome numerous obstacles and developed a functional and effective evacuation plan while identifying ways to improve planning efforts in the future.
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Author's Biography
Darrell L. Darnell is the Senior Associate Vice President for Safety and Security at the George Washington University, where he is responsible for directing the coordination, development and management of safety and security. Previously, he served on the White House National Security Staff as the Director, Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Policy. Mr Darnell is a Senior Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. He has been named to the FEMA National Advisory Council subcommittee on the Integrated Public Alert Warning System.
Jodi Stern is a Senior Law and Policy Analyst with the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security. Her current assignment is with HSEMA where she was brought on board to help plan the 56th presidential inauguration and now serves as an emergency planner. In this role, Ms. Stern develops plans to prepare and respond to all-hazard events. She has also worked on issues including continuity of operations, special needs, a legal bench book, and pandemic influenza.
Citation
Darnell, Darrell L. and Stern, Jodi (2009, August 1). Developing an evacuation plan for the Obama presidential inauguration. In the Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, Volume 3, Issue 4. https://doi.org/10.69554/JYGI2573.
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