Orange County NC Website
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during and after a major disaster. Basically the plan states that it is the county's <br />objective to plan for and carry out disaster response utilizing the resources available. <br />The Orange County Multi-Hazard Plan objective is to make all county officials aware of <br />the potential and results of a major disaster and advise them of their responsibilities. In <br />addition to the local response roles the Commissioners can make requests to the state <br />and federal representatives for laws and policies even before disaster strikes. <br />Jack Ball said that an example of this occurred the previous year in Florida <br />when the state legislature suspended the sales tax on disaster supplies for twelve days <br />(these supplies included flashlights, batteries, generators, etc.). This allowed their <br />citizens to start thinking about hurricane preparedness and provided them with an <br />incentive to start preparing. Additionally at the state level we can advocate for regional <br />response to our evacuation efforts. This has already begun in a preliminary study that <br />was commissioned by Triangle J area on response to an evacuation of our area. He said <br />that we need to do more work towards the evacuation process. He said that some <br />concerns were expressed toward evacuation capabilities of Orange County. An earlier <br />version of the response plan does address the evacuation of Orange County and <br />provides a basis to develop a countywide evacuation plan. This plan identifies <br />evacuation routes, the maximum travel capacity on the routes as far as the number of <br />cars that can be moved across the routes and hours time. The North Carolina <br />Emergency Operation evacuation plan for the state identifies Interstate 40 emergency <br />lane reversal plan. The Governor will make the determination on the evacuation utilizing <br />the reversal plan based on information provided him from the Crime Control and Public <br />Safety Division and the Department of Transportation. <br />John Link asked how the reversal of lanes would work. <br />Jack Ball responded that it was a coordinated effort utilizing our Emergency <br />Operations Center (EOC) in conjunction with the State's EOC insuring that the law <br />enforcement and DOT are working together. He said that the Governor controls <br />Interstates. On our secondary roads, he said that we could work with local law <br />enforcement in establishing control of evacuation routes. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis reported that he had heard that there were not enough <br />highway patrolmen to control traffic and he wanted to know if everyone was told to <br />evacuate now and head towards Asheville, would the Orange County Sheriff's <br />Department assume certain responsibilities along the Interstate and is that plan in place <br />right now. <br />Jack Ball responded that it was in place and additionally they would utilize the <br />DOT along with Law Enforcement in setting up barricades, etc. <br />Chair Carey wanted to know which law enforcement agency is responsible for <br />secondary roads. <br />Jack Ball said that local law enforcement would be utilized to maintain those <br />activities. They also have been identifying some issues that came up with Hurricane <br />Katrina regarding vehicle running out of fuel. They have been researching the <br />capabilities of getting tankers and fuel trucks available to be along these routes to help <br />provide fuel that may be needed. <br />