How researchers map the routes that save lives when disasters loom
By Robert Ferris
Every time a storm such as Hurricane Maria heads toward land, authorities have to decide how to protect people from harm.
Much of the time, that will mean some people have to evacuate from an area.
[...]
"Evacuation modeling involves trying to determine how many cars, how many people, are trying to leave a location and go to another location, and then try to figure out how they are going to get there," said Pamela Murray-Tuite, an associate professor of civil engineering at Clemson University, in an interview with CNBC.
Teams of researchers run countless simulations on computers, in the hopes of finding the smoothest path out of danger.
The simulations they run rely on several different kinds of information, such as survey data, maps, and data from transportation departments. Traffic engineers put all the data into a traffic congestion model and try to figure out how long an evacuation is going to take.
[...]