Abstract

Pirates of Evacuation Mapping: Ye Best Be Ready!
Track: Community Projects and Partnerships
Author(s): Robi Gray

September 2005, Glynn Co. 4-H'ers were planning to attend the Governor's sponsored Georgia Youth Summit at Rock Eagle 4-H Center. The event was canceled to house 609 Hurricane Katrina victims. This inspired teens to think about their community and how they could use their GIS to better prepare for disasters.

Prior to Katrina, their community had no plans to evacuate locals without transportation during a mandatory evacuation. Once the Glynn Co. Emergency Management Agency identified locations for locals to meet for bus evacuation, 4-H'ers developed an easy to ready map called "Community Pick-up Map". This allows residents to identify the nearest pick-up point to their proximity and includes additional evacuation information.

The youth adopted a swash buckling theme as the "Pirates of Evacuation Mapping" and have distributed 5000 community maps as well as taught evacuation mapping as the salty addition to the Esri, National Geographic: "Alert, Evacuate and Shelter" trainings.

Robi Gray
University of Georgia, Cooperative Extension
260 Alabama St.
St. Simons Island , Georgia 31522
United States
Phone: 912-554-7575
Fax: 912-554-7571
E-mail: robigray@uga.edu