Page - 35 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

evacuate as the evacuation order was targeted to those in “low lying areas”. The next most common responses were that they did not think there would be a flood (19%) or that they were not in an area told to evacuate (14%). Another common response (13%) stated that traffic congestion kept them from evacuating, either they tried and turned around or saw the congestion on the news and stayed home. Table 1 Reasons for Non-evacuation NON-EVACUATION REASON % of NON-EVACUEES Not in area told to evacuate 14% Not in low lying area or an area that would flood 33% Stayed behind to protect my property 10% Did not think there would be a flood 19% Stayed behind to do my job 2% Did not have the resources 6% Physically unable to evacuate 3% Other (Mostly traffic congestion related) 13% 3.6.2. Evacuation Timing Preliminary data analysis suggests that about 10% evacuated prior to the first evacuation order (either due to concerns with the dam or left for other reasons and did not return). Approximately 40% of those that evacuated did so within 30 minutes of the first public evacuation order, which was issued at 4:21 PM on February 12. Approximately 70% evacuated within an hour of the first evacuation order, and 83% evacuated within 2 hours of the first evacuation order. For those that evacuated, the amount of time they spent on the road was significant. On average, it took 3 hours for people to reach their destination. For context, most evacuees all traveled to destinations that would have normally taken less than 1 hour. Table 2 shows the breakdown of travel times. 35