The nation's biggest cities come out the worst in a just-released survey on evacuation plans.
If you happen to be in Kansas City and the order comes to get out quickly, you may be in luck. That city ranks #1 on an emergency evacuation report card issued by the American Highway Users Alliance.
Kansas City was the only city to get an A. The survey was paid for with the help of the American Bus Association.
Columbus, Memphis, and Pittsburgh got Bs.
But 20 cities got Fs, including Philadelphia, Denver, Houston, Boston, and Atlanta. The very bottom of the list: Miami, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Read the Full Report (Acrobat required)
KYW's Steve Tawa reports that local officials are not surprised that Philadelphia received an F on the evacuation report card.
Mike Nucci, the director of emergency management for the City of Philadelphia, wonders whether this town -- because of its natural geography and population density -- could ever get an A.
Still, Nucci says, plans are in place if a mass evacuation is needed to change the flow of vehicles on city street grids to move traffic away from an incident:
"I'm not saying an evacuation at the spur of the moment would be pretty, but we could do it in a pretty effective fashion."
Nucci says Philadelphia already gets plenty of practice moving people and vehicles: twice a day, during the morning and evening rush; and moving traffic to and from big events at the South Philadelphia sports complex and other major happenings in center city.
(Photo: KYW's John Ostapkovich)
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