A Florida County Locates Disaster Recovery Centers

  • Authors:

  • Jamie Dekle;Mariel S. Lavieri;Erica Martin;Hülya Emir-Farinas;Richard L. Francis

  • Affiliations:

  • Union County High School, 1000 South Lake Avenue, Lake Butler, Florida 32054;Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z2;Gainesville Regional Utilities, 301 SE Fourth Avenue, Gainesville, Florida 32601;IBM Software Group, 1590 Sacramento Street, Suite 18, San Francisco, California 94109;Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-6595

  • Venue:
  • Interfaces
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) required every Florida county to identify potential locations of disaster recovery centers (DRCs). The DRCs are to be opened and staffed by FEMA personnel, subsequent to any declared disaster. The Emergency Management Division of the Alachua County Department of Fire/Rescue Services sponsored a project to identify potential DRC sites. The project team used a mathematical analysis tool called the covering location model in a two-stage approach to find, recommend, and have accepted DRC locations. The "stage 1" approach gave three idealized DRC locations requiring each residence in the county to be within 20 miles of the closest DRC. Next, the team relaxed the 20-mile requirement and identified locations close to the "stage 1" locations that also satisfied evaluation criteria not included in stage 1. The "stage 2" results provided significant improvements to the original FEMA location criteria, while maintaining acceptable travel distances to the nearest DRC.