Roads

Natural disasters, particularly earthquakes, storms, and fires, often block or outright destroy roadways, which are needed to provide egress for relief workers. This prolongs the process of recovery (and consumes large amounts of equipment and labor resources). It also exacerbates the human cost of the disaster: those in need of medical attention may not be able to reach it; ongoing life-threatening situations like fires and downed power lines may continue unchecked, with workers unable to reach them; and transport may have to be attempted by other means.

While air transport is a feasible option for both medical transport and supplies, it is more resource-intensive; and there are fewer aviation resources to go around—both in terms of equipment and personnel—than ground transport. In the case of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, severe damage to roads was a constant problem during relief efforts, forcing relief coordinators to resort to air drops with greater frequency than originally planned. The main road between the capital of Port-au-Prince and the town of Jacmel in the south remained blocked for 10 days, and road access to the airport was consistently unreliable. Even as roads and infrastructure were repaired, they would become clogged with traffic, making them an impractical choice for some transport and a potentially dangerous one for others, amid concerns of attacks on supply carriers.

Earthquakes can damage roads by breaking or splitting the surface, and both quakes and storms can clutter roads with debris. While the debris of ordinary storm activity may be nothing more than felled trees and utility poles—time-consuming, but essentially uncomplicated to clean up—more severe storms may partially or totally cover roadways with landslides, mudslides, or floodwaters. Especially challenging road obstacles can include collapsed buildings, displaced heavy equipment, and live power lines, and can require special equipment to clear away—which may not be available, or inaccessible because of still more obstacles. To a degree dependent on their severity and frequency, damaged roads impact every aspect of disaster relief and emergency maintenance, especially search and rescue efforts. Many rescue workers responding to large-scale disasters have stories of supplies or equipment sitting idle not because they weren't needed, but because there were no available means to bring the supplies to those in need.

A young girl is dwarfed by a massive road upheaval on Highway Nationale 2 near Petit Gaove, Haiti. The road collapse was caused by lateral spreading of the underlying soil during the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010

[Page 620]The major disasters of the 21st century, and in particular the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, have stirred humanitarian organizations and disaster relief professionals to reexamine the logistics of disaster relief, and the need for preparedness. For instance, because of the many canals surrounding New Orleans, there are a limited number of roads leaving the city over various bridges; not only do these roads become congested early into the evacuation process (often with bumper-to-bumper highway traffic long before an official evacuation has been announced), but they're vulnerable to flooding and other damage, and can cut off the city's ground routes entirely.

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