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Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise to introduce the Emergency Vehicle and Community, EVAC, Planning Act. This legislation would strengthen communities to incorporate emergency evacuation routes in the transportation planning process.

Specifically, this bill would direct the Department of Transportation, DOT, in consultation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to develop and publicly disseminate guidance and best practices for States, territories, Indian Tribes, and local governments to utilize to ensure necessary considerations are taken for evacuation routes during local planning.

As we suffer from increasingly catastrophic natural disasters--from fires to hurricanes to flooding--efficient emergency evacuation routes can be the difference between life and death for our most vulnerable communities.

The 2018 Camp Fire tore through the town of Paradise, CA, incinerating roughly 19,000 homes, businesses, and other buildings. Eighty-five people perished. But one of the most horrifying aspects of this tragedy was that some of the victims were killed in their cars when flames overtook the backed-up traffic on the only road out of town.

We saw similar concerns in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in efforts to improve evacuation route capacity, after nearly 100,000 residents were trapped inside the city of New Orleans.

And most recently in Lahaina, HI, a lack of evacuation routes contributed to making this the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Press accounts detail the harrowing experience of people finding themselves caught in their cars, jammed together on narrow roads, surrounded by flames on three sides and the ocean on the fourth.

In the event of a natural disaster, people need to efficiently access evacuation routes that have been strategically designed to save lives and move people out of the area quickly.

Many cities, counties, and Tribal governments--especially those that are rural or low-income--that are the most vulnerable to disaster are also the least likely to have the resources and in-house expertise necessary to develop cornprehensive and efficient emergency evacuation routes.

I thank Senators Cassidy, Schatz, and Hirono for introducing this important legislation with me. I hope all of our colleagues will join us in supporting this bill to ensure communities are equipped with the guidelines and best practices necessary to bolster disaster preparedness and save lives. ______

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