Who can order an evacuation?

2007: There are no updates for this item at this time.2006: Under current legislation, the top county official (judge) may order mandatory evacuations during a hurricane emergency. The task force appointed by the Governor to study the Rita evacuation has recommended that this power be taken away from the local officials and given to him to order evacuations. This will require a change in the law by the legislature, which may or may not be proposed in the upcoming school finance special session of the legislature. In the meantime, the Governor is said to be issuing an executive order to get as much control of the situation as possible.Under this proposed model, the order would come from the Governor to the district “incident commander” who would relay information to their liaisons in each emergency management center. Presumably, information about local conditions would go up the chain in the same manner.Recommendation: The task force should carefully follow the development of the new ...  more