Urban Evacuation Planning: A Medic's View, by Christian Bahr-Lopez.

Urban Evacuation Planning: A Medic's View, by Christian Bahr-Lopez.

Urban evacuation is often treated as a logistics problem or a public safety exercise. But for those of us who’ve worked on the street, through blackouts, fires, multi-casualty incidents, and gridlock, the truth is more grim. Collapse in a city doesn’t start when the power goes out. It starts when the system stops answering. I’ve worked as a New York City EMT/paramedic across the boroughs of Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Long Island. What follows…