Green Jersey

South Jersey lawmakers’ worst-case scenario survival guide

State lawmakers today announced a package of bills designed to revamp the way Jersey Shore residents evacuate their homes during an emergency.

The package comes after recommendations from the Assembly Coastal New Jersey Evacuation Task Force, which formed in response to Hurricane Katrina. Chiefly sponsored by Sen. Jeff Van Drew (task force chair), it focuses on coastal communities in Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Middlesex and Salem counties. From the Associated Press:

The state’s evacuation plans already call for temporarily allowing traffic to use both directions of major highways to get away from the path of a hurricane, including making parts of the Garden State Parkway northbound escape routes on both sides of the divider.

The legislation would turn that plan into a law, and also proposes requiring state and county emergency offices to designate what infrastructure needs emergency generators, establish a commission to identify emergency shelters, ban the towing of boats during evacuations to keep highways clear, require a statewide hospital evacuation plan and require newly built schools serve as emergency shelters, among other provisions.

The 10-bill package isn’t exclusive to hurricanes — it’s meant to address any type of disaster. It will come at a cost, but a “low” one that’s TBA, according to lawmakers, via the Courier-Post.

It now awaits approval from the Legislature and Gov. Corzine.

More: “Focus on Shore evacuation: Van Drew unveils legislation,” Cape May County Herald

“Coastal evacuation addressed in 10 new bills,” Press of Atlantic City