New Jersey Conducts Shore Hurricane-Evacuation Drill
By David Madden
MAURICE RIVER TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- Some 300 New Jersey state police and transportation department workers took part in a statewide hurricane drill today in Cumberland County to test their ability to get hundreds of thousands of people out of shore towns if the need occurs.
New Jersey transportation department spokesman Steve Schapiro says no roads were actually shut down for today's exercise.
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"We're actually having the crews go through the whole process as if a hurricane were coming a couple days from now, getting the experience of positioning the materials -- barrels, cones, things like that -- if we actually had to shut off a road," he explained.
Schapiro says they want to be ready to set up a so-called "contra-flow" plan within 12 hours of a governor's order, turning all traffic on major roads away from the coast, and for any evacuation to be complete within 24 hours.
They'll know by next week how well this drill went.