Accessible Routes After a Disaster

With the catastrophic flooding that has taken place in Nebraska and Iowa recently, the ability to get around has been severely hampered. I personally have friends and relatives that have been blocked from leaving their community. Others have been forced to take significant detours just to get to work. Thankfully the advent of the internet has helped make finding accessible routes less and less of a guessing game. Both states have informational websites (511ia.org and 511.nebraska.gov) that help travelers decide what routes they can take depending on the seemingly ever-changing opening and closing of roads through the area.

Take for example the screen capture at the bottom. It’s from Nebraska’s 511 system on a smart phone at the height of the road closures in Nebraska. Yes, it did look like that with the eastern half due to floods and the western half due to a “bomb cyclone” winter storm.

But unfortunately there are those who do not know about these sites. Hence it is important to put links to these sites out on social media posts (if you have a profile) and on your community’s website.

However, these websites do not cover accessible routes for local roads. Providing updates through your website or social media sites is important. It could be as basic as a picture of a marked up map with your cell phone and posting it. The information is important in times of need. A professional look can wait.