Nobody is ever prepared for a disaster. From fires to hurricanes to blizzards, natural disasters and extreme weather affect every aspect of normal transit operations. This topic guide provides resources that help transit agencies plan, respond and recover from disasters.
General Information
AASHTO's Managing Catastrophic Transportation Emergencies: A Guide for Transportation Executives
California Rural Indian Health Board's Toolkit: Cross-Jurisdictional Sharing Between Tribes and Counties for Emergency Management
CUTR's The Role of Public Transit during State of Emergency Declarations Due to Natural Disasters
National Transportation Knowledge Network (NTKN) Extreme Event Preparedness & Response for Operations (EEPRO) LibGuide
FEMA's Disaster Financial Management Guide: Guidance for State, Local, Tribal & Territorial Partners
Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) - a cooperation framework between the United Nations, the European Commission and disaster managers worldwide
Mass Transit's Disaster Planning, Preparedness, Response and Recovery
National Library of Medicine's Disaster Apps
National RTAP's Fire and Flood: Disaster Planning and Response Webinar
National RTAP's START Safety Training and Rural Transit
NCHRP's A Guide to Emergency Management at State Transportation Agencies
RHIHub's Rural Emergency Preparedness and Response
TRB's Transportation System Resilience: Preparation, Recovery, and Adaptation
Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VTPI)'s Pandemic-Resilient Community Planning: Practical Ways to Help Communities Prepare for, Respond to, and Recover from Pandemics and Other Economic, Social and Environmental Shocks, 2020
Disaster Planning
California Rural Indian Health Board's Barriers to Collaboration Between Tribal and County Governments: Planning for Major Disasters and Other Emergencies
Capacity-Building Toolkit for including Aging & Disability Networks in Emergency Planning, a collaboration of NACCHO, ASTHO, ASPR, ACL
National RTAP's Disaster Preparedness Peer Call Series
National Rural Health Association's Emergency Preparedness for Rural Communities Policy Paper, 2019
NCHRP's A Guide to Regional Transportation Planning for Disasters, Emergencies, and Significant Events
Disaster Response
Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technologies' (CCITT) Decision-Making Tools for Distribution Networks in Disaster Relief
Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Emergency Operations Center Toolkit, 2021
FTA's Response and Recovery for Declared Emergencies and Disasters and Effective Practices in Bus Transit Safety: Emergency Response
GovTech's Why Social Media Apps Should Be In Your Disaster Kit
Mass Transit's Best Practices: Emergency Response
MSW@USC Master of Social Work program at the University of Southern California's Natural Disaster Response: What Role Can You Play?
National RTAP's Transit's Role in Emergency Response
NCCM's Integrating Emergency Management and Mobility Management, 2020
PHMSA's Emergency Response Guidebook
SURCOM's Crisis Management for Rural and Tribal Transit Providers
Disaster Recovery
FEMA's Community Recovery Management Toolkit
Insitute of Medicine's (IOM) Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters: Strategies, Opportunities, and Planning for Recovery
TCRP's Improving the Resilience of Transit Systems Threatened by Natural Disasters
US DOT's National Transportation Recovery Strategy
US DOT's Recovery Management: Transportation Industry Stakeholders
DISCLAIMER: The resources provided in each topic guide are not an exhaustive survey of every available resource on each topic. If you would like to add a resource to a Topic Guide, please email info@nationalrtap.org.
Updated August 3, 2021