A Guide to Emergency Quarantine and Isolation Controls of Roads in Rural Areas (2008)

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, and was conducted in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), which is administered by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies. COPYRIGHT PERMISSION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, Transit Development Corporation, or AOC endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. DISCLAIMER The opinion and conclusions expressed or implied in the report are those of the research agency. They are not necessarily those of the TRB, the National Research Council, AASHTO, or the U.S. Government. This report has not been edited by TRB.

Contents Figures..................................................................................................................................v  Tables...................................................................................................................................v  Summary ............................................................................................................................ vi  Section 1. Introduction.......................................................................................................1  1.1 Background...............................................................................................1  1.2 Research Objective and Scope..................................................................2  1.3 Research Approach...................................................................................2  1.4 Organization of This Report .....................................................................3  Section 2. Annotated Bibliography....................................................................................5  2.1 General Sources on Agroterrorism and Foreign Animal Disease ............5  2.2 Case Studies..............................................................................................7  2.3 Simulations, Training Exercises, and Preparedness Reports....................9  2.4 Federal and State Response Plans...........................................................12  2.5 Articles on Traffic Control During Emergencies ...................................18  Section 3. State and Local Interviews..............................................................................21  3.1 State-Level Interviews ............................................................................21  3.2 Summary of State Responses..................................................................22  3.3 Local Interviews .....................................................................................26  3.4 Summary of Local Responses ................................................................28  3.5 County Training......................................................................................29  3.6 Summary of State and Local Interviews and Training ...........................29  Section 4. Lessons Learned..............................................................................................33  4.1 Key Lessons Learned..............................................................................33  4.2 Other Lessons Learned ...........................................................................35  Section 5. Traffic Control in Agricultural Emergencies..................................................41  5.1 Timeline of an Agricultural Emergency Response.................................41  5.2 Considerations for Traffic Control .........................................................44  5.3 Prioritizing Routes ..................................................................................45  5.4 Levels of Traffic Control ........................................................................46  5.5 Command Structure ................................................................................46  5.6 Resource List ..........................................................................................48  5.7 Emergency Management Assistance Compacts .....................................48  Section 6. Development of the Guide to Traffic Control of Rural Routes in an Agricultural Emergency .................................................................................51  6.1 Develop Initial Draft Guide ....................................................................51  Section 7. State and Local Evaluation of the Guide ........................................................55  7.1 Ford County, Kansas, Workshop............................................................58  iii

7.2 Blue Earth County, Minnesota, Workshop.............................................61  7.3 Howell County, Missouri, Workshop.....................................................62  7.4 McMinn County, Tennessee, Workshop ................................................62  7.5 Summary of State and Local Comments on the Guide...........................63  Section 8. Summary .........................................................................................................65  Section 9. References.......................................................................................................67  Appendices Appendix —Final Project Presentation iv

Figures Figure 1. ICS Structure Used in Kansas for FAD Response ............................................47  Figure 2. Suggested Additional Branch in Operations Section for Agricultural Emergency Response ........................................................................................52  Tables Table 1. List of Contacts Made at the State Level ............................................................21  Table 2. List of Contacts Made at Local Level.................................................................27  Table 3. Transportation Policy Procedure Taxonomy ......................................................42  Table 4. Example Traffic Control Resource List..............................................................49  Table 5. State Agencies Asked to Review “A Guide to Traffic Control of Rural Roads in an Emergency Quarantine”..................................................................56  Table 6. Local Agencies Receiving “A Guide to Traffic Control of Rural Roads in an Emergency Quarantine”......................................................................................57  Table 7. Workshop Agenda ..............................................................................................59  Table 8. Exercise Scenario................................................................................................60  v

Summary There are new concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. agriculture to the deliberate introduction of animal and plant diseases (referred to as agroterrorism), detailed by the Homeland-Security-Council-led interagency working group in several of the national planning scenarios laid out in Homeland Security Presidential Directive/HSPD-8 National Preparedness. Transportation and law enforcement agencies are being called on to prepare for their roles in the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which provides “a consistent nationwide approach for federal, state, tribal, and local governments to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity.” Response to agricultural emergencies, whether attributed to agroterrorism or naturally occurring outbreaks of food contamination or animal disease, often requires immediate (within hours) isolation and/or quarantine of potential infection or contamination areas. For example, with a Foreign Animal Disease (FAD), federal, state, and local agencies will all be involved in a response. Research indicates that the economic impact of the outbreak is a function of the time it takes to enforce quarantine and eradicate or control the infection. It is essential that emergency quarantine and isolation control guidelines and procedures that can be implemented immediately at the local level are available to local responders. Traditional methods of containment (i.e., posting law enforcement officers to control travel) are not feasible in many potentially affected areas; thus, more innovative methods are needed that can be implemented in partnership with law enforcement, military (Active, Reserve, and Guard), the private sector, transportation agencies, media outlets, and others at the local and state levels. The objective of this research is to prepare a guide that establishes recommended practices and procedures associated with traffic control on local and state roads during agricultural emergencies. The research will focus on quarantine and isolation controls that are related to identified containment areas and need to be established within a suitable time frame. There is a need to be able to implement recommendations with minimal resources typically available in a rural region. Development of the guide began with a review of existing information on agricultural emergencies. Information reviewed included articles and reports related to agroterrorism, foreign animal diseases, case studies of past incidents of foreign animal and plant disease outbreaks, training exercises and simulations of outbreaks, state and federal response plans, and emergency traffic control. Limited information on traffic control during quarantines was found in the literature review. To supplement the literature review, phone and email interviews were conducted with state and local enforcement, transportation, and agriculture officials. These interviews covered emergency response plans, training that was being offered to local agencies, and concerns of local law enforcement officials regarding traffic control in a quarantine or stop movement situation. vi

vii The lessons learned from the literature review and state and local interviews helped the research team identify the agencies involved in a response to an agriculture emergency and the timeline of the various phases of a response. These lessons were summarized in a taxonomy shown in Table 2-1 in the guide. The response to an outbreak was divided into three phases: 1. Phase 1—Planning 2. Phase 2—Initial Response 3. Phase 3—Long-term Response Federal, state, and local agencies will all be involved in a response as soon as a veterinarian examines animals that are exhibiting symptoms that indicate a possible foreign animal disease. Local agencies will normally be responsible for organizing traffic control. The scope of the traffic control cannot be stated without knowledge of the specific disease, the number and location of susceptible animals, and other site-specific features such as weather and geography. However, the Guide uses a hypothetical scenario to illustrate the number of traffic control points that would be required for a six-mile quarantine radius. In the scenario described in the Guide, 27 sites would require traffic control. Since local law enforcement agencies in a small rural county would not have the resources to place a law enforcement officer at each of these sites, a route priority scale is provided in the Guide to aid in determining the appropriate level of traffic control at each site. The three levels of traffic control described for a quarantine are: Level 1—Traffic Checkpoints With Cleaning and Disinfection Stations. Level 2 checkpoints with the added provision of a station to clean and disinfect vehicles or individuals exiting a quarantine area. Level 2—Traffic Checkpoints. Vehicles are screened and those related to agriculture are returned to place of origin or holding sites, or allowed to proceed under permit. Level 3—Road Closure. Roads are barricaded and all traffic movement is stopped. Law enforcement officers would be required at Level 1 or 2 sites, but are not required at road closures. Diagrams and notes for each level of traffic control are in the guide. The use of nonstandard traffic control devices may be justified in early stages of a response, but these devices should be replaced as soon as standard devices are available. To keep the Guide as short and understandable as possible and to emphasize the traffic control features of a response, the Guide avoids or minimizes discussion of legal basis for quarantines, law enforcement standard operating guidelines, specifics of cleaning and disinfection operations, and reimbursement and indemnity procedures that vary by state and should be discussed elsewhere. Many state and local agencies would be involved in a response to an agricultural emergency. Exercises involving emergency managers, law enforcement, local and state DOT representatives, and agriculture officials should be conducted at multiple locations within a state. These exercises would require travel funds for county officials, and could be patterned after the workshops held in this research.