VIRGINIA BEACH — When the first hurricane of the season threatens, do you have all the information you need to weather the storm? Now that Virginia has entered another hurricane season, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will host a live online hurricane forum from the Hampton Roads Smart Traffic Center on Thursday, June 23 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. This forum provides citizens an opportunity to submit questions relating to hurricane events to experts in the transportation and emergency management fields. Experts from VDOT, as well as the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), the National Weather Service, and the Virginia State Police (VSP) will answer questions during this live Internet broadcast.

Logon to http://www.virginiadot.org/hurricanes and click on the “ASK the experts” link to access the forum, submit questions, and review information about hurricane evacuation routes.

In the event of a hurricane, the Virginia Department of Transportation offers resources that can help you during a disaster. VDOT’s key role is to open roads as quickly and safely as possible after a hurricane. Other responsibilities include:

Setting up traffic control and detours; assisting with traffic control for evacuations

Removing debris and branches from roadways and coordinating clean-up with other entities, such as power companies

Making emergency repairs to damaged roads and bridges

Assessing damages and providing emergency engineering services

Coordinating long-term recovery to restore transportation infrastructure

Providing emergency plans and procedures

Providing back-up communications to support emergency response and recovery operations

Communicating road condition information to the public

Page last modified: June 20, 2005