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LSU conducting hurricane evacuation survey

The Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness is urging people who live in southeast Louisiana to help with a hurricane evacuation study.

LSU's phone survey of 2,600 families in 13 parishes includes questions such as: Will you evacuate? Where will you go? How will you get there?

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Neighbors walking in City Park on Tuesday gave their responses.

"I'll probably stay," Leroy Dufrene said. "I'm hard-headed. I know my wife and them all would leave."

"I guess that really depends on what the category of the storm would be, but if it's a higher category I would evacuate for sure,"Kristina Heaton said.

"Don't take a chance, leave, get out of here, be safe," Wendell Payne said.

"I'm totally staying because I'm an idiot like that," Kicker Kalozi said.

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New Orleans area emergency managers say the information gathered from the survey will be used to help them understand people's evacuation decision making process and transportation needs.

"That information helps all of these local communities to determine evacuation zones, evacuation timing and evacuation routes," New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Director Aaron Miller said.

The last evacuation survey was conducted nearly 20 years ago.

"It was information that was collected between 1997 and 1999," Plaquemines Parish Emergency Preparedness Director Patrick Harvey said. "So, it's very outdated. It was desperately needed."

"We do encourage everyone if they receive a phone call, please participate and provide the information that helps us as emergency managers to keep everybody safe," Miller said.

Emergency managers say everybody needs to "get a game plan."

With the height of hurricane season quickly approaching, evacuation planning is top of mind.

"I'd just take the I-10, I-10 going west," Payne said. "I wouldn't wait until the last minute."

"Wow, we really need to get an evacuation route together because we don't have anything planned at the moment," Heaton said.

If you do receive a survey call, the letters LSU will appear in your caller ID.

Calls will be made to both cell phones and landlines during August, September and October.

Similar hurricane evacuation studies are now underway across the Gulf Coast and along the Eastern Atlantic Seaboard.

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