New Jersey conducts large-scale hurricane evacuation drill on six major highways

New Jersey held its annual hurricane evacuation exercise on Thursday, deploying police and emergency crews along six key routes: the Garden State Parkway, Atlantic City Expressway, I‑195, Route 72, Route 47 and Route 347. The drill involved practicing contraflow traffic patterns to move vehicles opposite to normal flow, but no roads were closed.

Five state agencies participated: the New Jersey Department of Transportation, New Jersey State Police, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the South Jersey Transportation Authority and the New Jersey Department of Corrections. Motorists were asked to obey the state's Move‑Over law and to slow down when necessary.

The exercise comes as the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov 30. NOAA forecasts a below‑normal season with eight to fourteen named storms, of which three to six could become hurricanes.