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The coastal communities of the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGM), which stretches from Florida to Louisiana, are predominantly rural and are under the constant threat of hurricanes each fall. In the last five years, deadly hurricanes such as Katrina, Rita, Ivan, and Gustav have required mass evacuations and other major emergency transportation services to be deployed. The rural transportation network is a major component of a larger, multimodal system that is critical for mobility of people, goods, and services. Rural roads have a larger role in evacuation than is currently recognized. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of rural transportation infrastructure in evacuation operations in the NGM. A survey of the communities in the NGM was conducted to analyze the current state of the practice in rural evacuations. The evaluation of rural transportation infrastructure included the use and efficiency of evacuation tools, evacuee flow and traffic volume levels on evacuation routes, evacuation preparation, and associated evacuation issues and barriers. The findings of this study are thought to be useful in improving rural evacuations in the NGM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]