The Corpus Christi Police Department will participate with the Texas Department of Public Safety in an exercise Thursday to practice the state Contraflow hurricane evacuation plan along Interstate 37 between Corpus Christi and San Antonio.

The Texas Department of Transportation has partnered with the law enforcement agencies to conduct a mock Contraflow exercise to prepare for hurricane season. The Contraflow plan is that southbound lanes of Interstate Highway 37 would be reversed to carry two lanes of traffic northbound from Corpus Christi to San Antonio to help move people from Corpus Christi to San Antonio out of harm’s way during a large scale evacuation.

Transportation and law enforcement agencies will stage barricades for the mock exercise at the entrance and exit ramps along Interstate 37 in Nueces, San Patricio, Live Oak, Atascosa, and Bexar counties. The exercise is expected to begin at 8:00am and end around noon. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers will drive south to perform mock flushing of southbound traffic to clear Interstate 37 for contraflow traffic. Law enforcement is assigned to direct motorists to keep traffic flow moving. TxDOT and D.P.S. do not anticipate any disruption of traffic during the exercise.

All participants will meet at the TxDOT Corpus Christi District Office Thursday afternoon for a post-exercise review.

Contraflow will be considered only when the Corpus Christi area is threatened by a major hurricane and mandatory evacuations are issued. A decision to reverse I-37 will be made by local authorities working with the District Disaster Chairman (i.e., DPS) based on the strength of the storm and projected landfall.

The 2012 hurricane season will begin June 1 and extends to November 30. The public may view the contraflow brochures on the Texas Department of Transportation website at www.txdot.gov.