So you may or may not have heard about the Black Forest Fire in Colorado a couple of weeks back, but it was only a mile away from my coffee shop. That gave me the "luxury" of watching emergency management teams control access points and work through the logistics of a big evacuation. In the days following the fire, fluorescent pink incident management signs have been placed proclaiming points of drinking water (since all 511 houses burned were on wells, water is a bit of an issue up here) to public health centers and household waste drop-off points.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frnrcoffeecafe.com%2Fpics%2Fwater.jpg&hash=5732cdba9ea8bb877fdf84abc4367609488ed99b)
Ugh. Crappy low light cell phone pictures.
I know the primary use of this sign color according to the MUTCD is for traffic management around accidents, but has anyone else seen this signage used due to natural disasters?
Well, you'd have to keep in mind what the DoT's have in mind for pink incident signs instead of the orange ones. I think it's rather a judgement call based on what section within each state DoT you would potentially see pink incident signs. Personally, the Montana DoT does not utilize the pink incident signs for disasters. They mainly use LED message boards or the orange incident signs, basically the same color like those of construction. I don't know if it is more asthetically feasbile to use pink incident signs for disasters instead of the orange ones.
During the High Park Fire Larimer County used green signs for incident related signage. At the base of a canyon one sign said something along the lines of "Non-local traffic discouraged" (Forgot the actual wording). Halfway up the canyon, another large green sign reads "Free Mulch", with a bunch of small font text below presumably meant to be read while standing.
I've never seen a pink incident management sign in the field.
TxDOT is now using pink "INCIDENT AHEAD" signs. Any other signs needed at the incident are orange.
I have no idea why fluorescent pink was added to the MUTCD. Some agency must have tested it and found it to be more noticeable due to being different than the standard orange. All of the examples I've seen just look slightly darker/redder, and it takes me awhile (if at all) to notice they're pink. I'd probably notice FYG (ped sign color) before this.
I have honestly never seen one before. NY uses VMS signs for everything.
This one was in Maine, along US 2. I forget exactly where, but it was night, so it doesn't really matter.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.formulanone.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2FPinkEmergencySceneAheadSign-US2sNight.jpg&hash=a2a927ed006272b5fdc84713802f0adfb6758b5b)
Last year when a derecho downed power lines all over central Ohio, some areas were nearly impassible. For example, trying to get between Columbus and Bucyrus, you'd get to a closed portion of the road, start to detour around it, and then find your detour also has a portion closed. (I'm not saying the official detours had this problem, but they're always a pain as they can go dozens of miles out of the way to stay on state highways.) In many places, there were pink kite-style signs indicating the closures and detours. It wasn't obvious to me at first that they were pink, because the orange signs are often very red and just a bit lighter than actual red signs...