Palm Beach County Updates Hurricane Evacuation Maps

Embargoed from all print and electronic media outlets until: April 17, 2012 @ 0400
Contact: Mary Blakeney (561) 712-6549 • (561) 319-8494

The Florida Legislature through House Bill 7121 required the Florida Division of Emergency Management to update all Regional Evacuation Studies in the State.  Working through the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, new studies were conducted for Palm Beach County using the principal tool Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricane (SLOSH) numerical storm surge prediction model.

Thousands of hypothetical hurricanes were simulated with various Saffir-Simpson Wind categories, forward speeds, landfall directions, and landfall locations.  This information was combined with envelopes of high water and evaluated by the National Hurricane Center to determine storm surge to create the Maximum Envelopes of Water (MEOWs).  The MEOWs have provided information to emergency management in evacuation decision making.

Based on the MEOWs the Palm Beach County Public Safety Director along with the Division of Emergency Management Director has changed the Palm Beach County Evacuation Zones.  Palm Beach County will go from two evacuation zones to five evacuation zones. This change will result in an overall reduction in the number of residents requiring evacuation due to storm surge. For downloadable PDFs of the maps, go to www.pbcgov.com/dem/evacuate.

The table below depicts the population comparison of the previous evacuation maps to the new evacuation maps:

The Division of Emergency Management can be reached at (561) 712-6400 or information is available on our website at http://www.pbcgov.com/dem