Hurricane Evacuation Studies

Hurricane Evacuation Studies (HES) address hurricane planning and impact assessment for discrete coastal regions. These studies look at the vulnerability of a population to hurricane threats and give guidance to local emergency managers planning an evacuation of the community.

HURREVAC in an EOCClearance Time is the number of hours it takes to move the vulnerable population to safety.

One of the key outputs of an HES process is the matrix of Evacuation Clearance Times--the number of hours it takes to move the threatened population to safety given various factors such as the category of storm, the tourist occupancy (or population) of the area at the time, and public responsiveness.

HURREVAC utilizes clearance times from the various Hurricane Evacuation Studies for its evacuation decision time calculations. County clearance times are installed after the main program via state-specific plug-ins. For details on how to install these, refer to the Tech Notes for either Hurrevac2010 or Hurrevac2000.

For more information about your local HES, visit the National Hurricane Program Resource Center or get in touch with either the hurricane planner with your state's emergency management agency or the USACE study manager for your region.