How do I find my hurricane evacuation zone?

Look it up by address through your county or state emergency management agency. In Florida, use the statewide Know Your Zone map at FloridaDisaster.org. Coastal counties in other states publish their own zone lookup tools.

What do hurricane evacuation zone letters mean?

The letters rank storm surge risk. In Florida, zones run A through F, with Zone A the most vulnerable and usually evacuated first, and Zone F generally last. Other states use their own lettering systems.

Is an evacuation zone the same as a flood zone?

Not the FEMA kind. Florida describes its evacuation zones as storm surge flood zones, but they are a separate system from FEMA flood insurance zones, which describe long-term flood risk for insurance. Their letters do not match.

How to find your hurricane evacuation zone before you need it

Evacuation orders go out by zone letter. If you don't know yours, you won't know if the order is for you.

When a hurricane is coming, evacuation orders are issued by zone. Officials announce that Zone A is ordered out, then Zone B. If you don't know your zone ahead of time, you'll spend the most important hours of the storm trying to figure out whether the order includes you.

Your zone is set by your county or state emergency management agency, and you can look it up by address. In Florida, the statewide lookup is FloridaDisaster.org's Know Your Zone map. Coastal counties elsewhere run their own tools, usually under the county's emergency management page.

What the zones measure

Evacuation zones are about water, not wind. "The greatest threat to life from a hurricane is storm surge flooding," according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and the zones map how exposed each area is to it.

Florida labels zones A through F. "Generally, Zone A is most vulnerable and most likely to be evacuated first, and Zone F is most likely to be evacuated last," the state says. Other states and counties use their own systems, so a zone letter can mean different things across state lines.

The letters don't line up with FEMA's flood insurance zones, which use different letters for a different purpose. Your insurance zone, covered in our flood zone guide, describes long-term flood risk. Your evacuation zone describes when you leave during a storm. It's worth knowing both.

The National Hurricane Center also publishes national storm surge risk maps, which show how high water could reach in different parts of the coast.

When to go

Ready.gov's instruction is short: "If you live in a mandatory evacuation zone and local officials tell you to evacuate, do so immediately." It also advises learning your evacuation routes ahead of time, practicing with your household and pets, and deciding in advance where you'll stay.

Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. In the eastern Pacific it starts earlier, on May 15. The start of the season is the right time to look up your zone, well before anything is spinning in the Gulf.

That applies inland too. People in Tampa, Miami, and Houston who live miles from the beach can still sit in a surge zone along a bay or river.