Hillsborough County adjusts hurricane evacuation zones: Here's who can expect changes

TAMPA, Fla. - Ahead of this year’s hurricane season, Hillsborough County residents need to check the county’s updated evacuation zone maps online.  Officials said these adjustments were made after lessons learned from the 2024 hurricane season. 

"Evacuation zones are very much based on storm surge, but we, of course, saw a lot of inland flooding, that riverine flooding," said Katja Miller, operations section chief for Hillsborough County's office of emergency management. "So, we take a lot of that into account when we're talking about evacuation orders or things of that nature."

Some of the most noticeable changes are in Zones A and E. 

Zone A expands further inland

Zone A is typically the first evacuation zone to be called: It’s represented in red on the county’s map and includes the coastline. 

This year, that red zone is pushing further inland in places like Apollo Beach and Town ‘n’ Country. 

"We're going to see a bit of expansion along, really the entire coastline, even inland along the Alafia River with expansion of Zone A evacuation, which, remember, also includes mobile and manufactured homes in Hillsborough County," Miller added. 

Zone E adds new areas

Zone E – which is typically the last zone to be evacuated – now includes neighborhoods that weren’t previously in any evacuation zone. 

That includes the following examples, which are now in Zone E (represented in purple): 

1. Areas just north and south of Tampa Executive Airport
2. Sections of New Tampa
3. Inland portions of Apollo Beach, south of Big Bend Road.

What you can do:

To check your evacuation zone in Hillsborough County, click here.