Hurricane Season 2025: What to know about Evacuation Zones

Hurricane season begins Sunday

Ariel Plasencia reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - Part of hurricane preparedness means knowing your evacuation zone.

Dig deeper:

During a hurricane, local emergency officials may order the evacuation of certain zones, which are mapped by the National Hurricane Center. Evacuation zones indicate areas that will be affected by storm surge.

These zones are assigned a letter: Zone A is typically the most vulnerable and the most likely to evacuate first.

When an evacuation order is issued for Zone A prior to a hurricane, residents living in mobile and manufactured homes must evacuate, no matter where they reside in Hillsborough County.

Bay Area counties and the Florida Division of Emergency Management have online websites that allow residents to type their address into an interactive map to find their evacuation zones.

Once news of a hurricane comes, local emergency officials will announce which zones – if any – should evacuate.

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What they're saying:

"If given an order for evacuation in any zone that you're in, you should adhere to that order and evacuate. You need to evacuate at least a safe distance. You don't have to go out of state. We would prefer that you go to a safe [place], someplace closer to you: A neighbor, a cousin, a family member, someone close to you. Someone that you feel safe with," Erik Challenger, emergency management coordinator for Hillsborough County Fire-Rescue’s office of emergency management, told FOX 13. "To a hotel as well. Any type of hotel – two or more stories that is category rated for a hurricane."

What you can do:

Click here to look up your evacuation zone.

Click here for a link to the Hillsborough County Disaster Planning Guide.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Ariel Plasencia.

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