(Hillsborough+County+ FL -The+Hurricane+Evacuation+Assessme 205)

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The Hurricane Evacuation Assessment

Toolset of Hillsborough County, Florida

Earl J. Dame and Teresa Rodriguez

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the use of Geographic Information Systems for the development of

the Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Toolset(HEAT) for Hillsborough County, Florida.

The application has been created to assist resident by providing evacuation and shelteringinformation in the event of a hurricane or other natural disaster. This interactive program

was designed to assist the public to determine if they are in an evacuation zone. It also

provides information on shelters, hospitals, fire stations and sandbag locations. With theadditional use of the Evacuation Routing Program, residents are able to quickly print

maps, with driving instruction to one of these facilities.

I. INTRODUCTION

In the state of Florida, Hurricanes are a perennial fact of life. Historically, hurricanes arethe deadliest and costliest natural disasters that impact the peninsula (Rappaport, 1995).

The effects are not only to the anthropogenic features of urban areas, but also to the flora

and fauna of the state. Complete ecosystems are transformed and landscapes are shapedby wave action, tornadic activity, and torrential rains caused by these destructive storms.

Hurricanes have played an important part in the geomorphological development ofFlorida and have been catalysts in the ever-changing shape of the coastline. Since theearly days of settlement in Florida, hurricanes have decimated populated areas and

claimed countless lives. In 1992, hurricane Andrew was responsible for 26 billion dollars

in damages, 65 deaths, and leaving over 250,000 people homeless. Approximately600,000 homes and business were destroyed or severely impacted by Andrew

(Willoughby, 1996). Thankfully the death toll was relatively low compared to previoushurricane events, but the chaos the storm created was of epic proportions. Many lessons

were learned from Andrew, specifically, the lessons of the dissemination of critical data

and the mobilization of evacuees into shelters (Cochran, 1994). This paper addresses how

geographic information systems assisted with the task of distributing information of

critical facilities for the purpose of emergency management.

Hurricane Andrew was the most powerful hurricane to hit South Florida in almost 30

years. The last major hurricane, which is a hurricane with winds in excess of 115 miles

per hour, to hit that region was Hurricane Betsy in 1965 which reached the Florida

shoreline as a Category Three Hurricane. Andrew was much more powerful than Betsy,although it was a small storm in terms of its size as it only carved a path of destruction

some 40 miles wide in diameter. Prior to making landfall in South Florida, Andrew had


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sustained winds of 145 mph in its eye wall, and wind gusts of approximately 175 milesper hour, which made it a Category Four Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

Andrew's central pressure, the pressure measured in the eye of the storm, was the third

lowest of any hurricane to make landfall in the United States with 922 millibars, or 27.22inches of Mercury (Doehring, 1994). Only the Category Five Hurricanes Camille and the

Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 had lower barometric pressures when they reached land.The combination of the high winds and extremely low pressure gradients created a storm

surge of approximately 17 ft. along the coast in South Miami.

Figure 1. Labor Day Hurricane of 1935

Ironically, the State of Florida was completely unprepared for the devastation that

Hurricane Andrew inflicted. Climatology and meterology were still more of an art form

than a science, and predictability models of storms were a general approximation at best.To compound the situation, the lack of any severe storm hitting Florida dated back to the

1960's, made Floridians very myopic and relaxed in their attitudes toward

Hurricanes(Williams, 1964). So, when Andrew provided Florida with that proverbial"slap in the face", state legislators scrambled to enact laws and regulations which

provided a continuity plan in the event of a major natural disaster. Emergency planners

realized that the traditional method of broadcasting information about Hurricanes andevacuation plans was through the conventional forms of mass media. For example, the

Emergency Operations Center for the State of Florida would announce that a Hurricanewas an eminent threat and that residents in certain evacuation zones must mobilize to adesignated shelter. The utter pandemonium that ensued from the mass exodus created a

stressful and potentially dangerous environment (Simpson, 1981). With the advent of the

modern computer technology and the Internet, emergency planners have realized the

great potential a web-based application would have for the purpose of distributingevacuation shelter information. This new technology harnessed with Geographic

Information Systems has become a powerful tool for the process of developing an

emergency preparedness plan in the event of Hurricane.

Figure 2. Modern Hurricane Tracking Models

Geographic Properties of Hillsborough County


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Hillsborough County is located midway along the West Coast of Florida andencompasses 1, 072 square miles. The unincorporated area has 931 square miles, and the

municipalities total 141 square miles. The largest municipality of Hillsborough County is

the City of Tampa. Since Tampa bay is a protected waterway it has become the largestport in the southern United States, and is the largest exporter of Phosphate in the World.

The population of Hillsborough County in 2001 was 1,026,906 and the 2010 projectedpopulation is 1,153,100.

Figure 3. Locator Map of Hillsborough County

In the 16th Century, Europeans explored what is now known today as, HillsboroughCounty. Spanish conquistadors, Panfilo de Narvaez and Hernando DeSoto, came in

search of gold for the crown of Spain. No treasures were found and many conflicts werehad with the natives of the peninsula. Hernando DeSoto extensively explores the region

and encountered resistance from the Seminole Indians. As Americans took possession of

Hillsborough County in 1821, Fort Brooke became the central point of the area, andeventually evolved into municipality of Tampa. Much trading went on in the area and,

soon, Tampa became one of the largest cities on the west coast of Florida. Historically,

the Florida peninsula has been the stage for two Seminole wars, A Civil War, plagues and

countless hurricanes.

With the introduction of the railroad in 1885, Spanish and Cuban cigar factory ownersand workers moved from Miami to Tampa. The southern tip of Florida, which is nowMiami, was the original location of the cigar industry. But due to several severe hurricane

seasons, the cigar industry became one of the largest industries in the area. In 1898, The

American Army was highly involved in the Spanish-American War under the

conductance of Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt's troops, who were known as "The RoughRiders", passed through Tampa on their way to invade Cuba. With a strong military

presence, Hillsborough County began to grow rapidly in population and the industrial

sector. Foreigners and tourists started to visit the county on a regular basis and county'sresources, primarily made up of cigars, cattle, citrus, and phosphate fertilizer started

becoming widely distributed. When the great depression of the 1920's began, Tampa was

greatly affected as much as other regions in the United States. But, Tampa had a verystable economy during that period and was able to survive the economic depression.

Tampa is the only major Florida city that is not solely dependent on tourism.

Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Toolset (HEAT)

In 2000, the Information and Technology Services Dept (ITS) of the Board of County

Commissioners of Hillsborough County, Florida created a web-based application that


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provided citizens with geographic information of local critical facilities. This applicationis called the Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Toolset (HEAT). HEAT allows citizens

of Hillsborough County to locate critical facilities in relation to their residence. These

critical facilities include: Hospitals, fire stations, evacuation shelters, and sandbaglocations. This interactive program was designed to allow citizens to determine if they are

in one of the five evacuation zones(Figure 4). Depending upon the strength and track ofan approaching hurricane, the evacuation plan calls for one of five color-coded

evacuation levels(Figure 5).

Figure 4. Hillsborough County Flood Prone Areas

Figure 5. Hillsborough County Evacuation Zones

Each evacuation level requires the successive movement of residents from the coastline

toward the interior part of the county. If a citizen resides in an evacuation zone that has

been activated, they are required to leave the area and move to a safer zone. All mobilehome residents in the county must evacuate during ALL evacuation levels, due to their

inherent structural weaknesses. Since there is a shortage of emergency shelters, it isrecommended that citizens first try to stay with friends or family who reside in areas that

are NOT located in any of the evacuation zones. If this is not feasible, then citizens are

required to mobilize into shelters. In 2000, Hillsborough County shelters had space for65,000 evacuees. Now, there are only 11,000 spaces. The department of Emergency

Management of the State of Florida has enacted stricter engineering standards for

evacuation shelters. Shelters must be able to withstand winds in excess of 111 miles per

hour which, consequently, has reduced the number of approved shelters from 51 to 24.Most shelters that have been disqualified do not have hurricane window screens and/or

reinforced walls. The State is providing grants to retrofit these older shelters to bringthem up to code compliance. Also new public schools have to be constructed to thesestructural codes so they can augment the total number of buildings eligible for shelter

purposes.

II. SYSTEM COMPONENTS AND USER INTERFACE

System Components


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The objective of the HEAT application is to provide an electronic interface, accessiblevia the internet, that allows citizens to access critical geographic layers. These layers

include: hospitals, shelters, sandbag source locations, fire stations, and evacuation routes.

Also, address matching and geocoding functionality are provided within this application.Another objective of the HEAT is to reduce the number of phone calls the Citizen Action

Center receives during a natural disaster (Figure 6). According to the Management of theHillsborough County Emergency Operations Center, "The Citizen Action Center receivesas many as 50,000 phone calls per storm event, in which most calls are inquiries

regarding evacuation zones". One aspect that differentiates this toolset from other static

applications is the evacuation routing capability to emergency facilities.

Figure 6. Emergency Management Operations Center

HEAT is composed of:

1) Geographic maps of critical facilities and local terrain (i.e. shelters, hydrography, road

centerlines, parcel data, aerial photography, etc.)

2) Dynamic geographic databases of emergency evacuation shelters and critical facilities

3) Graphical User Interface tools for displaying critical facilities in relation to parcel

addresses

4) Address matching and geocoding tools for route mapping functionality

Figure 7. The Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Toolset

Locating Evacuation Zones

Evacuation zones can be determined in relation to a citizen's address. This is the mostcommon and critical information residents of Hillsborough County need to know

BEFORE a Hurricane makes landfall. In Figure 8, the application shows the extent of the

evacuation zone and its proximity to streets and landmarks. One the user inputs the

residential address they can view specific emergency locations as well as the geographic


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Figure 10. Example of Hospital Proximity

As with the previous critical facilities mentioned above, fire stations and sandbag

locations can also be located and queried. Their geographic extent can be displayed inrelation to a source address. Viewing each layer consecutively allows to user to determine

a priority level and the ability to create an emergency preparedness plan for the hurricane

season.

Locating specific addresses and street intersections

This functionality ties in the Property Appraiser's Office parcel database with thegeographic layers of the county. This allows the user to view their geographic location inrespect to the nearest critical facilities. Also, during many of the broadcasts of television

and radio programs, downed power lines and flooded streets are referenced by address.

This aspect of the HEAT application has great potential for emergency preparedness,

providing a resource for citizens to create an emergency plan in the event of a hurricane.

Figure 11 illustrates a sample address and its surrounding geography.

Figure 11. Example of Address Lookup

But, sometimes specific addresses are cryptic and meaningless for visiting tourists orresidents who are not familiar with certain areas of the county. HEAT allows users to

locate street intersections. From there, they can navigate via dead reckoning to a desired

evacuation shelter or critical facility. The use of street address ranges is unintelligible forusers who have no idea which direction the addresses increase or decrease. Streets and

avenues with azimuthal attributes (i.e. North Dale Mabry Highway versus South Dale

Mabry Highway) further confuse the inexperienced user. Figure 12 is an example offinding a location based on street intersections.


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Figure 12. Example of Intersection Lookup

Route mapping to Critical Facilities

Once a user has located their residence and the neighboring critical facilities, driving

directions can be generated. The directions are given in linear miles and estimated traveltime between waypoints. This is an invaluable feature for users who are not familiar with

the area (i.e. tourists, relatives) and serves as a distance gauge and travel time estimator.

Figure 13 provides an example of a point by point text description of the desired travel

path and a graphical highlight of the roads that will be traversed.

Figure 13. Example of Emergency facility routing

Component Architecture

HEAT was designed with Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) ArcIMS

3.1 and ESRI's Routemap IMS. ArcIMS provides the foundation for distributing high-endGIS and mapping services via the Internet. This software enables users to integrate local

data sources with Internet data sources for display, query, and analysis in an easy-to-use

web browser and revolutionizes the way users can access and interact with Internetmapping and GIS data. RouteMAP IMS is a stand-alone Internet-based site locator

application that generates driving directions to desired locations. This out-of-box Internet

mapping solution is designed for developers that wish to add "find-and-route" mapping

capabilities to their Web sites. Coupling ArcIMS and RouteMap IMS creates a verypowerful interface that allows citizens to answer geographic questions about their

location in respect to the surroundings of their homes.

ArcIMS also handles the database connection to ArcSDE. ESRI's proprietary centraldatabase repository, which is housed on a HP 9000 N-class server (Figure 14). All files

were exported to shapefile format using ArcGIS 8.1.2 and imported into RouteMap IMS.

Tables 1 - 4 illustrate the specific configurations and systems requirement for ArcIMS

and RouteMap IMS in the HEAT application:

Table 1. Setup of HEAT - ArcIMS Server


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ServerWeb

ServerBrowser DBMS ArcSDE

OS-

Windows

NT

Apache

HTTPServer

1.3.24

IE 5.0,

5.5, 6.0

Informix

DynamicServer

9.21HC4

ArcSDE 8.1

Tomcat

3.3.1OS - HP-UX 11.0

Table 2. Setup of HEAT - RouteMap IMS Server

Server Web Server Browser

OS- Windows NT IIS 4.0 or higher IE 5.0, 5.5, 6.0

Java Virtual Machine5.0

Netscape 3.xx, 4.xx


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Figure 14. System Architecture of HEAT

Table 3. Setup of Real-Time Shelter Update Application

WorkStation DBMS Language ArcSDE

OS-Windows NT

or Windows98 or

Windows

2000

Informix

Dynamic Server

9.21HC4

ArcINFO ODE

with Visual

Basic 6.0

ArcSDE 8.1

OS - HP-UX

11.0

Table 4. Software used for development and end use of HEAT.

Software VendorDevelopment/

End UsePurpose

AdobeIllustrator

Adobe Development

Development of

interface icons

and

documentationfigures.

Macromedia

Dreamweaver

3

Macromedia,Inc.

DevelopmentHelp Files,

Documentation,

and Screens

Informix 9.2.1 Informix BothData Storage and

Management

Routemap

IMS 2.0ESRI Both Core Interface

ArcIMS 3.1 ESRI Both Core Interface

ArcSDE 8.1 ESRI BothManages spatial

data in a DBMS

III. DATABASE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Designing and Compiling the Database

The data used for the HEAT application comes from many different sources withinHillsborough County and the City of Tampa. The County's Real Estate Department


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provides annual updates to the 3 core HEAT databases, which are: Hospitals, Firestations/sandbag locations , and Shelters. The Property Appraiser's Office distributes the

Parcel layer on a monthly basis. The remaining geographic layers are collected

intermittently throughout the calendar year, as they are routinely updated. Table 5

provides a list of the layers used and a brief description of their attributes.

Table 5. Primary HEAT database tables

Table Name Description Data Sources

Hospital

Hillsborough

County Hospitals -Contact

information andstreet address

Real Estate/ Survey

Mapping/ GIS

Firestations/Sandbags

Fire stations and

sandbags - Contactinformation andstation numbers

Real Estate/ SurveyMapping/ Gis

Shelters

Evacuation shelters

- Shelter number,contact

information,

special needs

amenities andmaximum

occupancy

Real Estate/ SurveyMapping/ GIS

ParcelsComplete databaseof parcelinformation.

Property Appraiser

Roads

County wide road

centerlines withproperties for

geocoding

City of Tampa

Hydrography

Cartographic

depictions ofbodies of water

within the county

Real Estate/ Survey

Mapping/ GIS

EvacuationZones

Polygon outline of

evacuation zones,attributes of

category levels,

wind velocity,potential tide

height

Tampa Bay Regional

Planning Council (TBRPC)

SLOSH Model (Sea, Lake,and Overland Surges from

Hurricanes)


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City names

Names of themunicipal areas

within

HillsboroughCounty

Real Estate/ Survey

Mapping/ GIS

Jurisdictional

Polygons outliningmunicipal areas

withinHillsborough

County

Real Estate/ Survey

Mapping/ GIS

Aerial

photography

Countywide

mosaic of aerialphotography

Public Works

IV. REAL-TIME ANALYSIS AND DATA INPUT

Since this data is vital for effective mobility of residents, there are concerns over the

accuracy of Shelter availability in the HEAT application. The Emergency Operations

Center (EOC) of Hillsborough County only provides shelter information on an 'ad hoc'basis. Since this information is not known until an actual storm threatens the area, the

availability of these resources needs to be updated in real-time. A database update

interface was developed to allow this information to be entered instantaneously at theEOC. Once the changes are made to the shelters database, HEAT will display shelters as

either "Opened" or "Closed". As shelters begin to fill up with evacuees, EOC staff can

begin to prepare to open other shelters to meet the demands. This real-time analysis isone of the greatest assets that HEAT possesses.

Figure 8. Example of Real Time Shelter Update application.

V. CONCLUSION

The results of the Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Toolset have far exceeded the

original goals. Many years ago, when the idea of creating a web enabled interface was

conceived, the lack of technology was the greatest obstacle to overcome. Insufficientprocessing power and primitive development software made the task of an internet-based

evacuation toolset unfeasible. But, as modern computers and Geographic Information

Systems advanced the goals became obtainable. The introduction of ESRI's MapObjects


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IMS, ArcIMS and RouteMap IMS greatly facilitated GIS analysts in creating a fullyfunctional application for the Internet. In the beginning the goals were simple: Provide

the citizens of Hillsborough County with an easy to use Internet application, which would

relieve the Citizens Action Center with the overwhelming number of phone callsregarding information about Evacuation Shelters. By no means was the HEAT

application ever intended to replace the Phone centers. Its prime directive was to explorethe benefits of the Internet and its potential usage as an electronic form of mass media.

Ironically, the greatest task ahead in the development ofHEAT is to prioritize what

needs to be further developed. The possibilities for the usage of HEAT are endless. There

are discussions already about using HEAT as a spatial decision support system for the

allocation of critical facilities in real time. Another potential offshoot would be to use

HEAT as a planning tool for future shelters. Since public schools are a prime source for

evacuation shelters, a needs analysis can be performed using the parcel information of the

surrounding neighborhoods. Since HEAT is the first application of its kind inHillsborough County, many local governmental agencies are realizing the capabilities

and power of geographic data. So by default, HEAT in a sense, has become the flagshipand purveyor of Geographic Information Systems, with a great future ahead of it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, we would like to thank Mark Dickson, the GIS Manager ofHillsborough County, for all of his leadership and vision during the development of the

HEAT application. Without his assistance, this project would have never come to

fruition. Thanks also to ITS department director Roger Dean for his support and belief inGeographic Information Systems and allowing us to pioneer this alternative toolset. A

special thanks to Rick Cvarak and Marta Escobar of the Real Estate department, who

assisted us with data collection and image processing. Thanks also to Eric Harvey of theGIS section for his wisdom and great advice with the database administration and system

design ofHEAT. Thank you also to DeAnn Capanna of the GIS section for developingthe Real Time Shelter Update interface. We would have never been able to accomplish

this task without the help of Brett Simpson, the County's Web administrator. Brett's vast

knowledge of internet technology and performance enhancement allowed us to create a

streamlined application. And, last but not least, many thanks to Eugene Henry and ChrisZambito, of Hazard Mitigation for Hillsborough County, for their great insight of critical

facilities management and emergency preparedness.

REFERENCES

Cochran,L., and M. Levitan, 1994: Lessons from Hurricane Andrew.Architect Sci. Rev.,

vol. 37

Doehring, F., I.W. Duedall, and J.M. Williams, 1994: Florida Hurricane and TropicalStorms, 1871 - 1993:An Historical Survey. Florida Sea Grant College Program TP - 71.

University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.


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Rappaport, E.N. and J. Fernandez-Partagas, 1995: The Deadliest Atlantic Tropical

Cyclones,1492- 1994. NOAA/NWS Technical Memorandum NWS NHC-47 (January).

Coral Gables, FL

Simpson, R.H. and H. Riehl, 1981: The Hurricane and Its Impact. Louisiana State

University Press, Baton Rouge, LA

Williams, H.B., 1964: Human factors in warning-and-response systems. In The Threat of

Impending Disaster(G.H. Grosser, ed.) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 7

Willoughby, H.E. and P.G. Black, 1996: Hurricane Andrew in Florida: Dynamcis of a

disaster.Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Earl J. Dame / Programmer Analyst

Hillsborough County, FL., Board of County Commissioners

Information & Technology Services/ GIS601 E. Kennedy Boulevard

P.O. Box 1110, 28th Floor

Tampa, Fl. 33601-1110

Office:(813) 301-7203

Fax: (813) 272-6358

Internet: [email protected]

Teresa Rodriguez / Software Specialist II

Hillsborough County, FL., Board of County Commissioners

Information & Technology Services/ GIS

601 E. Kennedy Boulevard P.O. Box 1110, 28th Floor

Tampa, Fl. 33601-1110

Office:(813) 272-7166

Fax: (813) 272-6292Internet: [email protected]

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