Florida Hurricane Evacuees Could be Housed in More than 400 Hotels in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic | The Weather Channel
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Coronavirus

Florida Hurricane Evacuees Could be Housed in More than 400 Hotels in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic

People stand outside a shelter at Dr. Mary McLeod Buthune Elementary School while there are a mandatory evacuation orders for parts of Palm Beach County in North Palm Beach, Florida on September 1, 2019, ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Dorian. - Hurricane Dorian unleashed "catastrophic conditions"  as it hit the northern Bahamas, lashing the low-lying island chain with devastating 180 mph (285 kph) winds, the most intense in its modern history. Florida residents, meanwhile, were bracing for a potentially dangerous brush with the storm as it slowly turns north after passing the Bahamas. (Photo by Eva Marie UZCATEGUI / AFP)        (Photo credit should read EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images)
People stand outside a shelter at Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School in North Palm Beach, Florida on September 1, 2019, as Hurricane Dorian was forecast to impact Florida.
(EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI/AFP via Getty Images)

At a Glance

  • Officials are working to facilitate social distancing among evacuees.
  • Evacuation orders and sheltering are up to each county to operate, under state guidelines.
  • Floridians who can afford to pay for their own rooms already flock to inland hotels.

More than 400 Florida hotels have signed on to be used as hurricane shelters if needed under a program designed to allow for more social distancing during evacuations.

The idea is that if mass amounts of people need to evacuate, some could be housed in hotel rooms paid for by the government rather than traditional shelters like school gyms.

“Looking toward a COVID-19 influenced hurricane season, we’ve been doing a lot of planning for sheltering in a nontraditional, noncongregant manner," Geoff Luebkemann, senior vice president of The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, told weather.com in a phone interview.

“That leads us to discussions that really have been going on since the beginning of COVID, and that is what does sheltering look like? What do we need to plan for with this new wrinkle of COVID?”

Luebkemann represents the 10,000-member association on the state's emergency response team.

(MORE: In the Era of Coronavirus and Social Distancing, Should You Go to a Hurricane Shelter?)

Typical sheltering protocol calls for 20 square feet of space per person. But officials are recommending people be further spaced out due to the coroanvirus pandemic.

“Overall, the CDC is encouraging people to allow for smaller shelters of less than 50 people,” Florida Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said in a May cabinet meeting, according to the Palm Beach Post. “If traditional sheltering is necessary, we are asking that a minimum of 60 square feet is given per person.”

Evacuation orders and sheltering are up to each county to operate, under state guidelines.

Surging numbers of COVID-19 cases in Florida and a hurricane season predicted to be more active than usual are complicating matters even more. The Sunshine State takes the brunt of hurricane impacts in the U.S. About 40% of hurricanes that made landfall along the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean coastlines between 1851 and 2018 hit Florida, according to NOAA.

Nearly all of Florida's 22 million people live on or near a coast, the most of any other hurricane-prone state.

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Floridians who can afford to pay for it themselves already flock to inland hotels when evacuations are ordered and rooms are often hard to come by.

It's not clear what the exact criteria is for standing up a hotels-as-shelters plan or deciding who would get priority for them, but some officials have indicated they would most likely only be used in the case of a major hurricane threatening an area with a large population of people in mandatory evacuation zones.

Similar plans are being considered in Louisiana and other coastal areas.

(MORE: Three Tropical Storms Already: Does That Mean an Active Hurricane Season Is Guaranteed?)

Under the Florida plan, room and board for evacuees could be paid for up to 7 days and the state is working on an app for people to sign up, the Palm Beach Post reported.

The program would work similar to one already in place and funded by FEMA that houses people whose homes are destroyed by a hurricane or other disaster.

Luebkemann said the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association helped disseminate information on the plan to encourage hotels to sign up, but it's up to each property to negotiate a contract with the state, which he said would hopefully, in turn, be funded by FEMA.

The goal was to sign up 1,000 hotels. So far, more than 400 have opted in.

Luebkmann said the coronavirus pandemic pushed Florida's tourism industry off "a catastrophic cliff." If called upon to be used as shelters, he said, hotel operators will have to weigh the option of potentially blocking off some of their rooms.

“Hotel space is a private resource, and a finite one at that, so ultimately we are kind of performing this public service," Luebkmann said. "There are going to be people that will have the resources and the health and the means to travel and take care of themselves and there will be a segment of the population who can’t do that, and really that is who we are hoping to serve.”

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

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