Training & Education : Online Hurricane Evacuation Tool Helps with Decision-Making

The Hurricane Evacuation Encouragement Demonstrator suggests the best routes out of town and shows simulations of the storm's impact on a neighborhood.

Aaron Applegate, The Virginian-Pilot | July 3, 2014

NOAA/NASA GOES Project

If you need help deciding whether to evacuate for major hurricane, state officials want you to punch your address into a new online tool.

It will suggest the best routes out of town. It will also show you, based on the hurricane’s strength, a dramatic computer simulation of what the storm might look and sound like in your neighborhood.

Imagine whistling wind, cracking thunder, flashes of lighting, flying shingles, uprooted trees, flooded streets and, if the hurricane is bad enough, water pouring through holes in the roof.

Tropical Storm Arthur probably won’t be strong enough for people to consider evacuation.

The program is called the Hurricane Evacuation Encouragement Demonstrator, or HEED.

Developers at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center at Old Dominion University created it for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

“One of the big problems is the state can say, ‘A hurricane is coming! A hurricane is coming!’ and people don’t leave,” said Sol Sherfey, a project manager who helped develop the tool.

He said it’s important to understand the videos don’t reflect a weather prediction.

"We’re not saying the video you’re watching is what’s going to happen to your house. It’s meant to encourage people to leave.”

©2014 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.). Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
http://www.emergencymgmt.com/