The Brief
- Hillsborough County has updated its hurricane evacuation zone maps for 2026 based on lessons from 2024’s storm surge and inland flooding.
- Zone A has expanded farther inland along the coastline and Alafia River, including more areas in Apollo Beach, Town ‘n’ Country and mobile home communities.
- Zone E now includes some neighborhoods previously outside evacuation zones, such as parts of New Tampa, areas near Tampa Executive Airport and inland Apollo Beach.
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…