It is important to be prepared for an evacuation. Please review the Harris County Office of Emergency Management Interactive Evacuation Map for information on evacuation routes in your area.

How to Know When to Evacuate

Mandatory evacuation orders will come from local officials. Evacuations will be based on zip codes. Please be prepared to leave immediately.

Local officials will make mandatory evacuation decisions before a storm makes landfall. Hurricanes are extremely unpredictable and can become much more dangerous in a matter of hours. It is not safe to wait. Plan to leave early.

Where to Go

You may evacuate to any city you choose. If you do not have hotel reservations or family you can stay with, you may evacuate to the public shelters.

Evacuation Routes  

There are no mandatory routes you must take when evacuating from your city. In fact, there are several different routes you may take. When the weather is good, take your family on an outing to check routes and become familiar with roadways.

The state has designated evacuation routes: SH-36, SH-288, SH-6, IH-45, US-290, US-59, SH-146 and I-10. If you choose to take an alternate route, essential services such as food, fuel, etc., are not guaranteed.

Please understand that depending on the strength of the storm, contra-flow lanes might be open on IH-45 Route, I-10 Route, US-290 Route and US-59 Route prior to the arrival of gale force winds. Plan your evacuation routes carefully, (having more than one route planned) realizing that contra-flow lanes have priority over all routes.

View Evacuation Routes

• IH-45 Route
• I-10 Route
• US-290 Route
• US-59 Route