Super-storm Sandy devastated New York City last autumn.  In its wake, emergency management officials have re-drawn the city’s hurricane evacuation zones.

The new zones are based on improved data from SLOSH (sea, lake, and overland surges from Hurricanes), a national Weather Service computer model designed to estimate storm surges.  This new system takes the width of a storm and its wind field into account whereas the old zones were primarily based on a hurricane’s Saffir-Simpson category.

NYC’s new zones are labeled 1 through 6, with zone 1 being the first to be evacuated in the event of a storm.  This system is numeric to avoid confusion with FEMA’s flood zone maps used for insurance purposes.

Go to nyc.gov/hurricane to see if you live or work in an evacuation zone.

NYC’s new hurricane evacuation zones.

Image Credit: nyc.gov