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ANNEX V: SHELTER PLAN I. INTRODUCTION Indian River County is vulnerable to any one of the following potential hazards: Hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and hazardous materials incidents. Of particular concern is that of hurricanes. Hurricane season is from June 1 through November 30. As the population continues to grow and congregate along the coastline, a well- coordinated evacuation and sheltering effort is critical. At any given time, county government must be ready to provide safe shelter to the citizens of Indian River County. During an evacuation, data published by the Statewide Evacuation Study (2008) illustrates the population-at-Risk from hurricanes in Indian River County is approximately 63,672. The survey further suggests that approximately 8,914(14%) evacuees would choose public shelter as their evacuation destination. The local public shelters are opened based on need; not all will open at one time. Most are public schools. The shelter plan is based on opening shelters by geographic region. The initial offering of public shelter spaces will include one in the south county, one in Vero Beach, one in Sebastian, and one in Fellsmere (see the shelter opening matrix attached to this document and identified as Attachment 3). Additional shelters will be opened when a school/shelter reaches two-third capacity. Hurricane season occurs in the summer and fall months, a time when the School District has its least number of students. It is common for the School District's maintenance staff to engage in renovation projects during this period. For this reason, the Shelter Plan has the flexibility to change the first schools to open to the nearest capable shelter/school. The opening of all shelters will be coordinated within the EOC and disseminated to field teams prior to any public information announcements. II. PURPOSE This suggested operating procedure (SOP) establishes and defines the role, responsibilities, and coordination of local resources in response to the possible evacuation of the citizens of Indian River County. The purpose of this Shelter Plan is to provide direction in the following areas: • Guidance and instruction to the Emergency Management authority in directing and coordinating the opening and closing of public shelters; • Communication between the various shelters and the Emergency Operations Center (EOC); Indian River County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan Annex IV- Page 1