Facilities Assessment for Hurricane Refuge Areas

Perform Best Available Refuge Area assessments of public and private facilities statewide to evaluate for use during hurricane evacuation for the purpose of sheltering the public and/ or the staging of essential personnel. As possible, identify opportunities for building hardening measures based on assessment results that would further increase the safety of using the facility for shelter. Identify buildings that warrant further structural evaluation for potential retrofit to hurricane shelter standards. Find opportunities to incorporate retrofit measures into capital improvement projects at identified public facilities. Work with HI-EMA to identify retrofit priorities at identified state facilities, and to collaborate to find ways to support retrofits at private facilities willing to open to the public during a hurricane evacuation.