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Responding to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a new City evacuation plan will provide more places for Queens residents to flee if a hurricane forces them from their homes, the Office of Emergency Management announced last week.

In the event a large hurricane causes extensive coastal flooding, the City had designed a two-tiered evacuation strategy: residents would be directed to one of a handful of “hurricane centers” near their homes, from where a fleet of buses would shuttle them upstate to housing shelters. Parts of that plan came under attack last year from elected officials concerned that evacuees would overwhelm the City’s resources.

While the new plan keeps the same two-tier approach, it more than triples the number of hurricane centers in Queens from five to 16, an increase consistent with a citywide expansion, which raises the total number from 23 to 65.

After a nine-month review process sparked by the disastrous hurricane season last fall, emergency officials pushed up their estimates of the potential number of evacuees caused by a tidal surge in the Metropolitan area, increasing it to 3 million from 2 million. In a worst-case scenario, the City could provide temporary shelter for 600,000 residents – about twice as many as previously planned – in a network of 500 shelters.

“While New Yorkers often do not associate our City with hurricanes, the hazard is real, and it only needs to happen once,” said OEM Commissioner Joe Bruno. “The City’s updated Coastal Storm Plan ensures we will be prepared.”

Evacuating residents would be encouraged to reach the hurricane centers via mass transportation, which would increase service to areas within the flood zones before the onset of a dangerous storm, according to the City plan. Up to 34,000 City employees are prepared to run the reception centers for as long as nine days.

The cold water of the northern Atlantic prevents New York from experiencing category 4 or 5 hurricanes, the size of Katrina, meteorologists say, but the region does face a category 3 storm – with winds up to 130 mph – roughly once every 80 years. The last hurricane that size occurred in the 1930s, leading some experts to believe that the City is due.

Category 3 storms include 1999’s devastating Hurricane Floyd, which caused billions in damage from North Carolina up through New England.

Several low-lying coastal neighborhoods in Queens have been designated as high-risk flood zones, including Far Rockaway and Long Island City.

Many political officials had criticized the city’s previous evacuation plan after cities like New Orleans and Houston seemed to underestimate the difficult of mass evacuations. During a series of public hearings on the topic, officials said the City’s plan relied too heavily on public transportation and did not adequately address the needs of elderly and disabled residents.

The new plan clearly makes an effort to address those concerns. OEM officials say they have learned from the experiences of local responders sent to help federal agencies during Katrina and Rita, applying those lessons to their updated strategy.

To reduce traffic congestion as people leave the City, officials will deploy traffic control personnel, modify street signals and ask the state to waive highway tolls. The City will also loosen taxi passenger restrictions to allow more people to share rides.

More attention will also be placed on ensuring the readiness of vulnerable populations in nursing homes and hospitals. The Fire Department will visit those facilities up to 72 hours prior to an evacuation order to determine their preparedness.

“We need to make sure our most vulnerable are safe in case of emergency,” said Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), chairman of the Council Public Safety Committee. “We need to learn from New Orleans, where they suffered the deadliest effects of not being prepared. It was almost inexcusable what the government allowed to happen…and in New York City, it’s not going to happen here.”

Hurricane Evacuation Centers in Queens

Aqueduct Racetrack
Rockaway Blvd. and 108th Street

Aviation HS
45-30 36th Street

Bayside HS
32-24 Corp Kennedy Blvd.

Belmont Racetrack
Hempstead Tpke. & Cross Island Pkwy.

Christ the King HS
68-02 Metropolitan Avenue.

Flushing HS
35-01 Union Street

Forest Hills HS
67-10 110th Street

Hillcrest HS
160-05 Highland Avenue

JHS 185
147-26 25th Drive

Newcomers HS
28-01 41st Avenue

Newtown HS
48-01 90th Street

PS 19
98-02 Roosevelt Avenue

Queens College
65-30 Kissena Blvd.

Queensboro Comm. Coll.
222-05 56th Avenue

William C. Bryant HS
48-10 31st Avenue

York College
94-20 Buy R. Brewer Blvd.

To find out the best route to each center,

check the Office of Emergency Management

Web site at www.nyc.gov/oem or

call 311.