By Andrew Freedman, CNN
(CNN) — The hurricane planning tool that meteorologists and emergency managers use for making critical decisions, including ordering evacuations, is about to become inaccessible for an indefinite period following the lapse of the federal contract governing it.
The web-based tool, known as HURREVAC, is owned and paid for by FEMA , but administered by the Army Corps. of Engineers through an interagency agreement. That agreement has not been renewed, holding up the contract as well.
Officials within FEMA, as well as outside meteorologists and the International Association of Emergency Managers, are warning that the situation all but ensures access to the database will be cut off — and soon.
The HURREVAC program enables local officials to simulate historical hurricanes as well as conjure synthetic future storms with great detail. It is used for training exercises between meteorologists with the National Weather Service and emergency management officials for when a real hurricane strikes.
The tool is used by tens of thousands of communities and incorporates information on storm surge flooding through a National Weather Service surge modeling tool called SLOSH, the access to which could also be affected by the same interagency agreement and related contract lapse.
Within FEMA, officials have been trying to get a new cooperative agreement approved for months, but this has been complicated by the department’s onerous contract approval process under former Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem.
Now is the time of year when emergency training typically begins, with the start of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season about three months away, according to Brian LaMarre, a former chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Tampa office who is now a private sector consulting meteorologist.
LaMarre warned that delays in conducting emergency management training exercises could result in the Gulf Coast being less prepared during the upcoming storm season. HURREVAC, LaMarre said, is “Used to really simulate what a particular storm may do,” and does far more than simply simulate evacuations. For example, NWS and emergency management personnel can simulate a storm of a certain intensity hitting a community from different directions, to show how the storm surge heights and required evacuations might differ.
The goal for these simulations is to help local leaders make safety decisions based on the latest forecast information and historical knowledge of evacuation times, routes and other factors.
In a March 18 statement, the IAEM, which represents over 6,000 emergency managers, warned that disrupting the HURREVAC support tool, “Would deprive emergency managers of vital storm surge visualizations, exercise modules, and transportation modeling just as hurricane season approaches.” The group noted the HURREVAC contract only runs through Friday.
HURREVAC is also used during the hurricane season, when officials take advantage of the tool to see and interrogate live data that can provide real-time decision support to make life-or-death decisions, such as directing parts of a community to evacuate before the waters rise, LaMarre said.
He said the hurricane track “cone of uncertainty” can be overlaid onto local maps, allowing planners to easily see how probable shifts in the storm could affect the community
“If the contract is not renewed” and the tool is not accessible, he said, “It would have significant impacts” by reducing the time available for storm training and, if unavailable during the hurricane season, leaving communities without a vital way for them to make sense of incoming storm information.
FEMA has not responded to a request for comment.
CNN’s Gabe Cohen contributed to this report
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