Hurricane season in Boca Raton: your zone, your alerts, your debris
The county decides who evacuates and the city collects the debris afterwards. What to look up before a storm is named, which alerts to sign up for, and the rules that catch people out — including that the city does not hand out sandbags.
Hurricane season in the Atlantic is June 1 through November 30. In Boca Raton two governments share the work, and knowing which does what saves time when a storm is coming:
- Palm Beach County draws the evacuation zones, orders evacuations and opens the shelters.
- The City of Boca Raton warns its residents, clears its roads and, afterwards, collects storm debris from city homes.
Before a storm is named: three things to look up
1. Your evacuation zone. The county's Know Your Zone tool takes a street address and returns your zone. The city follows the county's zones, and singles out the barrier island — the strip between the Intracoastal and the ocean — as where it will most strongly urge people to leave. Low-lying areas and homes close to the beach or the Intracoastal carry the highest storm-surge risk.
If you live in a mobile or manufactured home, the county's instruction is simpler: you evacuate under any hurricane warning, whatever your zone.
2. Your alerts. Sign up for both, because they come from different places:
| Who sends it | How to join | |
|---|---|---|
| AlertBoca | City of Boca Raton | Text AlertBoca to 38276, or sign up on the city's page |
| AlertPBC | Palm Beach County | Sign up on the county's emergency management site |
The city is explicit that you should not assume your number is already on its list. Register it.
3. Your shelter plan. Public shelters are run by the county and the school district, and not every shelter opens for every storm — the open list is announced as each storm approaches. Two programs need you to register in advance, not on the day:
- The Special Needs Shelter Program, for people who need help with medical or care needs during a stay.
- The county's pet-friendly shelter, which opens pre-registration each year on May 1 and is limited to county residents in a mandatory evacuation zone, a mobile home or sub-standard housing.
Rules that catch people out
The city does not give out sandbags. It has said so directly in its own storm updates, and suggests hardware stores. If you see sandbag distribution advertised, check who is running it.
Do tree work early. The city asks residents and businesses to finish major tree cutting and removal before April 30, and once a storm has been named, to do none at all — a fresh pile of branches at the curb is what flies when the wind arrives.
Shutters go up during the watch. The city's planning guide lists putting up shutters among the steps for a hurricane watch, before conditions deteriorate.
After the storm
City storm-debris collection covers homes inside the city limits — not businesses or commercial premises. The city asks you to keep household rubbish, recycling, vegetation and construction debris in separate piles, and warns that clearing everything can take weeks or months after a severe storm.
Two limits worth knowing:
- The city does not cut up or move trees that have fallen on a homeowner's own property.
- Communities on private roads — many gated neighborhoods — must file a right-of-entry form with the city in advance, or their streets are not eligible for debris pickup. Ask your HOA whether it has.
Outside the city limits? If your address is in unincorporated Palm Beach County (check here), the city's debris service does not apply to you. The county directs residents to the Solid Waste Authority for storm collection updates.
During an emergency
The city runs a Citizens Information Center on 561-982-4900 that is only staffed during emergencies, and broadcasts on AM 1650. Its Hurricane Information page is where updates are posted.
The city's own Be Prepared Boca planning guide, linked below, has the full checklist: supplies, documents, and what to do at each stage of a watch and a warning.
Where this comes from
Checked against these on 2026-10-03. Fees, deadlines and portals change — if one of these pages disagrees with this one, the official page is right and we would like to know.
- City of Boca Raton — Hurricane Information
- City of Boca Raton — Evacuation Information
- City of Boca Raton — AlertBoca
- City of Boca Raton — Hurricane Debris Management
- City of Boca Raton — Be Prepared Boca hurricane planning guide (PDF)
- Palm Beach County — Know Your Zone
- Palm Beach County — Shelters
- Palm Beach County — Special Needs Shelter Program
- Palm Beach County Animal Care — Hurricane preparedness for pets
- National Hurricane Center — Climatology
October 2026 — First published.
We record when a guide was published and when it was last revised. We do not yet record what changed, so this is a dating record rather than a changelog.
Written and checked by a person, and carrying the month they were published and the month they were last revised. Where a rule or a fee applies we link the official source rather than quoting a number that will go stale.
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