Hurricane Season 2025 is here. When a storm is headed our way, ensuring everyone can reach a safe place is priority number one. Here in Hillsborough County, HART, Sunshine Line, and Public Works have teamed up to ensure transportation and infrastructure are ready when it counts most.
HART’s Role in Evacuations
HART works closely with the Hillsborough County School District to run special services during emergencies. They operate modified service to four main transfer centers—Netpark, Northwest, Yukon, and the University Area Transit Center—where school buses pick up evacuees and take them to county shelters.
Residents in low-lying areas can also call HART’s on-demand service at (813) 254‑4278 to get a ride from their area to the nearest HART facility. All HART buses are ADA‑accessible and accommodate up to two wheelchairs per bus. Service operates until sustained winds reach 35 mph or conditions become unsafe.
HART Emergency Service: https://www.gohart.org/Pages/maps-emergency-evac.aspx
Hillsborough County Public Works
Public Works works year‑round to maintain critical infrastructure, ensuring roads, bridges, and signs are in top shape for emergencies.
In 2022, the department introduced solar‑powered Power Outage Emergency Beacons (POEB), starting with installations at 173 intersections across the county. The goal is to expand to all 353 county‑owned intersections, with FDOT following suit for their 240 intersections.
The county’s Traffic Management Center (TMC) collects near-real-time traffic data after a storm. This helps crews understand where damage has occurred and fix it quickly, getting the traffic network back online faster.
Sunshine Line: Helping Our Most Vulnerable Neighbors
Sunshine Line serves as the lead transportation agency for the Department of Health’s Special Needs Registry. When a storm is coming:
- Our call center contacts registered individuals to confirm transportation needs and help them understand what to expect at shelters.
- We also send out reminders about essentials to bring, like medications.
- Our scheduling and dispatch teams then send drivers across the county to transport those residents to special needs shelters.
Hub & Spoke System for Everyone
HART and Hillsborough County Public Schools team up with Sunshine Line to operate a “Hub & Spoke” transportation system, ensuring no one is left behind. Residents can ride HART buses for free to one of four hubs, where school buses take them to shelters.
Sunshine Line and HARTplus provide direct transportation for those unable to reach a bus line.
After the storm passes, the process works in reverse, getting residents safely back to their homes.
At the end of the day, it’s all about making sure every person in Hillsborough County has a safe ride when it’s needed most. Stay prepared, stay safe, and remember: we’re in this together!