A Florida County Locates Disaster Recovery Centers

In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) required every Florida county to identify potential locations of disaster recovery centers (DRCs). The DRCs are to be opened and staffed by FEMA personnel, subsequent to any declared disaster. The Emergency Management Division of the Alachua County Department of Fire/Rescue Services sponsored a project to identify potential DRC sites. The project team used a mathematical analysis tool called the covering location model in a two-stage approach to find, recommend, and have accepted DRC locations. The “stage 1” approach gave three idealized DRC locations requiring each residence in the county to be within 20 miles of the closest DRC. Next, the team relaxed the 20-mile requirement and identified locations close to the “stage 1” locations that also satisfied evaluation criteria not included in stage 1. The “stage 2” results provided significant improvements to the original FEMA location criteria, while maintaining acceptable travel distances to the nearest DRC.