My law firm has offices across the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida. Quite a few have joked that my firm only puts offices in states that are targets for hurricanes. (Not true, we also have three offices in Tennessee!) Thankfully, this has been a quiet hurricane season so far, but one cannot get too comfortable with headlines like this: Despite Slow Start, Government Still Expecting Heavy Hurricane Season. Lovely. But one thing that attorneys know is that if you plan for contingencies, you'll be prepared even when bad things happen.
There is a new $3.99 app that will help you prepare for the next severe hurricane, especially a hurricane that forces an evacuation. The flagship app is called iVacuate, and it is designed especially for people here in New Orleans. But there is also $1.99 app called iVacuate - Basic which is aimed at people elsewhere in the Gulf Coast region and lacks the New Orleans-specific features.
iVacuate tries to take all of the information that you would need during a hurricane and put it into a single app. First, the app includes Twitter-style updates on the latest hurricane. The app also includes a world map that shows you the current location of a hurricane. Fortunately, we don't have anything in the Gulf of Mexico right now, but here is a screen shot that I took on August 7, 2010 when Tropical Storm Colin was in the Atlantic:
You can zoom in or out on the map, and the blue dot shows your current location. One feature I would like to see added to this map is a tail on the hurricane / tropical storm so that you can see the track. I also wish that the app included some of the projected paths from the National Hurricane Center and the major computer models.
The app has lots of features to help you plan an evacuation. First, the app includes information on the New Orleans contraflow plans. Contraflow is a system designed to speed up the evacuation of a city by reversing the flow on the Interstate lanes that would normally be headed into a city so that all lanes head outward. The system works well to speed up an evacuation, but you need to be prepared for it because certain lanes will force you to go a certain direction. If you plan to leave New Orleans and head towards Mississippi, you need to be careful not to be in the lanes that force you to go towards Houston. Because contraflow is not something put into effect very often, it is difficult to remember which lanes you need to be in. This app shows you your current location and helps you to plan for the lane changes.
To plan for a hurricane you should also prepare a disaster supply kit for those times when you don't plan to evacuate but you know that it is possible to lose power, water, etc. for a long period of time. The app has a section to help you prepare your kit. The app also includes a checklist of things to do to prepare for a hurricane.
The app is full of interesting information, some of which was provided by Evacuteer, a volunteer organization that assists with evacuations. Almost all of the information in this app can probably be obtained from other sources if you want to do the legwork yourself, and there are ways to duplicate some of the features of iVacuate. For example, the app helps you get a list of nearby gas stations to use when you are driving, but you can do that yourself just by using the Maps app and searching for "gas." But even though you can reproduce many of the app's features without iVacuate, the value of the app is to put a lot of information in one place. When preparing for a hurricane, it is easy to get nervous and forget something, so having a central location for lots of important information can be helpful.
If you want more information, the New Orleans ABC affiliate television station did a short piece on iVacuate, which you can view here.
Click here to get iVacuate ($3.99): 
Click here to get iVacuate Basic ($1.99):
