Keys Energy Urges Disabled Residents to Register for Hurricane Evacuation Aid

Keys Energy Services is calling on Monroe County residents with physical, mental, cognitive, or sensory disabilities to sign up for the Special Needs Registry before the June 1 start of hurricane season, with a statutory deadline of May 31 to register.

The registry, administered by Monroe County Emergency Management, connects vulnerable residents with evacuation assistance and shelter placement when a storm threatens the Keys. Registration is available online at monroecountyem.com/specialneeds or by phone at (305) 292-4591. The outreach from KEYS, which serves more than 28,000 customers from Key West to the Seven-Mile Bridge, fulfills a requirement under Florida Statute 252.355, which mandates that every electric utility in the state notify residential customers of the registry each year by May 31. Existing registrants face an earlier internal deadline: the Monroe County Everbridge platform requires re-enrollment through the online portal by April 30 each year to remain active in the system.

Once registered, Monroe County uses Everbridge to notify participants of pending evacuations by telephone, text, email, or smartphone, along with specific instructions for the Special Needs Shelter. For Category 1 storms and below, those shelters are the Gato Building in Key West and the Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo. For Category 3 and above, there are no shelters anywhere in Monroe County, and evacuation becomes mandatory for everyone. In those scenarios, special needs shelters open on the mainland, with options potentially including Florida International University and the E. Darwin Fuchs Pavilion at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition, which also accepts pets. Under Florida Statute 413.08, service animals are permitted in any special needs shelter statewide.

The stakes of pre-registration are concrete. During Hurricane Irma in September 2017, all of Monroe County fell under a mandatory evacuation order, yet an estimated 25% of residents stayed. Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay publicly urged sign-ups as Irma approached. After the storm, Keys Energy Services, the Florida Keys Electric Cooperative, and the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority deployed local and out-of-county crews to restore power, water, and sewer across the archipelago. A 2022 peer-reviewed case study published on PubMed that examined Monroe County's Special Needs Shelter Program during Irma identified a lack of a common definition for "special needs" across agencies as a key operational problem, one that created uncertainty over shelter admission. Authorities warn that once an evacuation order is issued, anyone who stays cannot receive medical, fire rescue, or law enforcement assistance until storm conditions subside.

The Florida Keys Electric Cooperative, a member-owned utility serving approximately 33,000 accounts in the Upper and Middle Keys, issues its own separate notification about the same registry to its customers.

Residents can also download the free ALERT!MONROE app, Monroe County's Everbridge-based mass notification system, to receive real-time alerts on severe weather and evacuation orders. Volunteers interested in staffing the Special Needs Shelter can reach the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County at (305) 676-3848 or DOHMonroe@flhealth.gov.