BeaumontCivic Atlas

Public safety

Hurricane evacuation routes

Beaumont and Jefferson County have evacuated ahead of major Gulf hurricanes more than once. This page explains how evacuation routing works in general terms and points you to the official instructions. It is not an evacuation order and cannot tell you when or where to go.

This is not an official evacuation instruction

During a storm, the only instructions that matter are the current ones from your local officials and TxDOT. Evacuation orders, routes, contraflow timing, and shelter locations change with each storm and can change hour to hour. Follow the official sources below and the directions of local emergency management and law enforcement.

How evacuation routing works here

When a major hurricane threatens the upper Texas coast, the state and county can direct residents inland along designated evacuation corridors. I-10 is a designated contraflow corridor: in a large evacuation, TxDOT can reverse the inbound lanes so that all lanes carry traffic away from the coast, roughly doubling the outbound capacity. Contraflow is started and ended by the state on a schedule tied to the storm; it is not something a driver decides to use.

TxDOT publishes district evacuation-route maps, including maps for the Beaumont and Port Arthur area, and a statewide planning map with an evacuation-routes overlay. Jefferson County emergency management issues local guidance about which routes to use from which parts of the county. Those official products, not this page, are the ones to carry with you.

Preparing before a storm

  • Know your zone and route from official county and TxDOT maps before the season.
  • If you or someone in your household would need help evacuating, register with the State of Texas Emergency Assistance Registry (STEAR) by calling 2-1-1 in advance.
  • Fuel up early; do not wait for a contraflow order to plan your first move.
  • Keep a battery or hand-crank radio for official updates if power and cell service fail.

Recent history

Jefferson County has issued mandatory evacuations for storms including Rita in 2005, Ike in 2008, and Laura in 2020. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 was primarily a catastrophic flooding event for Beaumont rather than a mass pre-landfall evacuation. This history is context only; it does not predict what any future storm will require.

Official sources