$10 if you can read Pompano flood hazard map

I take emergency preparedness pretty seriously. Oh, I’m not one of those people who has a “go bag” in every room and has my dog walking around wearing a flotation device at the mention of flooding, but I do have impact windows and doors, plenty of batteries, enough food and water for 3 days, a transistor radio and a plan to communicate with family in an emergency.

I’m a newer resident of Pompano and felt good about getting the Pompano Beach Flood Hazard 2019 booklet in my mail last week. Good, I thought. I’ll review preparedness and locate areas at most flooding risk and where emergency shelters are located.

I turned to the page with the map that shows flooding hazards.

But A LITTLE HELP HERE!

Oh, you want me to enlarge it. Sure. How’s 200%.

So, my first problem is that the map is literally unreadable.

(And don’t bother going to the website and trying to enlarge it there, the clarity is still lost. )

Full disclosure – I have more than a passing interest in maps – especially emergency preparedness maps. Watching how Hurricane Katrina played out in 2005, and as a public health and safety communications expert, I turned much of my attention to how people look for, find and use ( or can’t use) risk & hazard information. Over the years I’ve worked with city, state and federal agencies to help them make maps and hazard information more readable and useable. Because, isn’t that what public safety officials want to achieve – a more informed public that is more prepared and ready to act?

After Katrina, we did a study in NYC using a similar Flood Map* in a pamphlet mailing. The map the city mailed was MUCH LARGER ( It’s now been updated to a Hurricane Zone Finder – much more readable). So size wasn’t the main problem.

But when we went asking average residents in Harlem what they thought of the map we were very dismayed! A majority of adults who hadn’t completed high school could not read and use the maps for basic information including identifying if they lived in a hurricane or flood evacuation zone. They also couldn’t locate where the nearest evacuation center was.

My point here is that we regularly see on TV, texts and social media, just how devastating hazards such as flooding are. People know extreme weather is happening more and more and they’re paying attention.

Let’s not disappoint. Let’s not misuse the attention the public has to learning more about hazards and being better prepared.

* Zarcadoolas, C., Boyer, J., A. Krishnaswami, A. & A. Rothenberg, A. (2007). How usable are current GIS maps: communicating emergency preparedness to vulnerable populations? Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

–>