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Emergencies, such as extreme weather events, require residents to evacuate for their safety. Past research suggests that administrative burdens—compliance, learning, and psychological costs—can impact the likelihood of evacuations to shelters. These burdens disproportionately impact socially vulnerable populations and create social equity issues. Florida operates special needs shelters to provide safe environments and basic assistance to individuals needing higher levels of care and supervision and ensure that special medical needs are met during an evacuation. Using data from 23 county after-action reports from Hurricane Irma, this article examines administrative burdens faced by individuals evacuating to special needs shelters. Although residents faced all three types of administrative burdens, psychological costs were most common, especially among counties with high social vulnerability. Based on the results, recommendations are provided for public administrators and emergency managers to reduce these administrative burdens when evacuating to special needs shelters during future emergencies.
