In a Major Keys Hurricane, RVs Are Ordered Out Before Residents

In a Category 3 to 5 hurricane, Monroe County's plan orders visitors, RVs and travel trailers out of the Florida Keys first, about 48 hours before tropical-storm winds arrive. Mobile home residents follow at about 36 hours and permanent residents at about 30.

The only copy of that wording we found is a draft. It appears as existing, unmarked text in a Comprehensive Plan amendment taken to a county community meeting on November 24, 2025. Treat it as the county's policy as written, and take the live order from Monroe County Emergency Management.

When do RVs have to leave the Florida Keys?

Policy 101.2.4 sets three phases for a pending major hurricane.

1. Phase 1, about 48 hours before tropical-storm winds. Mandatory evacuation of non-residents, visitors, RVs, travel trailers and live-aboard vessels. State parks and campgrounds "should be closed at this time or sooner", and entry into the Keys by non-residents "should be strictly limited".
2. Phase 2, about 36 hours before. Mobile home residents, special-needs residents, and hospital and nursing home patients.
3. Phase 3, about 30 hours before. Permanent residents, by evacuation zone.

Phase 1 does not depend on your zone. Every visitor and every RV goes, from Key Largo to Key West. The zones only order the residents behind you.

That phasing is written for a Category 3 to 5 storm. For a weaker storm the county decides case by case. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30.

Who moves a delivered RV in an evacuation?

Nobody publishes an answer. We read Outdoorsy's protection terms and the listing feed, and neither says who moves a delivered RV when an evacuation is ordered. The answer is whatever the host agrees to, so get it before you book.

Two rules decide it for you if you do not.

• A delivered travel trailer cannot leave on its own. It needs a tow vehicle with a hitch rated for it. Without one, it stays where the host set it up.
• On Outdoorsy's Stationary package, moving the RV voids your cover. The protection terms say: "if they move the vehicle, all coverage for the booking will be void." That is for the whole booking, not the drive.

So a delivered, stationary RV leaves the Keys when its host comes for it. From the Princeton rental lots south of Homestead, the nearest mainland pickup, Key West is 137 road miles and about three and a half hours each way with no traffic. A host collecting a trailer from a Key West campground drives roughly that, twice, inside the same 48 hours in which every visitor in the Keys is told to leave.

Does the RV's cover pay for hurricane damage?

Outdoorsy's comprehensive cover names "windstorm, hail, water or flood". The same terms make the renter responsible for physical damage "regardless of fault", weather included, capped at the deductible on an accepted claim. Alternative accommodation and transport after an incident are not covered.

The deductible amounts are in a chart image on the help page, not in its text, so they are not printed here. They show on the listing at checkout. RV rental insurance in Florida sets out whose cover pays first.

Will the campground refund you?

Only one Keys park we checked publishes a storm refund. Bluewater Key refunds unused nights in full when a mandatory evacuation is issued during your stay, and refunds when the park or your home address is inside NOAA's 5-day forecast cone. Key Largo Kampground's published schedule refunds nothing on less than 30 days' notice and does not mention storms. The rest of the Key West RV parks and the Marathon RV parks are silent; ask in writing.

What about the dog?

Monroe County says its shelters are pet friendly and asks owners to pre-register pets. It frames those as in-county shelters for Category 1 and 2 storms. In a Category 3 to 5 storm Phase 1 sends visitors out of the Keys, so the plan for a pet is the same as yours: leave with the RV. Pet friendly RV rentals in the Keys has each park's pet rule.

Before you book between June 1 and November 30

1. Choose the listing's cancellation policy first; RV rental in hurricane season compares the terms hosts set.
2. Ask the host in the booking messages: if visitors and RVs are ordered out, who moves this RV, and how soon after the order?
3. If you take a stationary delivery, do not move the RV yourself. If you want to drive yourself out, rent a motorhome on a package that lets you drive it, and keep the tank full.
4. Ask the campground what it refunds on a mandatory evacuation, and keep the answer.
5. Read what driving the Overseas Highway in an RV involves before you need to do it in a hurry.

Sources: Monroe County Comprehensive Plan amendment draft, Policy 101.2.4, Monroe County Emergency Management, National Hurricane Center climatology, Outdoorsy protection package terms, Bluewater Key policies, Key Largo Kampground FAQ, Monroe County hurricane FAQ. Road miles from Princeton are an OSRM route measurement recorded in the site's research. Read October 8 to 13, 2026.