Emergency planners around the country are about to lose access to a critical hurricane evacuation planning tool

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — The hurricane planning tool that meteorologists and emergency managers use for making critical decisions, including ordering evacuations, is about to become inaccessible for an indefinite period following the lapse of the federal contract governing it. The web-based tool, known as HURREVAC, is owned and paid for by FEMA ,