TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough ​County Emergency Management is working to upgrade some of its shelters in the event of wide-scale power outages during hurricanes or other disasters.

The $2 million project is targeting four Hillsborough County Schools that are used as emergency shelters.

Tampa Bay got its last test of its emergency shelters back in 2017 when Hurricane Irma cut up the Florida Peninsula.

Thousands evacuated to local emergency shelters to ride out the storm, and one lesson learned was that you can never have enough power.

In July, Hillsborough County completed installation of four new large capacity generators at schools which serve as make-shift emergency shelters.

Benito, Burnett and Barrington Middle Schools and Strawberry Crest High School all received upgraded generators for shelter operations. This is in an effort to bolster capabilities at the sites and speed up the opening of the shelters should they be needed.

"Really what this does for us in emergency management is it allows us to put fixed generators at these sites and it takes away that logistics component of us having to rent or lease and then deliver the generators when we have an emergency and are opening up these shelters," said Katja Miller with Hillsborough County Emergency Management.

Hillsborough County has a total of 47 shelters, eight of which are pet-friendly.

In addition, it has five special needs shelters for those with medical or other needs in the event of an emergency.

Hillsborough County's EOC warns residents shelters are rarely comfortable, so come prepared.

If you aren’t in a special needs shelter, you will likely not have working air conditioning or charging stations for any devices.  

General Population Shelters, like the one at Benito Middle School, are only opened immediately before and during a storm, and usually close shortly after the storm passes.