Terms of Use
These terms govern access to and use of the Island Shield website, dashboard, alerts, maps, traffic estimates, shelter information, support links and related services.
1. Acceptance of these terms
By accessing or using Island Shield, you agree to these Terms of Use and the Privacy Notice. If you do not agree, do not use the site. “Island Shield,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to the Island Shield project and its operator.
2. Informational purpose only
Island Shield is an independent community information and situational-awareness tool. It does not provide emergency, meteorological, engineering, transportation, medical, legal, insurance, evacuation, shelter-placement or other professional advice.
You are solely responsible for decisions about evacuation, travel, shelter, health, safety and property. Always confirm material information through official government sources and use your own judgment.
3. No official affiliation or endorsement
Island Shield is not operated, sponsored, endorsed or controlled by the City of Galveston, Galveston County, the National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, FEMA, TxDOT, DriveTexas, TomTom, the American Red Cross, OpenStreetMap or any other government agency or data provider. Names, marks and links are used only to identify sources or services.
4. Data limitations
Weather, tropical, traffic, road, shelter, map and location information may be delayed, incomplete, estimated, stale, unavailable, misclassified or inaccurate. Provider feeds can change without notice. A reported shelter facility may not be open, suitable or accessible. A sampled traffic segment does not establish that an entire road, bridge, lane or direction is open or safe.
Risk scores, summaries, trends, route estimates and labels generated by Island Shield are independent calculations and are not official warning categories. Displayed times are estimates, not promises.
5. Location and routing
Location features are optional. Shelter sorting is performed in the browser. A personal traffic route is requested only after the user separately authorizes that feature. Coordinates submitted for personal routing are transmitted to the Island Shield Worker and TomTom to calculate a route, and may also be processed by infrastructure providers as described in the Privacy Notice.
Do not use the route estimate as an evacuation order, guarantee of road access or substitute for DriveTexas, local law enforcement, emergency management, road signs or physical conditions.
6. User responsibilities and prohibited conduct
You agree not to misuse the site, interfere with its operation, evade technical limits, scrape or overload APIs, attempt unauthorized access, introduce malicious code, impersonate Island Shield, misrepresent dashboard data as official, or use the service unlawfully.
7. External services and links
The site links to and depends on third-party services. Their terms, privacy practices, availability and fees are controlled by those third parties. Island Shield is not responsible for external websites, payment processors, map tiles, provider outages or third-party conduct.
8. Voluntary support
One-time and recurring support payments are voluntary and are governed by the separate Support Policy plus Ko-fi’s applicable terms.
- Contributions do not purchase equity, ownership, voting rights, employment, a financial return or control over Island Shield.
- No membership tiers or supporter benefits are currently offered. Support does not purchase goods or services.
- Feature lists, expansion plans, budgets, goals and target dates are good-faith plans or estimates, not guarantees.
- Unless Island Shield becomes an IRS-qualified charitable organization and expressly states otherwise, support payments are not tax-deductible charitable donations.
9. Disclaimer of warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Island Shield and all content, data, maps, estimates, links and features are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, timeliness, availability, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, non-infringement, security or uninterrupted operation.
10. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Island Shield and its operator, contributors, contractors and service providers will not be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for injury, death, evacuation decisions, travel delay, property loss, data loss, lost profits, service interruption or reliance on information, arising from or related to use of or inability to use the site.
If liability cannot legally be excluded, the total aggregate liability arising from the site will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid directly to Island Shield during the twelve months before the claim or one hundred U.S. dollars. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply.
11. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Island Shield and its operator from claims, losses, liabilities and expenses arising from your unlawful misuse of the site, violation of these terms, or misrepresentation of Island Shield information as official.
12. Intellectual property
The Island Shield name, original logo, interface, original text and project code are protected by applicable intellectual-property laws unless a separate license states otherwise. Third-party data, maps, names and marks remain the property of their respective owners.
13. Changes, suspension and termination
We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of the site, change providers, correct content, limit access or update these terms at any time. The effective date will be updated when material changes are made.
14. Governing law and disputes
Except where applicable law requires otherwise, these terms are governed by Texas law without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute shall be brought in a court with lawful jurisdiction serving Galveston County, Texas. Before filing a claim, the parties should attempt in good faith to resolve the issue informally.
15. Severability and entire agreement
If a provision is found unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain effective. These terms, the Privacy Notice and Support Policy form the agreement concerning the site.
16. Contact
Legal questions may be emailed to . The Ko-fi page below is provided only for voluntary platform support.