Evacuating Your Home

Page Updated on November 24, 2007

Before You Have an Emergency

• Create an Emergency Evacuation Survival Kit.
• Always have your purse, diaper bag, or any other bag you carry every time you leave the house ready to go at all times.
• Plan several evacuation routes out of each room of your home. You never know when one might be blocked.
• Plan several evacuation routes out of your neighborhood or city. You never know when one might be blocked.
• Know where you'll meet up with other household members immediately outside of your home (such as in front of your house on the street or down the street on the corner) for emergencies that relate directly to your home, such as a fire in your house.
• Know where you'll meet up with other household members outside of your neighborhood (such as at a school, shopping center, restaurant, or other location) for emergencies that require the evacuation of your entire neighborhood.
• Designate one person who does not live in your area as your contact person. Your contact person is an information center for your household. Everyone must contact your contact person as soon as possible and inform him/her about each person's status. Your contact person is responsible for telling other survivors who contact him/her the status of each individual to help all of you to find each other and meet up again, and can inform other interested people about your situation. He/she may also be able to find out information about the emergency that you do not have access to. If you are unable to designate a contact person, try setting up a voicemail account based outside of your local area that everyone has access to. Each person can call the account and leave a message with their status information. Make sure that everyone knows not to delete any messages and to listen to all messages (not just new messages) when listening to the account. Another option is to hire a message service where everyone can call in and talk to a live person who can give them status updates.
• Create identification cards for each of your family members, and make them carry them at all times. If they get separated from you during an emergency, the card can help rescue and aid workers identify your family member and get in touch with you, even if your family member is unconscious.
• Make sure each family member has a key to your home, so they can get in if nobody else is there.
• Always have fuel in your vehicle. Never let your gas tank get below 1/2 full.

Before You Leave

• Turn off your main gas valve in case a gas leak develops.
• Turn off your main water valve in case a water leak develops.
• Turn off your main electricity breaker to avoid power surges or overloading the electricity grid.
• Unplug as many appliances as possible and turn off those that can't be unplugged to avoid power surges or overloading the grid.
• Gather up all of your pets. Don't leave them at home or send them out into the neighborhood to defend themselves. (If you're going to a shelter where animals are not permitted, and most don't allow pets, find a shelter for them or a friend in a safe location who can take them in.)
• Grab your evacuation kit.
• Grab your purse, backpacks, diaper bags, etc.
• Leave a note in an obvious place for other household members, telling them about the situation, and give them instructions for evacuating and meeting up with you.
• Decide whether or not you need to lock the doors and windows. Common sense tells you to lock them, and this is definitely what you should do in most cases, but if you have a family member who may not have keys to your home, you'll have to make a decision. If the family member has access to transportation (such as a car) to your meeting location (walking is transportation if you're just going down the street), lock up the house and leave a note on the door telling him/her where you will be and to come there immediately. If the family member does not have transportation and is without keys (especially if the weather isn't friendly), you may want to leave one door unlocked and have a note displayed in an obvious place inside (such as taped to the television screen or on a huge piece of paper or a large misplaced object right in front of the door). This way your family member can at least get shelter from the weather and access to a phone while he/she arranges transportation to the meeting location. (If the house is too dangerous for the individual to enter, lock it up no matter what, and leave a note on the door.)
• Pick up your children from school. Some people assume that their kids are safer at school, but many schools are not able to handle every emergency, especially if the emergency doesn't affect the entire school. You're kids are probably safer with you. Try to contact the school first, letting administrators and teachers know that you will be picking up your child. Make sure to tell them to let your child know to expect you as well, so he/she doesn't start on his/her way home, unaware of the situation.