Prep to Avoid Evacuation Shelters

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We’ve all seen news coverage of evacuation shelters and refugee camps. Not pleasant nor particularly safe places to land during or after a major disaster. Getting out alive and if possible, avoiding said shelters and camps is a goal most of us have. Now if your evacuation plan goes south, by all means take advantage of any assistance offered you at one of these facilities but a good plan can help you avoid that additional trauma.

However, there are some situations that we could find ourselves dealing with that the best laid plans won’t cover. No matter how much you have prepped it’s not going to help you if it’s been destroyed in the event.  So, more time and planning should focus on what we are going to do when a time comes when we must leave.

The first step to having a viable evacuation plan is to have some important preps at the ready.

Prepare in advance.

• Bug out bags for every member of your family/group, including pets.
• A portable document safe for important papers like, birth certificates, insurance documents, bank accounts and other pertinent documents including a bit of cash.
• A full tank of gas, either by keeping your preferred vehicle gassed and ready or by storing gas that can be put in the tank at the last minute when gas stations may be over run or inoperable.
• Any maintenance medications or those you could require in an emergency. Keeping these items in a central location will allow you to grab and go with what you have on hand. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to stockpile some, they should already be in the prepacked bug out bags.
• A predetermined location for you to head off to when you must leave and that is known to the group in case you are all unable to leave together. You should include with that plan, maps for the surrounding area in case the route you had planned is impassable or unsafe.
• Set up an emergency fund with several different methods of access. Using your local credit union may not be the best idea if you must flee out of state where they don’t have branches. If you can obtain cash from a cash machine in route or in person before leaving that is ideal as the disaster spreads you may find credit and banks will go offline, so as soon as possible is best. Hopefully you will arrive to your evacuation location and find you are able to access the rest of your funds but if not, at least you have enough for basics in cash.

Make The Plan and Learn it.

Remember if you need to get out of dodge there is a good possibility that the location, you’re currently in has become so unsafe that you and your family need to flee. Your preps are most likely unavailable or destroyed. Make sure you know where everything should be if you must dig under debris to locate the items listed above. Insure children know where they are supposed to meet you and where you will be if they must go from an unexpected location or with others outside your group. This will help ensure reunification if separated for any reason,

Even if your home is in bad shape, you may have steps you will still want to insure are taken prior to leaving…. turning off the gas lines, or water lines etc…

Determine Your Time Frame and Stick to it.

Before things get hairy, make some determinations as to what you feel is your personal signal to get out of dodge.

Never ignore evacuation orders. If you can get out before the order becomes public, do so! Save yourself the frustration and frankly danger of hundreds possibly thousands of panicked folks all heading out at once. You will avoid long lines, crowds, traffic jams and have a much better chance of obtaining basic supplies and shelter if you are among the first to arrive. (This is when you lay hands on those emergency funds we spoke of above.)

Once your cue to go has been triggered don’t rethink it. It becomes easy to doubt yourself when others aren’t yet acting. All of us fear appearing to be foolish. No one wants to be the family that overreacted and left during a rainstorm fearing a hurricane. However, if you have thoroughly thought through and talked about your pre-set signal of when it’s smartest to leave, now is not the time to second guess your judgement. I have never heard of anyone dying from a lost day of pay which is a consideration for most of us, but we all have heard of those deaths caused by staying too long and not being able to get out or to locate safe shelter because they waited too long.

Have Back Up Plans and Locations

Don’t limit your evacuation plans to a single location. You can’t predict how far reaching the disaster may become, how many others may have also planned to use the same routes and locations as you have, and you must allow for the possibility of you, or a member of your group being injured in the initial event.  Plans must include secondary ideas on where and how you will travel and how you will navigate the pit falls of bringing in all the parts and people from their and your daily lives at this time of urgency.  Do allow for the possibility that your human family could find themselves in a position of needing to accept federal help and that those locations too often do not have facilities that will assist your furry family and you must make alternative arrangements for your pets.

Final Words

There is a saying about the best laid plans of mice and men. It implies that what can go wrong will. If you do find yourself in a position where your plans simply can’t be completed. If necessary, you could indeed find yourself as a last resort in an evacuation shelter. But having prepared to make it out on your own will assist you in getting through that trauma in better shape than those whose plan A was the shelter in the first place. You however, would be going in with the understanding that resources are limited, times are going to be tough, and that putting a bunch of frightened unprepared folks in a single location is going to cause interpersonal issues. Just knowing that puts you a head of the game.

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