Ready for Anything: A Disaster Planning Manual for Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs
Where would I go during an evacuation?
What if my organization has
scattered-site housing?
While building evacuations will be handled on a site-by-site basis, local and regional evacuations raise additional questions.
In the event of a local evacuation, consider the following:
- If one site is affected by a disaster, could you relocate youth to another of your sites?
- If the answer is yes, is each site prepared to handle a short-term influx of youth from another site? And how will youth from one site get to another?
- If the answer is no, how will a different evacuation facility be identified?
In the event of a regional evacuation, consider the following:
- Will each site be responsible for its own evacuation?
- Will youth and staff from all sites rally at one location and then evacuate the region together?
- Will youth and staff from different sites evacuate to the same location, or to multiple locations outside the region?
How will each site handle its transportation needs? |
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Now that you’ve thought about the transportation you would use during an evacuation, it’s time to consider the next question: Where would you go if you were forced to leave your facility?
There are three kinds of facility evacuations: building, local, and regional.
- Building evacuations are short term and often in response to a fire, bomb threat, or other crisis limited to the facility itself. Your entire population evacuates on foot to a secure location within the immediate neighborhood (the “rally point”) and waits to return. In the event that a return is impossible, this type of evacuation can become a local evacuation.
- Local evacuations are due either to a crisis affecting the facility itself (for example, a damaging fire) or one that affects a limited area of the community around the facility (such as a widespread power outage or a water main break). This evacuation is of an indeterminate duration and will involve youth evacuating to another building (or buildings) in the local community until it is safe to return.
- Regional evacuations are most typically called for in the face of a looming large-scale disaster (for example, a hurricane) or in the wake of a particularly destructive event (such as a tornado or earthquake). This evacuation involves leaving the affected area, in which alternate local facilities are no longer available, and retreating to a removed area, usually outside a 50- to 100-mile radius. Effective disaster planning requires that you consider all three of these evacuation scenarios. The next few pages will walk you through each one in detail.
Building evacuations
Building evacuations involve moving the youth and staff in your facility to a temporary, safe location a block or so away to wait out the crisis. Most often, you will be able to return to the facility once the crisis has passed.
Here’s what to keep in mind as you plan for a building evacuation:
There are three transportation scenarios to consider. In the first, your facility has its own vehicle or
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ESTABLISH A SIGNAL: Whether this signal is the fire alarm, three blasts on an air horn, a tone sounded over the PA system, or something else, staff and youth should immediately understand that an evacuation is being called for and should know exactly how to respond. |
What if there are young children on the premises?
If you have young parents in residence, consider how their children will be evacuated.
- Who will be responsible for evacuating the child if the parent isn’t present?
- How will you communicate with the parents if they aren’t on site?
- If parents and children are separated, how will you reunite them?
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SELECT YOUR RALLY POINT: This is a safe, secure location, at least a block from your facility, where your youth and staff can gather, take roll, and decide whether to wait at that site or move to another location. A rally point can be identified by street names (“the corner of Main Street and Fourth Avenue”) or landmarks (“in front of the tennis courts”), but it must be easily located, permanent, and mappable (see below). |
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DRAW A MAP: Once you have selected your rally point, draw a map of the local area that shows the location of your facility, the rally point, and the most direct path between the two. This map might be a store-bought local map that you cut out and highlight, or it might be something you draw from scratch. Post copies of the map alongside the facility floor plans you already have on display. |
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PREPARE GO-BAGS: You learned earlier in this manual about the importance of having a portable stockpile of emergency supplies. While it is probably not necessary to bring along everything during a building evacuation, plan on having youth bring their Go-Bags with them. The emergency manager on duty should bring the staff Go-Bag. This will allow you to take roll once you reach the rally point, ensure that critical medications are on hand, and provide access to other resources such as your staff list and emergency money. |
Local evacuations
In a local evacuation, youth and staff will move to another building within the local community for an indeterminate period of time, until the crisis is resolved. Local evacuations may be required in the event of water main breaks, fires, long-term electrical outages, and so forth.
Here’s what to consider when you’re planning for a local evacuation:
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ARRANGE A FACILITY (OR FACILITIES) TO WHICH YOU CAN EVACUATE: It seems like a common-sense question, but take a moment to consider: Where within your local community could you take your youth and staff in the event that you had to evacuate your facility for several days?
If your facility is part of a larger organization, you may have sister facilities throughout the community that could absorb your population. Even if this is the case, make sure your arrangement is clear. Would all of your youth go to one facility? What role, if any, would your staff have at these other facilities? What supplies would the other facilities provide? What would you need to provide? Open, frank communication is essential in successful planning.
If you don’t have sister facilities, you will have to locate alternate, third-party housing for your population. This may sound like a monumental task, but it does not have to be. Research various local options—churches and community centers are great places to start, and schools, local hotels, or even apartment buildings can provide other possibilities. Work on locating a facility (or two) that will agree to become your local evacuation site should an emergency arise. You may not always be able to find an ideal setting—a facility that offers private rooms for youth or sufficient space for meal preparation or private bathrooms—but chances are you can find a place that would make do for a short-term crisis.
Once you have located a facility, work up an evacuation site agreement with the facility’s managers. Spell out clearly expectations regarding cost, duration of stay, notification requirements, and so forth. A sample template for an evacuation site agreement is included in Appendix G. |
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VERIFY YOUR TRANSPORTATION: Confirm that you have transportation for a local evacuation. Depending on the distance to the evacuation facility, walking or public transportation may be an option—but you need to know before a crisis strikes how your population will get there. Each vehicle should be equipped with a preset GPS device or a local map clearly showing the route to the evacuation site. |
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CHECK YOUR SUPPLIES: As in a building evacuation, youth and staff should bring their Go-Bags. Because local evacuations last for an indeterminate time, you will probably want to bring the bulk of your emergency supplies with you as well. There is room for common sense here—if, for example, your evacuation site has agreed to provide food for your population, there is little reason to bring your stockpile of food and water. In general, though, ensure that your emergency supplies are fully stocked and portable (packed in duffel bags or backpacks) to facilitate easy transport. |
Regional evacuations
Regional evacuations occur in response to drastic, large-scale events such as hurricanes and involve moving youth and and staff to another facility far removed from your current location—typically to a destination 50 to 100 miles away that would not have been affected by the disaster from which you are evacuating. Such evacuations last for an indeterminate amount of time. Once the crisis is resolved, you might return to your normal facility or enter local evacuation mode, if your regular facility is unusable.
Planning a regional evacuation is essentially the same as planning a local evacuation. The complication is that the partnerships you arrange will be with facilities far away from you. A good starting point is to consider what connections you or other members of your staff have to areas far outside your local community—perhaps some members of your staff have friends or relatives who live far away and could provide ideas about possible evacuation sites. Work from the contacts you and your staff have to choose a good evacuation area, then visit that area and research sites with which you could form partnerships.
When you find an evacuation site, create an evacuation site agreement to put your arrangement in writing (Appendix G). Confirm the readiness of your transportation and supplies as you did for your local evacuation plan.
Moving on
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Select a rally point for building evacuations; post maps within the facility showing how to get there. |
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Research local facilities that you could use in the event of a local evacuation, and draw up an evacuation site agreement (Appendix G). |
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Research facilities well outside of your local area (50 to 100 miles away) that you could use in the event of a regional evacuation; complete an evacuation site agreement. |
What disasters would I most likely face? >> |
