Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

When an emergency threatens people in their homes, the response almost always comes down to one of two choices: stay and make your shelter safe, or leave for somewhere safer. These are the two protective actions. This lesson covers both, how a member decides between them, and how each is carried out well. It works through the common hazards one by one, the reception centres an evacuated household will meet, the safe return home afterwards, and the neighbours who cannot readily shelter or evacuate on their own.

By the end you will be able to explain the two basic choices and how the hazard and official advice decide between them, work out which protective action any common hazard calls for, make a home safe and choose its safest part for sheltering, carry out an evacuation in good order, know what to expect at a reception or rest centre, return home safely on the all-clear, and help those who cannot act for themselves.

Key Terms

Protective action: any step taken to keep people safe from a hazard. Sheltering and evacuating are the two principal kinds, and most emergencies reduce to a choice between them.
Shelter in place: to stay where you are, usually at home, and make it as safe as possible when staying put is the safer choice.
Evacuation: to leave a place that is or may become dangerous and move to a safer one, under official order or advice.
Self-evacuation: leaving on your own initiative, by your own route, without or against official advice. Sometimes forced by a sudden event, but usually a mistake.
Go in, stay in, tune in: the rule for an airborne hazard such as smoke, dust, or a chemical release: go indoors, seal the room, and tune in to the official channel for instructions and the all-clear.
Assembly point: a place appointed by the authorities for people to gather in an evacuation, often onward to a shelter or reception centre.
Reception centre, rest centre, or shelter: a safe place opened by the authorities where evacuated people are received, registered, and given temporary warmth, food, and care.
Grab-bag: the bag of essentials assembled in advance that a household can take at a moment's notice.
All-clear: the official word that the danger has passed and it is safe to come out or return home, given through the same channels as the warning.

The two basic choices

Strip away the particulars of any emergency and a household faces one question: is it safer to stay or to leave? To shelter in place is to stay and make your shelter as safe as you can; to evacuate is to leave for somewhere safer. Neither is right in general. Each is right in particular circumstances, and the whole skill lies in knowing which the present case calls for.

What decides the matter is the hazard and the official advice. Different dangers call for opposite responses, yet a household's instinct is the same in both. In a severe storm the safest thing is almost always to stay indoors, away from windows, because outside is where the danger is. But where the place itself becomes dangerous, a serious flood, a fire, a hazardous release, staying put is the danger and leaving is the safety. The same instinct is right in one case and fatal in the other, so a member cannot rely on instinct alone. The reliable guide is official advice from those who can see the whole picture: the shape of the flood, the spread of the fire, the drift of a release on the wind, none of which a household at its own front door can judge.

So the first rule is to follow official advice. The discipline of the previous lesson applies above all: receive the warning through the official channels, as Lesson 05 sets out, and act on it. The rule runs in both directions. A member does not self-evacuate against advice, because the authorities may be holding people back from a road the hazard has reached or that the services need clear. Nor does a member refuse to move when told to go, clinging to the house on a hope the danger will pass, because that hope is what gets people trapped. A street where each household makes its own private decision is far more dangerous than one moving together on a single clear instruction.

In a sudden event, something may happen before any instruction arrives: a fire breaking out, a structure giving way, water rising faster than any warning. Then a member must judge: assess the danger close at hand, decide whether to stay or move, and get clear. But the aim is to reach safety and pick up the official advice as soon as possible, not to strike out on a plan of your own. Self-evacuation covers the moment before the system catches up; it is never a substitute for it.

A short decision aid holds the principle together. It is not a substitute for official advice but the order in which a member thinks while waiting for it.

   GO OR STAY: THE PROTECTIVE-ACTION DECISION AID

   1. Is there an official instruction?
        YES  -->  Do what it says. This overrides all below.
        NO   -->  Go to 2, and keep listening for one.

   2. Is the danger OUTSIDE, and is the building sound?
        (storm, high wind, an airborne release nearby)
        YES  -->  STAY. Shelter in place. Put walls
                  between you and the hazard.

   3. Is the PLACE ITSELF becoming dangerous?
        (flood reaching the home, fire in the building,
         the structure failing)
        YES  -->  GO. Evacuate to safety, early not late.

   4. Unsure, and no instruction yet?
        -->  Get clear of immediate danger, reach a safe
             spot, and tune in. Follow the advice the
             moment it comes.

   Golden rule: an instruction from the civil authority
   always beats your own reading of the situation.

Sheltering in place

For many hazards a small principality is likeliest to meet, severe weather above all, sheltering in place is the right answer. It is not merely staying indoors and waiting; it is making the home as safe as it can be and choosing the safest place within it. Done properly it has three parts: choose the right part of the building for the hazard, gather supplies and the radio there, and, for certain hazards, seal the place up.

Making the home safe means putting the structure between you and the hazard. In high winds and severe storms the danger comes chiefly from outside, from flying debris and breaking windows, so the safest part of a home is usually an interior room, away from windows and outside walls, and low rather than high: a small inner room, a hallway, a windowless space, or under the stairs. Before the worst arrives, close and secure windows and doors, draw curtains so a breaking window holds its glass, bring in or tie down anything outside the wind could throw, and gather the household with supplies and the battery radio in the chosen room. A household sheltering in place is simply living on its own preparation, water, food, warmth, and light, while it listens for the all-clear. A prepared household shelters in comfort; an unprepared one suffers.

One family of hazards needs sheltering of a particular kind: an airborne hazard, smoke from a large fire, dust, or a harmful release into the outside air. Here the aim is not only to put walls between yourself and the hazard but to keep the outside air out, and the guidance is three words: go in, stay in, tune in. The tuning-in matters most, because you cannot see when the air outside is safe again. Only the authorities, watching the release and the wind, can tell you, and the instruction to open up is as important as the instruction to seal.

   GO IN, STAY IN, TUNE IN
   (for smoke, dust, or a chemical release outside)

   GO IN     Everyone indoors, pets too. Off the street.

   STAY IN   Close all windows and doors.
             Turn off fans and ventilation drawing
             outside air in.
             Pick the room with fewest openings.
             Seal gaps: towels at the door, cover vents.
             Close internal doors behind you.

   TUNE IN   Battery radio on the official channel.
             Wait for the all-clear. Do not open up or
             go out until told the air outside is safe.

The habit of choosing the safest part of the home applies beyond storms. Whatever the hazard, ask where in the building you are most protected, and go there. For most weather that is an interior room low and away from windows; for an airborne hazard, a room that seals tightly; for a flood, as the next part shows, not within the house at all but out of it and up. The answer differs with the danger, but the question is always the same, and a household that has thought about it in advance does not fumble when the moment comes.

Evacuation

When a place becomes unsafe and the authorities advise leaving, a household evacuates. The difference between a calm evacuation and a frightening one is largely the difference between preparation and its absence. A good evacuation is not a dash but a short sequence of sensible steps, learnt and rehearsed, carried out in order.

The first and most important step is to decide early rather than late. An evacuation begun in good time, roads clear and the danger still distant, is orderly and safe; one begun too late, when the hazard is upon the area and everyone moves at once, is dangerous and may be impossible. The temptation is always to wait and hope the danger passes, and that temptation is what gets people trapped. When the advice to leave is given, or plainly coming, act on it promptly. Every later step is easy with time in hand and frantic without it.

The second step is to take the grab-bag from Lesson 03. Assembled in advance, it lets a household leave at once without the scramble in which frightened people forget medicines, documents, and the things they most need. Lesson 03 treats its contents in full; the point here is that the grab-bag is what makes a calm evacuation possible.

The third step is to dress for the conditions. An evacuation is movement out of doors, often into the very weather that caused it: stout shoes or boots, warm layers, a waterproof, and gloves and a hat in winter. This matters even for those in vehicles, because cars fail and roads close, and a journey begun warm may end on foot in the cold.

The fourth step is to make the home safe on the way out, so far as time allows. Lock windows and doors and switch off what should be off. Where advised, or where there is damage, turn off the services, electricity, gas, and water at their mains, because a house left with services on can leak, flood, or catch fire while empty, and a flooded house with live electricity is dangerous to anyone entering. Only turn services off where told or where the sense is plain, and never turn gas back on yourself; that is the supplier's job. Knowing in advance where the main switches and stop-valves are, and how to work them, makes this step take seconds.

The fifth step is to account for every person and pet, and help the vulnerable. Count the household before leaving: no one still upstairs, the children gathered, the pets with you. Where someone needs help to move, the elderly, the disabled, the ill, a small child, arrange it as part of the going, not at the door.

The sixth step is to leave word. Tell someone outside the household where you are going and by what route, and leave a note in the home saying it is empty, where you have gone, and how to reach you. This is how a checking patrol knows the house need not be searched, how family knows you are safe, and how, if the worst happens on the road, those looking for you know where to look.

The seventh step is to use the advised route and destination, not a shortcut of your own. The soundest practice, decided in calm times, is to have chosen safe destinations in more than one direction, one near at hand and another further off with friends or family, so there is somewhere to go whatever direction the danger lies. On the day, a household goes to family or to an official assembly point, reception centre, or shelter as directed. Do not assume the usual way is open: an emergency may have closed it, or the authorities may be keeping it clear for the services. A shortcut may drive you straight into the hazard. Keep a vehicle fuelled when an evacuation looks likely, and take a single vehicle to keep the household together and the roads clearer. A member without transport should arrange a lift in advance and make that need known to those conducting the evacuation.

The eighth step is to check in, so you are accounted for. On reaching your destination, family or reception centre, let the authorities or your contacts know you are there and safe; at a centre this means registering on arrival. In a large evacuation the authorities are trying to confirm that everyone who was in the danger area is out of it. A household that reaches safety but tells no one may still be counted as missing, drawing rescue effort to search an empty house while its people sit safe elsewhere.

The whole drill is short enough to hold as a checklist.

   THE EVACUATION CHECKLIST

   [ ]  DECIDE EARLY. Act on the advice to leave at once;
        do not wait to see if the danger passes.
   [ ]  GRAB-BAG. Take it. Already packed (Lesson 03).
   [ ]  DRESS. Stout shoes, warm layers, waterproof.
   [ ]  HOME SAFE. Lock windows and doors. Switch off what
        should be off. Turn off services if advised
        (electricity, gas, water at the mains).
   [ ]  ACCOUNT FOR ALL. Every person and pet present.
        Help the vulnerable; no one left behind.
   [ ]  LEAVE WORD. Tell someone where you are going and
        by what route. Leave a note in the home.
   [ ]  ADVISED ROUTE. Use the route and reception centre
        the authorities give, not your own shortcut.
        One vehicle, fuelled; arrange a lift if you have none.
   [ ]  CHECK IN. On arrival, register or send word so you
        are accounted for.

Throughout, a member keeps the composure taught in the previous lesson. An evacuation done calmly, on official advice, is a manageable thing, and the steadiness of a prepared member helps carry an anxious street through it.

Matching the action to the hazard

The decision aid and the two drills are general; they become second nature by working them through the hazards a household is actually likely to meet. Each has a characteristic right answer, so a member who knows these in advance is recognising a case already studied, not deciding from scratch under pressure. In every case the official instruction still comes first; what follows is the action to expect, and the action to take in the moment before instruction arrives.

Flood. Water gives some warning, then moves fast, and the answer is almost always to go early, to higher ground or out of the area. A road passable at dusk may be impassable by midnight; a house dry in the evening may be cut off by morning. So a household on low-lying ground forecast to flood moves while the roads are open. Never walk or drive into floodwater: it is deeper, faster, and dirtier than it looks, a shallow-seeming flow can sweep a person off their feet or float a car, and what lies under it, an open drain, a missing manhole, is invisible. Turn off the electricity before water reaches it. Move upward only as a last resort if cut off before you could leave, going to the highest safe floor with the grab-bag and radio and making yourself known so rescuers can find you.

Fire. Fire admits no delay and no sheltering: get out, stay out, call for help, and never go back in. If fire takes hold, leave at once by the nearest safe way, staying low under smoke where the air is clearer, closing doors behind you to slow the fire, and not stopping for possessions. Once out, stay out; tell the fire service who or what is still inside and let those trained for it go in. There is no sheltering in a burning building, only leaving it fast and not returning.

A contamination or chemical release. Where something harmful is released into the air, a leak from a works or vehicle, smoke from a large industrial fire, the answer is the opposite of fire's: go in and seal up, not out. Outside is where the hazard is, carried on the wind, and a household fleeing into the open may run through the very plume it should avoid. This is the go in, stay in, tune in case, and the tuning-in matters most, because the household cannot see when the air is safe and must wait for the all-clear. Only where the authorities judge the hazard severe and direct an evacuation does the household leave, by the route given, chosen to lead away from the plume.

Storm and high wind. A severe storm is the classic sheltering hazard: stay indoors, in the strongest and most sheltered part of the building, away from windows. The danger is outside, in flying debris, falling branches, and breaking glass. The household closes up, secures what the wind could throw, gathers in an interior room low and away from windows, and waits with the radio. A storm calls for leaving only when the building itself is failing or another hazard rides with it, a storm surge driving a coastal flood, for instance, in which case the flood rule governs and the household moves before the water arrives.

A short table fixes the pattern.

   HAZARD              USUAL PROTECTIVE ACTION
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   Flood               GO. Early, to higher ground or out.
                       Never enter floodwater. Power off.
   Fire (in building)  GO. Out and stay out. Never go back.
   Chemical / release  STAY. Go in, seal up, tune in.
   Storm / high wind   STAY. Strongest inner part, off windows.
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   In every case: the civil authority's instruction comes
   first. The above is what to expect, and what to do in the
   moment before instruction arrives.

Reception and rest centres

When an evacuated household has nowhere of its own to go, no family on higher ground, no friend out of the danger area, the authorities provide somewhere. A reception centre or rest centre is a safe building, a hall, a school, a community centre, opened and run by the local authority and its partners to receive people who have left their homes. It is temporary refuge, not a comfortable billet, and knowing that in advance spares a household the dismay of expecting more.

On arrival you will be registered, your household's names taken down, so the authorities know who has come in and can reunite families separated in the leaving. This is the checking-in of the evacuation drill, and the centre's first and most important function. You will be given the basics of welfare: a warm dry place to rest, water and hot drinks and some food, a lavatory, and somewhere for children. Information is given out by the staff and the official channel, not by the anxious talk of the room. Help is available for those who need more, the unwell, the frail, those who left without their medicines, and a member who sees such a need, in their own household or another's, makes it known to the staff.

A reception centre is a crowded, unsettled place full of frightened people, and a member behaves there as the Army would have them behave anywhere among people in distress: following the staff's directions without fuss, patient in the queue, letting the frail and unwell go first, and keeping their own household calm. This is the welfare work the Caring for Those in Need course teaches in full. A prepared member there is not merely one more evacuee but quietly part of the help, and the difference is the difference between a calm room and a fraught one.

Returning home

An evacuation is only half a story; the household must come back, and coming back too soon, or carelessly, can undo all the safety the leaving bought. The first rule is the simplest: go home only when the authorities say it is safe. A household that drifts back early, on rumour or its own judgement, may walk into a flood not yet receded, a structure not yet checked, or a release not yet dispersed, and may get in the way of the services. The authorities, who can see the whole area, give the all-clear; a member waits for it.

When the household returns, it returns watchfully, because a home that has been through a flood, fire, or long emptiness is not the home that was left. Watch for damage: a building weakened by flood, fire, or storm may be unsafe, and if there is any doubt, it is not entered until checked. Watch for services left dangerous: do not switch the electricity back on in a flooded home until it has been inspected, and never turn gas back on yourself; leave that to the supplier. Watch for contamination: floodwater is filthy, carrying sewage and whatever it has passed through, and surfaces it touched must be cleaned and disinfected. And watch for spoiled food and water: a home that lost power, was flooded, or stood empty will hold food gone bad and water that may no longer be safe. Food warm too long, or touched by floodwater, is thrown out, not risked; water of doubtful safety is not drunk until known safe or treated. This is the ground the Field Health, Hygiene, and Sanitation course covers in its teaching on water and food: when in doubt, throw it out. Returning home is part of the emergency, not the end of it.

Following official instructions, not rumour

It bears repeating, because it runs through both choices, that in deciding whether to shelter or evacuate, and in returning, a member follows official instructions and not rumour. Lesson 05 explained why: in a crisis, false and alarming claims spread fast, and an evacuation triggered by a panicked rumour, or a refusal to leave because a rumour said the danger had passed, can be as harmful as the hazard itself. Take warnings from the official channels, verify alarming claims before acting, and let the decision rest on the advice of those who can see the whole picture. A member who holds to this is not only safer but a steadying influence, giving an anxious neighbourhood something solid to follow.

Helping those who cannot shelter or evacuate for themselves

Both choices assume a household able to act for itself, and some are not. The elderly, the disabled, the ill, and families with young children may not be able to make a home safe, or leave it quickly, without help. This is where the shared responsibility of the whole course becomes concrete.

When an evacuation is ordered, a member checks on the neighbours who cannot readily move, and either helps them directly or makes sure the authorities know they are there and need assistance. Those conducting an evacuation will arrange transport and a place for people who cannot manage alone, but only if they know of them, so the member who tells the officers at the assembly point of a housebound neighbour has done something the system could not do without them. When sheltering, the same care applies: look in on the isolated and vulnerable, help them make their home safe or bring them somewhere safer. And when the household returns, the care continues, for the vulnerable neighbour is as much at risk from spoiled food and an unsafe house as anyone. None of this is separate from the Army's purpose; it is the heart of it. The Caring for Those in Need course teaches the conduct of this care with dignity and good sense, and Lesson 07 is devoted wholly to helping others. The principle here is simple: when a member shelters or evacuates, they do not think only of their own household. Having made their family ready, they are free to look outward, and the elderly couple next door, or the family that cannot leave on its own, are exactly where that readiness should be spent.

In Practice: The Flood Warning in the Riverside Town

A river above a low-lying town has risen through a day of heavy rain. By evening the authorities, watching the whole catchment, advise the riverside streets to evacuate before nightfall while the higher ground is told to shelter in place. The same emergency calls for both protective actions at once, each correct in its place.

A member on a riverside street hears the advice on the Principality's emergency channel and runs the evacuation drill in order. They decide at once, without waiting to see whether the water will really come. They take the grab-bag that has stood ready since Lesson 03, dress for the wet and cold, and make the home safe on the way out: windows and doors locked, electricity off at the mains before the water reaches it, gas off. They account for the household, every person and the dog, leave a note saying where they have gone, and telephone the family on the hill. Before driving off in the single fuelled car by the route the authorities gave, not the riverside road already closing, they knock on the neighbours' doors. Most are leaving, but two doors along an elderly man cannot move quickly and has no transport; the member takes him along, registers the whole party at the reception centre at the top of the town, and tells the staff of another neighbour, housebound, who needs collecting.

Up on the higher ground a different member, told to shelter, runs the other drill: gathering the household with the radio and supplies into an interior room away from windows, securing what the wind could throw, and looking in first on the widow next door to bring her in. By the small hours, when the river spills into the riverside streets, those streets are empty of people; the household that sheltered passes the night safely; and the neighbours who could not have managed alone are warm and accounted for. Days later, on the all-clear, the riverside member returns watchfully, leaves the power off until the flooded house is checked, and throws out the food the floodwater reached and the freezer that stood without power, on the Field Health rule that doubtful food and water are not risked. Two opposite and correct choices, each made early, each on official advice, each a drill and not a scramble, and each with a thought for the neighbour who could not act alone.

Check Your Understanding

What are the two basic protective actions a household faces in many emergencies, and what decides between them? Work the decision aid through two hazards, naming one for which staying is safer and one for which leaving is safer, and explain why the same instinct is right in one and wrong in the other.
Set out the steps of a good evacuation in order, from deciding early to checking in. What does a member take, what services do they turn off and when, what do they do about route and destination, and how does the grab-bag from Lesson 03 make the whole drill possible? Why are "leave word" and "check in" not a mere formality?
Explain "go in, stay in, tune in" and the kind of hazard it answers. For a flood, a fire, a chemical release, and a severe storm, say which protective action each usually calls for, and explain what to watch for on returning home, including spoiled food and water.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson turns on acting decisively, and early, on official advice; on running the right drill for the hazard; and on remembering the neighbour who cannot act alone. Think about your own home and street. If you were advised to shelter in place in a severe storm, do you know which part of your home is safest, and is it ready? If a release on the wind meant "go in, stay in, tune in", could you seal a room quickly? If you were advised to evacuate, could you run the eight steps at once, with a grab-bag prepared, the mains switches known, a destination chosen, and the sense to take the advised route and check in, or would you be scrambling? And who near you, an elderly neighbour, someone disabled or ill, a family with small children, might need your help to shelter, to leave, or to return safely? Consider one thing you could do now so that, when the moment comes, you can act for your own household and still have a thought to spare for theirs.

Summary

Many emergencies come down to two protective actions: shelter in place or evacuate. Which is right depends on the hazard and on official advice, which a member follows above their own reading, neither self-evacuating against advice nor refusing to move when told to go.
Use the decision aid: follow any instruction; otherwise stay if the danger is outside and the building is sound, go if the place itself is becoming dangerous, and if unsure, get clear and tune in.
Sheltering means choosing the safest part of the home, usually an interior room away from windows, gathering supplies and the radio, and living on the household store until the all-clear. For an airborne hazard the rule is "go in, stay in, tune in", and the all-clear matters as much as the warning.
Evacuate by a short drill in order: decide early; take the grab-bag (Lesson 03); dress for the conditions; make the home safe and turn off services if advised; account for every person and pet and help the vulnerable; leave word; use the advised route and reception centre, one fuelled vehicle; and check in on arrival.
Match the action to the hazard: flood, go early and never enter floodwater; fire, get out and never go back; a chemical release, go in and seal up; storm, shelter in the strongest inner part. A reception or rest centre is a safe building run by the authorities where evacuees are registered and cared for; behave there as the Caring for Those in Need course teaches.
Return home only on the all-clear, watching for damage, unsafe services, contamination, and above all spoiled food and water, on the Field Health, Hygiene, and Sanitation rule that doubtful food and water are not risked.
Throughout, follow official instructions and not rumour, for a panic-driven evacuation or a rumour-driven refusal to leave can be as harmful as the hazard. And remember those who cannot act for themselves: the elderly, the disabled, the ill, families with young children. Lesson 07 takes up helping others in full.

Evacuation and Sheltering