1.6 Stay or evacuate?

The first big decision. The golden rule: if authorities order your area to evacuate, evacuate. If they ask you to shelter in place, do so. In all other cases, decide based on the specific danger and your building. Depending on where you live, your home has advantages and disadvantages: on a low floor of a low-rise building you have an advantage in tornadoes (you're down low and can find an interior room) and a disadvantage in floods (you're the first to get wet).

When to stay

• Authorities ask you to shelter in place (chemical accident, radiological emergency): "get inside, stay inside, stay tuned" (chapters 15 and 16).
• Tornado warning: don't go out driving. Go to an interior room without windows on the lowest floor (bathroom or closet) (chapter 10).
• Winter storm with icy roads: driving is more dangerous than staying, if you can keep warm safely (chapter 14).
• Power or water outage without damage to the building, and you have a kit, a tolerable temperature, and medications.

When to leave

• Evacuation order for your area.
• Water rising toward your door: on the ground floor you have no "upstairs" of your own. Leave early, before the streets flood. If it is already flooded outside, go to a high floor of the building with a neighbor; never enter the water in a car.
• Fire in the building, smell of gas, visible structural damage (cracked walls, sagging roof).

• Extreme heat without air conditioning with vulnerable people or pets showing signs of heat stroke; extreme cold with no safe way to warm up. Go to a cooling or warming center, or to relatives.
• Someone depends on electrical medical equipment and you have no backup power.

If you evacuate

1. Take each person's 72-hour bag and the pet kit (chapter 2).
2. Pets come with you. If it isn't safe for you to stay, it isn't safe for them.
3. Unplug appliances and, if authorities instruct it, shut off the water and electricity. Shut off the gas only if there is a leak or you are ordered to: the utility company must turn it back on.
4. Lock up and leave a visible note for family (not for strangers): where you went and when.
5. Use the designated routes. Don't take shortcuts: they may be flooded or closed.
6. Notify your out-of-state contact when you leave and when you arrive.