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Emergency Evacuations in Disasters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Ralph B. Leonard
Ralph B. Leonard*
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, The Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University Medical Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, (919) 748-4625, facsimile (919) 748-5438
*
Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, 300 South Hawthorne Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27103USA
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Abstract

Some disasters produce circumstances that require the emergency removal of some or all of the citizens from a geographic area. Emergency or mass evacuation can be divided into immediate evacuation, in which the citizens are given no warning of their need to evacuate, and potential evacuation, in which citizens are given time (usually a day or two) to evacuate. The mass evacuation aspect of disaster planning frequently is neglected, but must be planned in detail. An essential ingredient of a plan is the designation of a person who has the authority to order an evacuation and that that person or an authorized alternate, is available instantly 24 hours a day. The plans should identify likely scenarios which could require emergency evacuation for a given community requiring, means of communicating with the citizens, evacuation routes, evacuation mechanisms, and shelter arrangements. All plans need to take into account human behavior during such a stressful situation.

Type
Administrator
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 1991 , pp. 463 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 1991

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