Nobody will warn you

Evacuations orders will not be given for most disasters.

Almost the only time we hear about possible evacuation orders being given are for hurricanes. Anyone who keeps informed about the weather knows they are coming. The government can’t that secret. Maybe they wish they could.

After the last hurricane to hit the Gulf, authorities seemed to be leaning towards sheltering in place. It was only a category I hurricane, yet the flooding was significant in a lot of areas. Many people who sheltered in place wish they would have evacuated.

Other emergencies the government will most likely keep secret. If they had credible evidence of a dirty bomb, bioweapon, or other threat, no evacuation order would be given. Cities cannot be evacuated safely or quickly. People die when escaping a hurricane, and they’ve usually have several days warning. Should everyone try and leave at the same time, it would be chaos.

If the threat turned out to be a false alarm, people would have died in the chaos for nothing. My guess is that they’ve decided to take the chance that they can either negate the threat or the body count would be less than in an emergency evacuation.

An individual with inside information would definitely want to get their family out. Back when I was a firefighter, my family had a standard evacuation plan if the chemical plant in the mill
ever caught fire. One day it did and my wife took the kids 12 miles upwind to my parent’s cottage. I went to put the fire out. Our local emergency services did not have the manpower to both deal with the emergency and an evacuation. We were able to put the fire out and safely shut down the chemical plant. Mill workers did some heroic actions that day, along with emergency services. It was barely mentioned in the local papers.

If your neighbor is a firefighter, cop, or has connections to your local government, keep an eye on them. Should they decide to pack up the family and leave town all of a sudden, maybe you should too.

Personally, I tend to stay out of big cities as a matter of course.

-Sixbears