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Keep life going · Staying or leaving

Prepare for Both Until One Is Clearly Right.

Staying is not always safer. Leaving is not always possible. Prepare both paths, then let current official instructions and conditions decide the moment.

Name the decision points before the decision.

Write down the warnings or conditions that mean leave now, prepare to leave, stay inside, or move to a safer room. Use the terms your local authorities actually use.

Choose destinations in more than one direction and routes that do not all depend on the same bridge, slope, road, ferry, elevator, vehicle, or transit line.

Make both paths workable.

For staying

Plan safe water, sanitation, temperature, air, food, medicine, information, lighting, fire safety, building access, and the point when the plan is no longer safe.

For leaving

Keep essential medicine, documents, chargers, clothing, food, water, mobility equipment, animal supplies, and destination information portable enough for the people carrying them.

For the route

Know how alerts describe zones and roads. Keep paper directions, fuel or charging options, transit and paratransit contacts, and a way to leave without the usual driver.

For the destination

Confirm accessibility, medical power, animals, privacy, cost, length of stay, and how people will reconnect if they arrive separately.

Account for time, access, and authority.

Extra time

Children, mobility devices, livestock, medications, public transit, caregiving, and language access can lengthen departure. Earlier movement may be the safer accommodation.

Renters and multifamily buildings

Know stairs, alternate exits, assembly points, locked gates, garage release, elevator limits, fire doors, and who can provide building status.

No private vehicle

Ask local emergency management and transportation providers how evacuation assistance works. Arrange a backup, but do not assume a neighbor will be available.

Longer displacement

The first destination may not work for weeks. Plan how housing, work, school, care, mail, animals, transport, and benefits continue or transfer.

Leave immediately when ordered, and never shelter in place to protect property. Do not enter a closed area or use a route officials have said is unsafe.

A shared ride is an agreement, not an assumption.

Confirm who is riding, what equipment or animals come too, how much notice is needed, where pickup happens, and what cancels the arrangement.

FEMA planning resources emphasize alerts, evacuation routes, household communication, specific access needs, and practicing the plan. FEMA household planning guidance.

Current public help

Find Official Help for current local authorities, alerts, utilities, health guidance, roads, weather, or shelters.

Reviewed July 25, 2026 against FEMA household planning guidance. Recheck official instructions before publication and during any interruption.