KEY POINT

Public officials must know the risks to all populations during an evacuation or SIP action or an incident requiring both so that they can understand decisions made by Incident Command and communicate the rationale to the public.

Risks resulting from evacuation include:

If not completed quickly enough, evacuation could cause the evacuees to be exposed to the hazard.
Risks arise as a result of the mode of transportation chosen by the evacuees.
In areas of high population density, a large-scale evacuation could cause congestion and gridlock on the roads, rendering the evacuation ineffective.
Weather conditions could change, causing an evacuation to become ineffective or endangering evacuees.
Evacuations involving the elderly or people with special needs could cause these populations to become emotionally agitated, might result in their injury if they fall while evacuating, or could expose them to conditions that they are ill-prepared to handle.