Evacuation
Evacuation means to leave where you are and go to a safe place. Tooele County emergency officials may ask you to evacuate temporarily because of a flood, wildfire, or hazardous materials accident near your home. They will tell you what areas to evacuate, what roads to take, which way to go and when it’s safe to return. Evacuations are carefully planned to get people out of an area safely and quickly. Your emergency officials already have evacuation plans for your community. To stay safe, leave immediately if advised to do so.
- Listen to emergency messages on local radio and television to find out if you are in an area that needs to evacuate. Write down the roads you should take and where you should go.
- The primary Emergency Alert System (EAS) station for Tooele County is KSL 1160 AM or 102.7 FM. The secondary EAS station is KWDZ 910 AM. Program an EAS station on your car radio.
- Quickly get your disaster supply kits. Also take essentials for your health and safety, such as medications and eyeglasses. Don’t take time to gather anything else. Lock your home when you leave.
- In the event of a hazardous materials incident, keep car windows and air vents closed as you travel away from the danger area. Turn off the car’s air conditioner or heater.
- Do not call 9-1-1 unless you have a life-threatening situation such as a heart attack.
- If you need a ride, try to get a ride with a neighbor. If you can offer transportation to a close-by neighbor, co-worker or unattended children without transportation, who can leave immediately, do so.
- If you can’t evacuate for any reason, take shelter inside a building immediately. (See Shelter-in-Place fact sheet for more information on making your shelter as airtight as possible.) Listen to your EAS station for further instructions and information.
- The schools will protect your children by evacuating or sheltering them. Don’t go to your child’s school unless told to do so by emergency or school officials. Listen to an EAS station to hear where and when to pick up your children.
- If you don’t know what areas in your community may be at risk, call your local emergency management agency now so you will have the information if you need it. Find out whether the places you live, work and visit (such as church, shopping centers and doctor’s office) are within the area that may be at risk.
- Check with your local emergency management agency now to see if you should take pets with you. If not, bring them indoors (if you can find them quickly) and leave food and water for them.
- Talk with your family (or business associates) now about your plans for evacuating. Assign each person a job so that you can leave quickly. Establish a place to meet your family (outside of the affected area) if you are not together when told to evacuate.