Nice list of extra gear to bring to a shelter - red cross or otherwise

prior to hurricane Andrew, the school I worked in was a designated shelter... highway US19 parallels the west coast of Florida, and residents to the west (evacuation zone) became pretty good at shelter living... most of the old timers brought a chaise lounge, battery powered fan, flashlight, nylon shirt and shorts, wore flip flops.... and a small cooler loaded with coldcut sandwiches and snacks...

Shouldn’t our objective be avoiding emergency shelters?

Jeanette Isabelle

In hurricane country, especially, how to make shelter-stays more comfortable seems like worthwhile knowledge.

Nice to be independent but that may not always be possible or the best course of action (if I were elderly, a shelter in the company of others might be appealing).


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Some entertainment would be nice to add to the list. Cards, books, puzzles, etc.

It depends. In areas subject to floods or hurricanes, getting to a shelter might be by far the smartest thing to do. Likewise, in another thread hikermor mentions big wildfires as another situation where evacuating is the only sensible thing to do.

Different situations require different responses.

In a wildfire, a lot depends upon your local situation. Here in SoCal, where significant wildfires and evacuations are fairly common, shelters are set up, but typically they are underutilized; people seem to be able to shelter with friends or relatives, or else they just check into a hotel. Our plan would be to bunk with my mother in law (my MIL is a wonderful lady!).

One feature of our local emergency planning is the provision of emergency shelters for large animals (essentially horses). These are used regularly.

I agree that, while i would not generally prefer a shelter, there are plenty of times where seeking a shelter would be wise and prudent, and it wouldn't mean failure of your preps.

And a reading light...

Even so, it would be smart to include them as plan B or C.

It really shouldn't be that hard to tweak whatever bug-out-bag system you've adopted so it also serves a "survive emergency shelter" plan B purpose. You probably have earplugs, reading light and games/reading material in there already, as well as hand sanitizer, medications, toiletries and the like. If it's not there already I'd add something to eat and drink with (spoon, cup), and think real hard if the sleep-on-concrete-floor scenario warrants some inflatable pillow or if you make do just fine by resting your head on whatever clothes you're not wearing.

Im not going to a shelter and will avoid at all costs.I have 2 dogs,and they arent welcome so no shelters for us.

Actually, some shelters now take dogs and other pets...Check with the local Red Cross.

article here

While I agree that the shelter is less desirable (mostly on the grounds of if they are going to whine about my EDC Swiss army knife, I wonder what they'll say about some of my other EDC items), there are times when they are the best or even only choice. The four that come to mind real fast are
-Travelling, you don't have your real BoB with you and because your BoL is even further away. You are a refugee
-Chemical or radiation threat, you need to decontaminate.
-You are on foot, and the weather is such that you run a high risk of an exposure injury if you try to overnight in an bushcraft shelter or a tent.
-Due to injury or illness, you are not very mobile. (Me right now- if I tried to walk 15 miles from office to home, I'd have a sock full of blood and be ready to pass out from pain.)

The biggest thing I can think to take into a shelter is an ally- friend, family member, someone who you can shift sleep with and can watch your back.

I operate shelters for the local Red Cross chapter, just to clarify a few things:

- not all shelters are Red Cross, here anyway local communities (city governments) have built up the capacity to shelter local residents. They pre-locate cots and blankets and other resources, and city employees train to run the shelter, many of them receiving training from Red Cross. You can't have a Red Cross shelter everywhere, and our local volunteer base virtually guarantees that we can't open more than 3 concurrent shelters in our county; in a large disaster we'll work with cities and county emergency management to open larger venues as shelters, with a call to our cavalry - the national Red Cross - to bring more supplies and volunteers to address actual needs, arriving within 24 to 72 hours.

- everyone learned from Katrina, and nowadays we all have procedures for your pets. In King County it involves parallel pet shelters adjacent to human shelters, where you check them in and they are cared for my local volunteers (Humane Society etc), under supervision of some excellent veterinarians. Then you proceed to the human shelter and check in yourself and your family there. On smaller shelters we can have your pets sheltered by the local Humane Society or other pet shelters until you are restored to your pre-disaster status. Its no big thing from our perspective, because there are enough people who love animals to make this happen - just like there are enough people who love people to make human shelters possible. And its acceptable to us if you opt to keep your pets in your car and register to stay in the human shelter. Sometimes folks will sleep in their car with their pets - companionship goes a long way in any disaster. We'll provide blankets for you, if we can spare them.

- your local community shelter rules may vary. All however have a no weapons policy, guaranteed. At the Red Cross shelter we have a strict policy of no weapons inside the shelter, and we advise folks to stash them in their cars. Cities may take the same stance, although I participated in a city-run shelter exercise where they offered the local sheriff to catalog and store weapons instead of requiring folks to stash them somewhere themselves - still, I have to wonder if the sheriff is really ready to handle securing weapons, that might have just been the bright idea of some local exercise operator. YMMV. No shelter can tolerate weapons in an environment where people are displaced and distressed, and increasingly prone to violence. Safety of shelter clients is our highest priority. I can guarantee that anyone brandishing a weapon in a shelter will receive suitable accommodations of the iron bar kind. The Red Cross hasn't solved this problem of weapons possession, which is a pretty common conundrum in large and random public interactions - we won't solve it to your satisfaction to carry weapons into the shelter under our control anyway.

- if you need to decontaminate then a shelter is not for you; in response to a chemical or radiation exposure, local officials will run decontamination stations, and you should get in line there. If we open shelters in response to chemical or radiation exposure, they will be well-outside the contamination zone and additional scrutiny will be applied to screen for contamination. We have the safety of shelter clients as our highest priority.

- otherwise, weather, injuries, incapacities both mental and physical, being alone or displaced, all good reasons to take shelter. A shelter is what it says - shelter from the storm or disaster. Shelters also provide food for those who don't want to sleep there, as well as showers if they are available. They are a resource for people impacted by disasters much like anything else, you can take them or leave them. If you're trying to get from point A to point B and can't make it on your own, I would rate a shelter as an excellent rally point for assistance - there may not be anything set up formally in the initial hours or days, but your request for transportation can be relayed along and meantime we can initiate safe and well contacts with your loved ones who are looking for you and you may be hoping to rejoin. The Red Cross almost always has a comms capacity, and as available we use it to connect our clients with their loved ones.

- the list of recommended stuff to take into a shelter is pretty good, and matches up pretty well with the things Red Cross folks are recommended to take with them on 2-3 week disaster deployments - often RC volunteers sleep in staff shelters or even in the same shelters as their clients. EDIT: don't forget your meds, prescription and otherwise. The legal kinds can be taken into shelters, illegal ones I would not recommend unless you are comfortable with being relocated by the cops to a more appropriate shelter. At the Red Cross we should have health services staff who can help you recover necessary prescriptions and medical devices, typically free of charge or costing you the deductible you would typically pay. One thing I can recommend is a sleeping bag liner, the type you can buy at REI, they're made of silk or polyester and they give an element of warmth, but not as much as a full sleeping bag. Very nice if you arrive somewhere and there are no blankets available until morning, or you have 7 hours to wait at the airport for a red eye to your destination, you can crawl in and sleep comfortably. Liners roll up to the size of a pair of (wool) socks. Easily multi-use, reusable, and $30-65 dollars at REI.

- Most shelter won't check your baggage either in terms of security or in terms of a coat check: we're not responsible for your belongings, so make sure that you keep an eye on them yourself, and never leave anything unattended that you can't go on without.

Thank you, Lono - a most informative post. One quick question - what constitutes a weapon? Obviously firearms would be barred, but what about edged tools? Specifically, I am not fully dressed until I put my Leatherman Wave on my belt. Could I bring that or similar into your shelter?

Most places like that consider even small knives to be 'weapons'. Hence people like airlines, TSA, schools, .gov, etc all banning any knives.

Less than $1000 and some watching your local craigslist you can have a mobile shelter and just take yourself and any 'weapons' along with you.

Which is why, for me, the no weapons policy is NOT acceptable. With respect to the forum rules, I will not continue further down this string of logic.

Lono, thanks for the detailed info on shelters. It is nice to hear from someone who actually has extensive experience with the topic.

As I noted upthread, different situations require different responses. Certainly most of us on this forum would prefer to think we can be self reliant in all situations. However I suspect that even the most adamant "I won't ever go to a shelter, never" folks might find that a Red Cross or other shelter starts looking pretty good when faced with some situations.

Agreed. My views are based on expected situations for my particular area. If I were along the coast or farther southwest or west of here, I'd have to figure on hurricanes, tornadoes, and more than micro area flooding. Our usual threats are relatively minor compared to the rest of the country. Even moving across the county would require a change of viewpoint. The terrain in a particular area over there causes a wind funnel effect. They get many more occurrences of tornadoes and straight line winds.

I would have to look up what the formal weapons policy is for the Red Cross, but mostly its guns and knives, and those are 99% of the weapons encountered at registration. Other forms of weaponry is rightly in the eye of the beholder and a practical decision is made - if a person came in carrying a scythe or a sickle, you'd probably ask him to keep them in their car. I imagine we'd do the same for pepper spray as well. Like the TSA, a Leatherman with an edged blade option would probably be prohibited as well. Like I said, we deal with practicalities, and no weapons means nothing that can be used to harm another shelter client or yourself.

To me, entering a shelter to sleep is highly situational. I travel a lot domestically and internationally, and I don't pretend I can make it home from Munich to Seattle in a short period, short of an embassy evacuation; or from St Louis for that matter. My resources are occasionally more scarce than I want them to be. My best bet is to exploit my employer resources, which are pretty darn good in terms of getting me out of strange places. But I don't worry about entering a shelter either, maybe because I've run enough of them to know what to expect. Shelters are populated by the community of people displaced by a disaster, and they bring every bit of character and problems in with them. At one end there are alcoholics and drug addicts, people with mental health issues. There are a lot of good people who are thoroughly displaced, with no place else to go. We see a lot of families and elderly, and people with functional needs that must be addressed. We see a fair number from immigrant populations as well, because despite having friends and family, they lack the resources for self-sufficiency due to poverty. Poverty is a great equalizer no matter where you're from or who you know. Bottom line, everyone deserves shelter, that what the Red Cross does - you can be denied shelter or services only if you act out and violate the rules. And most often I see that as the rare exception.

Even if you never would sleep in a shelter, I would consider it as a preparedness resource - Red Cross distributes food and water and showers and laundry and counseling and communication beyond the scope of the disaster and all sorts of stuff, both to those in the shelter and also to those who would never step foot inside. Don't rule them out - you never know when you may be in the path of the tornado.

Always having family and friends to bond together with to ride out a disaster aftermath is a worthy goal for everyone on this list, because it seems to be an order of magnitude more difficult on your own.

When I'm talking about decontamination and shelters, I'd think that you're going to find a shelter near the decontamination station or that you will be provided with space a segregated shelter that will keep you away from people who didn't need decontamination. By nice men in uniform with automatic weapons who will make sure that none of your possibly contaminated equipment goes with you.

REDACTED

If you're just concerned with self-defense in a shelter situation, you don't necessarily have to rely on "obvious" weapons like guns and knives. Some objects that don't look like weapons can be used as weapons, though you will need training to use them effectively. (No, I'm not going to tell you what they might be and how to use them. Communicating the latter in a realistic sense is impossible just in words.) Some practically oriented martial arts schools may be able to help you with it. It may take you several years, though.

I wrote a long paragraph about another solution, but I deleted it, partly because I had to earn this knowledge, and partly because it could be too easily used by people with criminal intent. You never know who's watching on the internet.

Maybe those who have run shelters or been to shelters can answer this question: how much should we worry about personal safety in a shelter? I'm inclined to suspect that theft would be a bigger problem than violence, and that awareness would go a long way. Of course, I haven't been to a shelter.

I noticed those that used the aluminum lawn furniture, namely the chaise lounges, stored personal possessions in Rubbermaid type totes, and stored them under the lounge.... the "pros" had small hand trucks to help manage the gear... our evacuees were typically from the same residential area, and most knew each other....

I have no direct experience with sheltering after chemical or radiation exposures, just what I know from the Red Cross plan and study of our county's EM plan: most chemical attacks don't warrant sheltering, folks exposed, treated and decontaminated can generally return to their homes unless those areas remain contaminated or dangerous to re-enter. In dirty bomb scenarios the walking wounded are decontaminated and hospitalized, those who are uninjured can generally go through decontamination and return to their homes as well. Evacuation of contaminated areas involves moving significant number of people away from an area or the path of fallout, and depending on the scenario this means decontaminating people and loading them on buses for transit well away from the contamination zone. A dirty bomb attack in Seattle might not even require a sheltering response by me, but my counterparts in Pierce or Snohomish County to the south and north.

If we did open a shelter to receive evacuees, I expect it will involve a tight protocol of receiving Metro buses at the entrance to the shelter area loaded with decontaminated people. They will be tagged with wristbands, and we'll receive a manifest from the driver or a county, state or federal official, of identification of the people aboard, because most likely their IDs and cell phones and other personal possessions will be collected and discarded during decontamination. We'll usher them in, complete registration, and get them a meal, mental and health services counseling, and connect them with their loved ones - in no particular order. Match them up with replacement clothing, or to supplement the clothing given after decontamination. Assess their short term needs and meet them. That sort of thing. Walk-ins for sheltering would be turned away, or more properly referred to decontamination officials if it appears they came from the area of the disaster. I am fairly certain though that this has never been done in King County, only in mock drills and exercises, which may not have gone past the table top drill in terms of shelter arrangements.

As my wife is fond of saying, "only a prepper would think of that." :-)

On this issue of self-defense in shelters, listen: I'm not sure what you imagine goes on in a shelter environment. First, if you think it is as chaotic as the disaster that landed those people in the shelter, think again. If you imagine that shelters are places of violence and physical attack, you are wrong. If you think there are constant pressures to steal your valuables, it ain't so. If you imagine its a cross between Thunderdome and Attica, you are way off base. Your encounters with others in the shelters are fairly banal - conversation, sharing a bit of intel on the extent of the disaster, status of your family, arriving assistance, and your next steps to get back to where you were before. Regular meals. A shelter dormitory filled with people you wouldn't ordinarily share a bedroom with for sure, but we give everyone an element of space between - and as in any hostel, there will be a snorer or two somewhere that could keep you awake. People arriving and departing at all hours - jobs don't end in disasters, in fact some of your fellow dorm sleepers can lose their jobs if they don't make the midnight shift every night. The cot won't be deluxe, and in certain regions of the country (hurricane area) you aren't guaranteed a cot to sleep on but a pad on the floor. But gangsters won't sully up to you at mealtime and demand your buttered bread or plate of spaghetti. There should be no physical assaults anywhere - although much like the rest of the world, no guarantees I suppose (wood knock). If you have even the inkling of a bad encounter with anyone, staff or client, you can talk to any shelter worker and it will be dealt with and escalated immediately. We are quick to dial 911 at the slightest hint of aggression or medical emergency. If you experience theft, it will be reported up to RC security and local law enforcement may also become involved.

What you should find in a Red Cross shelter is an atmosphere of equality, for starters: everyone receives approximately the same assistance as everyone else. The same meals as each other, except those with dietary needs such as diabetics, gluten free, nut allergies, and religious practices, kosher and halal; the same sleeping arrangements, modulo the number of cots immediately stocked at the site; the same opportunities for assistance, for you to take advantage of, or not; and the same provision of intel about what we know about the disaster and what's being done to assist you to return to where you were before. We hope to foster an environment of mutual respect for and among our clients, and recognition of their dignity. We actually have a whole list of Red Cross values that we incorporate into what we do, and its how we operate shelters. Depending on the size of the shelter population, you'll hear laughter, at least from the children, who either run around having a hey day or are off playing with a volunteer entertaining them with crayons, a video, or a puzzle or game. People sitting around drinking coffee, talking. People taking naps, especially if they work off shift. People just not there during the daytime, because their job still exists or their real job of cleaning up after their disaster has taken over. Far more people in a shelter are out of the shelter working on their recovery, which is good. REDACTED

Im not going unless absolutely dire.I WILL evacuate tho,Im also not going to play Rambo with disasters.

Thank you to the volunteers,well done.

Lono - agreed. Using a shelter - or even awareness of one - is another tool to use.

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Lono,

Thanks for the good info, and thanks for the all the good work the Red Cross does. About the only direct experience I've had with the Red Cross (aside from CPR classes) has been a couple of times they showed up at some major SAR events with food and coffee, which was very much appreciated by all of us volunteers.

So far (knocking on wood) I have never had the need to use a shelter, but it is great to know that they will be available if/when I need one. It is also great to know that they will be well run by people such as yourself. Disasters are by nature unpredicable. A key part of preparation, in my opinion, is being flexibe, adaptable, and open minded. That means being ready to utilize all kinds of resources, if and when and where you need them. Being locked into a particular mind set is not a good survival plan.

I would also encourage everyone on the forum to consider joining or assisting some sort of volunteer organization related to survival. There are lots of opportunties, including the Red Cross, volunteer SAR teams, volunteer fire departments, CERT teams, Boy/Girl Scouts and many others. You will get some useful training, work with a great bunch of like minded people, and contribute to making your community a better place.

I am not going to worry all that much about the weapons policy of a shelter if I am desperate enough to even consider going to one. The key word being desperate. I won't be in any shelter if there is an alternative. They are not places you go for the fun of it. You go because it is a bad choice, but better than the other choices available to you at the time. Sort of like having a gangrenous leg being amputated. A bad choice, but better than becoming a fatality.

One of my retirement jobs has been recruiting and training poll workers for major elections. During the last presidential election, one of my steady workers called me and stated that the Rec Cross, for whom she also volunteered, needed her in Washington, D.C. to get ready for Sandy, then threatening NYC; hence she would be unable to participate in our local festivities. And,just like that, she was gone! This incident provided me with just a glimpse of the sort of planning, preparation, and effort that goes into working major disasters - not all of it readily visible. I, for one, am glad we have organizations like the Red Cross, even if they don't put gourmet chocolates on my pillow in a shelter.

One puzzling thing I have encountered about the RC. Fifty years ago, when I was drafted into the Army and serving out my time, I encountered more than a few career soldiers who swore up and down that they would never contribute anything to the RC. Why? That wasn't very clear, but it seemed to have something to do with the RC selling doughnuts and coffee to troops in dire need. Does anyone know more about this? I suspect it is a giant urban legend, but the attitude has always puzzled me....

I have heard the story about the RC selling coffee and donuts to soldiers too. I don't think they were in dire need at the time. What kind of dire need would there ever be for coffee and donuts? Soldiers seemed to prefer the USO back then because they were not charged.

Oddly, my understanding is that the USO operated mostly off of donations from soldiers. I guess they did not mind paying as long as they were not charged.

In the old brown boot Army in which I served (early 60s), you were always in dire need.....

Thanks for the insight...

I've heard this and looked this up on snopes.com - http://www.snopes.com/medical/emergent/redcross.asp Quote:
"There is truth to one of the rumors, however. During WWII the American Red Cross did indeed charge American servicemen for coffee, doughnuts, and lodging. However, it did so because the U.S. Army asked it to, not because it was determined to make a profit off homesick dog faces."

It goes on to explain that Allied soldiers were being charged by their Red Crosses (British, Australian etc), and Secretary of War Stimson felt that would create animosities among allies. So for the good of the Alliance, the Red Cross charged nominal fees for donuts etc - even though they didn't want to. That created animosities among GIs that Gen Eisenhower tried to smooth over. Too bad Ike didn't have the furnace of the Internet to respond to what must have seemed like a pretty petty practice, and may have seemed demeaning to servicemen too.

So just a couple reminders: the Red Cross doesn't charge for any assistance - its a charity that receives its funds from a generous American public. Nowadays volunteers strive to be good stewards of the donated dollars, no wasting them, but not withholding necessary assistance either. Its all free of charge.

The Red Cross is different in every nation - there are hundreds of International Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations in nearly every country of the world, all operating according to the same mission. Nation by nation they tend to provide very different things - ambulance service is popular in the UK whereas in the US we mostly have fire departments dispatching assistance. And your American Red Cross is community based - its organized by counties, or in sparsely populated places like Nebraska, the local chapter can represent several dozen counties. Personally I think the local organization is most responsive to local needs, and services local disasters best. And the national Red Cross can rally together for larger disasters like Sandy, and even lesser ones that can overwhelm like earthquakes and wild fires in California.

I'm sorry WWII GIs were asked to pay for Red Cross donuts and coffee. If they had known where the order came from, they might have spent their after years cursing the GD US Army rather than the GD Red Cross. We sometimes get donated donuts from Krispy Kream, and nowadays they're always free.

Let me give a big shout out to some of the other disaster response organizations that don't always get recognition unless you've seen them in action, or received their assistance: the Southern Baptists operate massive field kitchens to feed everyone, and there are probably a dozen other organizations that do it as well even if not to the same extent. The Salvation Army is huge in terms of recovering people to their pre-disaster state by doing things like sorting clothing and providing it to folks affected by disasters. There are lots of great people who get their hands dirty mucking out flooded houses or rebuilding structures, again all labor free of charge. In fact there are so many good people who just jump in and do the hard work, in my mind it tends to eclipse what we in the Red Cross can do. The Red Cross couldn't do what it does without all these other organizations. We have a formal role granted by the federal government (without any govt funds to go along with it) to restore housing and sheltering folks after disasters, but we could never do it alone. The volunteer effort is certainly very strong in America.

Funny you mention gourmet chocolates - a fellow volunteer put Theo's Chocolates on shelter cots belonging to kids after a local apartment fire. Strictly speaking I suppose it would have been better to have enough chocolates for every shelter resident, but given the focus on kids put out by fires, no one raised the issue.

Bravo! That is definitely a good move...I agree with you about volunteerism in our country. Let's hope the spirit endures.