The Shelter in Place strategy explained
The Shelter in Place strategy is exactly what it says. You are going to hunker down in your home, apartment, place of shelter or where ever and ride out the threat. Those threats could be a tornado, a power (or other utility) outage, a temperature incident (e.g. heat wave, extreme cold spell, etc.), but it also can include other bizarre or unusual threats such as public disorder/civil unrest, a hazardous material incident, infectious disease threat, etc.. Check out our list of 'Threats or Hazards' (on the Common Disaster page) to see more than 50 reasons where you may need to take action, some of which should require that you stay put or shelter in place to avoid danger.
The Shelter in Place strategy assumes that you and/or your family have thought ahead and put in place, resources to ride out the threat in your home or another place of shelter. What resources? First, the basics of food, water and shelter. Secondly, resources that will prepare you for additional issues such as communication tools, tools to maintain your health, and other basic survival tools. For a list of the 'basic' shelter in place items that you should have in advance of a threat, we have created a free tiny course called "How to Protect Your Family from the Next Disaster". To access this free tiny course, click on the link below:
How to Protect Your Family from the Next Disaster Free Course!
Once you've built your shelter in place resources (either by gathering current items in your household or purchasing them), additional questions will arise. How many resources do you need? Enough resources for a single day or overnight, or for an entire week? The rule of thumb is that you should have enough resources for 72 hours or 3 full days. That means enough food and water for 3 full days. The next question? When should we gather these resources and where do we store them? You don't want to be collecting these items when you've got 5 minutes before a tornado hits your area, do you? So the answer is that you need to have all of the items gathered together in one place so you can grab your bag or kit and shelter in your family's designated area (if need be). Lastly, you need to manage your shelter in place resources on a regular basis, so that items don't deteriorate or get old and become useless during the emergency. Typically, water and food resources should be rotated every 6 months so setup a reminder on your phone or calendar to use up those items every 6 months and replace the with fresh new resources.
A Shelter in Place strategy is one of the easiest strategies to implement in your domicile. Most 'shelter in place' kits can be built in a day or two by gathering items in your household or buying the missing items and then storing them in a designated location. Once you've done that, it doesn't hurt to have a 'practice fire drill'. At a designated time, tell your family that you will 'practice' a simulated tornado threat'. That will require the family to use a method to announce the tornado, then a designated person(s) to gather the shelter in place resource bag(s) and finally everyone meets in the designated 'safe area' to ride out the threat. This example is for an imminent threat such as a tornado. In the case of a power outage, you may have more time to prepare, but what if it's night time and dark? Do you really want to be scrounging in the dark to gather your items throughout the house? The bottom line, if you practice the shelter in place drill (just like a grade school fire drill), everyone will be more ill at ease and comfortable with the process, if the real thing really does happen.