During an emergency:
- You can be asked to leave your home;
- or your home gets cordoned off by the emergency services and you are not able to go in.
This will happen if they feel it would be safer for you to be away from the area. This is often the Fire and Rescue Service or Police that do this.
If you are evacuated, you should listen to the advice given to you by the emergency services.
- If you have a place to stay (relative/friend), give the Police your contact details. They will then be able to let you know when it is safe to return to your home.
- Otherwise, stay in the area stated by the emergency services. Our Emergency Planning Team will direct you to a Rest Centre.
Rest Centres are buildings used to give a temporary place to stay for displaced person. These may be community centres and sports halls. We have a number of these in Calderdale and will decide which is best suited for any emergency. The centre you are moved to may not be the nearest to your home. This it depends on the incident and the safest place for you to be.
A number of our staff have volunteered to offer support in Rest Centres. They will be deployed at the time of an emergency to give out things like bedding and food.
Voluntary Agencies will help us to give support to those affected by an incident. These include the Women's Royal Voluntary Services, St John Ambulance and the Salvation Army.
Humanitarian Assistance Centre
These can be set up after an emergency to give those affected by an incident with a point of contact. This will be for information and to get the support needed from the right agencies. This can include physical, practical and social support.
The decision to open a centre will be made jointly between responding organisations. This includes the Local Authority, who will decide on a location for it. It will be set up to address the longer-term support and recovery issues for those affected by the incident.
Resources
Our Emergency Planning Team keeps stores of emergency equipment at a number of locations, which include sleeping bags and blankets.
As part of a mutual aid agreement with nearby councils, we have access to similar stores in their areas.