Distribution by Region

Distribution by Organisation Type, Document Type, Region and Year

Evacuation occurs mostly in documents published in Europe, followed by Asia, North America, Africa and Oceania with comparatively smaller contributions. Overall, the top five contributors in terms of occurrences are RC, NGO, IGO, NGO_Fed and State organisations.

RC, NGO and NGO_Fed documents provide the greatest number of occurrences, primarily from activity reports published in Europe. Occurrences from IGO were mostly obtained from general documents published in Europe.

State documents mostly generated occurrences in activity reports published in Asia.

Evacuations ...

• are emergency operations

• can be part of disaster risk reduction

• are related to

  • emergency preparedness

  • displacement

  • relocation

• can be categorised by

  • official status

• • circumstances

• • their execution

• • type of emergency

• • type of evacuee

• methods of transport & distances

• time frame

• objectives

  • individual medical needs

• • humanitarian evacuation

  • charity evacuation

  • scale

• have causes

  • generic/unspecified events

• • exact sources of harm

• • natural hazards

• have participants

  • related to armed conflict

• • related to other events

• have managers

• are a focus of humanitarian efforts via

  • making preparations

• • conducting evacuations

• • continued responses

• have elements, including

  • structures & locations

• • training exercises

• • response systems

• • tools and resources

• • other actions and concepts

• have preparation issues

  • the importance of data collection & predictive models

  • developing evacuation plans

  • infrastructure requirements

  • lack of preparation & preparation methods

  • the role of the public and politics

• have mid-evacuation challenges

  • warnings: their clarity, effectiveness and related issues

  • needs of sub-populations

  • managing evacuation centres

• have post-evacuation concerns

  • subsequent displacement

• have overarching issues

  • legitimacy, euphemism

  • increasing needs over time

  • approval as a hurdle for humanitarian evacuations

  • humanitarian/peacekeeper safety

  • the role of international support

  • the limits of humanitarian involvement

In addition, it relates to all the phases of DRR including prevention, preparedness, early warning, evacuation and other emergency operation, and recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The team found that essential preparations were made in anticipation of the super typhoon, such that preemptive evacuations to schools, churches, stadiums, and public buildings were made.

The non-international armed conflict led to casualties, looting, further displacement and the temporary evacuation of most humanitarian workers.

The primary purpose of displacement in the form of evacuations is to save lives, but it still takes a toll on people's physical and psychological wellbeing.

The settlement societies claim that the property was in the late 19th century a synagogue for the Yemen Jews; thus, had demanded the evacuation of the property since 2004.

Adalah represented the residents of the twin unrecognized villages of Atir-Umm elHieran before the Supreme Court to oppose the evacuation of the village, upon which, the government planned to build a Jewish town 'Hiran' and the 'Yatir' forest.

Evacuations can vary greatly in scope and intent. The list below categorises types of evacuations by characteristics that may at times overlap. By frequency, medical evacuation and its variants are by far the most common, followed by emergency evacuation and temporary evacuation.

Red Cross documents have the highest absolute and relative frequencies, and frequencies over time have remained relatively stable. Asia has the highest relative frequency among regions, although evacuation is generally common for all regions. Lastly, while Activity Reports have the highest absolute frequency, the term appears in other text types with similar, albeit lower, relative densities.

• official status

  • voluntary evacuation

  • managed evacuation

  • forced evacuation

  • mandatory evacuation

  • official evacuation

  • planned evacuation

• circumstance

  • peacetime evacuation

  • emergency evacuation

  • security evacuation

• manner

  • safe evacuation

  • partial evacuation

  • speedy, quick evacuation

• type of emergency

  • fire evacuation

  • tsunami evacuation

• type of evacuee(s)

  • non-combatant evacuation

  • evacuation of international staff

  • school evacuation

  • evacuation of wounded people

  • community evacuation

  • public evacuation

• method of transport & distance

  • air evacuation

  • sea evacuation

  • long distance evacuation

• time frame

  • temporary evacuation

  • immediate evacuation

  • preemptive evacuation

  • preventive evacuation

  • early evacuation

  • short-lived evacuation

  • timely evacuation

  • monthly evacuation

• specific objective

  • individual medical needs

    • medical evacuation

    • emergency medical evacuation

    • acute medical evacuation

    • life-saving medical evacuation

  • humanitarian evacuation

  • charity evacuation

• scale

  • local evacuation

  • small-scale evacuation

  • mass evacuation

  • massive evacuation

  • wide-scale evacuation

• generic/unspecified events

  • emergencies

  • disasters

• exact source of harm

  • violence

  • fire

  • air pollution

  • radiation

  • asbestos contamination

• natural hazard

  • wildfire

  • hurricane

  • earthquake

  • tsunami

  • typhoon

  • flood

  • cyclone

Participants

• related to armed conflict

  • military

  • non-combatants

  • wounded

  • POW

  • civilians

  • humanitarian staff

• related to other events

  • refugees

  • humanitarian staff

  • international visitors

  • vulnerable populations

  • the injured, in need of medical care

  • homeowners

  • residents

  • the frail & elderly

Managers

• humanitarians

• government

• military

• business (e.g., hotels)

These exercises helped test and refine our coordinated response procedures for non-combatant evacuation operations with international partners.

The goal is to provide local residents with faster evacuation instructions by installing equipment, ocean height meters and the systems for transmitting the data from these meters, all of which apply Japanese technologies and experience.

Each involved the evacuation of hundreds of people to rest centres, where we provided psychosocial (practical and emotional) support.

We made safe spaces available to women and children, worked closely with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer groups, and supported people with disabilities, meeting their unique needs in evacuation camps and shelters.

Child Friendly Spaces Working with other Australian emergency response agencies, we set up Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) within existing evacuation and recovery centres to ensure children have a safe place to learn and play while their parents begin the process of recovering from the disaster.

• structures and locations

  • evacuation centre

  • evacuation site

  • evacuation shelter

  • evacuation point

  • evacuation route

  • evacuation camp

  • evacuation area

• training exercises

  • evacuation workshops

  • evacuation drill

  • evacuation exercise

  • evacuation training

  • evacuation simulation

  • mock evacuation

• response systems

  • evacuation system

  • evacuation plan, planning

  • evacuation scheme

  • evacuation procedure

  • evacuation mechanism

• tools and resources

  • evacuation map

  • evacuation models and data

  • evacuation order

  • evacuation agreement

  • evacuation lawsuit

• other actions and concepts

  • evacuation capacity

  • evacuation service

  • evacuation effort

  • evacuation project

  • evacuation operation

Income generated from greenhouses, mushroom production facilities and food processing machines has enabled the RC branches and committees to conduct disaster risk reduction activities such as establishment of early warning and evacuation system, tree planting, and construction of structures and the promotional work to improve the level of the common knowledge and expertise among the people.

Disasters have historically caused significant physical and economic losses, but the region has succeeded in reducing mortality, the result of several countries introducing disaster risk reduction measures including early warning systems and pre-emptive evacuations.

State institutions have traditionally engaged with local communities to improve disaster preparedness and devise evacuation plans.

The humanitarian community expects a new massive wave of displacement, due to ongoing evacuations of resident populations from the Lake Chad islands, as a result of military operations in the area.

The new displacement figures based on evacuation data encompass both short and long-term movements, and as such do not imply that everyone displaced by a specific hazard underwent the same experience. It is currently not possible to disaggregate the data we obtain by type and duration of movement for most of the events, yet this is key to understanding the severity of the displacement.

We use the term “displaced”, but it is rarely if ever adopted consistently and unequivocally by different countries or sources (see table A.9). People displaced by floods in 2015 were referred to as “homeless” in Madagascar and as “moved” in Iraq. Often, sources refer to people displaced by disasters as “directly affected”. It is true that IDPs are part of a wider population affected by a disaster, but not all those affected are IDPs. As such, additional analysis is required to make sense of the terms sources use, and to under- stand when and how they signal displacement.

"State of displacement" means the state where people are displaced, living in e.g. refugee camps with no near-term solution in sight.

The 1998 UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement define IDPs as: [...] persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border.

The necessary evacuation and relocation proved a deeply traumatic experience for many people: their social networks were disrupted and they had no possibility of returning to their homes.

The chart below represents the distribution of evacuation between 2005 and 2019 in terms of the number of occurrences and relative frequency of occurrences. It also allows you to view the distribution across Regions, Organisations and Document types.

• preparation

  • the importance of data collection & predictive models

  • developing evacuation plans

  • infrastructure requirements

  • lack of preparation & preparation methods

  • the role of the public and politics

• mid-evacuation

  • warnings: their clarity, effectiveness and related issues

  • needs of sub-populations

  • managing evacuation centres

• post-evacuation

  • evacuation leading to displacement

• overarching issues

  • legitimacy, evacuation as euphemism

  • increasing evacuation needs over time

  • approval as a hurdle for humanitarian evacuations

  • humanitarian/peacekeeper safety

  • the role of international support

  • the limits of humanitarian involvement

Experience from past evacuations illustrates the importance of sustained or regular data collection over time that allows plans to be adapted to changing or unexpected circumstances.

In December 2016, the exact same tactics led to the surrender and depopulation of East Aleppo. PAX argues that what have been called 'evacuations' of civilians from both cities in the media are in fact forced population transfers. These also constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.

The conditions at the congested evacuation centres, having limited or no access to water or soap, added to the disease risk, additionally exposing children to a range of waterborne diseases.

If the scale of the impending danger had been communicated properly, and coastal residents had been evacuated to safer ground, fewer lives would have been lost. Timeliness, clarity and coverage are essential if warning messages are to lead to sound decision-making, successful evacuation and other preparatory measures.

A plan for light rail connections between New Orleans and Baton Rouge has languished for several years. Had such a rapid transit existed, the evacuation crisis would never have occurred.

The international community is notoriously poor at providing support for preparedness and recovery and reconstruction. Investing in one component of prepared-ness – early warning systems, for instance – is fruitless without investment in other components as well, such as evacuation plans. More investment is also needed in recovery.

People with disabilities are particularly exposed at times of natural disasters and violent conflict. Cognitive, intellectual or physical impairments can reduce their capacity to access information or act on it.136 They can be left behind during evacuations or be turned away by shelters and refugee camps on the grounds that they might need complex medical care. The disaster risk reduction community needs to widen the participation of people with disabilities– and address the environmental barriers and constraints they face.

However, owing to preparedness measures, including early warnings, pre-emptive evacuations and pre-positioning of essential stocks and response personnel, it is widely believed that more lives were saved during Typhoon Bopha than during Tropical Storm Washi in the Philippines in 2011.

Evacuations were carried out effectively, and can be attributed to Indonesia's disaster management system, which includes agencies that monitor and respond to natural hazards.

Cuba and Jamaica have fully decentralized systems, comprising not only elected local councils but also officials from civil protection and other government departments. Critically, they have resources available for local-level warning and evacuation .

Japan's early warning system prevented a much larger death toll. As soon as seismic activity was detected, alerts were broadcast by television, radio and mobile phone networks. This enabled many people to prepare and mitigate the impact, such as moving to higher ground, while the country's rail network and factories quickly came to a halt–thus avoiding greater damage. Emergency sirens, clearly marked evacuation routes and public education programmes were also critical in saving lives. Strict building codes ensured that tall buildings withstood the earthquake, while forested green belts and concrete barriers provided some protection against the tsunami.