Evacuation day: how to lock up and what to carry

Picture a household on a warm afternoon when the phone buzzes with an alert. Someone is packing the car, someone is catching animals, someone is staring at the shelf where the paperwork lives. Nobody is thinking about the deadbolt. Yet about ten minutes later, as the car pulls out, somebody asks the question that has no good answer in the moment: did we lock the house, and where are the keys?

That small moment is what this note is for. We are a crew that works across Shasta and Siskiyou counties, and we hear from people after hard days who tell us the lock questions were the ones they had not planned for. The other parts of the day are covered well by emergency agencies. We want to cover the part that sits in our trade: doors, garages, gates, vehicles and keys.

Nothing here replaces instructions from the people running the evacuation. If their guidance conflicts with something you read on a website, theirs wins. What we offer is a calm order of operations, so the lock side of the day takes seconds instead of minutes, and so you do not have to invent a plan under pressure.

Local fire, sheriff and emergency management teams decide when and how a neighborhood leaves. They also decide what they want residents to do with gates, garage doors and lights. That guidance can vary between agencies and between events. When an order arrives, read it all the way through and follow the specific instructions before you do anything we suggest.

If you are ever unsure whether to leave a gate open, a door unlocked or a garage door closed, ask your local agency in a calm moment ahead of any emergency. Many agencies publish preparedness material for residents in rural areas, and some hold community meetings before the season peaks. Bring your questions and write down the answers.

The rest of this note assumes you have the time to do the simple things, and that nobody is telling you to leave this second. If you are told to go right now, go. A house can be rekeyed and a door can be replaced. Nothing about a lock is worth delaying your exit.

The easiest way to avoid forgetting something is to walk the same route every time. Start inside and work toward the vehicle. That way your last act is closing the front door behind you with the keys already in your hand, instead of hunting for them on the porch.

Rehearse the route once in daylight when nothing is wrong. It takes a few minutes, and the difference it makes under stress is large. People who have walked it once tend to do it almost without thinking, the same way you check the stove before leaving for a trip.

Here is the route most households settle on.

• Gather the key pouch from the go bag and confirm it holds your vehicle and house keys.
• Close interior doors and windows if the guidance says to, then check that sliding doors are latched.
• Take the family out through the door you will lock, and keep the key in your hand.
• Lock the front door with the key rather than the thumb turn, so you know it is engaged.
• Move to the garage or gate only if instructions say to, and leave them the way you were told.
• Get in the vehicle and put the key where you can reach it without searching.

This is the question we are asked most, and the honest answer is that it depends. A locked door slows an opportunist and keeps weather and animals out. A door left unlocked can be useful if responders need to enter, but it also leaves your home open to anyone else. Different households and different agencies land on different answers.

What we can say is practical. Keep a spare key with someone you trust outside the area, so that a person can enter later if needed. If your local agency asks that doors be left unlocked in certain situations, follow that. If you choose to lock, use the key so you know the deadbolt has thrown all the way, and check that the bolt extends into the frame. Our note on how deadbolt throw length affects real security explains why a full throw matters.

Rules and expectations around access vary by community, landlord and insurer, and we do not give legal advice. If you rent, check what your landlord wants done with doors during an emergency. Our list of landlord and tenant lock questions to ask is written for exactly that kind of conversation.

Whatever you decide, decide it once and write it down. A household that argues about the front door while the car idles loses precious attention. A simple line on the card in your go bag, such as lock with the key and keep the spare with a cousin, ends the debate before it starts and lets everyone move.

Many homes have a garage door that opens with a motor and a remote. When the power fails, the motor stops, and the door may refuse to move. Almost every opener has a manual release, usually a red cord with a handle, that disconnects the door from the motor so it can be lifted by hand. Learn where yours is and what it does before you need it.

Be careful with that release. Garage doors are heavy, and the springs that balance them are under high tension. Do not touch the springs or cables. If a door will not move, or sounds wrong, call a garage door professional rather than forcing it. Pulling the release is a common household task, and the springs are not.

The door from the garage into the house is a lock question as much as a door question. Our guide to garage entry door security covers how to treat that door so it protects the house even while the big door is open. If you use a keypad on the garage, remember that keypads depend on batteries and power, so keep a physical key in your pouch.

A gated property adds questions. If the gate is powered, an outage can leave it stuck shut or open, depending on how it was built. If it is manual, a padlock or chain holds it closed, and the person with the key becomes important. Responders and neighbors sometimes need to move through, so think about how that would work at your place.

Talk with your neighbors in advance. Who has a key to the gate, and who is going to be away? Is there a spare in a lockbox that more than one person can open? A short list of names beside the phone does the job. Our guides on farm gate keys and who should hold them and ranch hands and shared keys suggest simple ways to keep that list.

If the guidance from your local agency says to leave a gate in a particular way, do that. If you are not sure, say so when you ask. Gate hardware is not complicated, but a cut chain or a broken lock on a bad day is an avoidable complication, so decide the approach before the season, not during it.

Keys that matter on the road belong on your person, not in a bag buried under blankets. Vehicle keys go in a pocket or a clipped spot you can reach. The house key goes with the pouch. Wallets, phones and any medication stay close, but keys in particular are small enough to drop and hard to find in the dark.

A phone stores more than numbers. It holds a photo of the key tag list, of your vehicle registration if you choose to keep one, and of your insurance card. Photograph the front and back of every vehicle key, since the stamped numbers can sometimes help a locksmith. Our note on reading the stamp on a key and what it tells you explains what those marks can mean.

If you set up a go bag in advance, this is where it pays off. Our field note on the wildfire season go bag and where your keys belong walks through what to pack in the key section. On evacuation day your only job is to grab it and go.

If you have a safe at home, think about where its key lives. A safe key on the same ring as the front door key makes sense only if that ring is coming with you. Otherwise, keep it in the pouch, and tell one other adult where the pouch is. Small decisions like these keep the day from feeling like a scavenger hunt.

Households with more than one vehicle have more keys to coordinate. Decide ahead which vehicle each driver takes and where its key lives. Assign a person to each key so there is no scramble at the door. If one vehicle is a work truck with tools, think about whether it should stay or go, and whether anything in the toolbox needs to be locked.

A trailer, camper or livestock rig adds hitches, couplers and locks. A locked hitch can be a problem when you are in a hurry, so keep its key with the tow vehicle key, not in a separate drawer. Our notes on trailers and hitch locks and RV and camper locks walk through the common types and the habits that keep them manageable.

If you drive an older vehicle with a plain metal key and a newer one with a smart key, the smart key will need a charged battery and a fob that is physically in the car. Test it ahead of time. A fob that cannot start the vehicle is one of the most common surprises people report.

Evacuation often means a parking lot, a relative's driveway, or a shelter site. Those are places where keys get locked in cars, because you are tired, distracted and carrying more than usual. Make a habit of keeping the vehicle key in your pocket and checking it every time you step out. If the car is running while you load it, stop and check before you close the door.

Our guide to keys locked in a running car explains what to do if that happens. If a child or pet is inside a locked vehicle, call emergency services first. Do not wait for a locksmith in that situation. Once emergency crews are on the way, a mobile locksmith can help with everything else.

If you are staying at someone else's home, be a good guest with their keys. Take a key if they give you one, return it when you leave, and do not copy it. Our note on leaving a spare key with a neighbor, thoughtfully explains the same courtesy from the other side.

When an order lifts and you can return, go slowly. Before you unlock anything, walk around the exterior and look at the doors, windows and gate. Note anything bent, scorched or missing. Take photos for your records. If a door has been forced or a lock looks damaged, do not assume the house is safe to enter, and contact the proper authorities first.

If you are missing a key, or if someone else held a key during your absence, consider whether it is time for a change. Rekeying makes the old keys useless without replacing the hardware, and lock repair can address a lock that was knocked or stressed. Smoke and ash can change how a lock behaves, which our note on ash and smoke damage to locks and keypads covers.

If something is wrong and you need a hand, we cover the whole region. Send a note through the request form, and tell us what you found. We would rather know early than have you struggle alone with a door that will not open.

None of this works if it exists only in your head. Write the order of operations on a card, put it in the go bag and tape a copy inside a cupboard door. Walk through it with every adult and older child in the home, once, in daylight. The first time takes five minutes. After that it takes seconds. Children who are old enough can take a small job, such as carrying the pouch to the car or closing the interior doors, which gives them something steady to hold onto.

Revisit the plan when something changes. A new vehicle, a rekeyed door, a new lock after lock installation, a new caregiver or a teenager who just started driving all change who needs which key. Put a reminder on your calendar before fire season starts each year, and treat it the way you treat a smoke detector battery.

We cover communities from Redding to Yreka, and we know how different a hillside property is from a downtown apartment. If you would like to talk through what a sensible plan looks like for your place, our team is happy to help. See the 24 hour emergency locksmith page for how we work.