It’s the middle of the night when the evacuation order comes.

A care aide helps load residents onto buses, double-checks medications, and calms a nervous man who doesn't understand why he's leaving his room. Somewhere between the second bus and the third, her phone lights up. Her own neighbourhood is now on evacuation alert. Her kids are at home.

In that split second, she is responsible for people who need her at work and worried about the people who need her at home.

Has the emergency plan made room for both?

In BC, this isn’t a hypothetical exercise. In an August opinion piece for the Vancouver Sun, researcher Leah Montange described interviews and a focus group with BC long-term care workers who had lived through climate disasters. They described evacuating residents while their own households were displaced. Some spent weeks away from their families, providing care in receiving communities.

Their commitment deserves recognition. But personal sacrifice should never be part of the emergency plan, and in many organizations, it quietly is.

The assumption that breaks first

Most emergency plans are built on a fragile assumption: that the people providing care are unaffected by the crisis around them.

Whether it’s a care aide boarding an evacuation bus with residents or a home support worker navigating wildfire smoke and road closures to reach a vulnerable client in the community, the disaster hitting the people in our care is hitting our workforce at the exact same time. We cannot assume that every worker will be available, able to travel, or able to remain away from home.

For me, this is an important test of our emergency planning. We need to understand what we are asking of people and whether we have backed those expectations with support. That means building practical infrastructure for those who can stay on the job, and having a clear backup plan for when a worker needs to step away to protect their own family.

Questions every exercise should test

A hard line separates appreciation from operational support. For the workers Montange spoke with, meaningful recognition didn't look like thank-you memos. It looked like timely reimbursement of out-of-pocket evacuation costs and visibly present, supportive managers.

If your emergency plan relies on staff relocating with residents or working through a regional crisis, does it answer the operational realities?

• Who books their accommodation, and who gets them there?
• Who pays for meals in week two, so they aren't carrying costs they can't afford?
• Who schedules their relief, and where do they actually get uninterrupted rest?
• What happens when their own family gets the evacuation order?

Answering these questions before the smoke rolls in determines whether your workforce stays intact. Psychological support matters, but it can't replace a safe place to sleep, clear communication, or a relief schedule that works.

Leaders face very real constraints on staffing, funding, and regional emergency capacity. No single care organization can solve a housing or transportation shortage alone. What we can do is be clear about what we can provide internally, identify where the gaps are, and build regional partnerships before we need them.

Recovery takes longer than the evacuation

When the evacuation order is lifted, and operations resume, it is tempting to declare the emergency over.

For many workers, it is just beginning. Rebuilding their homes, routines, finances, and sense of safety takes much longer.

Good planning includes follow-up: confidential psychological support, check-ins in the weeks after, and an honest debrief of what staff needed but didn't get. (SafeCare BC's emergency response planning resources and psychological health and safety resources can help with that work.)

One thing to do before the next emergency

Before your next emergency drill, pull up extra chairs. Invite frontline workers from different roles, shifts, and care settings to the planning table.

Ask them one question:

" If an emergency affected both your workplace and your household, what support would you need from us?”  

Then ask leaders:

"How will we maintain safe care if a third of our team is dealing with an emergency at home?"

Their answers will expose the hidden assumptions in your emergency plan. It's better to uncover those gaps around a conference table than in the middle of an evacuation.