Using public emergency shelters, warming and cooling centres

During evacuations, heatwaves or cold spells and long power cuts, authorities and aid organisations often set up organised shelters. Depending on the situation they are called emergency shelters, assembly points, warming centres or cooling rooms. Schools, sports halls, community centres or other public buildings are often used for this.

Such places offer more than a single household can improvise: warmth or coolness, drinking water, toilets, up-to-date information and often care from helpers. For older, ill or isolated people this can make the decisive difference.

How such services are organised and announced differs from country to country and municipality to municipality. That is why it is worth knowing in advance which channels your local council uses to inform people in an emergency.

Get information from official sources: warning apps, radio, the council's website, loudspeaker announcements and notices. In crises, rumours spread quickly on social media and can be wrong – for example about locations, times or closed roads. Follow instructions on evacuation routes and closures.

Decide in time. When an evacuation is ordered, leave at once. In cold or heat, do not wait until the home has become dangerous – especially when children, older or ill people are with you, because they are more vulnerable. Those who go early usually get there more easily and are more likely to find a place.

Register on arrival. That way relatives and authorities can find you. Also say there if you have special needs, such as regular medication, a disability or a device that needs power.

Because places and facilities in emergency shelters are limited, it makes sense to bring your own basics. Most important are medication for several days, important documents (ID, insurance papers, medication list), charger and power bank, glasses or contact lenses and toiletries.

Add a change of clothes, a blanket or sleeping bag, snacks and a water bottle, baby supplies for families and food and lead for pet owners. Whether pets are allowed differs from place to place – check with the local council beforehand or listen to the announcements. A small battery-powered radio helps when power and networks fail.

The easiest way is to pack such an emergency bag in advance. Official guides explicitly recommend this. Then in an emergency you do not have to think, just grab it.

Emergency shelters are meant for emergencies, not for immediate danger to life. In acute danger, breathing difficulty, confusion from cold or heat, or suspected carbon monoxide, call the local emergency number (112 in the EU) at once. Carbon monoxide is suspected, for example, when a room is being heated in an improvised way and several people get headaches, dizziness or nausea.

Before you leave, secure the home as the authorities instruct: switch off appliances, close windows and doors. Tell relatives or neighbours where you are going. On the way, cordons and instructions from emergency services apply, even if another route would be shorter – walking or driving through flooded streets, for example, is dangerous.

Many people cannot hear or read warnings, have no car or cannot manage the journey alone. Talk to neighbours who live alone or have limited mobility and offer help – with packing, with the journey or simply with information. Neighbourly help like this is among the most effective things of all in a crisis.

In the shelter itself there is little privacy, and it can be noisy and crowded. Patience, consideration and following the house rules make living together easier for everyone. Anyone who can stay with friends or relatives outside the affected area relieves the public shelters – but should still tell the authorities where they are if that is required.