Response
Response. The first 24–72 hours. Evacuation and immediate safety. Adrenaline is carrying you right now.
If you are here right now, you are doing the right things. Focus on safety first.
Get to safety, find emergency shelter, and take care of the immediate physical basics. Everything else can wait.
- Emergency shelter and a safe place to sleep tonight.
- Water, food, medication, a way to charge a phone.
- Let one person know where you are.
Adrenaline narrows your focus to survival. You may feel oddly calm, or scattered, or like you're watching yourself. All of it is your body doing its job.
- Tunnel vision and time distortion are normal here.
- You don't have to feel the full weight of this yet.
- Decisions can be small. Just the next right thing.
If you're safe but watching this unfold, the helplessness, and even the guilt of being okay, are their own kind of hard. That counts here too.
If you're here right now, you're doing the right things. You don't have to process any of this today. Safety first. Everything else can wait.
No wrong answer. Pick whatever's closest.
Looking for something you can do right now? Explore self care →
What you can do now
Right now is about safety, not solving everything. One next thing at a time, and the rest can wait.
Emergency shelter and evacuation support from local organizations. You don't have to plan the whole week, just tonight.
See shelter & evacuation help →When you can't sort through options, 211 is a real person who connects you to the right service.
Call or text 211 →Water, food, medication, a way to charge your phone. Small and immediate.
See food & water →One text to one person. That's the whole task.