What does "evacuation" mean?

The past few days have been a bit of a stressful blur, but nowhere near as stressful as it's been for the thousands of San Diegans who lost their homes during this week's fires. Almost exactly four years ago, our community was the worst hit by the Cedar Fires, so when we got evacuated (look at meaning #4a under transitive verb and meaning #1 under intransitive verb) on Monday, there was a lot more fear and understanding of how fast windblown fires can travel and how much devastation can follow in their wake. Very fortunately Mother Nature spared our home again and didn't touch our community. For detailed coverage of the recent events, check out Wildfires 2007.