There's been a disaster. You want to post a message on a social networking site to show your sympathy for the people who were affected by it. You write:
My heart goes out to all the victims of this tragic event.
disaster, idioms, sympathy, victims, written English 
There's a huge news story that's been going on. TV channels keep discussing it again and again. You're talking to a friend in another country about this news story, and want to describe how it's being shown on the news. You say:
There's been non-stop coverage of it on all the news networks.
TV, disaster, news, perfect aspect 
There's been a huge news story going on this week. You've been really interested in that story, so you haven't been able to stop watching the news. Now you're talking to a friend about this news story and want to explain how much you've been watching it. You say:
I've been glued to the TV all week.
TV, disaster, idioms, news, perfect aspect 
You're an administrator at a school. You're giving a presentation to the teachers about your school's plan for what to do in an emergency. You start by telling them the most important point:
First and most importantly, you need to make sure that all your students are accounted for.
clauses, disaster, emergency, lists, natural disasters, plans, presentation, teachers 
You're watching a news broadcast that is talking about a volcano which has started to erupt. The announcer is now giving some more details about the volcano. She says:
All residents within a 5-kilometer radius have been instructed to evacuate their homes.
"Residents" are the people who live in a place. This is a technical word that you hear a lot in news, on official government documents, etc.
In mathematics, the "radius" of a circle is the distance from the middle of the circle to the outside:
In the example above, the newscaster says that residents "within a 5-kilometer radius" had to leave. That means that anyone who lives 5 kilometers or less from the volcano has to leave.
People talk about things that are "within the radius of" something important. For example, you can describe the things that are close to where you live or work:
I love living downtown. I've got everything I could possibly need within probably a two-mile radius.
You'll also hear "within a ___ radius" when people are talking about bombs or other dangerous things:
It has a blast that will flatten anything within a hundred-foot radius.
This phrase describes something that people in authority have told you (or someone else) to do:
I've been instructed to report tomorrow morning at 9:00 for jury duty.
Our situation is really desperate at work. All the managers have been instructed to start going down the list of their employees and looking for places where they can make cuts.
It's a formal and official-sounding expression.
To "evacuate ___" means to leave a place quickly because of a disaster or emergency. Some examples are:
You can use the word "evacuate" with a word after it like this:
As the bombing started, people tried to evacuate the city.
Or you can avoid putting something after "evacuate":
As the bombing started, people tried to evacuate.
disaster, formal, government, natural disasters, news You're talking with a coworker about a large oil spill. She is talking about how big of a problem it is. You agree, so you say:
Yeah, it's a huge environmental disaster.
agreement, disaster, environment, news, problems You're volunteering for a charity that helps victims of the earthquake in Haiti. You're asking for donations on the sidewalk in a busy part of town. You ask each person who walks by:
Excuse me, we're taking up donations for the Haiti Relief Fund. Do you have a moment?
There was an earthquake while you were at work. Your office building is messed up and everyone is confused about what to do now. You think the most important thing is to find out if anyone is injured or needs help. You say:
Our top priority right now is making sure that everyone is OK.
