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[Haruspex_Pariah]

I just started tinkering with burrows today, and am starting to regret it.

First I built a burrow which I named Emergency Burrow.
Then I made a new alert which sends all civilians to the Emergency Burrow.
Then I activated the alert and all the civilians run there.
And that's where the problem begins.
When I turned off the alert more than 80% of the civilians went back to their normal business. But a few of them still lingered in the burrow area.
I gave them work to do, hoping it would "reset" whatever state they were in or something. Some of them left the area and didn't come back, but others are still loitering there.
I was so annoyed that I deleted the alert and the burrow. But a stubborn handful are still loitering around that area. Can anyone help?

EDIT: I managed to get all of them out and then bar the door to the room. I know they can't get in anymore, but I don't know if the underlying problem has been solved either.

[CapnUrist]

Dwarves that don't have anything to do may not rush to a meeting area right away; this also occurs with dwarves that have just finished some job (such as putting up a building) and immediately idle. It may take them a while to figure out where they're going next. Your dwarves weren't broken, just lethargic.

Do not misjudge the loyal burrow. It will serve you well in times of need.

[brucemo]

A dwarf with nothing to do will sometimes stand in a godawful stupid place, like the room you are about to flood with magma, or the place where the ambushes always happen.

[Qracle]

Mine run through the access tunnels to my reservoir, and drown beneath my dining room, then they rot away in the water that fuels the waterfall, without fail.

[Marthnn]

I've seen diggers repeatedly go back to a past dug area of a cavern when having nothing to do, just because they dug it, got stuck into the hole and were forgotten for a while. I believe dwarves get somewhat random favorite places if they stay there long enough. More so if they enjoy the place, like a waterfall room.

I've also seen my dwarves systematically use the one single artifact bed in my hospital, right next to 3 comatose paraplegics. I think I might be onto something...

[SkyRender]

 Dwarves do indeed develop "location memory" over time.  Which can be problematic if you don't keep them busy and don't block off their access to dangerous areas.  Unless you're explicitly looking for Fun, be a responsible overmind and build locked doors in front of dangerous passages you don't want your Dwarves going down.

 The best solution is to have a highly structured and centralized fortress with only one meeting area.  This way most of your Dwarves will only explicitly "remember" the dining hall, their bedroom, and the meeting area.  That makes for rather dull-looking fortresses, but also for very safe fortresses.