Hurricane disaster tips
June 16th, 2016
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When a hurricane threatens, RedRover encourages residents to bring their pets with them when they evacuate. Animals left behind during hurricanes can get injured, fall ill, starve, drown from flooding, die, and hamper human evacuation and rescue efforts.
Families threatened by the storm are encouraged to:
- Bring pets along when they evacuate. Never leave pets behind to fend for themselves in a hurricane.
- Identify a place ahead of time to evacuate with pets. The best choice is to stay with friends or family outside of the impacted zone, or to make your own arrangements elsewhere. Many hotels and motels are pet-friendly, and those that aren’t often make exceptions during natural disasters. A database of pet-friendly accommodations is available at petswelcome.com or petfriendlyhotelsandtravel.com. Emergency shelters are a last resort option. Note that many emergency shelters require pre-registration.
- Identify all pets. Affix a collar with ID tag containing mobile phone number or temporary contact number (such as the phone number of a hotel or relative) to each pet so they can be more easily reunited if lost.
- Assemble an animal disaster kit that includes food, water, medications, a leash or cat carrier for each pet and photos of each animal with family members to prove ownership if they are lost.
Other hurricane safety resources:
Find more disaster tips at RedRover.org/disastertips
“For both human and animal safety, people should never their pets behind when disaster strikes,” says RedRover president and CEO Nicole Forsyth. “Animals left to fend for themselves during hurricanes or other catastrophes suffer terribly, and evacuees can compound their own stress by worrying about the pets they left at home.”
