What would you do in a natural disaster

yoko

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#1
I know this has been talked about before but there are new people, dogs, and possibly updated plans.

I didn't want to take over the other thread with so thought I'd just make it.

In the last couple years I've been working with Yoshi. We've got to the point that when the storm radio alarm goes off *it's a freakishly loud tone before the announcement* She'll run straight to the door leading to the storm shelter and wait there. Once it's opened she's finally to the point she'll climb in and out of it on her own. I have a leash and a collar down there with copies of her vet papers.

I keep enough food and water for both of us for about a week and enough changes of clothes for the same amount of time. I have flashlights/batteries/a radio/first aid kit *human and dog*

I also have an old school nokia phone down there that I charge once a week and keep extra batteries for. Since it's amazing at finding and keeping the smallest signal which should be enough for me to call for help.

I have a couple places lined up that I could stay with Yoshi if it came down to it and a few friends who have offered to be a place to stay for both of us while I get everything figured out.

If those fall through I do have some money on file at the hotel where I stayed when my car broke down. They allow animals and I have prepaid a week and a half there in case of an emergency *natural disaster or otherwise*

Does anyone else have supplies/well thought out plans for if something happens and they need to evacuate the area/house is destroyed?
 

Laurelin

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#3
Hide in the closet? My dad's getting a tornado shelter so if possible, we'll go over to his place and stay there. With the hurricanes in TX we just stayed low for one and fled up to OK for the other. We waited out Ike and poor Summer was not having very much fun with that.

I hate tornados though. There's such little advanced warning.
 

JessLough

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#4
For natural disasters? Not really, I can't say what I'd do because I've never been in the situation.

We have a basement, we keep the ferrets carriers and leashes on their cage (actually, I should put a second one there for Nacho, though in an emergency they CAN go together), and rosey has some leashes by both doors and her collar on at all times.
 

AllieMackie

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#5
Just in terms of getting my pets to safety... all the small animals have emergency carriers/cages, and Finn has many leashes/collars. I don't tend to let food run entirely dry, but if I ever do let one run dry, the ferrets/cat/dog foods are interchangeable in an emergency situation, Yuffie can survive solely on hay for a short time.

In a Real Big Natural Disaster, it's likely the small animals would have to be left behind... I hope I never have to make that call.
 

Fran101

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#6
I would stay in the city. No car.. no way of leaving before evacuation was necessary and if it was..

He has a "go bag" which includes..
-Copy of current medical records including vax, microchip etc..
- Current care instructions
- Copy of my drivers license
- Extra leash and collar
- Extra cheap ID tags
- Picture of him/description & picture of us both together
- 2 collapsible bowls
- 3 days worth of food
- bottle of water
- Harness
- Proof of ownership
- Poop bags
- Baby wipes
- Back up plan for him.. his breeder is listed as his second contact if I can't be found. I also have two co-workers here in Boston and a family member in florida listed.
- Very basic first aid kit for him (vet wrap, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, tape, neosporin, alcohol)
- Musher's secret (paste to protect his paws)
- Dramamine (used for car sickness in people/dogs.. also a pretty good sedative)

We live in a city and don't have a car. Like with Hurricane sandy, it's fortunate in that in many cities, shelters and evacuation sites are welcoming pets/have pet plans in place. but way before that I would start with calling co-workers who live outside the cities (in homes better suited for emergencies than my tiny apartment) and whom I could contact as they have vehicles/keys to my place.
I also have family members I would go stay with if I could fly out..all over the country, with Merlin of course.

My go-bag includes.. (my mother packed this thing.. I keep it in a closet with Merlins lol it's intense)

- My medication
- Passport
- Cash
- Laptop charger
- Water bottle
- Power bars
- Rain jacket
- Socks
- baby wipes
- Underwear
- Toothbrush/paste
- Extra phone charger
- Long sleeve shirt
- Sturdy Leggings
- Deodorant
- Feminine items
- Sunblock
- Basic first aid kit
- Swiss army knife
- Whistle
- Tiny flash light
- Dust mask
- Battery powered radio
- Warm hat
- Local map
- Permanent market, notebook, duct tape
- Photos of self and Merlin
- List of emergency contacts/drug allergies
- Hand sanitizer
- Emergency blanket
- Work gloves

EDIT: Holy crap I had no idea that much was in mine. My mom is officially a dooms day prepper!!!!
 

yoko

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#7
Wow, you're prepared! You guys get a lot of tornados though, don't you?
There was a tornado that destroyed the school *right near where I live. I can see it from my upstairs* about 20 years ago I think... 91 if I'm correct. It was before I moved here so I didn't see that. But my aunt's house was completely destroyed when one when through Muskogee a long time ago and i remember going down to help her and her neighbors and it was horrible.

It's not usually full blown tornadoes but the winds get so high it does damage without actually forming a full tornado :/
 

Shakou

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#8
A couple years back, my husband and I were camping out in the woods in New England with Charlotte and our cat, Spore. Spore, who was a VERY out door savvy cat and who had grown up from the time he was very young going on camping trips with us, loved camping and NEVER went far from our site. That morning started off really nice. The sky was blue, the sun was beaming, it was warm but breezy, and we started cooking breakfast. I fed Spore and Charlotte (this was before we had Ma'ii) their breakfast, and all was well.

An hour later, I was running through the woods SCREAMING on the top of my lungs for Spore, my husband and Charlotte tight behind me, as lightning was flashing like a strobe light and hail the size of golf balls were pelting us. A freak, completely random tornado had touched down on my city with absolutely NO warning. One minute the sky was blue, the next it was PITCH black. You could see the tornado from the woods, all the way on the other side of town.

But I wasn't going to leave my cat.

We did eventually find him, hiding under a log about 10 feet from our camp, and we all got out of there safely. Spore no longer camps with us. After that incident, he went to go live with my mother in her house as an indoor cat only, and he's happy that way, as are we.

But the point is, I don't get out unless we ALL do. I'll admit, I don't have much in the ways for plans in natural disasters, but I'd risk my life in a heart beat to make sure my animals were safe.
 

Red.Apricot

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#9
We'll either drive to meet my parents at their house, drive to meet them somewhere else or walk to their house, with the dogs. They live four miles away, and in our area the only natural disasters likely to happen are fires and earthquakes, neither of which should make it impossible to get there. Luckily we're not in a floodable area.

My fish are going to have to weather the storm, unfortunately. There's no way I can transport them. There's too many of them, and the tank is too large.
 

JessLough

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#10
Oh, yah, I'll add that in a real emergency where I couldn't get back into my house for a while (say, fire), I have friends that would gladly take care of my three ferrets, since they can't be separated. If I had a foster, I could find another friend to watch that one alone.

We would probably go to Montreal where my moms family is to have a roof, and Rosey would be most welcome there. If that couldn't happen, I'd crash at a friend's with her while family went elsewhere (she can't be away from everyone)
 
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#11
Where we live we have to really only watch for forest fires. Since there is only one way in and out of town, two highways south after 30ish kms. Still only one way north...and that end in a dirt road that is pretty much impassable. If a fire were to block the highway south again we would head north, there are places to stay out there if we had too. If they fear the highway will be crossed, or the fire will reach the city they give enough notice to evacuate, which we would. They also offer flights out for those who don't have the ability to drive out. We have a shadow population of about 50,000 people living in camps around here, few of them have transportation.

Because of the natural lay out of the community if there is a fire close to the north side of the city they evacuate to my area, as is marked, if the fire is on the south side of the city we evacuate to their side, as marked. They are also in the event of flooding, but we are way to high up for that to be a concern to us.

These big freaking rivers are what the city has been built around. The biggest one is the athabasca river. If curious the area at the very top that you can barely see is where I live.
 

Southpaw

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#12
Yeah we don't even have a plan for ourselves... let alone any animals...

But as far as weather goes, we don't get anything exciting lol.
 

crazedACD

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#13
But as far as weather goes, we don't get anything exciting lol.
We didn't used to, but we had a major (major) blizzard in October 2011 that knocked all the trees down and power outages for weeks. Major tornadoes in our area earlier in 2011 that caused a huge amount of damage. We've had what, two hurricanes in the past two years (Sandy and the other one). The worst thing used to be snow here, it seems to have changed.

Hell, a few months ago someone called the police and said they had placed bombs around the school area (we are across the street) and they would blow everything up if they didn't get money or something. The police took it seriously and 'locked us down', we could leave but couldn't get back in. They didn't even tell anyone that was actually what was going on, the news was reporting a gas leak. We were getting ready to evac if requested. This was from my window.


So...point being, anything can happen at any time. Preparedness is definitely the way to go, and having a plan is absolutely necessary. I'd like to hope anything major I will have time to throw the dogs in the car and just go...even if it's a hotel somewhere.
 

yoko

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#14
We didn't used to, but we had a major (major) blizzard in October 2011 that knocked all the trees down and power outages for weeks. Major tornadoes in our area earlier in 2011 that caused a huge amount of damage. We've had what, two hurricanes in the past two years (Sandy and the other one). The worst thing used to be snow here, it seems to have changed.
A couple years ago we got the worst snowstorm I've ever seen in my life. Shipments coming in and out of the state were stopped and I'd never seen stores that empty before.

I was lucky that my neighbors had a way to cook food and they shared with me since our power went out.

You just never know when something will happen.
 

Brattina88

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#15
You just never know when something will happen.
We got effects from that crazy hurricane just recently, was without power for three days, I was going back and forth between my house and a friends to help her (and she had a generator lol) and I was glad I was prepared, even though that is a SMALL scale problem, in comparison.
 

~Jessie~

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#16
Our natural disaster here are hurricanes.

My parents live 10 minutes from the coast in South Florida, so evacuating to their house would be the worst idea.

Ian and I have had to evacuate when were in the beginning of college- his dorm and my student apartment building were forcing people to leave. We packed up his car and drove to Georgia. We called every hotel and all of them were booked, and we finally found a place with one room available for 2 nights. The hurricane was really, really slow moving, and we couldn't go home after those 2 nights- so the next available hotel we could find was in Tennessee.

It was a really fun trip. Haha. But, we didn't have any pets at the time.

Our "plan" right now would be to load all of the dogs (and the sugar gliders, who have a travel cage) into my SUV. If need be, we could all sleep in it since it's fairly large. We'd start calling all of the cabin rental companies we could find to see if we could find a place to rent. If not, we'd stay in my car until it was safe to return.

Our dogs are on raw, but we have freeze dried food and kibble for emergencies. Before hurricane season starts again, I need to put together a better "kit." As we've experienced, having to evacuate is a very real possibility. Our house is about 150 feet above sea level and isn't considered a flood risk, which is good at least.
 

Flyinsbt

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#17
I'm not all that organized, but I also only have the 2 dogs. We don't tend to get the natural disasters here, but there is the potential for earthquakes. Crazy serious earthquake is not beyond the realm of possibility.

I do pretty much always have dog gear in my car (crates, treats, etc), so assuming I'm here, I can leash them up, toss them in the car, and go. My plan, if I had to evacuate, would be to get the dogs and go as quick as possible, and count on buying whatever was needed, and probably staying in a motel. I could probably take time to chuck a bin of kibble in the trunk, and maybe a few clothes in my duffel bag.
 

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