Emergency Preparedness

DotInFlorida

Senior Member
Owned by
2 cockers
May this serve in some small way as a tribute to those injured and lost (whether two legged or four) as result of severe weather. My hope is that this information may help prevent needless injury, stress and suffering.

The following caption is a copy and paste of the original post I made to start the "Hurricane Prep for Pets" thread on the weather forum I belong to.

Along with the commonsense items like food, water and medications there are several items that you should think about and prepare when you are making your own hurricane prep kits and plans:

  1. ID tag with your pets name and your phone number(s) (I have added my cell number to their tag) -- attached to a collar they will wear during the entire event -- whether you evacuate your home or not.

  2. Rabies/County license tag -- attached to a collar they will wear during the entire event -- whether you evacuate your home or not.

  3. Microchip -- If your pet isn’t micro-chipped you might consider this as it is relatively low cost. Be sure to update any info with the microchip company if they already have one.

  4. Vet records -- be sure to have a copy of your pets vaccination records in your kit

  5. Proof of Ownership -- copy registrations, adoption papers, microchip info to put in your kit. Recent photos. It is a real good idea to have a pic of yourself with your pet in case you are separated.

Written Instructions for the following;

  1. Diet -- how much to feed each pet and when along with any special diet requirements

  2. Medications -- list each pet and their medications separately. Include dosage and frequency.

  3. Emergency Contacts -- Your regular vet phone number and address, emergency vet number and address, a friend or relatives name and address.

Keep a list of pet friendly hotels handy to store with your evacuation plans and kit in case you need to leave your home unexpectedly.

The basics:

  1. 2 week supply of water and food. (don’t forget a can opener for canned foods)

  2. Collar, leashes, harness, favorite toys/blankets, treats, kitty litter, litter pan, muzzle, water and food dishes, paper towels, trash bags, travel crate/carrier (be sure to label with your name, pet’s name and your contact info)


We make this kit anew every hurricane season but I have the basics easily at hand in my safe room. I know it is not feasible to have every single item available to grab at a moments notice. Think of what your emergency in your area might be and prepare for that - even if you only keep a copy of records and a pic of you and your pet in a zip bag under your bathroom sink - it's a start. Work on it a little at a time until you are comfortable with what you have.

Ask questions, make suggestions but above all - be prepared and stay safe.

My next post will contain links related to weather information for you to save.
 
Everyone should have a link to the National Weather Service (NWS) saved as a favorite on their computer. Also check with your local office for any Droid or iPhone app.
http://www.weather.gov/ click that link and look in the top left hand corner for a box to enter your zip code or city and state. Enter that info (zip works best) and hit "GO" - that should take you to the home page for your particular area. Save that! If you are ever in question about the weather, head there first. ALWAYS heed the cautions, advice and warnings issued by any local radio, t.v. station. Those warnings come directly from the NWS.

Please purchase a weather radio if you do not already have one. They are not that expensive. Midland makes a good one. If you can't find them locally - contact your local NWS as they may be able to point you in the right direction. Of course, you can always buy them online. Their frequency also broadcasts other alerts should it become necessary.

(by the way all this applies to winter weather and such too)

Enough for now as I could go on forever. :)
 
For my horses, when we have severe weather threatened, I write their names on their sides (w/a livestock marker), along w/my name and my cell number. I won't leave a halter on them because if it were to get hung up on something, they could hurt themselves, or worse.
 
Dotty such great information. I made it a sticky, and I think Manuel was thinking of using it somewhere else on the site. I guess he will see when he's off work. I have a weather link directly on my desktop.

One other thing.. when I was caring for my Mother.. I had a DNR in her kit. That's what she wanted, so I made sure it was loacated everywhere. Including on her front and back door if she ever needed it and I wasn't home, it was there.
 
I personally keep a "ready" bag:

- Ziplock freezer bag with dog food

- small ziplock bag of treats

- 4 bottles of water, and a water bottle with a filtration system as well as a replacement filter

- copies of vaccinations/ license numbers/ microchip info/ descriptions of dogs with photo.

- two tennis balls

- towel

- injury tape/ gauze/ antibacterial spray

- extra leash & collar

I usually toss this bag in the back of my car when we go to the dog park just in case. I also always keep a spare "vet" style slip leash in my car in case I have to catch a dog.

I also always keep an XL pop-up kennel folded in my trunk area. It can hold both Apollo and Missy comfortably and I always have a XL fleece blanket and water bottles in my car because ... Well, Michigan weather.


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Lots of fantastic ideas. The kind of weather that can force you to plan this way scares me. Other than forest fires (which we usually get a decent amount of warning for) we're fortunate that we don't get a lot of weather requiring evacuation.
 
Wow!! I am impressed and will work on my kit. We have never had to evacuate home but never know when it could happen. Thank you all so much for the tips,advice and great ideas.
 
Even if you have to "shelter in place" it is a good idea to have a kit. We always have extra water stored in jugs in case we lose electric service because we have a well - no electric - no water.

That is a great carry kit Paige! Awesome job! It also reminded me of this:

We should all get one of the new filtration bottles. They are available in regular water bottle size but Zero Water has one that is pitcher sized. We have one of those and their claim is true - we have tested it. It filters really, really well. Here is a link to their site http://www.zerowater.com/ I have found their products at Wal-Mart and Target and I'm sure they are available elsewhere. I will add that if you need to use "dirty" water in an emergency you will need to boil it as these types of filters will not remove bacteria. (most won't)

Dizzy - I didn't even think about writing on the horses! That is a wonderful idea. Thank you for adding that. Do you mind if I add your suggestion to my post on the weather forum?
 
My family has well too, so we always have several gallons of water on the ready... If ever we think the power might go out we also fill two of the bathroom sinks for bathing water.

And I loved the livestock pen idea! I'm going to pass that along to friends of mine that own horses.

Tragedies like this kill me. I saw a documentary once on the animals left behind during Katrina who were adopted out; once the previous owners tried to claim them they were turned away. It broke my heart.
 
My family has well too, so we always have several gallons of water on the ready... If ever we think the power might go out we also fill two of the bathroom sinks for bathing water.

And I loved the livestock pen idea! I'm going to pass that along to friends of mine that own horses.

Tragedies like this kill me. I saw a documentary once on the animals left behind during Katrina who were adopted out; once the previous owners tried to claim them they were turned away. It broke my heart.

The after effects of Katrina is what led me to create my original Pet Preparedness thread on the weather forum. I worked with a rescue group that went in just after Katrina. The stories she told me were horrid.
 
The after effects of Katrina is what led me to create my original Pet Preparedness thread on the weather forum. I worked with a rescue group that went in just after Katrina. The stories she told me were horrid.

It was awful... A lot of it happened because no one expected to be evacuated and have the levies break...

Everything that happened with Katrina still makes me shudder. I grew up in a house with no basement so we always had a dog/cat kennel with necessary items just in case we had to go to my grandma's next door, who had a basement.

Even something as simple as having an extra bag of food and some water is better than nothing.
 
Also remember to replace things periodically. Water can actually go bad, as can food. Check the dates on your medical supplies.
 
One thing we also have in our garage is a gas powered generator because we also have a well. I'm going to add a battery operated generator that I can keep up here near the cabin. The gas one is below in our garage where our well pump is.
 
Dot, I don't mind at all. I don't recall now where I got the idea. But when both Irene came thru in 2011, and then Sandy last year, I wrote it on them-and made sure you could read it! It's not the easiest to write on a horse! I also put on that Stormy's on meds. This way, since he's a bit on the thin side (missing teeth and heeves), if the horses were to get out, anyone finding them would realize that he's not neglected, but has medical issues.

Some other things for people to think about for long time power outages. We've been lucky in that we've never lost our power for more than a day. Others not too far from here didn't fair as well. We had a bad wind storm come thru the end of June last year, then had Sandy hit the end of October. But, I know there's always that possibility. These are some tips I have gleaned over the years. Please, feel free to use and share any of them that you can.

If you have a generator, that's great-until you run out of gas. I know the gas prices after Sandy up north of here were outrageous. And, many people find that it's expensive to run them. B4 buying a generator, you need to sit down and figure out exactly how big a generator you need. Many people make the mistake of buying one that's either too large, or too small. Figure out exactly what you need to have power for. If it's just for a couple of lights, and maybe your fridge, a 1000 watt generator may be large enough. But, if you're also wanting to run a well, it's going to be too small. If you don't know how to figure out what size you need, find someone you can trust to help you decide.

When we lose power, hubby wants to run the generator 24/7. That's not needed-unless someone has a medical condition that needs the electricity. Run it for awhile in the morning, and again in the evening. This will keep food in the refigerator and freezer from going bad and save you money on gas!

Keep your freezer full. If you don't have enough food to fill it, add jugs filled w/water to fill it up. Kitty litter jugs work well. Don't keep opening and closing the freezer. Figure out what you need for the day, then remove that along w/some ice and place in a cooler. Don't use ice cubes, but some type of jugs that are prefilled w/water. They can be refrozen the next day.

If you go w/out power for a long period of time, you're going to get to the time when you can't stand yourself any longer-especially if it's hot out. I have this type of shower for when I go camping w/the horses. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Zodi...s&Ntt=shower&WTz_l=Header;Search-All+Products When I get a shower using this, I use about 3 gallons of water.

You're also going to get to the point where you run out of clean clothes. You need to do some experimenting w/this B4 you lose power. Take 2 5 gallon buckes w/lids and a mop wringer. Then, get a toilet plunger. Cut a small hole in each lid-big enough for the handle to fit thru, but not much bigger than that. Add your dirty clothes, water and deteregent to one of the buckets. (This is why you need to do some experimenting, so you know how much to add) Then, put the plunger in, and put the lid on. You want the clothes to move freely. Push the plunger up and down several times until the clothes appear to be clean. Use the mop wringer to get out the excess water, then put them in the other bucket along w/clean water. Put the plunger in, cover w/the lid and plunge it up and down several times to rinse the clothes, then run them thru the wringer again. Hang them on a line to dry and you'll have clean clothes. I'm just not sure how you can go about ironing any that need it w/out using electricity!

Hope someone can find these ideas useful.
 
Great idea on the manual washing machine! We have a generator too - and also a window a/c that can run on gen power. It gets hot down here!

I had to LOL about ironing. Not sure that would be up on my priority list.

When I get a chance I will post your thoughts about marking the horses on the weather forum.
 
National Hurricane Preparedness Week began Sunday and runs through June 1st, which is the official start date of hurricane season. While most on this board do not live in hurricane prone areas (lucky you!) I believe it would be beneficial if you could take a moment and read over some of the prepardedness plans that are available. Here is one to get you started http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/home-family and this one from the AMVA https://ebusiness.avma.org/EBusiness50/files/productdownloads/2011 STWF English.pdf

Have a great day everyone!
 
The official report for the huge tornado near OKC on May 31st is out. Winds estimated to be close to 300 mph and the width of the tornado itself broke the record at 2.6 miles wide. The next time you are out for a drive set your trip odometer to zero and see just how far 2.6 miles is. Very sobering. I posted on Robin's thread about the one chase vehicle (weather channel) being thrown 200 yds (all survived) but you may not have heard about other chasers. There was an extreme number (over 100) number of chasers out for this particular storm and I am actually surprised that more were not killed or injured due to the extreme conditions and rapid changes that occured during this event. The weather world lost a very well respected veteran (and most cautious) scientist in Tim Samaras along with his son Paul (photographer) and Carl Young (Meterologist) to this tornado. Lots of video out there if you care to Google search. Scarey stuff.

Take care all!
 
Very sad. Non-scientists, who chase storms for thrills, really bother me. There have been discussions here in Washington State about the cost of emergency and rescue services for people who mountain climb or ski in closed avalanche areas, let alone the danger it forces on the rescue crews. You can't tax stupid, as tempting as it is to try.

I am relieved to say my FB pals in El Reno are okay.
 
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