rosebud945
New member
Because I live along the gulf coast and because we have our fourth named storm churning toward somebody out in the gulf, I am going over my hurricane plan. I thought I would start a convo about it here because it is over 100 degrees here right now and I am procrastinating on doing my outside chores! 
I have been through one hurricane (that I remember), two evacuations and countless tropical storms in my lifetime here, which means that I have had to deal with power outages, emergency transport and shelter location, etc.
So, here is what I do, and I hope that others will add their own ideas about dealing with crisis, natural and otherwise, that affect our animals and short term husbandry. Much of this will be stating the obvious for those of you who do reptile shows, but I hope show people might have additional tips for traveling with animals.
Evacuations -- Plan to be out of the area for hours up to weeks depending on what it is you are evacuating from and how bad conditions are following the crisis.
Power Outages -- Plan to be without power for hours to as much as weeks. My house was dark for two weeks after Alicia and some people in this area went without power for over a month after Ike.
Transport containers -- At the start of hurricane season, I start putting together transport containers for all of my animals. I bought lots of glad and rubbermaid food containers the year of Rita and Katrina for my lizards, and travel cages for the birds. The food containers are different sizes, one per tank/viv, and they are stackable. When I had to evacuate, I grabbed my cloth grocery bags and was able to stack several of those containers in each, which made carrying them to the truck, in and out of the hotel, and in and out of the places that were providing shelter for my animals easy.
Temporary portable housing -- I bought various large sizes of Rubbermaid bins that are also stackable and nestable for transport. I took my screen lids from tanks to put over the bins when we got where we were going and I set up my animals for the short term. I took my lamps and bulbs, or you can buy bulbs on the road. Remember that uvb is not that critical short term. Your animals can go for weeks without it before health issues start to develop, so a few days or even a few weeks without it is fine for them, so don't waste cargo space trying to carry extra fixtures for uvb if they don't produce heat as well. In the case of power outages, heat dependent animals can be sunned in these setups as well. For my birds, I bought some travel cages off of craigslist. The thing to remember about these is that you want them to be big enough to house your pet comfortably for as much as weeks, and if you have a biter, like my big grey sock monkey (cag) you need to make sure the food and water cups can be accessed from the outside.
Cold or hot packs -- A MUST if your animals are either heat or cold sensitive. One of the saddest lessons learned in the Rita evacuation was that several million people cannot quickly leave an area, so it took me 27 hours to drive 200 miles. That was average and pet mortality was very high. Make sure you have Cold packs to use if you have heat sensitive animals and vice versa, whether you are evacuating or just facing power outages.
Food -- When you pack your animals to transport in the case of an evacuation, be sure to pack feed, feeders, and medications as some of these things are not easily picked up on the road.
It is a very good idea to have all of these things earmarked and or ready in case of an emergency. When a hurricane, fire, etc is barreling toward your area, it is hard to think about everything, so at the risk of sounding like a corny PSA, run from the water, hide from the wind, and if you run, don't forget your rubbermaid bins!
I have been through one hurricane (that I remember), two evacuations and countless tropical storms in my lifetime here, which means that I have had to deal with power outages, emergency transport and shelter location, etc.So, here is what I do, and I hope that others will add their own ideas about dealing with crisis, natural and otherwise, that affect our animals and short term husbandry. Much of this will be stating the obvious for those of you who do reptile shows, but I hope show people might have additional tips for traveling with animals.
Evacuations -- Plan to be out of the area for hours up to weeks depending on what it is you are evacuating from and how bad conditions are following the crisis.
Power Outages -- Plan to be without power for hours to as much as weeks. My house was dark for two weeks after Alicia and some people in this area went without power for over a month after Ike.
Transport containers -- At the start of hurricane season, I start putting together transport containers for all of my animals. I bought lots of glad and rubbermaid food containers the year of Rita and Katrina for my lizards, and travel cages for the birds. The food containers are different sizes, one per tank/viv, and they are stackable. When I had to evacuate, I grabbed my cloth grocery bags and was able to stack several of those containers in each, which made carrying them to the truck, in and out of the hotel, and in and out of the places that were providing shelter for my animals easy.
Temporary portable housing -- I bought various large sizes of Rubbermaid bins that are also stackable and nestable for transport. I took my screen lids from tanks to put over the bins when we got where we were going and I set up my animals for the short term. I took my lamps and bulbs, or you can buy bulbs on the road. Remember that uvb is not that critical short term. Your animals can go for weeks without it before health issues start to develop, so a few days or even a few weeks without it is fine for them, so don't waste cargo space trying to carry extra fixtures for uvb if they don't produce heat as well. In the case of power outages, heat dependent animals can be sunned in these setups as well. For my birds, I bought some travel cages off of craigslist. The thing to remember about these is that you want them to be big enough to house your pet comfortably for as much as weeks, and if you have a biter, like my big grey sock monkey (cag) you need to make sure the food and water cups can be accessed from the outside.
Cold or hot packs -- A MUST if your animals are either heat or cold sensitive. One of the saddest lessons learned in the Rita evacuation was that several million people cannot quickly leave an area, so it took me 27 hours to drive 200 miles. That was average and pet mortality was very high. Make sure you have Cold packs to use if you have heat sensitive animals and vice versa, whether you are evacuating or just facing power outages.
Food -- When you pack your animals to transport in the case of an evacuation, be sure to pack feed, feeders, and medications as some of these things are not easily picked up on the road.
It is a very good idea to have all of these things earmarked and or ready in case of an emergency. When a hurricane, fire, etc is barreling toward your area, it is hard to think about everything, so at the risk of sounding like a corny PSA, run from the water, hide from the wind, and if you run, don't forget your rubbermaid bins!
