Prepping For Pets

 

 

 

# 6377

 

 

Compared to the record setting pace of FEMA disaster declarations we saw in 2011, the first five and half months of 2012 have been far more tranquil. To date, we’ve only seen 13 federal disaster declarations  - about 1/3rd the number we’d seen by this time in 2011 (n=40).

 

While we can enjoy and give thanks for this period of relative disaster quiescence, we can’t expect it to last. And the simple truth is, it only takes one disaster to ruin your entire day.

 

Getting people to prepare when the sun is shining has always been difficult, but that is precisely the right time to prepare.  

 

And not only for yourself and your family, but for your pets, as well.

 

When Hurricane Katrina took aim at city of New Orleans in 2005, hundreds of thousands of people were told to evacuate on very short notice. Many of these evacuees were pet owners, and they quickly learned that evacuation busses – and most emergency shelters – were unable to accommodate their beloved animals.

 

For many, this led to an agonizing decision.

 

To stay and ride out the storm, or leave their pets behind with food and water for a couple of days, and pray they would be allowed to return in that time.

 

Something that we know, became impossible for most residents.

 

In the days and weeks that followed the storm, thousands of animals were rescued from miserable conditions by volunteers, such as those working for the North Shore Animal League.  

 

In the wake of the tragic images and heartbreaking stories of loss coming from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that year, Congress passed what is called the PETS Act, which amends the existing Emergency Assistance and Disaster Relief Act to:

 

“. . . . ensure that State and local emergency preparedness operational plans address the needs of individuals with household pets and service animals following a major disaster or emergency.

 

The PETS Act authorizes FEMA to provide rescue, care, shelter, and essential needs for individuals with household pets and service animals, and to the household pets and animals themselves following a major disaster or emergency.”  - PETS Act FAQ

 

Which means that most counties now have some availability of Pet-Friendly emergency shelters . . .  but space is always limited, some require advance registration, and not all pets owners can be accommodated.

 

FEMA has some preparedness advice for pet owners on their website:

 

Information for Pet Owners

• Plan for Pet Disaster Needs
• Prepare to Shelter Your Pet
• During a Disaster
• After a Disaster

If you evacuate your home, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PETS BEHIND! Pets most likely cannot survive on their own; and if by some remote chance they do, you may not be able to find them when you return.

For additional information, please contact The Humane Society of the United States.

Plan for Pet Disaster Needs

• Identifying shelter. For public health reasons, many emergency shelters cannot accept pets. Find out which motels and hotels in the area you plan to evacuate to allow pets -- well in advance of needing them. There are also a number of guides that list hotels/motels that permit pets and could serve as a starting point. Include your local animal shelter's number in your list of emergency numbers -- they might be able to provide information concerning pets during a disaster.
• Take pet food, bottled water, medications, veterinary records, cat litter/pan, can opener, food dishes, first aid kit and other supplies with you in case they're not available later. While the sun is still shining, consider packing a "pet survival" kit which could be easily deployed if disaster hits.
• Make sure identification tags are up to date and securely fastened to your pet's collar. If possible, attach the address and/or phone number of your evacuation site. If your pet gets lost, his tag is his ticket home. Make sure you have a current photo of your pet for identification purposes.
• Make sure you have a secure pet carrier, leash or harness for your pet so that if he panics, he can't escape.
• Animals in Emergencies for Owners This video, developed by the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) /FEMA, is intended to help pet and livestock owners prepare to protect their animals during emergencies.

 

 

And you’ll find some helpful pet preparedness videos available on the PHE.GOV’s  Youtube Channel.

 

 

 

 

To find out more information about the disaster resources for pets in your area contact your county Emergency Management Office, or local animal shelter.

 

But do it today.

If you wait until a hurricane or some other disaster is on your doorstep, you may find your options severely limited.

NOAA: The 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season in 4.5 Minutes

 
2011 Tropical Storm Tracks – Source Wikipedia

#5985

 

Today – November 30th - marks the official end of the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane season.

 

NOAA has released a 4 minute video that compresses the 6 month Altantic Hurricane season into 4 minutes and 41 seconds. It comes from the NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory, and requires Adobe Flash Player to view.

 

 

(Click image to view)

 

This description from the NOAA webpage. A hat tip to  @JustinNOAA for tweeting this link.

 

 

 

The 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season in 4.5 minutes

The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30 and produced a total of 19 tropical storms of which seven became hurricanes, including three major hurricanes. This level of activity matched NOAA’s predictions and continues the trend of active hurricane seasons that began in 1995.

 

From Arlene to Sean, Hurricane Season 2011 has been very active, leading to 120 fatalities and causing more than $11 billion in property and infrastructure damage. Surprisingly, none of the first eight tropical storms reached hurricane status, a record since reliable reports started in 1851.

 

(Continue .  .  . )

 

 

Once again, despite an unusually busy tropical season, the United States was largely spared due to favorable steering currents which kept most of these storms out to sea.

 

Only two named storms made landfall in the United States during the 2011 season; Tropical Storm Lee in Louisiana and Hurricane Irene in New England.

 

But every hurricane season is different, and what happened this year, or the year before, doesn’t tell us much about what lies in store for 2012.

 

Even with this relatively mild hurricane season, the United States has sustained a record number of Billion Dollar Plus weather-related disasters this year, proving the need for year-round preparedness, and in all areas of the nation.

 

(See Weathering Heights: Billion-Dollar-Plus Weather Disasters)

 

Like death and taxes, disasters are inevitable. A few of my general preparedness blogs include:

 

When 72 Hours Isn’t Enough

In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back?

An Appropriate Level Of Preparedness

 

To become better prepared as an individual, family, business owner, or community to deal with hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or any other type of disaster: visit the following preparedness sites.

 

FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm

READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/

AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/

Watching The Tropics

 

 

 

UPDATED:  1100hrs 09/28

A Tropical Storm warning has now been issued for South Florida and the Florida Keys.

 

 

 

# 4945

 

 

Although an active Atlantic Hurricane season, the US has thankfully been spared most of the impact from the storms so far in 2010. 

 

That may change over the next 30 days or so, as the western and central Caribbean become bigger players during October and November.

 

 

October Tropical Climatology.

 

 

 

Right now, the NHC is watching an area south and west of Cuba with an excellent chance to form into a Tropical Storm in the next 48 hours.

 

A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE OVER THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA CONTINUES TO GENERATE WIDESPREAD THUNDERSTORMS AND STRONG GUSTY WINDS TO NEAR TROPICAL STORM FORCE.  ALTHOUGH THE LOWEST SURFACE PRESSURES ARE LOCATED BETWEEN THE ISLE OF YOUTH CUBA AND GRAND CAYMAN...THE STRONGEST WINDS ARE OCCURRING A COUPLE HUNDRED MILES TO THE EAST AND SOUTH OF THIS LOCATION.  THIS SYSTEM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME A TROPICAL OR SUBTROPICAL CYCLONE BEFORE MERGING WITH A FRONTAL SYSTEM NEAR THE FLORIDA PENINSULA BY LATE TOMORROW.  AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNIT HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THIS SYSTEM LATER TODAY.  THERE IS A HIGH  CHANCE  ...80 PERCENT... OF THIS SYSTEM BECOMING A TROPICAL OR SUBTROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

 

 

Early models (which can change) suggest this system will move north or north-north-eastward across Cuba and into South Florida over the next couple of days.

 

 

While unlikely to be a major threat, heavy rains and severe weather are certainly a possibility for southern Florida, and portions of the eastern seaboard over the coming days.

 

Besides, you don’t have to worry . . .  you are already prepared . . . aren’t you?

 

Track this budding storm (and any other tropical threats) on the NHC website at:

 

 http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml

Also, if you are on Twitter, follow @FEMA and @CraigAtFEMA for timely updates and preparedness advice.

Disaster Preparedness Videos

 

 

# 4753

 

It’s a quiet Sunday morning, with very little flu-related news out there, so I thought it would be a good day to post some disaster and hurricane preparedness videos.

 

Even if you don’t live in hurricane country, many of the preparedness tips in the storm videos still apply for floods, tornadoes, earthquakes and other disasters.  

 

To start, a brief statement by FEMA director Craig Fugate.  (You can Follow FEMA and its director on TWITTER by following @FEMA and @CraigatFEMA).

 

 

 

From Sun-Sentinel.com, a major south Florida newspaper, we get this one-minute reminder of things to do before the storm strikes.

 

 

Although geared for the mid-Atlantic states, this 5-minute video from Nassau and Suffolk Counties Red Cross, in cooperation with the Long Island Power Authority, reminds people they may need to cope with utilities being out for days or even weeks after a major storm.

 

 

 

 

From the USGS Great Southern California Shakeout website,  we’ve this 4 and 1/2 minute video called Preparedness Now (Streaming | Video) that  “depicts the realistic outcome of a hypothetical, but plausible, magnitude 7.8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault in Southern California.”

 

Visit the Shakeout site (above) for more information on how you can participate in this yearly exercise.

 

 

 

While California-centric, the preparedness advice in this video could apply to any of the seismically active areas of the country.

 

 

And to round out today’s offerings, UCTV (University of California) has 4 1-hour Disaster videos available at http://www.uctv.tv/disaster/

 

 

Disaster Preparedness: Disaster Volunteerism

First Air Date: 10/26/2009

 

Disaster Preparedness: Pandemic Influenza and Emerging Infections

First Air Date: 10/15/2009

 

Disaster Preparedness: Chemical and Biological Agents

 

Disaster Preparedness: Natural Disasters

Getting A GRIP On Hurricanes

 

 

# 4709

 

 

In this case, GRIP stands for the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes field experiment NASA is conducting to try to understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes.

 

While tremendous strides have been made over the past several decades in prediction the path of these storms, far less progress has been made in predicting future intensity.

 

 

 

This was driven home in 2004 when Hurricane Charley – after crossing the Dry Tortugas with winds of 110 mph (a strong Cat 2), suddenly and unexpectedly intensified into a strong Category 4 storm (150 mph) over a period of just a couple of hours.

 

The only saving grace was that the eye of this storm was very small, and so the swath of destruction was limited.   Small solace to those in the path, however.

 

In October of 2005 Hurricane Wilma spun up from a tropical storm to a CAT 5 monster in just over 24 hours. 

 

Luckily it had lost much of its punch before slamming into the Everglades near Cape Romano, but still managed to cause 20 billion dollars of damage across Miami and much of South Florida.

 

Thousands of residents were without electrical power for 2 weeks or longer, which highlights the need for anyone who lives in hurricane country to be prepared for more than just a day or two.

 

Wilma’s path

 

NASA, which most people think of as simply a space exploration agency, it is also heavily involved in researching earth science, including:

 

• the global atmosphere;
• the global oceans including sea ice;
• land surfaces including snow and ice;
• ecosystems; and
• interactions among the atmosphere, oceans, land and ecosystems, including humans.

 

And understanding how hurricanes form and intensify are part of their job (see NASA’s  Hurricane Page).

 

Although 2009 was a relatively quiet year for Atlantic Hurricanes, NASA/NOAA have produced an almost hypnotic 4-minute video (available on the NASAexplorer Youtube  channel) showing last year’s tropical cyclone genesis.

 

 

This year, all of the forecasts (outlooks, really) are for a much more active season.   If that prediction comes true, the 2010 video ought to be a real eye-opener.

 

This summer NASA will undertake an ambitious mission to monitor the development of tropical systems using unmanned Northrop Grumman Global Hawks.  

 

The hope is to better understand how, and why storms experience rapid intensification in order to improve forecasting.  

 

As a bit of a science geek, I found this report on that mission from NASA to be fascinating.

 

 

NASA's GRIP to Take Unprecedented Look Inside Hurricanes

07.07.10

 

NASA's Global Hawk unmanned drone, based at Dryden Flight Research Center in California, will provide unprecedented, sustained observations of the formation and strengthening of tropical cyclones during this summer's GRIP campaign. Until now, manned flights have only been able to capture two to fours of data over a storm at a time. The Global Hawk will be able to make up to 20 consecutive hours of measurements. Credit: NASA/Dryden/Carla Thomas

 

 

The spinning, counterclockwise drama plays out across TV screens all summer long. Satellite images show a tropical depression forming off the coast of Africa, and the people at home invariably ask the same question as the forecasters and the scientists: Will it or won't it become a hurricane?

 

This August and September, NASA is leading an aircraft campaign that will provide a sustained and unprecedented look at the inner workings of hurricane formation and intensification. The Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment will take place from Aug. 15 to Sept. 30 and employ three NASA aircraft flying over the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea to try to answer some of the basic but still lingering questions about how and why hurricanes form and strengthen.

 

NASA has flown over hurricanes before to gather data on precipitation, winds, convection, temperature and other factors that are known cyclone ingredients. The logistical demands of doing so have only allowed for two to four hours of data collection at a time, a snapshot of a storm that could spin for days. But for the first time, scientists will fly an unmanned drone, outfitted with 3-D radar, a microwave radiometer and other instruments over tropical systems for up to 20 consecutive hours.

(Continue . . .)

 

May was National Hurricane Preparedness week, and during that month this blog devoted considerable time to the subject.  A few of my blogs on the subject included:

 

A Hurricane Reality Check

National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Day 6

NOAA 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook

The Worst That Could Happen

Hurricanes and Inland Flooding

Why I’ll Be Gone With The Wind

Storm Surge Monday

The Crossroads Of The Atlantic Storm Season

You Don’t Have To Live On The Coast