Prepare your pets for nature's worst - Beckley Register-Herald
— Nature often turns ugly in this battered land, saturating the usually tranquil plains with too much water, splintering homes with furious winds of tornadoes and hurricanes, and shaking the foundations when the earth trembles in an earthquake.
In their haste to find a sanctuary, many displaced homeowners often forget one part of the family — the dog or the cat.
Summer Wyatt, the West Virginia director of the Humane Society of West Virginia, wants no pet left behind.
Nor does she like the idea of snatching up pets in a scramble to find safety and not leaving with prepared kits filled with pet food, water and medications.
Since September is National Preparedness Month, Wyatt is reminding West Virginians of the need to be ready in case disaster comes knocking, usually without warning.
"We've seen a ton of natural disasters in 2011, and we just had (Hurricane) Irene," she noted in an interview.
The Humane Society dispatches its own emergency services team, working in tandem with other groups, helping victims of disasters round up and care for missing pets.
A prime example of how tragedy arrives was an onslaught of tornadoes in the Deep South, devastating much of Alabama and Mississippi.
Tuscaloosa, Ala., is known best as the home base of the Crimson Tide football team, but it became synonymous with tragedy this year, and it was there Wyatt spent time helping stricken pet owners.
"It was terrible," she recalled.
"The good thing about it, what really gave me a lot of hope and really made me positive, was just how helpful people were. People were driving around, giving water because it was so very hot, and giving hot meals, and first aid for people," she said.
Small cages were distributed so families could put up pets temporarily until they resettled.
"Everybody was helping everybody that they possibly could, even though they had maybe nothing left," she said.
"That was the only part of it that was good or positive."
West Virginia generally is immune to tornadoes and hurricanes, but flooding is an annual menace, and Wyatt certainly is no stranger to that, having lived in southern counties and seen the ravages left in its wake.
"Flooding is pretty much our only natural disaster," said Wyatt, the Miss West Virginia of 2007.
"Of course, that can be just as devastating as anything else, I think. It can be deadly, especially to animals that are left behind."
Ahead of any natural or man-made disaster, Wyatt recommends pet owners be prepared with kits that contain necessities for short-term survival, until those driven from hearth and home are relocated in more permanent surroundings.
"Maybe you have two cats," she said.
"Then you put them in a carrier and place them in your car with you and take them to your aunt's home, where you're staying. Sometimes it's not as easy as that. Sometimes you don't have your own transportation. Sometimes, you have maybe eight horses, and that makes it a lot trickier to get your animals out."
Which is why one should think now, while the winds are calm, the temperature is comfortable and there's no hint of imminent peril.
"There are a lot of resources online to look at how to make emergency packets for your animals, to get the first aid kits, food, water, medications and things like that," Wyatt said.
"You have things packed in your home somewhere, so when you evacuate, you have necessities for yourself and your animals."
Floodwaters generally don't creep in without ample warning, but earthquakes come like the proverbial thief in the night. One struck in Virginia last month, sending some aftershocks across the Mountain State.
"You can't plan for that, and say, 'I think there's going to be an earthquake next week; I should plan for that,'" Wyatt said.
"But you can be prepared. And if you have to evacuate your home because it's damaged from an earthquake, you can go downstairs or wherever you keep your emergency kit and grab your family and go."
Halters that mark livestock with one's name and telephone number are vital, along with trailers large enough to accommodate farm animals, she said.
"If you have 300 head of cattle, that's probably impossible, but there are ways of marking your horses and cattle and other livestock if you simply can't take them with you," Wyatt said.
"There are paints you can buy to paint your phone numbers on the side of livestock or tagging them in certain ways to let people know they are yours. Never, ever leave livestock in a barn because they're trapped. If it were to flood or if that barn were taken out by a tornado, that's almost guaranteeing those animals to perish."
Anyone who wants more in-depth ideas on how to prepare for animal care in a crisis can go to humanesociety.org.
Or they may e-mail Wyatt at westvirginia @humanesociety.org.
Above all, the bottom line is to be ready to move on with pets and livestock before disaster comes uninvited and unannounced, she said.
"If you have a plan, then maybe you would be less panicked, and you make sure everyone in your family and all your animals would have a chance at living through the disaster and being fine," she added.
— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
04 Sep, 2011--
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