You may never have to evacuate your home or shelter in place. But in the event you live in an area that even has potential, you MUYST prepare early so you are fully prepared for you AND your dog(s). I live in an area affected by hurricanes and have had to learn and become educated thoroughly to the extreme readiness it takes to ride out this intense natural disaster. We have opted not to evacuate with each hurricane, but our area only has potential to lose electricity, lose clean water source, and possibility to become surrounded by flood waters.

Many of you are in the path of fires, hurricanes, volcanic eruption, tropical depressions, avalanche…these can sometimes be even worse than hurricanes…and even threats to an area due violent activity. Therefore, you need to have a full plan in place that includes, but is not limited to, each of the following circumstances:
1. Remain in your home (shelter in place by choice with preparation time)
2. Remain in your home (shelter in place due to no ability to leave safely)
2. Evacuate with plenty of time to make any reservations necessary – your decision to leave is made days ahead of “event”
3. Evacuate last minute (e.g. fire) – you have minutes to leave and are usually notified by police and all media sources that it is mandatory evacuation

Make a detailed checklist for each scenario, then have it accessible just in case. Know where everything is located and if you are in areas again that have seasonal events, such as hurricane season, best ideas are to have your emergency pack (or bug out gear/bag) ready and at least know where everything is located so you may stay safe and keep your pets safe as well.

Here are 3 sample simple checklists not all inclusive and especially for our ME dogs, but they give you an idea of how to do this: