Are You and Your Pets Prepared For An Emergency?

It could happen anytime of the day or night. . .you have to leave your home. It could be a fire, flood, or storm. Do you have an emergency plan in place for your family and especially your animals?

In this video, I spoke with Trevor Shannon, from the Roanoke City Fire EMS Department about how to make and maintain an emergency kit for your pets. The transcript is below the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN0D3EKJqRQ

Hi, I'm Beverly from the Well-Trained Dog and Pet Care, and my guest today is Trevor Shannon, Battalion Chief of Emergency Management for the Roanoke City Fire EMS Department. And today we're going to be talking about emergency preparedness, what we can do as humans, and how we can help our pets survive any kind of an emergency that might come our way. Thank you for joining us, Trevor.

Thank you for having me.

Let's just talk about a little bit, you know, a lot of us just have this, it can't happen to us mentality. I mean, I live in a home, I don't live in an apartment complex, so my neighbor next door can't forget about unattended cooking and, you know, set the building on fire. We don't live where there's wildfires prevalent like California. We don't live in Texas where there's floods, but emergencies are just that, emergencies. It could happen to us any day, any time, and we need to really be prepared.

Yeah, certainly. So I even, I was talking earlier, you know, with a group about how the disasters just in the Roanoke Valley have increased over the last five to ten years, and while it may not be a serious disaster like we had in Texas or Florida or other localities like that, you know, we've certainly seen the impacts, right? And so we're not, you know, I think southwest Virginia would be one of those communities that probably didn't think it could happen to them, especially not during Hurricane Helene, right? So you think you're far southwest Virginia, you're not on the coast, and, you know, I don't have anything to worry about, but then all of a sudden you have a Hurricane Helene come through and you have significant impacts and costs of these disasters. So, and lives lost and other things.

So yes, the disasters can happen anywhere and honestly without much warning. So while emergency management takes a lot of time and trying to prepare for all the different impacts that could hit the Roanoke Valley, it's very challenging to cover every impact that could hit the Roanoke Valley.

What can we as humans do to prepare for any type of emergency that might happen?

I think the big thing is, is number one, sign up for your community's mass notification system.

A lot of what is out now about Texas and what impacted them, very significant tragedy there, and honestly early warning was not the greatest from what we're reading right now. Again, I can't sit here and say that it wasn't in place, but a lot of people saying they weren't notified, there was no notifications. And so one thing we really try to do is get those notifications out. We want to share information as a community, as the weather services, the, you know, federal agencies that there's information to be shared. You just have to have a way to receive that information, whether it's a cell phone, a weather radio, et cetera. And the other thing is, is take the 72-hour preparedness kit serious.

You know, we've had storms hit the Roanoke Valley where people have been out of power for one, two, three days, at least in Roanoke City, and sometimes up to seven days. And they don't realize that, you know, the 72-hour preparedness kit is not just because it's a what-if and it's prepper and all this different stuff. It's because when these storms hit the Roanoke Valley fire and EMS police departments, public safety departments are going to be responding to calls all over. And we may or may not be strapped for resources to where we just can't get to you in a timely manner. So if you're just running out of food and you have to call 911 because you're running out of food, that creates a strain on the system. And so you're helping the community be more resilient by getting that 72-hour preparedness kit.

And even if you don't need it, maybe you share it with a neighbor or a friend or a relative and you support them while they don't have power. Again, it's building resilience as a community.

So let's talk about the emergency kit for a minute. What should be included? And do you go buy someone, you know, buy one somewhere? I've seen them on Amazon and things. Or should you or could you make your own?

You certainly could buy them online. You can buy kits that are pre-made. But, you know, I'm a believer in building your own because, you know, where one family may have young infants that require formula and diapers, another family may have an elderly family member that they're caring for that requires medications and other things like that. So and then there's the whole other side if you have pets and you've got to prepare for your pet to be without power for three days. And do you have enough food packaged for them? Do you have water to give them? The standing rule is a gallon of water per person per day. And that doesn't include pets.

So there's ways around the different, you know, there's ways around that gallon of water. So one recommendation we always give is fill your bathtub with water and then you can use that to maybe boil and cook or to just clean things up or something like that. You can take ice and let it melt down to, you know, there's just different ways you can be creative and do these things. But there's ready.gov is a great resource. You can go to ready.gov or you can contact me in the Emergency Management Office and I can provide you information on these 72-hour preparedness kits.

The nice thing is I've got different examples now that are in different languages. I've got them set up for, you know, you can go to that ready.gov and see that you can select maybe have infants at home or take care of elderly or, you know, hearing impaired, things like that, that you can really look at and kind of build your own kit. And the other good thing is you can build these kits for, I would say, anywhere from $50 to $100 to build a really good kit. And we recognize that not everybody can prepare three days of food where some of our lower income communities may or may not be able to provide food the evening of, right? So, there may not be dinner plans for tonight. So, we really want to look at resources to help build those out so that the community is more resilient and we can be prepared for significant events because we are going into hurricane season. Well, we've been in hurricane season, but we're certainly getting into the busier time and certainly expect to see some impacts in the coast of Virginia and inland communities.

Where do you keep this kit? Should you keep it in your car or in a closet?

Well, there's recommendations to have one in your car separate from your one in your home because if you get stuck out on the road, i.e. the winter storm that hit Fredericksburg, Virginia, you know, crippled that interstate for almost 18 hours. So, there was a lot of people stranded that didn't have food, didn't have blankets, didn't have drink, things like that. So, that's a whole other piece to this. Like, if you travel a lot and you travel interstates a lot during storms, then you want to have this same kit in your car and it doesn't have to be as extensive.

I do recommend keeping it in your closet or in a safe place that is climate controlled. However, I would also encourage you to check it at least every six months or so, so that, you know, number one, your kids didn't run downstairs and see the canned food and decide to eat it as a snack one day or your kid stole a gallon of water because he needed to fill his fish tank. You know, there's just a lot of different things there that you really want to package it up. Make sure you got dates on it so that you can look at it and say, oh yeah, I had something expiring on, you know, June 30th or June 29th and you go in and you look for that item and you replace it so that you keep it up to date.

We recommend there's different kits that you can do, but, you know, having a five-gallon bucket full of your supplies is always helpful and that way you can use that bucket for other things. And then there's, of course, there's all the locking totes and different style totes you could have as well. So, a lot of good options out there, a lot of good opportunities. You know, if you have pets and things like that, you want to make sure that's climate-controlled and secure and not going to get wet and things like that. So, you want to put it somewhere that is safe in your home, however your home is laid out and it's out of sight kind of so that the child in the home doesn't go to it as a resort for hunger or just being thirsty.

And so, it's probably close to the door too, so you can grab it on your way out because if you're in an emergency, you don't have that much time to really think and you just grab the essentials and that would be the one thing that you could grab or the last thing you grab when you head out the door. Yeah, it certainly could be, you know, if you've got three gallons of water for four people, you're talking a lot of water. So, this is things that, you know, you're preparing to be maybe without power or just away from public safety first responders for a couple of days that you have this stuff available.

So, you know, you may not grab it all, but you may have a checklist at the door that tells you, hey, if I have to leave in an emergency, here's my list of things I need and that's my phone numbers that are wrote down for all my close relatives that live nearby that I could go to. That's my medication list, that's my eyeglasses or my extra eyeglasses, things like that that you want to have and I would recommend that as maybe a list at the door or a list in an envelope that you grab in case of an emergency or storm and this is things that, you know, the Roanoke Valley, we don't typically think of or don't see very often, but certainly in areas like Florida and Louisiana, they're doing this stuff fairly regularly and unfortunately, it's going to take some type of event like Helene that happened in southwest Virginia to kind of get everyone thinking the same way.

So, that's why we're here. We're trying to educate the community and the public and really trying to encourage the 72-hour preparedness, but again, I go back to the whole sign up for the mass notification system. That's Star City Alerts for the City of Roanoke. Very good resource, very important to kind of get those messages and you can certainly reach out to me if there's any questions or needs on that.

For people who are traveling, what can they tell or what can they do for people such as us who pet sit or, you know, people who are going to their homes to see the pets? What advice do you have to tell people such as us about what to do in case of an emergency?

Yeah, I think, honestly, I think that comes down to building relationships with those individuals and understanding kind of how their home is maybe set up. If you're pet sitting and you're in their home, you know, just know how their home is set up.

Know the safe places to go. If maybe we say a tornado warning comes through and you've got a pet with you, you know, where can you go to protect yourself and the animals? Obviously, you're not going to do a full tour of the home and understand, you know, all the safety features and all the different things, but at least understand, hey, you know, yes, there is a basement. It's safe down there. There's not a lot of windows, not a lot of doors, things like that. And then, of course, do they have any extra dog food or pet food in case something were to happen and maybe power goes out and you've got to take the animal somewhere different? Is there something that's ready to go for them so that you can take with you, especially animals that are on medications? I know we see some of that.

And then there's a whole other piece. We've got a, we're a part of the community animal response team that is an organization that can support sheltering in an evacuation. So, if you have to bring a pet to a shelter, do you have all the right information? Do you have the, you know, the right licenses and things like that? And then, of course, is there any medications that they need to be aware of? So, a lot of things to think about there. Again, I think that's important to kind of have wrote down on a note so that you can take it with you and know all the information you would need.

Trevor, you had mentioned about Texas and the early warning system. I always turn my phone off at night. I just don't need to deal with it, right? How would I get a warning if my phone is off? Is Roanoke thinking of having like an air raid siren or something that when people hear that, they know?

No, there's not any real, there's no like sirens in place in Roanoke. There's no, I mean, I guess those are kind of good and bad. There's, I don't know, I guess we don't have the opportunity or the infrastructure to run something like that. However, with the cell phones, you can set them up to override silent, especially with the national weather alerts.

So, I think it's important to kind of know your phone and to look through and make sure you have those settings set correctly so that you would get those notifications, even if your phone is turned silent. And I know there are people that would turn their phones off. There's national weather, there's weather radios that are real handy. You probably don't want to be listening to that all time. But if there is a notification and we're expecting a storm, I would encourage people to keep those on and monitor either your cell phone or a national or a weather radio to make sure those notifications come through.

And finally, Trevor, you mentioned about the CART, the Community Animal Resource Team. I was a part of that back in 2012 during the Duratio. And how can people get involved if they want to join something like the CART? I'm assuming it's still active in the city. You know, what can we do to volunteer to help in case of an emergency?

Yeah, that's a great question. It is still active, and it's run by our Animal Wardens Office in the Roanoke City Police Department, but it's a close partnership with our Emergency Management Office. So, I would encourage them to either email myself, contact me directly, and or reach out to the Roanoke Police Department for the Animal Wardens. But we can certainly get you in touch with the leadership there and see how we could get others involved.

So, yeah, that team is prepared to shelter about 50 to 100 pets. So, it is a very handy resource, and it's a regional response team. So, we would support other localities if there was an evacuation as well. But certainly, as you know, volunteers are hard to find these days. And so, if there's opportunity there and there's people that want to help, we would greatly appreciate it.

All right. Anything else, Trevor?

No, I think that's covered all the important stuff. Again, I think part of it is feel free to contact us in the Emergency Management Office because we do have resources. We have a lot of really good handouts and booklets and things that you can look at and study and keep in the home secure where you have all that information we talked about. And the other thing is, you know, we didn't talk about generators. I think there's a lot of opportunity for generators in the homes. Just remember, if you buy a portable generator, we don't want them running inside. So, you want to make sure it's ventilated and outdoors. And then the whole home generators are, of course, very handy and a lot more expensive. But certainly something to consider, especially if you take care of elderly with medications, things like that, and or you have pets that would require full-time care and maintenance in a climate-controlled room.

Okay. Thank you. Trevor Shannon, Battalion Chief of Emergency Management for the Roanoke City Fire EMS Department. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you.

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Beverly Amsler is the owner of The Well-Trained Dog & Pet Care. She has been a professional dog trainer, dog walker, and pet sitter since 2014.  Beverly is a Certified Dog Trainer through the Victoria Stilwell Academy and a Certified Professional Pet Sitter through Pet Sitters International.  She is a member of the Texas Pet Sitters Association and the Association For Professional Dog Training.  Before starting her business, Beverly spent more than 30 years as a journalist for newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, and Utah. Learn more about Beverly.