Apocalypse Now?

In July 2011, I wrote: “2011 marked one of the West’s driest summers ever. Temperatures and winds are high, forest fires have broken out around the Southwest, including one in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains across the Rio Grande Valley from us, and there’s a new one just starting in the Jemez Mountains behind us. In 2000, our town was evacuated for three weeks from a fire started in about that same area. Satellite images showed the heavy smoke plume crossing hundreds of miles into Kansas and beyond.  A friend sat in his car in his driveway for two hours after the evacuation order was given, trying to back into the street amidst all the traffic from panicked citizens…. We returned from the three-week evacuation to find scorch marks on our deck where chunks of charred timber had fallen, and whenever the wind blew, we caught the scent of burned wood from the ash that had accumulated on the roof. I shudder to think of going through that again….”

The article begun in the paragraph above is modified below from a column I wrote in July 2011, published in the October 2011 issue of the AKC Gazette, and republished in both Pepper ‘n Salt, the magazine of the Standard Schnauzer Club of America, and the SSCA Newsletter.

As I wrote this column, I saw a thin trickle of smoke a few miles away in our mountains. By the time I was ready an hour later to hit the “Send” button to ship the column off to my editor at the AKC Gazette, the fire was raging and smoke was pouring out over the mountains and canyons surrounding Los Alamos and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, situated high above the Rio Grande on the Pajarito Plateau.

The fire started deep in the Jemez Mountains when a tall ponderosa pine, blown over by high winds, fell across an isolated power line and generated sparks that instantly ignited the tinder-dry grasses and brush below. In mere minutes, the fire had burned a swath of over 60 miles of the mixed-conifer forest, killed wildlife and some domestic animals, and destroyed many of my friends’ homes in the mountains. It spread to the neighboring Santa Clara Pueblo, where it continued to burn and smolder for months. The town of Los Alamos where I live was evacuated completely, this time for only a little over a week—but my worst fears once again were realized.

In the 21st Century, the world has seen a plethora of apocalyptic natural and not-so-natural disasters, some seasonal and some not. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, and some areas have not yet recovered. The eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington in the 1980s blanketed the Pacific Northwest in ash and left huge swaths of the volcano bare of vegetation even now. Los Alamos’s 2000 and 2011 fires demonstrated how quickly a large house can burn to the ground—a little over five minutes from an intact standing house to a pile of smoldering ashes, with only the chimneys left standing.

Mother Nature has a way of striking out at us when we least expect it, causing untold and often immeasurable destruction. As the cartoon character Pogo once said, “We has met the enemy, and he is us”—war, riots, civil unrest, and man’s inhumanity to man can also plague us. Preparation is the key to surviving catastrophes yet to come.

Your disaster plans should have preparations in the event of:

• catastrophic fires;
• house, apartment, or condominium fires;
• catastrophic floods;
• hurricanes;
• tornadoes;
• earthquakes;
• tsunamis;
• mudslides;
• drought and famine;
• volcanic eruptions;
• disease, plagues,pestilence, and epidemics;
• rioting and military intervention;
• war.

Having a disaster plan prepared and an emergency kit already assembled well in advance of a disaster can mitigate the effects of the disaster for you, your family, and your furry companions. If you must evacuate, take your pets with you—despite the heartwarming stories shown on post-disaster television, most animals left behind during disasters are never reunited with their families, and many die.

• Designate a family member to be responsible for each dog or cat.
• Pack an emergency kit for each family member and for your dogs and cats, and keep them near your exit door so you can grab them quickly.
• Specify a meeting place for people, pets, and gear both at home before a possible evacuation and after arriving at the evacuation destination.
• Choose another outside the danger zone in case of separations.
• Include a safe place to leave your pets in the event you must go to an emergency shelter: most shelters don’t allow animals.
• If  possible, shelter with friends or in pet-friendly hotels well away from the disaster area.
• Be sure to take sheets for covering beds or furniture in your shelter destination if your pet isn’t trained to stay on the floor.
• Prepare your family well in advance of any emergency.
• Make sure each pet has been microchipped and registered in a national database, and have him wear a collar with both current rabies tags and your ID and contact information.

In addition to microchips, we also have ID tattooed on the inside of each of our dogs’ right thigh. For our own dogs, each dog has his/her AKC registration number because most veterinarians and shelter workers recognize the format of AKC numbers; the AKC has a database with breeder and owner information (be sure to let the AKC know if your contact information changes). If your pet does not have an AKC registration number, select a single word or number for all your pets’ tattoos that is both easily recognizable by rescue workers and is likely to remain unchanged for the life of the pet (phone numbers or addresses often change, for example, but social security numbers do not).

Your dog’s (or cat’s) emergency kit  should include the following:

• his medical records and vaccinations in a waterproof zippered bag;
• food and water for a week’s stay, a water bowl, and food bowls for each animal
• necessary medications, with instructions for use;
• written prescriptions from your veterinarian for any prescription medications your dog is taking; remember that your source for these medications could be destroyed in the ongoing catastrophe;
• a first-aid kit including a muzzle, antibiotics, bandages, thermometer, etc. (see http://www.akc.org/pdfs/clubs/template_evacuation_kit_for_pets.pdf);
• warm blankets in case your dog goes into shock;
• treats and toys to reduce your dog’s anxiety level;
• leash, tagged collar and/or harness, and crate with bedding;
• towels, blankets, disinfectants, odor controllers, plastic pick-up bags, paper towels, other sanitation supplies, and large plastic bags for general disposal;
• several recent photos of you with your pet(s)  in a waterproof container for identification if your pet gets lost;
• combs, brushes, waterless shampoo, towels, and other interim grooming supplies;
• a list of contact numbers outside the disaster area for veterinary facilities, kennels, animal shelters, pet-friendly hotels, and friends and relatives with whom you might stay during the emergency;
• a list of national emergency help information, such as poison control centers, veterinary hot-lines, and so on.

Include in your own emergency kit:

• clothing, food, water, and whatever else each of your family members need for at least a week away from home—and remember that in some disasters, your home may be destroyed;
• all medications, including prescription bottles;
• written prescriptions from your doctor for refilling your prescription medicines elsewhere;
• cash, credit cards, checkbooks, bank books,negotiable securities, and other financial account information so you have access to funds in case of a long evacuation;
• a laptop computer, power cord, and recharging cord;
• cell phone and recharging cord;
• a hand-cranked or solar recharger or power supply for your laptop, cell phones, and other electronic devices;
• a hand-cranked and/or solar flashlight;
• a hand-cranked and/or solar radio for current information about the emergency.

During an emergency or disaster,

• Keep your dogs close at the first sign of trouble.
• Don’t let them roam your property–do leashed potty breaks.
• If you have time, call ahead to make necessary arrangements away from the danger area for you and your dogs.
• Assemble pets, family, and gear at the designated place in preparation for evacuation.
• If evacuation looks imminent, head out before the official order is given—traffic will be lighter, drivers will be less frantic, and you will be safer.

What will happen next? When it happens, will you be ready? And what about your family and your pets? Will you all survive the disaster? The Boy Scouts have the right idea: “Be Prepared.”

Are you ready for Apocalypse now?