With last week's 7.2 earthquake off the California coast (initially reported as a 7.4 quake), there was a tsunami warning for the whole west coast. Though they downgraded it within an hour or so and our local emergency personnel never did call for an evacuation, I decided to get out of town on my own. I live in a town on a long, narrow peninsula, and there is only one way out of town for the thousands of residents and tourists here. Though I thought there was a low risk, my feeling was that if I waited until an evacuation was ordered (in the remote event it did happen), there was a slim chance that the thousands of people would make it out in time. I was unprepared myself, so I left without my cats, and spent the night with my stepdaughter, 40 miles inland.
Next time I want to be better prepared. The local emergency departments offer a list of items to include in an emergency "kit" for humans, but I wonder if you folks would help me itemize a list of things I should have ready for my cats, so I could just grab the "kit" and my cats and jump in the pickup, should this happen again. Currently I only have one carrier large enough to easily get a cat in quickly. (I have a second, but it is smaller, and is a bit more unpredictable as to how fast I could get a cat in it.) And I have three cats. Here is what I have on my list so far:
carriers for each cat
bottled water
dish for the water
cat food
dish for cat food
litter box
litter
plastic bags for dirty litter
pooper scooper
Am I missing anything? The cats and maybe me, too, would have to live in the covered back of a pickup for a couple of days or maybe longer if a tsusami were for real and I made it as far as the named evacuation site for this area. Because of the geography of the area, it is possible we could be cut off from "civilization" for a week or longer.
Next time I want to be better prepared. The local emergency departments offer a list of items to include in an emergency "kit" for humans, but I wonder if you folks would help me itemize a list of things I should have ready for my cats, so I could just grab the "kit" and my cats and jump in the pickup, should this happen again. Currently I only have one carrier large enough to easily get a cat in quickly. (I have a second, but it is smaller, and is a bit more unpredictable as to how fast I could get a cat in it.) And I have three cats. Here is what I have on my list so far:
carriers for each cat
bottled water
dish for the water
cat food
dish for cat food
litter box
litter
plastic bags for dirty litter
pooper scooper
Am I missing anything? The cats and maybe me, too, would have to live in the covered back of a pickup for a couple of days or maybe longer if a tsusami were for real and I made it as far as the named evacuation site for this area. Because of the geography of the area, it is possible we could be cut off from "civilization" for a week or longer.