Emergency Contingency Plans

[katparks]

If you will allow me, I have a soapbox to get on.

*clears throat* Ahem!

EMERGENCIES CAN COME UP AT ANY TIME. BE PREPARED IN ADVANCE!

*gets off soapbox*

Now, the back story to my reminder... Friday, everyone started talking about snow. Saturday, I fretted and worried while Jason told me it wouldn't amount to much and we made plans to rototill the garden after the snow melted. Early Saturday afternoon, I went to Chem lab planning on being out before the snow started, best guess was between 4 and 5. It wasn't even 3 when the first person cried "Snow!" and I looked up to see over half an inch on the ground already. By the time we finished lab and Jason came to pick me up, there was already maybe 2 inches on the ground.

My paranoia had paid off -- Baby and the buns all had sufficient food and water for the weekend, "just in case" we couldn't get back there, everyone having been taken care of that morning. So we holed up at my mother's house, made dinner, and when the power went out, we sat around playing board games by candlelight, while I asked Jason to call the house every hour to see if they still had power. (No one was home, but they still use an old-fashioned answering machine... So no power, no answering message.) My mother's house lost power around 7pm. The house with Baby and the buns lost power somewhere between 10 and 11. Around that same time was when the first tree fell on the gas tank outside. A visit from the fire department later, we determined we weren't in immediate danger of blowing up the house, but Jason was standing on the porch listening to a tree explode every couple minutes.

In the morning, neither house had power yet. I thanked everything I could think of that I had just bought a travel cage for Baby, and we went to brave falling trees and downed power lines and a state-declared State of Emergency to make it up there and bring him back to the house that had the gas fireplace and stove to heat it. The buns have plenty of fur, so they just got checked on to make sure they still had plenty of water and food. Of course, never really thinking about what I would do if a disaster happened (still new to this whole parrot thing, and kind of fell into it by accident, so please don't hold that against me) nothing was set up, I had nothing ready, and my only saving grace was that the travel cage was on the table next to him, the intention being that I was going to introduce it to him slowly, take him on a "trip" to the other room first, then take him on a trip literally down the road to visit his favorite person ever, so that it wouldn't be a scary bird-eating cage when I needed to take him to the vet. Needless to say, none of that happened.

His toes were cold to the touch when I got there. I was terrified. Luckily for me, I had two things in my favor: first, that the living room had big windows, and was at least 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, and second, that Baby isn't afraid of ANYTHING. I held the travel cage up to his cage, and he came over and climbed right in. No hesitation, no second-guessing. He went in the warm living room while I had to pack a bag of "stuff" for him. Being a person who likes being ready for anything, I planned on up to a week, not knowing that later that day The Powers That Be would announce it might BE up to a week without power. A couple toys, food, and treats later, I was all packed up, we warmed the car back up, and we headed back to my mother's house.

My mother has dogs and cats. Much bigger dogs than Baby's seen before (miniature dachshunds, he's used to). They got locked up while we brought him in and got him situated by the fireplace. The cats... Well, the cats aren't important, because they were so terrified of him that all but one stayed out of the room altogether. The next couple days involved a lot of shuffling pets around, making sure everyone was safe (especially from each other) and stayed warm.

We were lucky. It's Tuesday now. We had power at my mother's when we woke up this morning, Jason's house got power back a little later, Baby went home this afternoon, and we had cable and internet when we got back to my mother's to start assessing damage. What would I have done if we hadn't gotten power back until next Saturday? What would I have done if the temperature had plummeted below what the fireplace could warm? What would I have done if the gas tank had been punctured? What would I have done if the big tree next to the kitchen HAD come down and taken out part of the house? I have no idea. That's a scary feeling. I have no idea how I could possibly have kept everyone safe and warm. What if the water had been contaminated, as happened just north of me over the summer? Or if one or the other house flooded? Or if there was an earthquake? What if something happened to me?

So... back on my soapbox now... PLEASE have contingency plans. Have a bag packed with essentials. Have copies of vet records. Know where you can go if an emergency happens. I was lucky, this time around. But I hated being helpless, I hated not having any idea what I was doing or how I was going to deal with the situation, and you can bet I'm not going to leave it to luck next time.

I'd love to hear what kinds of emergency plans each of you have in place. Along with having a bag of essentials packed at all times, I'm going to start a binder to keep vet records, phone numbers of shelters, et al in. And ask around my friends to see who has apartments/houses that might be bird-friendly in an emergency. Still no idea what I'd do if a major earthquake happened, though...

 

[noblemacaw]

I am glad things went rather smooth during your emergency. I have had plenty of my own since I got my first bird in 1991.

I live in MN which can have some very cold winters. It was New Years Eve 10am with temps at ten below zero 1991. I was working out on my treadmill and felt kind of light headed with only working out for a few mins. I looked up at the vent and saw black soot on the ceiling and knew right away by how I felt and with how the vent looked that the furnace was putting out noxious gas. I was so scared that I just took my cockatiel, shoved him into a crown royal bag set him on my chest, zipped up my winter coat and ran outside to where my car was parked praying it would start because I have not gone anywhere in a couple of days. The car turned over right away so I began to drive around warming up the car trying to decide what to do and where to take my cockatiel.

Finally I worked out that I should take him to the vet to get him checked. I knew it was open until about noon that day so I drove him to the clinic and explained my dilemma with the suspected furnace problem and why my bird was inside my coat stuffed in a crown royal bag. They took my bird and checked him out and he was just fine.

Meanwhile my sister called NSP emergency and had the gas man come out to check furnace. The diagnosis was the heat exchanged cracked and very high levels of CO2 was being put into the home. I could not bring my bird back to the house but needed to take him somewhere else and I had to have this figured out by the time the clinic closed.

I went home, made some phone calls (before cell phones were available) and arranged to stay with a friend. I loaded up a overnight bag for me, travel cage, food and water for my bird and went back to get the bird. We ended up staying at a friends house until the furnace was fixed. Never in my life have I ever had a furnace put out high levels of CO2. I now have a CO2 detector on the same level as my furnace.

I live in MN and straight line winds and tornadoes can get quite common. I live in a town home that has NO BASEMENT. First time ever I have lived in a place with no basement. Because of not having a basement I always get nervous when the weather gets bad. Once when a tornado warning was issued I was busy shoving my birds into their carriers and stacking them up in the crawl space under the stairs and crawling in there with them. This was while my roommate went outside to "look" for the tornado.

I stayed in there until the threat passed. I also know if anything at F3 or above hits us we would all be destroyed. Is it me or have the tornadoes have been getting stronger over the years?

Anyway to answer your question yes I do have contingency plans for my animals for crap that can happen around here. The part that sucks is if I ever loose power and its winter I am screwed because the furnace igniter is ELECTRIC for a gas furnace and my gas fireplace also has an electric switch. I lost power once and the house temp started dropping fast. Right when I was loading up the birds and preparing to take them to my sister's house the electricity kicked back on. I know the parrots can take the cold better than the heat but I am always careful with severe changes in temperature.

Noblemacaw

 

[Remy]

I've been considering moving to a place with actual seasons, but this makes me second guess! I live in Southern California, where the seasons hardly change compared to you guys! We have is the occasional earthquake, which really isn't that big a deal and doesn't usually do any damage as long as fragile things are quake-holded down.

For the record, I have food, travel cage, and bird supplies in a box that are ready to go. I also have a 5 gallon bottle of water and a bunch of canned food for myself.

 

[Mayden]

It's one of those things that I've always thought about and considered what I might do, but never quite had a bag packed and ready for the occasion. We don't often get big emergencies here in the UK, maybe some flooding especially if you're near the coastline, but thats usually about it. I occassionally lay awake at night panicking about what I'd do if something happened and we had to leave immediately, what about my 6 budgies, my bunny, merlin? I know I could shove Merlin in my handbag if it was that desperate, but the others? It makes me cold to think about.

You guys have just made me think though, this month, especially with it colder and the increasing amounts of floods the UK is having each winter, I'm gonna be stocking up on pet supplies, making sure the first aid kit is WELL prepared, and making sure all cages and carriers are ready for an evac or whatever

Glad you're all okay and safe! xx

 

[katparks]

Noblemacaw, it's not you. Stronger and more prevalent. We even had a tornado here (New England) for the first time anyone can remember. Not to mention the increase in hurricane destruction, this week's freak snowstorm that prompted this whole deal, the aftershocks from the tremor earlier this year that I believe almost everyone on the East Coast of USA felt, the summer heat index going up year by year, the last frost date getting later and later every year... I don't want to debate WHY/WHO/HOW, but there's no denying the evidence that our climate is getting more erratic as time goes on. More and more disasters happening every year. More and more reasons to think about this stuff ahead of time! (And I'd be right under the stairs with you while Jason would be out with your roommate. He was actually standing out on the porch Saturday night watching the trees fall around him. Boy's gonna give me a heart attack one of these days!)

Remy, there are a lot of good reasons to live in a place with seasons... and a lot of reasons to avoid it at all costs. I can't imagine ever living anywhere else, but we do have our issues. And this year, we don't even have the pretty leaves to make up for it all!

Mayden, I'm glad I made you think about it now! Obviously I hope none of it is necessary, but I found out this weekend that there are indeed scenarios that will make me freeze up and be unable to think clearly. (Until this, including when my dad died, I'd always been the calm and collected one.) Planning in advance means it's alright if you can't think clearly... because all the thinking's been done already.