Pets And Increasing

Your Chances in Disasters

by

Jennifer Covarubio-Yarra

Do you believe in global warming? Even if you don’t believe in global warming, there is one thing that you cannot close your eyes to. What is this you might ask? Disasters. And that there seems to be more and more disasters happening that are natural, and they are becoming more intense in nature. For example:

The 2018 wildfire season, which happened to be the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season on record in California. This wildfire burned over 1,893,913 acres.

Another example of these natural made disasters was Hurricane Michael, which happened to be the third intense Atlantic hurricane that hit landfall.

Although both disasters were different in some ways, they both shared one thing in common.

What they both shared was that some of the people that went through these disasters had animals that they truly cared about.

People have learned to prepare for themselves and have places where they can go to stay safe in times of need, and if you don’t have animals it is easier to evacuate. But what if you do have animals? Then you are facing a problem. Most shelters do not accept animals.

Many people with animals do not evacuate because they do not want to leave their animals behind. These people are willing to stick it out and ride out the disaster.

A recent survey that was done stated that over 30% of people do not evacuate due to not wanting to leave their animals behind.

This is an issue that is real and not good for anyone, even if you are able to survive the disaster.

First, it makes it harder for the first responders to get to you. Second, you have just put yourself and those around you in danger. Third, your chances of surviving become minimal.

As you can see, it is not good for anyone.

My proposition is to help increase the chances of surviving a disaster for everyone, especially for those that have animals.

If we can have comfort kits for people and their animals and help them prepare now or mitigate before a disaster strikes, we are able to save more lives.

1) People will have an action plan for themselves and their fur babies in place.

2) They will know how to evacuate when a disaster is happening.

3) They won’t be separated from their animals, which will increase the number of people who evacuate.

4) They will feel more confident and be able to start the healing process faster after a disaster.

5) Animals won’t run around lost, scared, cold, hungry and put themselves and first responders in danger, and chances of survival for the animal will increase.

I would like to have comfort kits that carry in them the following

1.       Leash

2.       Disposable food bowls

3.       Treats

4.       Small toy

5.       Food

6.       Blankets

7.       Water bottles

8.       And education tools to get prepared for a disaster

9.       Places to go when evacuating

These will be comfort kits given to people who have animals to help them.

Another thing that is important is to start having pet food drives at churches or your place of work or food pantry,

Where church members or the community in general can bring in some of the things listed:

10.   Leash

11.   Disposable food bowls

12.   Treats

13.   Small toy

14.   Food

15.   Blankets

16.   Water bottles

So that more people can be aware of how to prepare and it will be a community and church effort. If a person feels that they have contributed to a great cause more people will want to be part of something and the greater number for the greater good will take place. Can you imagine what will happen the next time a disaster happens, and more people are safe and survive because we made a difference. It is a win-win situation we might not be able to save the world, but we can all do our part and start a movement and save more people.