ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 24, 2011) \u2013 With Hurricane Irene\u2019s approach to Maryland, it is important to include pets and livestock in your disaster preparedness plans. Disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, can occur at any time.\u00a0 The time to prepare for these events is before they occur.<\/p>\n
According to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), Maryland is a hurricane prone state. Hurricanes can and have impacted the state as far from the coast as Western Maryland with “inland flooding” of freshwater creeks, streams and rivers due to intense rainfall.\u00a0 After a large and strong storm, heavy wind and water damage can be expected in coastal areas.\u00a0 Hurricanes can spawn tornadoes, flooding, flash flooding, hail and lightening.\u00a0 Most of the fatalities from hurricanes and tropical storms are due to inland floods, and most of the victims are children.<\/p>\n
If you must evacuate, remember to take your pets with you and have a plan on where to send them.\u00a0 Red Cross shelters do not allow pets.\u00a0 Maryland has a Pet Sheltering Plan, which will activate when mass care evacuation centers open.\u00a0 If you need to locate a shelter for your cat or dog during an emergency or disaster, listen to the radio for instructions from local civil authorities, or contact the county emergency operations center for the location of a pet-friendly human shelter or other pet shelter for your pet. Anyone in the agricultural community who needs assistance should contact their local emergency operation center. For a list of local emergency management offices<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) recommends the following for domestic pet owners to respond to pet\u2019s needs quickly and safely in the event of disaster evacuation:<\/p>\n \u201cYour animals depend on you to be prepared in the event of a disaster situation,\u201d said Maryland State Veterinarian Dr. Guy Hohenhaus. \u201cTake the extra time now to create a comprehensive disaster plan to ensure the safety and well-being of you, your family and your pets and livestock.\u201d<\/p>\n MDA recommends the following for farmers to prepare for hurricanes or tornadoes that may impact their area:<\/p>\n The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) offers a disaster preparedness booklet \u201cSaving the Whole Family,\u201d which details information on disaster planning for small and large animals. The brochure is available here<\/a> for download in English and Spanish. The AVMA also offers a video version of the brochure available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more information about disaster planning, contact the Maryland Emergency Management Agency at 1-877-MEMA-USA or log on to www.mema.state.md.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n #\u00a0 #\u00a0 # ANNAPOLIS, MD (August 24, 2011) \u2013 With Hurricane Irene\u2019s approach to Maryland, it is important to include pets and livestock in your disaster preparedness plans. Disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, can occur at any time.\u00a0 The time to prepare for these events is before they occur. According to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[155],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-hurricane-irene"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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