E Q U I N E AT H L E T E
Floods, fires and wind How to prepare for natural disasters By Heather Smith Thomas
hand, and easy-to-access phone numbers for veterinarians and for people who might be able to help transport your horses—especially if you don’t have a trailer, or just a two-horse trailer and six horses to evacuate. “Part of the planning is to figure out how you can get the horses quickly out of your place,” says Moore.
Don’t underestimate the power of Mother Nature. Heed warnings and be prepared.
No one wants to envision what might happen to their horses if suddenly faced with a flood, hurricane, tornado, wildfire, earthquake or some other natural disaster, but in some parts of the country these devastating events are a reality of life. Horse owners need to be prepared, and have a plan for dealing with these possibilities. Where you live will make a difference in what you prepare for. A horse owner in the Rocky Mountains won’t need to worry about hurricanes or tornadoes, but might be threatened by raging wildfire on any dry year. Rustin Moore, DVM, PhD (Dean, College of Veterinary Medicine, Ohio State University) says it pays to have a plan. “If you live where flooding or hurricanes might occur, or fires occur with regularity, you need a plan in your mind or written down so you don’t have to do a lot of thinking during an emergency. There may not be much time to figure things out, so you need an exit strategy—a plan for how to get out, safely, with your animals, and secure your place against whatever disaster you may be dealing with, before you leave,” he says. He suggests having basic first-aid supplies on
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Don’t Wait Be mindful of weather predictions and other situation reports. Tornadoes can pop up swiftly, but hurricanes, floods or wildfires usually give some lead time to get out of their way. If there’s an out-ofcontrol fire in your area and the forecast is for high winds, take heed. A fire can travel dozens of miles very fast if there is wind. “Don’t wait until the last minute, thinking that the fire won’t get to your place or might be diverted another direction, or that a hurricane will miss you or be less powerful than predicted,” says Moore. “This is what happened with Hurricane Katrina. People had plenty of time to get out, but ignored the warnings until it was too late. Part of the issue was unpredictable things, like the levees breaking, causing flooding. The hurricane itself wasn’t actually as bad as they thought it would be, but the flooding was disastrous,” he explains. Dennis French, DVM (College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois) says it’s important to have your trailers functional and serviced and ready to go at a moment’s notice whether to take your own horses somewhere or to help rescue other horses. “In our experience with hurricane Katrina when I was in Louisiana, some volunteers brought trailers that weren’t safe. A horse stepped through the floor of one trailer,” says French. You can’t just grab an old trailer that’s been sitting somewhere unused and expect it to be ready to go. Be prepared ahead so you can load and evacuate horses quickly. This means having horses trailertrained. Like a fire drill for school children, horses need to know what to expect and you won’t waste precious time trying to load a reluctant horse. John Madigan, DVM, UC-Davis, says that if there’s a warning about a flood, fire or some other
