All over the world, people are being impacted by natural disasters. Climate change is causing once reliable global climate patterns to shift in unpredictable ways. In Florida, it’s larger, more volatile hurricanes; in California, it’s faster, conflagration level fires. Emergency managers all across the United States are scrambling to either respond to a disaster or re-write and update their emergency management plans as the need for them balloons.
Grist.org published an article in November 2018 based on the 4th National Climate Assessment explaining how each region of the US would respond to climate change. Not all regions will be affected equally.
As our climate becomes more volatile, emergency services are impacted as its resources are being strained by responding to prolonged, deadlier disasters. And increasingly, it’s not just people they are faced with rescuing: it’s also their animals.
Founded in 1987, RedRover (formerly United Animal Nations) is a non-profit organization with the mission of bringing animals out of crisis and strengthening the bond between people and animals through emergency sheltering, disaster relief services, financial assistance, and education. RedRover focuses on providing resources for the care and safety of our furry, feathered, or scaled friends during natural disasters.
Among RedRover’s many offerings are the RedRover Responders, a team of volunteers that deploy to natural disasters or rescues for large scale events like puppy mills or hoarding situations. With over 4,000 volunteers nationwide, RedRover provides manpower, both financial and material resources, and information for pet and livestock owners in affected areas. But RedRover doesn’t just arrive at a disaster, superhero capes firmly in place. Disasters are initially managed locally. When a disaster strikes, local first responders pour into the area providing emergency aid to residents. When these local resources are tapped out, regional government organizations can request state level resources. Once those state resources have either become task saturated or are unavailable, organizations like RedRover can step in to assist. As a private organization, RedRover must be invited in by local emergency management authorities.
“We don’t just show up when there is a natural disaster. There is an order to how resources can be activated and used. We generally are invited in by a local humane society or animal control organization when they have exhausted their local and state resources,” said Beth Gammie, Director of Field Services for RedRover.
Once they are invited in, RedRover deploys volunteers to the disaster area. Volunteers do everything from assisting with staffing at shelters, providing emergency “pop-up” shelters, managing donations, and organizing distribution of supplies. As the climate changes, RedRover is deploying their resources to a mounting number of prolonged incidents.
Gammie explained, “All of us in the field have noticed that natural disasters are getting more intense, more extreme. Hurricanes are moving more slowly, dumping more rain leading to increased flooding. And the wildfires in California are getting bigger and moving faster.”
Gammie, who lives in Florida, remembers when hurricanes were predictable. “It used to be that you could depend on the hurricane notice and decide whether to evacuate. But now a Category 1 storm that was two days offshore could escalate to a Category 4 by the time it made landfall as Hurricane Michael did in 2018.”
With such unpredictable storms, more people get stranded or caught off guard by rising water levels and catastrophic winds. And more and more frequently, emergency responders are having to handle animal rescues.
“40-50% of pet owners will not evacuate if they cannot bring their animals. This is especially true with livestock,” Gammie said.
But the tide is changing. “We’ve noticed an incremental change of more awareness of people’s pets and more awareness of the reality that pets are family, and many people will not abandon them when told to evacuate,” said Gammie.
One of the most important roles for organizations like RedRover is to educate people on how they can better prepare their pets for evacuation from a natural disaster.
Gammie advises,
1) All pet owners should have enough cages or crates for all of their pets.
“Ideally one per animal as they may be spending a lot of time in the cage or crate. Make sure to have enough collars or leashes as well.”
2) People also need to have access to transportation for their animals.
“This could be a large SUV for dogs and cats all the way up to sufficiently large trailers for horses or other livestock.”
You can join RedRover as a volunteer on their website.
Article written by: Kathryn Barrett
http://www.kathryn-barrett.com
Photos courtesy of Sheri Madsen, Public Relations Specialist, RedRover
Thanks to Beth Gammie for her time and insight.
Credits:
RedRover.Org