What would YOU do in bad weather?

[WarriorPrincess90]

So, after a lovely morning at Repticon (despite the rain) and after getting my gecko settled in her brand new enclosure, we ended up with Tornado warnings. Yes, warnings. I live right off the USF campus, and just a couple hours ago the Tornado sirens were going off. We were preparing to hunker down in the walk-in closet and I found myself wondering what to do with all my animals. Should I move the tanks in the closet? Or just bring the snakes and the gecko and the cat? Luckily, we made it through without having to answer those questions. But I realized that I had never considered what I would do in such a situation. :/ It was stressful and a little unnerving. We still have a Tornado warning in effect, but the weather seems to be lightening up a bit for now. Tornado problems aren't common in my area, so I never came up with a plan to deal with it.

So my question is...what would you do in this situation? Have you come up with a plan for your animals in a bad weather situation? (If not, you should! Save yourself the moment of panic.)

[Quantum Constrictors]

I live up in Canada so we barely ever have tornadoes. Especially in Ontario. But since my house burned down I have wondered the same thing. Back then I had my cat and my cockatiel. Now I have those 2 plus 5 snakes,2 lizards and a tarantula. So what I have done is gone to the dollar store and got small tubs that will fit 1 snake or lizard comfortably with good locking lids. So it kinda feels like a hide to them. I soldered a bunch of holes in em just like tubs and presto my snakes and lizards all have escape pods now. That and I have snake bags beside my snake rack as well.

Hope this helps

[JaGv]

i live in houston where some years we have those bad hurricanes that we are advised to evacuate. i guess since you mention im going to have to think up a plan you never know how mother nature is going to act

[mackynz]

1. Go outside.

(Sirens go off.)

2. Stay outside.

(See funnel cloud.)

3. Stay outside.

(Tornado touches down.)

4. Move all animals and small humans to basement.

5. Go outside.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Once tornadoes sirens go off you generally have a limited amount of time to take cover.

For someone who has 1 or 2 snakes having snake bags handy by the tubs/glass tanks would be an easy solution allowing them to quickly grab their animals and take cover.

Someone who has many animals, breeders and hatchling it would be impossible to do so.

[WarriorPrincess90]

1. Go outside.

(Sirens go off.)

2. Stay outside.

(See funnel cloud.)

3. Stay outside.

(Tornado touches down.)

4. Move all animals and small humans to basement.

5. Go outside.

Funny story...when the tornado alarms went off, I didn't know what they were. My friend told me "That's the tornado alarm!" My response? "Are you sure?" And then I walked outside to check...then periodically walked back outside to check again. Lol. I can't hear anything over the stupid traffic noise outside my apartment...so I needed to go outside to listen. I think I'd like to move away from a big road. Too much noise! But I definitely need to come up with an emergency evacuation/shelter plan for my animals and I in case of emergency. I never thought of it until now. At least not for this situation. Fire evac is very different than a tornado. I planned for "In case of fire", but never "In case of Tornado". :/ Our Tornado watch has just extended to 5am. So much for a good night's sleep.

- - - Updated - - -

Once tornadoes sirens go off you generally have a limited amount of time to take cover.

For someone who has 1 or 2 snakes having snake bags handy by the tubs/glass tanks would be an easy solution allowing them to quickly grab their animals and take cover.

Someone who has many animals, breeders and hatchling it would be impossible to do so.

Very true. I don't have too many animals, so I think I may set some snake bags next to the tanks just in case. My fiancé can grab the kitty and I can put my crestie in a tub. In this instance, I am very glad I don't have more animals.

[SaintTawny]

Here in Delaware the weather doesn't seem to get as extreme as often as it did when I lived in OK, but I know there's still a slight risk of hurricane weather or even the miniscule possibility of tornadoes. I just can't help but laugh every time someone says "OMG we're in a tornado warning" because I'm used to ignoring the sirens. Even though I lived in OK for 11 years or so, I only ever took shelter once, and that was only because I was living in a trailer at the time. We brought the dog, but I suppose we figured the cats were SOL since they were outside.

Now that I have 5 balls, two geckos, a rabbit, a rat trio plus pups, and a puppy, plus the boyfriend's dog and 50-some corn snakes, I suppose we ought to have a plan. All of my snakes could pretty quickly be stuffed into pillow cases, and even though some of his are in racks, they all have lids that clamp on securely. The vast majority of his snakes are in loose tubs with lids on stacked in convenient places around the room. Getting the tubs to safety would be an arduous task, but the biggest problem would be the rodents/lagomorph. I'm pretty confident we could pack all the reptiles in under 5 minutes if necessary and get them all down to the car in 15. Thankfully my car has ridiculous amounts of storage space. I seriously brought home a dining room table and 4 chairs in it, with room to spare.

At least we have heat packs for winter power outages.

[therunaway]

Here in WV, I usually don't have to worry about much, just the Winter power outages, and the summer storms which occasionally knock out the power. I guess I would grab three tubs, put each snake in one, get my cat in his carrier, & my dogs stay outside & have their dog house which is under the house partially. As I live in a trailer & not a technical house, I would be totally screwed in case of a tornado or hurricane. But our big ole' mountains would have the tornado playing pinball, at least where I'm located, there is a mountain right across the road from my house, let's say 35 feet, and there is another that's about 160 feet behind me. :p

[Toxic Tessa]

We had a tornado a couple of months ago and had to evacuate our apartment. It was very ill timed as I had just ordered some reptile heat packs for emergencies a few days earlier and they had not arrived yet! Considering I have only one snake though, it was pretty easy. I put on an inside-out hoddie and then stashed Kaa inside of a small pillow case which I put in the front pocket of the hoodie. By putting it inside-out there was less of a fabric barrier. In a nutshell, I pretty-much used my body as a UTH.

Now that I have those pads though, I can just put her in a tub and go.

[Kodieh]

I live in Oklahoma, have since I was born. Your light rain is my tornado. It doesn't bother me to be in really bad weather. Hell, we had softball sized hail earlier this month down south! You'll quickly find, I feel, that of you remain calm and can read a map that you'll know when the turd is even close to hitting the fan. Besides, sirens don't always actually mean tornados. 20 years and I've been within 100s of yards and 100s of miles from tornados. I'm lucky, I guess, but I've never had to make the decision to pull everyone. I probably will have a stack of "transport Tupperware" abouts so when if it needs to happen I can quickly package everyone and put them in the closet till it blows over.


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