I was scheduled for a pet sit in Pacific Palisades where there have been major fires. The situation in California in which thousands of homes have been lost has made me think about how to cancel a scheduled sit and/or what to do if such an event occurs while on a house sit. Communication with HO and knowing how/where to evacuate with their pets would be difficult.
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Having been in this situation in Canada we made plans with the hosts on how we would evacuate before the sit started. The animals in question were two horses and two pigs so not as easy as putting them in the back of a car. The owners friends and neighbours were involved. Thankfully it didn’t come to that although we did have power cuts when the power lines came down close by in a small fire. The large fires missed us by several miles.
We also had a sit cancelled when the Mexican earthquake struck. The hosts house was severely damaged. He was extremely worried because we already had bought flights. We told him not to worry and to concentrate on making his home safe. The airline let us transfer the tickets.
So, it does happen and with a little thought it can be overcome.
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There are previous threads, like these:
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I was on a sit last July when a wildfire broke out very nearby. The host was excellent about communicating with me and I was able to find a hotel that accepts pets, but luckily, we did not have to evacuate. My take away from that experience was to be better prepared. For example, make sure that I know where the cat carrier is kept. That’s something I should know for any sit.
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I have never seen such an horrific bush fire disaster that is affecting California right now. Our wishes and thoughts go out to everyone affected directly and indirectly.
In my experience it is so important that the HO provides local contacts, friends or family, that can assist quickly in an emergency. Keep a hard copy of this in your bag, wallet or clothes as well as electronically. You just never know when you will need it!
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I had to cancel a sit in the Asheville, NC area, after the hurricane. They told me that everything would be fine by the time of the sit (first week of Dec) but I knew the major hwy I needed to take west to my next sit would be still out and I would have to deal with major traffic rerouting, even if they got water and electricity back on. They were upset, but found someone local to do it. Maybe the house in PP may not exist as the whole area got burned up, schools, churches, stores, all gone.
I did a sit in Crete where the HO contacted me days before I was due to fly there to notify me that there had been slight earthquake rumblings and while many didn’t develop into a major earthquake they were on alert. I still decided to sit. The HO explained the sirens would go off if the earthquake started to reach dangerous levels. I was to grab the cat basket with cat in it and get out of the building from the 2nd floor asap. She explained where to go. A nearby park that had no buildings round it. She also advised if it wasn’t safe to return to her apartment to text her and a friend from many miles away would come and get us.
Fortunately as quick as the slight tremors started, they stopped just before I arrived.
Not had any other off the cuff emergencies. But a evacuation plan is always good as you never know what natural disasters can happen.
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I’m live in CA about an hour away from Pacific Palisades. I also live in a fire zone. This is all excellent information to have. For emergency shelters, usually the high school gyms are the place to go.
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Google maps has a Crisis Alert information feature which is really useful during a natural disaster.
For example if you look at LA right now - you can see the areas affected by the fires , hotels with available rooms , road closures, emergency numbers and links to other websites with information . The map is updated hourly during a crisis ( wildfire, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes etc )
These Alerts make emergency information from local, national or international authorities easily accessible during a crisis. You can find that information highlighted on Google Maps. Examples of crisis information include emergency phone numbers, websites or map visualisations for a detailed view.
Select the icon on the map to open the alert and get more information about the crisis.
Tip: Wildfire boundaries may not appear at all zoom levels.
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We were just on the last week of a 1 month sit in LA (Pasadena) when the Eaton Fire was within 4 minutes of our location and we had to evacuate. To make matters more challenging, the two cats in our care were 3 weeks into our reintegration exercises and were still not ready to get along. Fortunately, a friend had an AirBnB for us about an hour away so we left at 2am that night. The Pet Parents were in Spain and highly communicative during this challenge. They were extremely grateful that we put the kitties at the top of our priority list. Over the next few days, the winds were high, the air quality and water quality were terrible, and the fate of their home was uncertain. We once again had to pickup and move, and were extremely fortunate that the Pet Parents had a friend in the area with another AirBnB that we could relocate to. Given all the chaos, we didn’t want to further stress the kitties with the reintegration exercises, so we kept them in separate parts of each home. We gave them each plenty of love, attention, and play time, which resulted in calm and happy kitties for us and for the Pet Parents return. Once we were back home we were able to decompress a little bit and follow-up to make sure everything was okay with the Pet Parents and kitties.
Given the circumstances, we were extremely lucky with the resources available to us. Had we not had friends in the area, we most certainly would have gone to a hotel to finish out the sit — our quick decisions regarding evacuation put us ahead of the flood of people who would be looking for shelter, so we were in a good position to find reasonable lodging (we checked just in case).
In addition, having made sure that pet carriers and a car were available for the sit was critical. I’m not sure how well it would have worked out if we had to use rideshares or public transportation.
Not having to seek compensation was also a huge plus. We are insured, but it sounds like collecting is not a smooth process, or even a guarantee.
Some key resources during our decision-making process were Air Quality, Water Quality, Fire Locator websites, and Google Maps.
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so glad it worked out so well. I flew into LAX with my daughter the evening of the 7th, we could see the fires from the plane and even smelled the smoke on the plane as we landed. The next morning, she is at USC, which is south central LA, the smoke in the air was very bad. The sky was dark gray all morning. It got better through the day as the wind changed, the smoke started blowing north. But the stories of loss, evacuation are so scary. Glad you are all safe.