Shelter Disaster Planning: Step by Step

How will you prepare for and respond to a disaster affecting animals?

When we hear “disaster,” we might think of floods, or wildfires, or catastrophic storms. But many smaller-scale events can have a significant impact on your organization and the animals in your care.

For example, how would you house and care for large numbers of animals seized in a hoarding case? Could you assist in caring onsite for animals found at an illegal breeding facility? What kind of help could your organization provide to another shelter that has met with disaster and asks for assistance? How would this affect your routine operations?

In all these instances, an organized, timely response is essential to saving lives and preventing further problems for animals or people. Being ready and able to respond takes careful upfront planning. By working through the steps below, you can develop a plan that is appropriate for your organization and the emergencies you may face.

Note: If some of the terms used in this article are new to you, check out our glossary of disaster preparedness terms.

Developing Your Plan
Responding to an Emergency
More Planning Resources

Developing Your Plan

The steps that follow provide a systematic approach to identifying all the factors that you address in a disaster Preparedness plan. As you complete the tasks in each step, document the decisions you make, agreements you set up with other organizations, and so on. Together, this documentation becomes your disaster Preparedness plan.

For examples of plans developed by animal-welfare organizations in different parts of the US, see our Sample Disaster Response Plans page. The More Planning Resources section at the end of this article provides links to additional information about developing a disaster response plan.

1. Establish your emergency management team.

Begin by identifying your team leader. In addition, identify staff positions in your organization that will assume various “command” functions in an emergency.

Establishing your team allows your organization to do some pre-training with those positions and the people in them. Team members will feel more comfortable and secure in their roles. This in turn allows for a more efficient and effective organizational response.

Here are additional steps you need to take to ensure that your team will be prepared to function when needed:

• Establish your own internal, organizational Incident Command Structure (ICS).
  In community emergencies, your organization will be part of a larger ICS. However, it is critical to know the command structure within your organization in an emergency. This includes reporting structure and areas of authority. For example, who makes medical decisions? Financial decisions? Staffing assignments?
  
• Identify state and local representatives, and integrate into their Unified Command.
  Make sure that your organization is included in the emergency plans for your community, county, or state. In addition to contacting government Emergency Management representatives, establish contacts with others whom you may need to work with during a disaster, or whose decisions may affect your organization:
  
  • Humane societies and other animal-welfare groups in your area
    
  • Animal control departments
    
  • Public health officers
    
  • Department of agriculture
    
  • State veterinarian
    
  • State VMA
    
  You’ll want to be sure that these parties understand both your needs and the resources you can provide in an emergency.
  
• Assign a liaison from your organization to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This person relays needs or concerns that your organization has during an emergency to the community or state incident command.
  
• Assign other liaison officers as appropriate. For example, identify and communicate with groups in your area that do rescue or recovery, and assign liaison officers who will communicate them when needed in an emergency.
  
• Identify training, certification, and licensing that your team members (including volunteers) will need to carry out their assigned roles in an emergency. The job descriptions for animal emergency responders on the FEMA website identify the specific credentials for each job.
  Establish a plan to obtain this training. Keep copies of team members’ certificates, licenses, vaccination records, etc. with your plan. Team members also need to keep their own documents on hand (storing them together in a waterproof plastic bag is a good idea).
  “Credentialing” of responders is taken very seriously, to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Responders will need to show their credentials to be allowed through roadblocks and into restricted areas.
  
• Establish a team rhythm through regularly scheduled briefings, conference calls, reports, etc.
  
• Develop a communications plan, both internal and external. Include templates for daily situation reports, media updates, and other communications.
  

2. Implement emergency public information and education programs.

Getting the word out about animal health emergency operations in a coherent, appropriate manner takes planning too. You may want to use public-service announcements (PSAs), humane education, and other educational outreach efforts to accomplish this. Your plans should address two distinct audiences:

• Private citizens:
  
  • Educate and inform citizens about existing local and state animal response plans.
    
  • Encourage citizens to develop and implement companion animal care plans.
    
  • Encourage animal guardians to keep clear identification on their animals.
    
• Internal personnel:
  
  • Educate and inform personnel about existing local and state animal response plans as well as how they, and your organization, fit into those plans.
    
  • Educate personnel about their individual roles and expectations within the organizational response plan.
  • Encourage personnel to seek out additional training in companion animal disaster response and planning.
    

3. Review state and local Animal Response Plans.

Review state and local Animal Response Plans with official counterparts in all appropriate fields, such as public health, emergency management, fire and law enforcement, etc.

• Identify/estimate animal populations of various species.
  
• Coordinate with human sheltering plans and procedures regarding pets arriving at shelters.
  
• Identify locations and points of contact for shelters with evacuated and rescued animals.
  
• Establish species-specific response protocols for all animals.
  For example, in addition to cats, dogs, and small mammals, you may be called upon to handle birds, lizards, snakes, and exotic pets who have special handling, feeding, and shelter needs. State and local animal response plans also need to consider how livestock and wildlife may be affected by a disaster and how to respond to the needs of these animals.
  
• Establish veterinary/emergency animal medicine protocols.
  
• Identify carcass disposal facilities/sites.
  

4. Establish or assure contingency contracts for animal care and support.

Establish or assure contingency contracts for animal care and support:

• Continuous supply of food, water, caging and bedding for shelter locations
  
• Sources for other emergency supplies, such as fuel for generators or dry ice for temporary refrigeration
  
• Distribution of food and water to stranded livestock and other animals, if you are designated as the lead agency under your local animal response plan
  
• Veterinary care for injured or sick animals at emergency shelters, livestock facilities and other locations where animals will likely be maintained during a disaster and to carry out humane euthanasia when/where necessary
  

5. Identify and conduct outreach to individuals and organizations that can assist in response and recovery.

Identify and conduct outreach to individuals, stakeholder groups and organizations that can assist in response and recovery.

• Establish communication and coordination mechanism (typically, daily briefings) among those groups to address animal rescue, care and recovery issues.
  
• Develop and maintain an updated roster of volunteers.
  
• Ensure that volunteers and teams have up-to-date training, vaccinations, and other requirements to be credentialed according to skills and roles and in accordance with local, state and federal requirements.
  

Under the PETS Act, volunteers must have taken the FEMA online courses: IS-100, 200, 700 and 800. Additional training is needed for specific disaster-response roles.

6. Request and/or recommend local and state mutual aid as appropriate.

Identify organizations with whom you can establish reciprocal relationships to meet emergency needs. For example, you may want to establish an agreement with shelters in other counties or states that will accept your animals if you must evacuate. In turn, you agree to accept these shelters’ animals when they are in need.

Some suggestions for agreements:

• Put them in writing.
  
  • A Mutual Aid Agreement (MAA) defines the general roles the organizations will play during a disaster. For example, “Shelter A agrees to house animals from Shelter B in the event that Shelter B is forced to evacuate during an officially declared disaster.”
    
  • A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) very specifically defines the roles the organizations may play during a disaster. For example, “Shelter B agrees to send Shelter A only healthy, vaccinated animals, up to a maximum of 20 dogs and 35 cats. Shelter A will provide separate cages for each animal. etc.”
    
• Include copies of the agreements in your disaster plan along with all the contact information for the reciprocating organizations.
  

7. Identify systems for reporting disease conditions of concern.

• Establish list of reportable diseases and injuries of specific concern for the event.
  
• Publish animal disease recognition information.
  

8. Develop post-incident rescue daily actions plans.

This step is necessary only if your organization has been charged by the Incident Commander or under a local/state plan to be the coordinating agency for rescue operations.

• Coordinate animal search and rescue activities with local Sheriff, Police Department, Animal Control Officer or other agencies as needed.
  
• Incorporate voluntary agencies/organizations.
  
• Identify transportation for animal rescue operations and distribution of feed/supplies.
  
• Identify security for animal-rescue remote field operations. In some situations, you may need unarmed or armed security staff to protect animals, people, equipment, and supplies.
  

9. Establish local security policies.

Establish local security policies regarding access to credentialed and non-credentialed responders for your organization.

10. Establish your demobilization plan.

Demobilization is the process of concluding the response to an event, including the orderly withdrawal of resources. This shift back to normal operations requires its own planning.

For example, if you have evacuated to another facility, what supplies and conditions (power, running water, habitable building, etc.) need to be in place before you can return with your animals? How will you transport your animals? What recordkeeping will you need to keep track of animals, equipment, and supplies during this time?

Responding to an Emergency

When an emergency occurs, it’s important to follow your plan as closely as possible, and to stay on top of activities both within and outside of your organization. In disasters, circumstances can change quickly, and timely, accurate information is vital.

1. Exercise agreements to procure use of facilities, equipment, supplies, and services.

It may seem obvious, but you need to follow your plan. Use the agreements you’ve put in place to procure use of facilities, equipment, supplies, and services rather than obtaining these things piecemeal. Typically, when organizations and agencies are responding to an emergency as part of an incident command system (ICS), they cannot also respond to requests for assistance from outside the ICS.

2. Monitor animal response and rescue ICS.

Address issues for individuals, groups or organizations involved in response and recovery through the daily action plan. You can do this internally as defined in your own organizational response plan. You may also need to address issues within the “bigger picture” if your agency is designated as the coordinating agency for animal sheltering, rescue and recovery efforts.

The daily action plan typically focuses on:

• Coordination of activities
  
• Reporting from the field
  
• Safety concerns
  
• Accountability
  
• Maintaining protocols
  

3. Communicate status of organizational activities to the appropriate emergency operations center (EOC).

The EOC receives daily reports, often called Situation Reports (SITREP) or Situation Status Reports (SITSTAT), from designated liaisons of organizations that have a role in the disaster response. Your organization’s report should follow the format requested by the EOC, and needs to be as brief as possible. These reports typically identify:

• Accomplishments
  
• Requirements and gaps
  

You want the EOC and other responding organizations to have current, accurate information about your organization’s activities and needs.

4. Maintain record of actions taken.

You will need this information to generate an After Action Report within your organization and as part of the wider response effort. In addition, you’ll need this record to receive reimbursement through FEMA, which may be possible if the incident has been issued a Disaster Declaration.

More Planning Resource

• Helpful Links for Professionals
  
• Training
  
• Sample Disaster Response Plans
  
• Glossary of Disaster Preparedness Terms
  

 

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