Pets Front and Center in Ian’s Rescue Efforts

Few events test our mettle more than natural disasters.

But rumbling earth, shearing winds and walls of water do more than reflect our resilience and determination. By chronicling what remains, we can peer beyond the swaths of destruction into the hearts of people rallying to save each other and their communities. We also learn how radically we’ve redefined “family.”

This week, Hurricane Ian tore cities apart and tossed boats about like plastic toys. Untold structures on Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, were leveled. Barrier islands have been cut off from the mainland as massive sections of the Sanibel causeway have been swept away. As of this writing, nearly two million homes are without power. Several dozen people have been killed, the death toll rising.

Steadied by ropes, fire crews waded into chest-deep water to retrieve residents stranded on cars and the roofs of homes. Air boats normally seen in the glades skimmed across urban lakes to pluck families from porches. People perched in trees or other less-accessible places were lifted to safety in helicopter baskets. Nearly a thousand people and more than 100 pets have been rescued so far.

What’s most remarkable about these efforts is the lengths to which first responders and ordinary people reached to save every member of a family — paws and claws included. Two days ago, the Orange County Government posted this message on their Facebook page: “Pets are family. Period.”

Local rescues were not short on gratitude. The Humane Society in Tampa tweeted, “We have such dedicated staff and volunteers staying at the shelter . . . to care for and comfort the animals during Hurricane Ian. They also brought their fur babies and families to the shelter for comfort and togetherness.”

The Washington State Animal Response Team stands ready to provide disaster relief for Florida’s shelters and rescues. The Anti-Cruelty Society in Chicago has received an overflow of animal companions from Florida shelters needing to make room for local pets separated from their families.

The private sector has jumped in to help families displaced by Ian. According to fl.gov, The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association has asked lodging establishments to lax their pet policies for residents seeing shelter. 

Such mass coordination between governments, commerce and animal advocacy groups on behalf of pets was not always the case. When the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina engulfed the parishes of New Orleans in 2005, no laws recognized pets as part of the family deserving rescue during natural disasters. People were horrified when told by authorities that, to save themselves, they’d have to leave their pets to a certain death in Katrina’s feted and festering waters.

Only after a heroic push by Animal Rescue New Orleans’ founder, Charlotte Bass Lily, did legislators reach across the aisle to pass the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006. The act requires FEMA “to ensure that state and local emergency preparedness operational plans address the needs of individuals with household pets and service animals prior to, during, and following a major disaster or emergency.”

Our climate may be changing for the worse, but other changes have given families a much better chance of riding out our storms together.