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Ferlita: County Needs More Hurricane Shelter For People With Pets

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 12, 2008

TAMPA - As another hurricane season looms, Hillsborough County needs to do more to provide shelter for people and their pets, Commissioner Rose Ferlita told a group that works to improve disaster plans for agriculture interests and animals.

The county has two hurricane shelters that accept pets, and that is not enough, Ferlita said.

That's an increase from the one shelter in 2006 that accepted pets.

"We need to do more than two shelters," she told the Community of Hillsborough Animal and Agricultural Response Team that met Monday.

The nonprofit group's aim is to provide contacts and gather resources for the county's agricultural industry in case of a hurricane. The group also works with the county to refine the part of its disaster plan that deals with animals and pets.

Surveys conducted after evacuations found some residents did not leave because they could not take their pets to shelters.

The commission appointed Ferlita last week to form a committee to examine how the county's emergency plan complies with federal legislation requiring state and local emergency management agencies to incorporate provisions for pets in their hurricane plans.

If the county doesn't comply with the legislation, Hillsborough may not be eligible for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for expenses related to evacuating and sheltering people with their pets.

Work needs to be done in that area, she said.

The county has two shelters where residents forced to evacuate can bring their pets, but space is limited compared with the estimated 500,000 pets in Hillsborough, even though not all are in evacuation zones.

Those shelters need volunteers, too. The American Red Cross, which usually provides staffing for shelters, does not handle pets.

To help with that, the group called CHAART will have training sessions for volunteers on June 7 at Sickles High School, one of the two pet-friendly shelters, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Another session tentatively is set for June 14 at Burnett Middle School, the second shelter.

CHAART produced a manual for those volunteers and a checklist for compiling a pet evacuation kit.

Besides finding and training volunteers, dealing with pets in an evacuation also requires arranging transportation to the shelters for some.

The county's bus system or school buses could provide that transportation, but the school system must agree to allow its vehicles to be used and bus system drivers need to be trained on how to deal with the animals.

In addition to providing for pets, CHAART also is working to arrange plans for horse owners to get their animals to safety and help fish farms cope with a hurricane.

Hillsborough County is home to about 90 percent of the state's aquiculture industry, mainly raising fish for aquariums.

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