New Hanover plans hurricane shelter for pets with owners

Pet owners in New Hanover County would be able to bring their dogs and cats to a local shelter this year during a hurricane.

On Thursday, the county's Animal Control Services organized a drill with emergency management workers and volunteers to go over how the shelter at Noble Middle School would work if it becomes necessary.

County residents with pets seeking shelter would check in their dogs and cats at the school, where kennels would line the hallways.

Jean McNeil, Animal Control Services manager, said the location would be a "co-location" shelter, meaning pets and owners would stay in separate areas, not side by side.

The pets would be identified and photographed, and animal officials would care for as many as 36 cats and 80 dogs during the disaster. Owners would be required to take their pets if they leave the hurricane shelter.

New Hanover County created the plan last year but didn't need to activate it during the storm season.

McNeil said she hopes it stays as quiet this year but wanted to be prepared for housing pets somewhere other than the county's animal shelter, where pet owners traditionally have dropped off animals during hurricanes.

The shelter, which has held as many as 280 animals in previous hurricanes, still will be available to take pets.

County officials came up with the shelter plan as part of a federal requirement passed after widespread images of abandoned pets during Hurricane Katrina and owners who delayed seeking refuge from the storm because of their pets.

"People would not leave because they couldn't take their pets on the transportation vehicles," McNeil said.

A year after Katrina, Congress passed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, or PETS. In part, it required states and local governments to factor pets into disaster evacuation plans to qualify for federal emergency grants.

Brunswick County's hurricane plan is to continue opening its animal shelter. Animal Services Director Richard Cooper said the shelter has 110 kennels but added that very few people have used the option during past evacuations.

"Usually, they make other arrangements," he said.

If a Category 4 or 5 hurricane heads toward Wilmington, a state emergency plan makes Johnston County responsible for absorbing both human and pet evacuees.

Derrick Duggins, emergency management coordinator for Johnston County who attended Thursday's drill, said the coastal evacuation and shelter plan became official two years ago.

Benson, about two hours from Wilmington and at the intersection of interstates 40 and 95, already was a common stopping point for coastal evacuees.

But West Johnston High School, with 262,000 square feet of space, now will be an official destination for those coming from New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender and Onslow counties who don't have anywhere else to go, Duggins said.

The site will be able to hold 3,000 people and 500 animals, said Johnston County Animal Services Director Ernie Wilkinson, who also was at Noble Middle.

He said pet owners would be required to have proof that their animals had rabies vaccinations. Otherwise, they would be housed at the county's animal shelter away from owners.

Other Johnston County shelters would be opened or people would be moved even farther inland, depending on the number of evacuees.

"We feel confident like we can take any of these people in the Southeast part of the state," Wilkinson said. "We just pray we don't have to."

vicky.eckenrode@starnewsonline.com

Vicky Eckenrode: 343-2075