While we have a scanner-monitoring plan and subscribe to an emergency email system for extreme weather warnings, please do not assume we have received advanced warning of an evolving situation. Regardless, we will remain on stand-by alert until notified by the incident lead agency that we need to mount an actual response. If we make the decision to begin preliminary staging based on our own information, we still may not officially open an evacuation facility for the incident until notified to activate by the agency in command for the incident.

When a neighboring county may need our assistance, our scanner-monitors can usually give us advance notice; sometimes we receive an alert contact from another agency. In this case, we may mobilize to assist the neighboring county on their territory per a mutual aid agreement, but we would still wait for an official request from our own county command agency before opening a shelter in this county.

As soon as neighborhood roadblocks or human evacuation alerts are considered, please contact us to confirm that we have a response effort in progress. It is often advisable to evacuate animals ahead of people, particularly in the case of dairies or horse barns, so as to avoid risking human life or limb during a hurried response and to avoid clogging human evacuation routes.

You can notify the Animal Response Group IC or the dispatcher on duty; either will initiate our response. Please do not assume we have received your message until you have talked to either the IC or the dispatcher in person; it is fine to leave messages and utilize pagers, but only live contact ensures the message has been received.