HURRICANES - what do you do with your horses?

[YellowPonyEventer]

So I just moved from Ohio to Florida about a year ago. Thankfully last year was another hurricane-free year for FL, but folks here are talking about this year being different, just because FL has been on a 10-year no-bad-hurricanes streak up until now :lol:

So anyway, I’m in central FL so the good thing for me is that at least we wouldn’t be hit quite as hard…BUT there’s always that chance and even if it winds down as it comes inland, it’s still going to be a serious storm if nothing else. So I’ve often wondered…are the horses better inside the barn or turned out during a bad storm/hurricane?

At the barn where I board, the barn itself is wood with aluminum roof. Outside in the paddocks, there are a few large oak trees and then the horses each have their own shelter (paddocks are individual), which are more for shade than anything else because they only have a top and no sides. They are wooden beams with an aluminum top.

So based on that, would you leave your horses out, or bring them in? And what are your reasons? I’ve heard arguments for both sides of this one…

[One_Two_Three]

[QUOTE=YellowPonyEventer;8668090]
So I just moved from Ohio to Florida about a year ago. Thankfully last year was another hurricane-free year for FL, but folks here are talking about this year being different, just because FL has been on a 10-year no-bad-hurricanes streak up until now :lol:

So anyway, I’m in central FL so the good thing for me is that at least we wouldn’t be hit quite as hard…BUT there’s always that chance and even if it winds down as it comes inland, it’s still going to be a serious storm if nothing else. So I’ve often wondered…are the horses better inside the barn or turned out during a bad storm/hurricane?

At the barn where I board, the barn itself is wood with aluminum roof. Outside in the paddocks, there are a few large oak trees and then the horses each have their own shelter (paddocks are individual), which are more for shade than anything else because they only have a top and no sides. They are wooden beams with an aluminum top.

So based on that, would you leave your horses out, or bring them in? And what are your reasons? I’ve heard arguments for both sides of this one…[/QUOTE]

Ohhh the ever so common “in or out” debate. I’m in florida, too, and sounds like I have a similar barn to yours. Me and the BO have a constant debate on whether they should be in or out. You should be more concerned for tornadoes and bad storms than that of hurricanes. In Hurricanes, we have many many days notice, and if you’re in the danger zone, you should pack up and trailer away to evacuate.

We never know whether to leave them in or out during storms, we had a particular nasty string run through yesterday during the middle of me turning out. This is a common occurrence in Summer in Florida, afternoon/evening storms, often severe.

We usually leave them out unless there is severe lightning. If the barn is hit, yes, that’s a fire hazard, but at least the barn was hit and not the horse, and we’re usually watching for any sort of fire during the storms. I’ve heard of several horses dying after being struck by lightning in Florida.

We have a hard time with it, but usually leave them inside when it’s really nasty. If just rain and wind, and they’re already out, they stay out.

I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. It’s kind of a lose-lose but hope for the best situation.

[findeight]

Lightening is not an uncommon cause of death for horses, you just don’t hear about it since it’s a private event, not in front of crowds and there’s no prolonged period of vet treatment everybody in the barn is aware of. Not that many lightening caused barn fires taking horse lives either, just standing in the pasture and blam, they’re dead.

Lightening you usually get at least a 12 hour warning of the possibility…and you can see the storms coming, most barns bring them in around here where we have big storms.

Hurricanes? Hitch up and visit friends in Georgia.

[IPEsq]

If it’s going to be really bad, evacuate. If not quite that bad, see if you can move to a barn that is cinder block…lots of those in the Ocala area, IIRC.

[One_Two_Three]

It’s important to remember that it’s better to be PREPARED for the hypothetical hurricane more than anything else. Particularly in the season (but any time, really) make sure you have an ample supply of things like hay, grain, and shavings. If you ride out a Hurricane, you’re going to be dealing with flooding in the aftermath…which means possibly damaged feed and hay if it’s not stored high enough, and all the retailers and providers likely having damaged goods/selling out of goods. ****WATER. CLEAN WATER. Well pumps don’t work when the electric is out. Water. Everyone forgets that.

We haven’t had a close enough call in the 5 years I’ve lived here with horses, but it’s always been discussed that if you’re NOT evacuating and you’re within the danger zone, to spray paint contact info on your horse, as well as braiding in an id tag of sorts. Many of ours are micro-chipped, but of course that only helps when whomever finds the horse has a scanner.

My biggest concern after that of lightning in any storm is blowing debris. I’m not sure if it’s quite the same in central Florida, but I’m on the gulf coast of Tampa Bay, and our afternoon thunderstorms pop up out of NOWHERE. We ALWAYS have a %chance of storms, but never really know they’re gonna pop up until thery’re here. That’s why i’d worry more about those long term than the hurricanes, since as I said before, many more days of legitimate warning there.

We have a contact up in Ocala that has several holding areas to take on evacuees, we’re on their list as being one of their evacuees in the event of needing it. It helps to try to make inland connections, if you can’t leave the area ahead of the hurricane.

[yaya]

Depends on what the biggest threat is - wind, or water. My horses spent Hurricane Katrina in the barn, but I’m on a hill far from water, and all we got were 125 mph winds (which were scary enough!). Horses in New Orleans and surrounding parishes who were in the barn drowned in the storm surges and levee breaches.

It also depends on your exposure and the prevailing winds. My barn can be fully closed up on 3 sides - N,E, and W - but is open to the south. Katrina, Georges, and a few others passed to the east of us, so most winds were from the north, so the barn was protected. Gustav passed to our west, so most winds were from the south. I came thisclose to evacuating for that one, because the winds would have gone right into the open southern stalls, but luckily we figured out a way to board up the stall bars, and we all stayed home, horses safely in the barn.

When Rita came through less than a month after Katrina, I was still without power (so no fans in the barn), so left the horses out as long as I could, but when the winds and rain kicked up, the horses all pawed at the gates to go in, so in they went. Luckily, Rita was far enough to the west of us that it was no worse than a really long summer rainstorm here.

If you stay home, definitely plan for water, and extended power outages. I ran off a portable generator powering my house and well for 28 days!

[StormyDay]

We always planned on putting the horses in the garage if one hit and we hadn’t trailered out. Most houses are CBS built and will last as long as there is not major flooding. Luckily we never had to.
Apparently when andrew came through the lady in the house before us put her horses in the bedrooms. :lol:

[YellowPonyEventer]

Good advice, thanks all! And yeah there were some BAD storms that came through yesterday and they were all outside during them. I almost left my mare in because I was out there in between the storms, but then I would have had to A) Buy her more hay so she’d have something to eat all night (they eat grass outside all night normally since they get turned out overnight) and then B) She would be alone in the barn if no one else brought their horses in which would have made her CRAZY.

The BO doesn’t live on the property where I board so unfortunately if I bring her in, she’s in all night (and then all the next day), and I live 30 mins away so I can’t just go back and forth bringing her in and out Hopefully the barn manager will be moving to the barn soon which would be AWESOME because she’s fabulous and I know she would bring them in and then put them back out if it got bad

[sassy45]

[QUOTE=StormyDay;8668645]
We always planned on putting the horses in the garage if one hit and we hadn’t trailered out. Most houses are CBS built and will last as long as there is not major flooding. Luckily we never had to.
Apparently when andrew came through the lady in the house before us put her horses in the bedrooms. :lol:[/QUOTE]

We had just moved to MN the year before hurricane andrew went through homestead florida. The house and barn we had held up, with just roof shingles that came off…grove of trees was gone as was all fencing. Most places in homestead with fence of any kind was gone…so the horses left out in pastures were roaming the country side.

Friend who lived just three house down from us,left her horses loose to go in barn if they wanted. When eye of hurricane came over she went and checked her horses 1 mare was killed the other badly injured from flying debris. She sent me pictures of her place after hurricane andrew went through…there wasn’t hardly a tree left standing.

Barn i had boarded my gelding at, barn he would of been in for hurricane. Was destroyed and all horses in there, were either killed or seriously injured. The barn was built to with stand hurricanes,well it didn’t survive hurricane andrew.

So i’d get the heck out of there if a big hurricane was forecasted.

[Ambitious_Kate]

Horses are often hit by lightning. I always bring them inside in threat of lightning. HUrricaines they come into a secure building, bank barn, cinder block garage, are tagged on the tail and I’d painted on their hooves. Large tanks or containers of water are pomade up to supply all horses water needs fro ten days in case electricity is out, hay and grain stocked, everything brought into the barn or garage including equipment. A hurricaine I would never want my horse out in, they can be injured. Y flying debris and if fence goes down they can get in a lot of trouble. I may be blocked from getting out in y truck to. Search for them, so I would put them safe. If there was risk of flood I would definitely evacualte

[OverandOnward]

Evacuations are never good, and can be horrendous for horses and people with high medical needs. But as bad as the evacuation is, it is sometimes much better than staying. Sometimes the best option is to leave early while travel is easier and places to go are available, and accept having gone to the trouble even though the storm never actually hit.

A) Once an evacuation is officially urged, the roads will be packed and travel will be agonizingly slow, difficult and HOT, even if the gov’t one-way’s some of the highways. Restaurants and gas stations will be out of gas and food and the bathrooms will be beyond capacity. People will stand out in front of them holding signs made of cardboard boxes saying ‘closed’ and ‘we’re out of everything’ and waving on anyone trying to make a relief stop. If you are going to leave, and you don’t want to deal with this (especially with horses), leave a few days early and be ok if it turns out the hurricane misses you and you could have stayed. Them’s the breaks.

B) There is no place to take your horses because every safe-area barn will be over-max with evacuees. As part of your evacuation plan, have a standing reservation for your evacuee horses at barns that are likely to be out of the path of a storm coming for you. Then, when the day comes and you have to go, know they will probably sell it out from under you to some other evacuee because they heard a pitiful story from them first. Have a fallback plan, a second and a third place to go, for every direction you might have to take depending on various storm paths. The larger the storm-affected area, the worse this will be.

B-a) Keep your cell phones charged and info up to date on possible destination barns/farms so you can call and call from the truck, while on the road, as far away as you may have to go. Have plenty of cash & cc balances ready, rates, food and horse feed may be extravagant. It’s wrong, but there will be little help for it in the moment.

C) Red Cross Shelters and many other shelters do not take pets. Plan how you will manage with your pets. If you aren’t going to a shelter, be prepared to travel far because all lodgings will even have full parking lots with people sleeping in their cars.

D) See B) above about a place to take your horses: The same is true for your relatives in nursing homes, anyone on dialysis or with a max-care medical condition. You may need to leave EARLY to be sure they have even adequate care. Anywhere you can go with them will be full. Have a standing reservation and a plan if it doesn’t hold up to the demands of the crisis. If you leave medically-compromised people behind in ANY care facility (including hospital), they may not be evacuated, and face loss of electricity (beyond back-up power), high temperatures and limited care. If the storm actually hits, the risk to the medically vulnerable can be extreme. Planning for the evacuation of the most medically vulnerable people in your life will affect what you can do for your horses at the same time. Make a realistic plan that is least likely to fall apart under crisis conditions.

E) Have high shelves and other cleverness ready so you can move goods left behind above flood level. Don’t try to take too much in the way of goods. Concentrate on food, water & what you need to survive for 2-5 days. Have waterproof storage for things such as electronics and photos.

F) Keep your fuel topped off during storm season. It doesn’t hurt anything and should a trying situation arise, it will be just a little easier to deal with.

G) Most hurricane deaths are due to drowning. Often in cars. Do not drive into any water over a road if you can’t see the bottom.

H) Live on high ground above high-flood level. Even if you evacuate, you’ll be home sooner with less to deal with. You may still have to go because of the risk of tornadoes.

Hope you never have to evacuate. If you do, best of luck with it.

[Zipsmom]

Some good information here http://www.floridahorse.com/hurricane/hurricane.html
including a list (not sure how up to date it is of farms able to temporarily house evacuated horses.

When I was in South Florida, you could reserve hurricane stalls at Tropical Park Equestrian Center. Concrete block construction. You can also check into stalls at the state fair grounds in Tampa.

As far as in or out, when I was in Homestead, the property was small and the barn was well constructed, so they stayed in. As part of our prep, we filled up lots of garbage cans with water because the power would always go out (usually for several days by the time the crews got to us) and we had no pump! Would have been nice to have a generator! Where I am here in central Florida, the property is large and the barn not so well constructed. If I were not going to evacuate (Cat 3 or lower) I would turn him out and hope for the best.

[YellowPonyEventer]

[QUOTE=OverandOnward;8669256]
Evacuations are never good, and can be horrendous for horses and people with high medical needs. But as bad as the evacuation is, it is sometimes much better than staying. Sometimes the best option is to leave early while travel is easier and places to go are available, and accept having gone to the trouble even though the storm never actually hit.

A) Once an evacuation is officially urged, the roads will be packed and travel will be agonizingly slow, difficult and HOT, even if the gov’t one-way’s some of the highways. Restaurants and gas stations will be out of gas and food and the bathrooms will be beyond capacity. People will stand out in front of them holding signs made of cardboard boxes saying ‘closed’ and ‘we’re out of everything’ and waving on anyone trying to make a relief stop. If you are going to leave, and you don’t want to deal with this (especially with horses), leave a few days early and be ok if it turns out the hurricane misses you and you could have stayed. Them’s the breaks.

B) There is no place to take your horses because every safe-area barn will be over-max with evacuees. As part of your evacuation plan, have a standing reservation for your evacuee horses at barns that are likely to be out of the path of a storm coming for you. Then, when the day comes and you have to go, know they will probably sell it out from under you to some other evacuee because they heard a pitiful story from them first. Have a fallback plan, a second and a third place to go, for every direction you might have to take depending on various storm paths. The larger the storm-affected area, the worse this will be.

B-a) Keep your cell phones charged and info up to date on possible destination barns/farms so you can call and call from the truck, while on the road, as far away as you may have to go. Have plenty of cash & cc balances ready, rates, food and horse feed may be extravagant. It’s wrong, but there will be little help for it in the moment.

C) Red Cross Shelters and many other shelters do not take pets. Plan how you will manage with your pets. If you aren’t going to a shelter, be prepared to travel far because all lodgings will even have full parking lots with people sleeping in their cars.

D) See B) above about a place to take your horses: The same is true for your relatives in nursing homes, anyone on dialysis or with a max-care medical condition. You may need to leave EARLY to be sure they have even adequate care. Anywhere you can go with them will be full. Have a standing reservation and a plan if it doesn’t hold up to the demands of the crisis. If you leave medically-compromised people behind in ANY care facility (including hospital), they may not be evacuated, and face loss of electricity (beyond back-up power), high temperatures and limited care. If the storm actually hits, the risk to the medically vulnerable can be extreme. Planning for the evacuation of the most medically vulnerable people in your life will affect what you can do for your horses at the same time. Make a realistic plan that is least likely to fall apart under crisis conditions.

E) Have high shelves and other cleverness ready so you can move goods left behind above flood level. Don’t try to take too much in the way of goods. Concentrate on food, water & what you need to survive for 2-5 days. Have waterproof storage for things such as electronics and photos.

F) Keep your fuel topped off during storm season. It doesn’t hurt anything and should a trying situation arise, it will be just a little easier to deal with.

G) Most hurricane deaths are due to drowning. Often in cars. Do not drive into any water over a road if you can’t see the bottom.

H) Live on high ground above high-flood level. Even if you evacuate, you’ll be home sooner with less to deal with. You may still have to go because of the risk of tornadoes.

Hope you never have to evacuate. If you do, best of luck with it. :)[/QUOTE]

Great advice, thank you!!! Hopefully we never end up having to evacuate in central FL, but you just never know…with a big enough hurricane it could certainly be possible. That almost worries me less than staying though, because staying would mean choosing between turnout (and they only have the electo-tape fencing at our barn which I would imagine would come down very easily - and the next door neighbor has cows with barbed wire fence which really worries me if our horses got out) or putting her in a wood barn that likely wouldn’t hold up to hurricane force winds :eek:

[YellowPonyEventer]

[QUOTE=Zipsmom;8669356]
Some good information here http://www.floridahorse.com/hurricane/hurricane.html
including a list (not sure how up to date it is of farms able to temporarily house evacuated horses.

When I was in South Florida, you could reserve hurricane stalls at Tropical Park Equestrian Center. Concrete block construction. You can also check into stalls at the state fair grounds in Tampa.

As far as in or out, when I was in Homestead, the property was small and the barn was well constructed, so they stayed in. As part of our prep, we filled up lots of garbage cans with water because the power would always go out (usually for several days by the time the crews got to us) and we had no pump! Would have been nice to have a generator! Where I am here in central Florida, the property is large and the barn not so well constructed. If I were not going to evacuate (Cat 3 or lower) I would turn him out and hope for the best.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the advice! Where in central FL are you? I am boarded out in Groveland

[Zipsmom]

I am in Lake Wales…

[IPEsq]

Another note on leaving early…

Depending on where you want to go, leaving early can help you get there when the highway counterflow plans are implemented.

For example, I was living in New Orleans when Katrina hit (luckily, no horses). I wanted to go to Atlanta to stay with a friend. That meant I needed to go on I-10 East for a bit. If I had left a little later, I-10 East would have been closed, with all traffic going west toward Texas (not at all where I was interested in going, having done a brief evacuation to Houston the year before).

[PoohLP]

First off, Central Florida is not ar from the coast in the grand scheme of things. So, if a serious hurricane hits Florida, it is still highly likely to be a serious hurricane by the time it reaches you. IN that case, your best option is to evacuate. Period.

If evacuating isn’t an option or the storm is a lower intensity storm, what you do will depend on what you have. Your main worries in a hurricane will be water and wind, not lightening. If you are low lying area prone to flooding, move the horses to the highest secure area you can, in or out. In a wind storm, given the kind of barn you have, out is probably safer than in. You do not want the horses trapped inside a building that is having the roof blown off. Best case, they could seriously panic and injure themselves. Worst case, they cannot essape wind-borne debris.

Before the storm hits, make sure you put breakaway halters with your contact information on them and also consider putting that information on a waterproof tag and braiding it into their mane or tail. That way, if fencing is compromised and they get loose, you have a much better chance of having them returned to you. Microchipping also is an option.

And of course, if you are riding out a storm, you need to get hay, feed and water enough to last for a couple weeks. Seriously, DON"T FORGET WATER!

There are a lot of resources for hurricane preparedness. I encourage you to seek them out and educate yourself about these storms. And do not fall into the trap that many Floridians do of “Category 1” is nothing. Some of the worst damage and flooding in 04/05 came from Wilma, when it was a tropical storm, because it came in and then sat over Florida dumping buckets and buckets.

Here are a few resources to get you started:

Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM)
Insurance Information Institute (III)
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)
National Weather Service (NWS)

[sassy45]

[QUOTE=PoohLP;8670200]
First off, Central Florida is not ar from the coast in the grand scheme of things. So, if a serious hurricane hits Florida, it is still highly likely to be a serious hurricane by the time it reaches you. IN that case, your best option is to evacuate. Period.

If evacuating isn’t an option or the storm is a lower intensity storm, what you do will depend on what you have. Your main worries in a hurricane will be water and wind, not lightening. If you are low lying area prone to flooding, move the horses to the highest secure area you can, in or out. In a wind storm, given the kind of barn you have, out is probably safer than in. You do not want the horses trapped inside a building that is having the roof blown off. Best case, they could seriously panic and injure themselves. Worst case, they cannot essape wind-borne debris.

Before the storm hits, make sure you put breakaway halters with your contact information on them and also consider putting that information on a waterproof tag and braiding it into their mane or tail. That way, if fencing is compromised and they get loose, you have a much better chance of having them returned to you. Microchipping also is an option.

And of course, if you are riding out a storm, you need to get hay, feed and water enough to last for a couple weeks. Seriously, DON"T FORGET WATER!

There are a lot of resources for hurricane preparedness. I encourage you to seek them out and educate yourself about these storms. And do not fall into the trap that many Floridians do of “Category 1” is nothing. Some of the worst damage and flooding in 04/05 came from Wilma, when it was a tropical storm, because it came in and then sat over Florida dumping buckets and buckets.

Here are a few resources to get you started:

Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM)
Insurance Information Institute (III)
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS)
National Weather Service (NWS)[/QUOTE]

Best option is not live in florida,move to where there aren’t hurricanes solves problem. Glad we got the heck out of there in 1989 don’t miss it or its hurricanes… I’d never live in a state where hurricanes were a threat.

[OverandOnward]

Definitely, reinforce the idea that the severity of the storm, the official weather rating, is NOT the deciding factor on evacuation. It is about flooding. It is about winds strong enough to wreck structures and drive debris into other structures and living things.

The thing about leaving larger animals behind, turned out or in, is if there will be anyone to feed and water them, or help them if they are injured, for as much as 3 to 5 days. The flood water may not be safe for them to drink. Barns are a danger of collapse. Animals in pasture can be hit by flying debris, lifted and dropped by tornadoes, struck by falling trees. Fences down is nothing, compared with injuries, high water, no feed or drinkable water.

MICROCHIP. Anyone who may ever have to evacuate needs to microchip every single animal. Even and especially if you intend to take them with you. About a hundred things can happen that can cause inadvertent separations. You will not be in control of all aspects of the situation.

One of the deadliest storms ever to hit the Houston area was NOT a hurricane, it was Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. It even has its own wikipedia page. 40 inches of rain and massive flooding throughout the area. 23 people dead in Texas, 30,000 homeless. People were driving on the interstate near downtown Houston when water rose high enough to kill engines. In the middle of a densely populated area, they spent the night stranded on the roofs of cars, waiting for helicopter rescue. It was literally years to repair all the residences back up to code.

There was no evacuation for Allison because it was “not a hurricane”. Animals died terribly, locked in pens, cages, barns and paddocks, when their owners couldn’t get to them due to the sudden and unexpected flooding and no way to get through the water.

The other thing to survive is the aftermath of a hurricane or major storm. Fences and structures down; feed and pasture wrecked. Roads closed. Fallen trees and debris everywhere. No electricity. No drinkable water. No plumbing. And the weather is HOT and humid - because that is what makes a hurricane in the first place. It is as hot at night as it is during the day. The whole thing is a misery. Have an emergency generator and use it sparingly so it will last. How long before roads are opened and utilities are restored depends on a lot of X factors.

Before the evacuation, realistically set priorities. You cannot save everything. If you are well above flood zone, you should be able to count on leaving things well protected and those things will be ok. If your area is at risk of flooding, you must be prepared that everything left behind will be covered with water. The best is to never, ever live where flooding is even a remote possibility.

It can be very hard to balance the demands of workplaces, etc. But if you have a lot to evacuate, and especially horses, go early. You’ll make some evacuations that turn out not to be needed, but it is part of living in an area at risk.

I used to work in the international division while living on the hurricane coast, with a couple of big storms coming very close and affecting our work. The internationals in Europe thought we were nuts to live with that amount of risk. They have a point.

[OverandOnward]

[QUOTE=YellowPonyEventer;8669431]
Great advice, thank you!!! Hopefully we never end up having to evacuate in central FL, but you just never know…with a big enough hurricane it could certainly be possible. That almost worries me less than staying though, because staying would mean choosing between turnout (and they only have the electo-tape fencing at our barn which I would imagine would come down very easily - and the next door neighbor has cows with barbed wire fence which really worries me if our horses got out) or putting her in a wood barn that likely wouldn’t hold up to hurricane force winds :eek:[/QUOTE]

You are very wise to be thinking realistically and well ahead of time. In your case I would have evacuation supplies ready and easy to get during July-August-Sept. Hurricanes can roll over central FL with plenty of water and fury.

Even if the hurricane does not hit you directly, if you are in the path of high rainfall and high winds, you might want to visit elsewhere for a couple of days - with your horses. Winds far below hurricane strength can be very damaging.