What do you do with your pet when disaster strikes? Let’s clear up the most common misunderstanding first.

”Evacuating together” doesn’t mean “living together”

Okinawa City’s explanation is the clearest:

Evacuating together with your pet means the owner brings their pet along and safely evacuates with it, as far as the shelter, when a disaster occurs.

However, “this does not mean that people and pets can live in the same space at the shelter.”

In other words, evacuating together means “going to the shelter together,” not “staying together at the shelter.”

At many shelters, pets are tethered or kept in a cage, outdoors or in a separate section. In practice, a pet that can’t go in a cage is difficult to accept in the first place. This connects directly to the next topic — training.

Okinawa City also notes that you don’t necessarily have to bring every pet with you: if your home is safe and you can return to it regularly, not bringing your pet to the shelter is also an option. For many households riding out a typhoon at home, this is often the realistic choice.

What to do before typhoon season starts

1. Get your pet used to a cage or carrier bag

The Ministry of the Environment’s guidance for everyday preparedness states:

So that you can evacuate together with your pet (evacuating together) when the time comes, it’s also necessary to get your pet used to things like being in a carrier bag or cage as a matter of routine.

This is preparation that can’t be done on the day itself. Keeping the cage in the room day to day, feeding your pet inside it, and similar steps turn it into “a place that feels safe” — which greatly reduces the stress of evacuating when it counts.

The Ministry frames the basics of pet disaster preparedness this way:

This is not something special at all — the basics of disaster preparedness are simply doing ordinary training and health management for your pet, and getting it used to various environments, as a matter of routine.

In other words, everyday training and health management are themselves the preparedness — more so than any special disaster gear.

2. Stockpile supplies for your pet too

Both the Ministry of the Environment and Okinawa City list enough water, food, and regular medication.

As covered in the human stockpiling article, it can take time in Okinawa for supply chains to get back to normal after a typhoon. Pet food is even harder to substitute than human food. Some pets simply won’t eat a brand they’re not used to.

  • Food and water (a comfortable margin of days, same as for people)
  • Regular medication and prescription diets (running out can be life-threatening; veterinary clinics don’t stay open during a typhoon either)
  • Pet sheets, cat litter, and waste disposal bags
  • Bowls, a leash, a collar, and a cage or carrier
  • Towels (for drying your pet, or covering the cage to help it settle)

As mentioned in the island article (Japanese only), if you live on a remote island, plan for even more margin.

3. Confirm the shelter’s acceptance conditions in advance

The Ministry of the Environment stresses the importance of confirming in advance whether a facility can actually accept pets when evacuating together.

Whether a pet can be accepted, and under what conditions, differs by municipality and by shelter. Calling once a typhoon is already approaching makes confirming this a hassle. Contact your municipality’s disaster-prevention office while things are still normal (you can reach your municipality’s page from the evacuation information section of the Emergency Links page).

As covered in Evacuation Sites and Shelters Are Different, “evacuation sites” and “evacuation shelters” are two different things. Pet acceptance is mainly an issue at the one you stay at (the designated evacuation shelter).

4. Make sure your pet can be identified

So your pet can be brought back to you if it gets separated, make sure it can be identified by an ID tag or a microchip. Take a photo of your pet too (useful both when searching for it, and for proving it’s actually yours).

If a dog or cat is taken in within Okinawa Prefecture, the point of contact for information is the Okinawa Prefecture Animal Protection and Management Center. Keeping their contact details on hand means you won’t be caught scrambling when it counts.

At the shelter, consideration for others is assumed

The Ministry of the Environment is direct about an owner’s responsibilities at a shelter:

Follow the municipality’s instructions, comply with the rules, and do not cause a nuisance to other evacuees.

Shelters will include people who dislike animals, and people with allergies. Barking, odor, and shedding become far more serious problems than they would be under ordinary circumstances. Here again, everyday training is what pays off.

Your own safety comes first

The Ministry of the Environment’s guidelines set evacuating together with your pet, on the condition that the owner’s own safety is secured, as the basic principle.

If you’re out and separated from your pet, or your pet has gotten loose and you can’t find it, going back to search and getting caught in the disaster yourself defeats the whole purpose. To reduce situations where you have to make a hard call in the moment, move your pet somewhere safe indoors the moment a typhoon’s approach becomes clear.

After the typhoon passes

  • Check the ground before a walk so broken glass or debris doesn’t injure your pet’s paws
  • If your pet was caught in salt-laden wind and rain, wipe it down or wash it
  • A prolonged power outage raises indoor temperatures. In Okinawa’s summer, heatstroke in pets is also something to watch for

What this article does not cover

Whether shelters are currently open, or whether they’re accepting pets, is not covered by this site. Always check with your municipality and official up-to-date information. For anything about your pet’s health, consult your regular veterinarian.