One of the only good things to come out of Hurricane Katrina was this: To save people, you need to save pets.
Pet lovers like us knew this already; but the rest of the world came to know it, too.
People who are alone, or elderly, or whatever, will NOT abandon their pets. While often their family companions, many folks have pets as their protectors. I can personally think of a dozen elderly people who would never leave a house on fire, unless they could grab their pets along with them. Crazy? Yes. But we are human.
So smartly, we now evacuate WITH pets in tow, to eliminate more lost human life. This is a good thing, a compassionate thing.
But let all of us pet lovers remember this, so we can generously donate to these organizations who do this kind of work.
When we lived in the NO area, we used to have to evacuate for hurricanes pretty often.
For Ivan, we brought the cats (3 of them) and once we were checked in to the motel, we got a phone book and located a vet's office and arranged to board the cats for the couple of days we'd be in town.
When we went to pick up the cats and asked what we owed, they told us it was on the house. They said that anyone who loved their pets enough to bring them with them out of the path of a hurricane did not have to pay.