Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We are in Pensacola, and getting ready to ride out Hurricane Ivan. I was laid off a few weeks ago, so we can't afford to evacuate. We live in one of the highest elevations in the city, not near any bodies of water, so we don't have to worry about flooding. Our biggest concern will be wind damage and the roof leaking, and possibly being without power for up to three weeks. (We were without power for 4 days after Hurricane Erin back in '95--no fun at all, and no reptiles then.)

We have 4 full grown bearded dragons, a 5 ft corn snake, 2 cats, 2 dogs, and 8 mice. I haven't fed the bd's today, and I'm getting ready to give them a bath. I'm planning on keeping there lights off tomorrow, and bedding them in the critter keeper until the storm passes at least. We do have a generator, but we're not sure if it still works (had a gas leak right over the motor--yikes!!). We normally have high humidity in this area, so if we are without power, they will be susceptible to respiratory infections.

I will keep you posted if at all possible.

Does anyone have any advice for anything I may have missed/forgotten??

Keep us in your prayers.
Thanks,
Deanna

Our central air conditioner's compressor quit working this afternoon, so we are already without air conditioning. It's 9:30 at night, and the heat index is 84 degrees Farenheit, with 79% humidity. We probably won't be able to get a part for the air conditioner until after the storm passes.

Deanna,

As the storm draws closer, they feel the barometric change and will usually want to go down to sleep. If you can prep them for that and tub them or what I do is put them in a drawer unit to sleep.... wrap them in a baby receiving blanket or a towel and tuck them in...... all ours cooperated here when we had two hurricanes hit us in the last month. Seven of the girls are still sleeping. Only a few of the males stayed up and the babies and you will see some effects of the storm on them so don't freak out..... they will return to normal behavior

Just hydrate them well, make sure they are dry and bundle them up to avoid the mositure too much.
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www.reptilerooms.com

Good luck riding out Ivan. don't forget there is also another hurricane by the name of Jeanne I think that is trailing Ivan so you might be hit 2 times in a row.

I can't think of anything you didn't already cover.

You might want to see if you can get heat packs anywhere and put them on the bottom of the critter keepers so they can at least keep a little bit warm.

If you were in IL I'd suggest buying hand warmers.
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