Emergency Evacuation Plans

[Caitlin]

With the size of your snakes, and assuming you are talking about sheltering in your basement due to a tornado warning as opposed to evacuating, this is what I'd do:

When the holidays come, get yourself one Christmas tree storage tub for each snake. Put the tubs in the basement; drill air holes in them, add a hide (this can just be a cardboard box) and a water bowl, throw down a few layers of paper towel or some puppy pads as substrate, and put a gallon jug of water in each tub along with a pack or two of the 72-hour 'UniHeat' shipping packs that are used for shipping plants, chicks, reptiles, etc. You can get them on Amazon. I'd throw a towel in, too - I like to put a towel over the heat packs. This relatively minimal prep should be all you need and once you have each tub set up and packed, that's it until needed.

If sheltering in your basement I wouldn't even bother with snake bags. Just haul the snakes down there and get them into the tubs. OR you can use the method I'd use during a critical evacuation (meaning the kind where you don't get 30 minutes advance notice; you just run) and get a bag big enough to hold multiple of your snakes and stuff as many into that as you can. They'll be fine for the run down to the basement.

I live in wildfire country and keep smaller tubs outfitted like this in the trunk of my car. If needed, I'd throw as many snakes as I could into one big bag (if it's a critical evacuation there is no time to screw around with separate bags), get the heck out, and sort out separate tubs later.

In my region there are some big reptile shops and veterinary practices that will board reptiles for free if people are evacuated due to fires or floods. It might not hurt to check around your region to see if that is a possibility; otherwise you'll be looking for a campground or hotel as temporary evacuation shelters typically do not take pets.