Find County Emergency Management Services and Shelters

For the 2023 Hurricane Season, Petswelcome is listing all local Emergency Management Services and Agencies in every coastline county from Texas to Florida, on the Gulf coast, and from Florida to Massachussets on the Atlantic coast. In the past we tried to list shelters ahead of time but found that many aren't announced until an emergency is already in progress, leaving many people unable to find a pet-friendly (or any) shelter when they most need one. Also, many counties that can be hardest hit because they are low-lying (and therefore more susceptible to high tides and flooding) do not have shelters at all because of safety concerns. That said, a shelter, though a last resort, should still should be part of your emergency plan in case you run out of other options.

Since Petswelcome could not represent all the available shelters in your area when a storm hits because of their sporadic openings, we decided to list the local Emergency Management agencies instead. They are the essential hub when it comes to providing vital and up-to-date emergency information for residents living in a specific county. Not only do they offer Hurricane Preparedness recommendations, they also provide critical and timely information on flood zones, evacuation routes, shelter openings, traffic updates and much more. Most importantly, almost all of them have sign-ups for local Emergency Alert Systems like CodeRED that act as reverse 911 calls and contact residents with notifications and updates as emergencies become apparent. These alerts provide the most effective way to stay on top of an emergency occurring in your area.

Use the dropdown menu above to find your County Emergency Management Agency by state. Once you do, click on the red Local Emergency Info button to get to their site. If they do list shelter openings, we also have a button for Shelter Info which will take you to the page where they list open shelters so that you can find them quickly.