Aug 26, 2026

Hurricane Season With a Dog in New Orleans: The 20-Pound Rule and the Rest

If you need the city's help to evacuate New Orleans, your dog's weight decides which bus it rides. Plus the sentence that closes the boarding option, and the go bag item by item.

Anant ShastriTelling stories through PetCompass

New Orleans, Louisiana11 min readPet Care & Services

If you need the city's help to evacuate New Orleans, your dog's weight decides which bus it rides.

From NOLA Ready, the city's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness: "Small pets that are 20 lbs or less can ride with you on the bus. Larger pets will be taken on a separate bus by LSPCA."

That is the most specific, most consequential and least widely known pet fact in this city. It is also the reason this guide exists. No other city in this series has an evacuation plan that names a weight for a dog, because no other city in this series has needed one.

Everything below comes from two sources: NOLA Ready, and the Louisiana SPCA, which holds the city's animal control contract and would be the organisation moving your dog.

Start with the sentence the shelter leads with

The Louisiana SPCA's disaster page opens on this, in bold on its own page: "Do not, under any circumstances, leave your pet behind."

The organisation writing that sentence ran the largest animal rescue operation in United States history after Hurricane Katrina. Its own history page records that it "successfully evacuated 263 animals from the Japonica Street shelter for Hurricane Katrina" and that the Japonica Street building was a total loss.

So when the Louisiana SPCA tells you not to leave a pet, it is not a slogan. It is an instruction from an organisation that has done the arithmetic.

City-Assisted Evacuation, and where pets fit

City-Assisted Evacuation, or CAE, is the programme that moves people who cannot evacuate themselves. Pets are in it. The Louisiana SPCA states it plainly: "Orleans Parish residents who require assistance to evacuate are urged to register with the City of New Orleans to participate in the City Assisted Evacuation Plan. This plan includes both residents and their pets!"

Here is what NOLA Ready publishes about how it works for animals.

The table below is that guidance in one place, with the authority behind each line.

Question	What is published	Stated by
Pet of 20 lbs or less	Rides with you on the bus	NOLA Ready
Pet over 20 lbs	Separate bus, taken by the Louisiana SPCA	NOLA Ready
Registering the pet	On site, at the same time you register yourself	NOLA Ready
Where the pet goes	An animal shelter near where you are sheltered	NOLA Ready
Who cares for it there	You do	NOLA Ready
What to bring	ID collar, leash, medications, carrier	NOLA Ready
Updates during the evacuation	Text EVACNOLA to 77295	Louisiana SPCA

Weight decides the vehicle. Under 20 pounds and your pet rides with you. Over, and the Louisiana SPCA takes it on a separate bus.

You register the pet at the same time you register yourself, on site. Verbatim: "When you register onsite for CAE, you'll register your pet's information too. We track where everyone in your family is going, including your pet."

Your pet goes to a shelter near where you go. Verbatim: "Your pet will be taken to an animal shelter near where you're sheltered."

You are still the one caring for it. Verbatim: "You'll care for your pet at the animal shelter." This is the detail people miss. The animal shelter is not boarding. You travel to it and look after your own dog there.

Bring four things. Verbatim: "Have an ID collar, leash, medications, and a carrier for your pet."

The Louisiana SPCA adds a text line for updates: "Text EVACNOLA to 77295 for updates if you need to use City-assisted evacuation."

What this means if your dog is over 20 pounds. You and your dog travel separately and reunite at the destination. That is workable, and it is very different from what most people picture when they picture evacuating with a pet. It is worth deciding now, in calm weather, whether you are prepared for that or whether you need a plan that does not involve CAE at all.

The sentence that closes a door

The Louisiana SPCA states, on both its disaster preparedness page and its weather precautions page: "Please know we do not board animals during a hurricane."

Read it again if your mental plan involved dropping the dog at the shelter and driving out. That plan does not exist. The Louisiana SPCA is the city's shelter and it does not board pets when a storm is coming.

So your options are: take the dog with you, use CAE and accept the separate-bus arrangement if the dog is over 20 pounds, or arrange boarding privately, well in advance, somewhere outside the strike zone.

Book the destination before the season, not before the storm

NOLA Ready is blunt about the two things people assume will work and often will not.

Hotels. Verbatim: "Plan where you're going ahead of time. Many hotels will not take pets."

Kennels. Verbatim: "If you plan to board your pet, know that most kennels require your vet's medical records."

Both of those are solvable in June and unsolvable on the second day of a named storm, when every pet-friendly room within four hundred miles is already gone.

Practical version: pick two or three destinations at different distances, confirm each takes dogs, note the pet fee and any weight or breed limit, and keep the phone numbers somewhere that works without electricity. Our guide to questions to ask before booking a pet-friendly hotel is the list to run through, and our pre-travel pet checklist covers the documents. If you are looking closer to home for a normal trip, our New Orleans hotel directory and roundup of pet-friendly hotels in New Orleans are the starting points, though for evacuation you want somewhere out of the cone.

The vet records point is worth acting on today. Ask your vet for a copy, photograph it, and keep both. Our pet health and vaccination tracker is a place to keep the dates.

The go bag, item by item

The Louisiana SPCA publishes an evacuation checklist. We are reproducing its substance because it is specific in ways that generic lists are not.

Food and water, waterproofed. Verbatim: "Keep food and water in an airtight, waterproof container. Water should be in addition to the water you need for yourself and family." That last clause is the one people get wrong. Your dog's water is not a share of yours.

Medicine and records, waterproofed. An extra supply of any regular medication, in a waterproof container, plus proof of immunisation, because "All boarding facilities and veterinarian offices require proof of immunization before accepting animals."

Collar with ID tag, harness or leash, plus backups. Verbatim: "Your pet should wear a collar with its rabies tag and identification at all times. Include a backup leash, collar and ID tag." A spare leash weighs nothing and a broken clip in a car park is a lost dog.

Documents in a clear plastic bag. Registration, adoption papers, vaccination documents, medical records.

A crate or carrier, sized and labelled. Verbatim: the carrier "should be large enough so that your pet can completely turn around, and lie down", and you should "Mark your name, address, phone number and an alternate contact on the carrier." Label it before the storm. A carrier without a name on it is an anonymous carrier in a room full of them.

Sanitation. Litter, newspapers, towels, plastic bags, and household bleach with a specific instruction: "Do not use scented or color safe bleaches, or those with added cleaners. Use 16 drops of regular bleach per gallon of water."

And the one that is not an object. Verbatim: "Stay Informed. Know what emergency plans are being created and how you will evacuate."

Our pet emergency preparedness checklist is the general version of this list, and our emergency pet info card is the single page you want taped inside the crate lid.

Before the season, three things that are only easy now

The Louisiana SPCA's pre-season list has three items, and each one is a job with a lead time.

Vaccinations current, with copies. Verbatim: "Make sure your pet's vaccinations are up-to-date and make copies of your records to take with you." Boarding and vets will refuse an animal without them.

Identification, including the permanent kind. Verbatim: "Talk to your veterinarian about permanent forms of identification like a microchip and enrolling your pet in a recovery database. This simple step could be your pet's round-trip ticket home in the event they get lost."

That is also a legal requirement here, not just good advice. The Louisiana SPCA's weather page states that "microchipping is mandatory in Orleans Parish for all pets allowed outside." Our guide to microchipping your pet covers the step people skip, which is keeping the registry entry current. A chip registered to a disconnected number is a chip that does nothing.

A list of destinations. Verbatim: "Compile a list of places you can go if you need to evacuate. Consider staying with family or friends outside of the strike zone."

If you shelter in place instead

Not every storm is an evacuation. NOLA Ready's sheltering guidance for pets is short.

"Bring your pets inside." And: "Gather at least 3 days' worth of supplies for your pet."

Three days of food and water, per pet, indoors. The same page gives the same instruction for lightning and flooding: bring them in.

There is also a boil water advisory instruction, which comes up in New Orleans more often than storms do: "To be safe, give your pets bottled or boiled water." Dogs drink from the same tap you do, and an advisory applies to them.

Heat is the other seasonal emergency

Hurricane season and the hottest months are the same months, and NOLA Ready treats heat as its own hazard for pets.

Its guidance, verbatim in part: "Protect them from overheating by limiting their exercise while the heat advisory is in effect. Take dogs for shorter walks, and avoid the hottest parts of the day by walking them early in the morning or in the evening."

And the pavement test, which is the most quotable line on the page: "Asphalt can get very hot. If it's too hot for you to touch comfortably, it's probably unsafe for your pet to walk on."

Plus a breed warning that is well worth reading if you own a bulldog or a husky in Louisiana: "Certain breeds may be at especially high risk for heat related illness, such as those with flat faces or long coats. Take special care to keep them cool. Brushing may help pets with long, thick coats, but do not shave your pet, their coat's layers help protect them from sunburn and overheating."

The Louisiana SPCA's weather page adds the car rule in capitals: "NEVER, under any circumstances, leave your pet in a parked car! The temperature inside a car can reach 120 degrees in only a few minutes." The source uses a degree symbol; the word is ours.

Signs of heatstroke, from NOLA Ready: excessive panting and drooling, red gums or tongue, increased heart rate, vomiting or diarrhoea. The action, verbatim: "Pour cool water over them and contact a veterinarian right away." Our summer heat safety for pets guide covers the rest.

A calendar that actually works

Late spring. Vet visit, vaccinations current, copies made and photographed. Chip registry checked. Two or three evacuation destinations confirmed as pet-friendly, with phone numbers written on paper.

Start of the season. Go bag assembled and stored where you can reach it in the dark. Carrier labelled. Bleach, litter and spare leash in it. Register for City-Assisted Evacuation if you would need it, and know your dog's weight relative to 20 pounds.

When a storm forms. Fill the water containers. Refill any medication. Confirm the destination is still holding a room.

When the order comes. Go early. The dog goes with you.

Year round. Keep the rabies tag on the collar. It is a city requirement, and it is also the thing that extends a shelter's hold on a found dog from three days to seven.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take my dog on a City-Assisted Evacuation bus in New Orleans? Yes. NOLA Ready states that pets of 20 lbs or less can ride with you on the bus, and that larger pets will be taken on a separate bus by the Louisiana SPCA.

Where does my pet go during a City-Assisted Evacuation? To an animal shelter near where you are sheltered. NOLA Ready states you will care for your pet at that shelter yourself.

Does the Louisiana SPCA board pets during a hurricane? No. The Louisiana SPCA states plainly that it does not board animals during a hurricane.

What do I need to bring for my pet on a City-Assisted Evacuation? NOLA Ready lists an ID collar, leash, medications and a carrier.

How much pet food should I have for a hurricane? NOLA Ready advises gathering at least three days' worth of supplies for your pet if you are sheltering in place.

How do I register for City-Assisted Evacuation with a pet? You register your pet's information at the same time you register yourself, on site. The Louisiana SPCA advises texting EVACNOLA to 77295 for updates.

Sources

Evacuation arrangements change between seasons. Check NOLA Ready before every hurricane season.