A Storm Plan for a Community Cat Colony: What the Published Guidance Actually Says, Where It Differs by Season, and the Three Decisions None of It Makes for You

For a community cat colony, storm work happens at the site, not to the cats. Move shelters and feeding stations to higher ground inside the cats’ territory, raise them on pallets or blocks, tie them to something permanent, and take any winter weights off the roofs. Put dry food inside the shelters and water outside. Keep a written record with photos, and name a backup caretaker. Relocating the cats is a last resort, and whether to trap any of them first is a real disagreement between the organizations that publish guidance.

A colony is a group of unowned cats at a site you probably do not own, fed on a schedule you keep. Most of the cats will not let you within arm’s reach, so almost everything written for pet households stops applying. Five organizations do publish detailed instructions: Alley Cat Allies (two pages), Neighborhood Cats (a page excerpted from its handbook), Humane World for Animals, Bideawee (publishing the NYC Feral Cat Initiative’s material) and Best Friends Animal Society (a chapter of its Community Cat Programs Handbook).

No one of them reconciles the others. Three decisions are left to you: whether to trap anyone and which cat, how high to raise the shelters at your site, and what you may do on ground you do not own. This page sets the published positions side by side and marks where a conclusion is ours.

The five are not five independent voices. Best Friends’ chapter footnotes that its preparedness, hurricane and trapping sections were adapted from the NYC Feral Cat Initiative website (the material Bideawee publishes), and its stand-in caregiver section from the Alley Cat Allies website. Each section below says which lineage it is counting. All of it comes from animal-welfare organizations, not an emergency-management agency; the ASPCA’s general Disaster Preparedness page is written for pet owners and does not mention community cats. If your county animal services publishes colony guidance, follow that first.

Related pages: one displaced cat is on the feeding station and trail camera page; a barn cat on your own land that will not be caught is on barn cats and animals you cannot catch; closed areas are on the re-entry access page. Cold-weather care is outside this page, except where a winter instruction collides with a storm one.

Take winter weights off the roofs and tie the shelters down

This is the one instruction that reverses between seasons, and it takes about five minutes.

Neighborhood Cats’ winter shelter page says most shelters are lightweight and tells caretakers to “weigh them down by placing heavy objects on top, like concrete bricks”, without so much weight that it damages the roof. That is sound advice for a cold, still, snowy month, and many colony shelters have bricks on their roofs because a caretaker read something like it.

The same organization’s storm page, excerpted from its TNR Handbook, agrees the shelters are light. It says to tie shelters and feeding stations to permanent structures such as a fence, or wedge them tightly into a secure place, because “in high winds, heavy objects can be dislodged and create a danger”. It concludes: “Tying the shelters and feeding stations down is safer.” The pages agree on the diagnosis and differ on the treatment. Neither is careless: a brick holds a roof in place in February, and the same brick in a strong gust can become a projectile.

Humane World for Animals gives the same caution in its own words: tie shelters and feeders to a fence or sturdy tree, or wedge them into a secure space, and be careful about heavy objects such as bricks, boards or rocks on top, because they “may pose a danger in high winds”. The two organizations are not strangers: the Neighborhood Cats storm page closes by referring readers to the Humane Society of the United States, now Humane World for Animals. Neither page cites the other on this instruction.

The join is our reading, not an instruction either page prints. No published page tells a caretaker who followed the winter advice to undo it. So if bricks, blocks, boards or rocks sit on your shelter roofs from cold-weather setup and a wind event is forecast, take them off and tie the shelters to something permanent instead.

Then deal with what you removed, because a loose brick beside the shelter is the same hazard one step away. Neighborhood Cats says to check the area for loose objects that could become airborne and remove them. Humane World says to secure or remove objects such as chairs, potted plants or garden utensils in and near the colony that could become airborne or get washed away. If you take one action from this page, take this one. It costs nothing.

How the five organizations compare

“Not addressed” means that organization does not cover the point in the pages this comparison rests on. Nothing is averaged or merged.

Instruction	Alley Cat Allies	Neighborhood Cats	Humane World for Animals	Best Friends (Ch. 28)	Bideawee / NYC Feral Cat Initiative
Move shelters and stations to higher ground	Yes, in flood-prone areas	Yes, within the cats’ territory if possible	Yes, in areas that may flood	Yes	Yes, if possible
Raise them off the ground	Not addressed	Yes: wooden shipping pallets or cinder blocks	Yes: wooden shipping pallets	Not addressed	Yes, against flooding or heavy snow
A ground-clearance height	None	None; a test instead (below)	None	None	None
Anchor by tying	Not addressed	Yes, to a fence or other permanent structure	Yes, to a fence or sturdy tree	Not addressed	Tie down loose objects; shelter itself not addressed
Weights on the roof	Not addressed	Cautioned against in high winds; recommended in winter	Cautioned against in high winds	Not addressed	Says add weights, no placement or wind caution
Turn openings	Away from the surge or toward higher ground	Toward a wall or solid structure	Toward a wall, or two shelters facing each other	Away from the surge direction	Away from the surge direction
Food inside, water outside	Not addressed	Yes	Yes	Not addressed	Not addressed
Second, cat-sized escape route	Yes	Yes	Not addressed	Yes	Not addressed
Trap some cats first	No, not unsocialized or feral cats	Not addressed	Yes, friendly cats and young kittens	Yes, vulnerable friendly cats, with gates	Yes, pregnant, young and elderly cats, with gates
A named backup caretaker	Yes	Not addressed	Yes	Yes	Yes, a team

Higher ground, raised, and how high

All five say to get shelters and stations onto higher ground if there is any. Only Neighborhood Cats bounds it: within the cats’ territory, if at all possible. That limit is the difference between helping and abandoning. Territory is where the cats know the exits and hiding places. A shelter carried three blocks uphill is somewhere they have no reason to go. Alley Cat Allies makes the same point: “Like wildlife, feral cats will instinctively seek higher ground during floods.” You are adjusting the furniture in a house the cats already know, not relocating the household.

Neighborhood Cats says wooden shipping pallets are ideal for raising a shelter and cinder blocks will work. Humane World also names shipping pallets and adds that some lumber yards have them.

On height, none of the five publishes a number. Any ground-clearance figure you find elsewhere is not traceable to these organizations’ storm pages. Neighborhood Cats publishes a test: “Raise them high enough to prevent ground water or snow from reaching up to the doorways.”

Do not borrow a number from the winter shelter page. It gives a 6-inch by 6-inch doorway and a doorway bottom a few inches above the bottom of the box to prevent flooding. Both describe the box, not the gap between the ground and the shelter.

So set the shelter on the pallet or blocks, look at where the doorway sill now sits, and ask whether standing or running water at this spot in a heavy event would reach it. Your county floodplain office is a better source for local water levels than anything published nationally about cats.

Turn the openings

Alley Cat Allies says to turn openings away from the storm surge or toward higher ground. Best Friends and Bideawee give the same surge rule, which is one lineage stated twice. Neighborhood Cats generalizes it to weather: doorways facing a wall or similar solid structure, not open space, or two shelters with entrances facing each other, no more than a foot apart. Humane World gives the same pair arrangement. You need the surge or wind direction for this specific event before you can point the doorways, and that comes from your forecast office. Facing a wall is the version you can do at any time.

Food and water

Two organizations from different lineages give the same pair of instructions: food inside the shelter, water outside it.

Neighborhood Cats says to put out extra dry food before the storm, enough to last a few days, and a plentiful supply of water, naming gravity feeders and automatic waterers. The feeding station should be protected like the shelters: raised, doorway shielded, close by. It also says to put bowls of dry food inside the shelters, in the back inner corners as far from the door as possible. Then: “do not put any water inside the shelter”, because it would likely spill and make the cats or the interior wet. Humane World gives the same pairing: extra kibble inside, as far from the openings as possible, and no water in the shelter, so the shelter and cats stay warm and dry. It adds a hazard distinction the others do not: leave several bowls of water out, “particularly if your concern is fire rather than a storm.”

How much food? Exactly one organization gives a station figure. Bideawee, carrying the NYC Feral Cat Initiative’s material, says: “In case you have to evacuate, leave a 3–7-day supply of food and water at your feeding station.” Alley Cat Allies says to fill multiple food and water bowls in case you cannot return immediately. Best Friends says to provide plenty of food, since it may be days or even weeks before anyone can return. That clause should change how you read the others: three to seven days suits a caretaker who expects to be back that week, and the real return date is unknowable in advance.

The same range appears in two supply-kit lists, which are a different tool (what you carry, not what you leave). Bideawee’s colony kit lists 3 to 7 days of cat food and a 7-day supply of bottled water. Alley Cat Allies’ kit lists three to seven days of pet food and a seven-day supply of bottled water per person and animal. Neither is a rule for how much to pile into a station.

A large amount of food at an outdoor station has a cost. The feeding station and trail camera page covers the published evidence that a ground-level food station draws wildlife, including a peer-reviewed study at a feral cat colony feeding station. That study’s elevated-food finding is a second reason to raise the station, beyond flooding. Read it before deciding how much to leave and where.

Tarps and signs

Humane World is the only organization with a tarping method: cover shelters and feeding stations with heavy tarps to keep out driving rain, tie them at an angle with the overhang past the doors so water runs away, and hammer stakes securely and/or tie the tarps to a permanent structure. Bideawee has one line: add tarps, weights and other protective gear. No version gives rated cordage, a tie-down load, a stake length or depth, or what to tie to when the only structure is a fence that is not yours. This page gives no number for the same reason: a tie-down rating reads as authoritative and fails silently. Two cautions of our own: a tarp is a sail, and tied at an angle over a door it gives the wind a surface on the thing you are holding down. And a stake driven into ground you do not own is a hole in someone else’s property.

Alley Cat Allies says to place a laminated sign on the cat house or feeding station telling rescuers it is a managed colony, with a cell phone number where you can be reached. Humane World says the same for emergency responders. A responder who finds ear-tipped cats at a stocked station with a sign treats the site differently from a pile of abandoned bowls.

A second consequence, which is ours and appears in no source: the sign is also a posted statement that a named person regularly feeds these cats. In some places regular feeding is part of the legal definition of a keeper (see the law section below). That is not a reason to skip the sign. It is a reason to know your local rules before you post your phone number on someone else’s fence.

Whether to trap anyone before the storm

This is the hardest question here and it is not settled. Neighborhood Cats publishes no view on trapping before a storm. (It does say to trap injured cats afterward, covered below.) The other four:

Alley Cat Allies says do not. On its disaster page, in the section for readers who need to evacuate: “Bring your pets with you, but do not try to trap and contain unsocialized (or feral) community cats.” Its fact sheet says evacuating with community cats is not feasible or recommended, because they have powerful survival instincts and the best help is to support those instincts and plan ahead to keep track of them. It publishes no separate rule for a caretaker who is staying, so how far the sentence reaches is not answered.

Humane World for Animals says trap on a socialization test. “If possible, trap the friendly cats and kittens young enough to be socialized prior to the storm and take them to a safe place.” It says the unsocial and feral ones have excellent survival instincts, so do not fret over leaving them. It attaches no gate about whether you are evacuating.

The NYC Feral Cat Initiative, published by Bideawee, says trap on a vulnerability test, with a gate. Before Hurricane Sandy the initiative advised trapping pregnant cats, young kittens and elderly cats so they could wait out the storm indoors: “Do this only if you are either not going to be evacuated or can take the cats with you in the event of evacuation.” Friendly cats and young kittens who are trapped may be prepared for adoption, which is a separate decision about the rest of the cat’s life.

Best Friends repeats that list and adds a friendliness filter and a capacity gate. Do it only for friendly cats, and only if you are not going to be evacuated or can take the cats with you. Where there is no higher ground, trapping and housing cats temporarily is worth considering only if you are not in danger of being evacuated and can house them “realistically, safely and comfortably” for at least a week. Bideawee gives the same no-higher-ground fallback.

Since Best Friends adapted its section from the NYC initiative, that is three positions from three lineages, and they select on different properties. A pregnant feral queen who has never let you touch her meets the vulnerability criterion and fails Best Friends’ friendliness filter. A friendly six-month-old tom meets the socialization criterion and not the vulnerability one. Alley Cat Allies’ position is a different instruction, at least in the section where it is printed, not a milder version of the others.

The conditions are almost all about you, not the cat, and only one lineage (the NYC initiative material) writes the evacuation gate down. A caretaker in a mandatory evacuation zone who traps four cats on Thursday has created four confined animals in a house nobody will be in, which is worse than the storm.

Our reasoning, not a published protocol. None of the documents ranks the cats or conditions the decision on the forecast.

1. Settle your own evacuation status first, against the order, not your judgment of the storm. If you are leaving and cannot take the cats, that comes before any question about which cat.
2. Apply the capacity gate before you choose. Count carriers, closable rooms, and days of food and litter you already own. That number, not the number of qualifying cats, is your ceiling.
3. Then choose the cat the positions overlap on. Humane World says leave the unsocial ones, Alley Cat Allies says do not trap and contain them, and Best Friends limits its vulnerability rule to friendly cats. The only reason any of them prints is Humane World’s, that feral cats have excellent survival instincts outdoors. None says confinement is hard on an unsocialized cat, so this page does not claim it. What the overlap supports is narrow: a friendly cat that is also vulnerable is the one candidate no position names as one to leave.
4. Stop when the ceiling is reached and put the remaining effort into the site.
5. Write down which cats met which published criterion and which document you applied, so someone can continue if you are gone.

The law, and why it bears on trapping

None of the five organizations raises this. You do not own these cats. The Animal Legal and Historical Center’s summary of feral cat legal issues (bylined David Fry, 2009) describes an ownership test based on how much control a keeper or caretaker has exercised over a feral cat. It says that in places with no feral cat law, “because caretakers are not owners, they would likely not have the right to prevent other people from relocating feral cat colonies or impounding the feral cats”. Some states classify caretakers as owners and attach spay, neuter and rabies-vaccination duties. Trapping and holding an animal is control, and control is what that test measures.

Connecticut shows both directions in one chapter. Its statute on municipal control of feral cats (Sec. 22-339d) lets a municipality adopt a feral cat ordinance and defines a keeper as “any person or organization, harboring, regularly feeding or having in his or its possession any feral cat.” Such an ordinance must require keepers to provide for rabies vaccination and sterilization of those cats, and “Refusal to permit any animal control officer to impound a feral cat shall be deemed evidence of keeping.”

The neighboring section points the other way. Under Sec. 22-332d(a), in a municipality that has adopted an ordinance under subsection (b) of Sec. 22-339d, an animal control officer may take into custody a cat that is damaging property other than its owner’s or keeper’s, or causing an unsanitary, dangerous or unreasonably offensive condition, unless the cat can be identified as under the care of its owner or a registered keeper of feral cats. Inside that narrow power, being a registered keeper protects a caretaker in a way the 2009 summary says an unregistered caretaker lacks. Registration comes from the first subsection of Sec. 22-339d and the custody power applies only where a municipality has adopted an ordinance under the second. The legislature’s 2026 supplement to Chapter 435 shows neither section amended in the 2025 sessions.

Connecticut is one state and one example, not a rule for yours, and this is not legal advice. The join is ours: the act the storm guidance frames as protective can, in some places, be evidence of a legal relationship with duties attached, and nobody publishing the trapping instruction says so. Read your municipality’s animal ordinance for anything about feral cats, keepers or registration, and call animal services before storm season, not during a warning. If you are seriously considering trapping and holding cats you do not own, ask a lawyer in your state. The ASPCA’s position statement says the same about community cat programs generally: consult legal counsel before engaging in any of them, to ensure the activities are permitted under state and local law.

Moving a shelter is not relocating cats

In colony work, “relocation” normally means moving the cats. Even the sources are not uniform: Neighborhood Cats’ storm page uses “relocate” for moving shelters and feeding stations to higher ground within the cats’ territory. Check what is being moved before you act on any guidance that uses the word.

Alley Cat Allies, Best Friends and the ASPCA each publish a position on relocating cats, and all three treat it as a last resort at best. This page does not assume the positions of Neighborhood Cats, Humane World or Bideawee on that question.

• Alley Cat Allies: “Relocation of community cats is an absolute last resort and should only be considered if a cat is in imminent danger.” It adds that relocation can be ineffective and even dangerous, that community cats bond to their outdoor homes and may try to find their way back, and that in some cases cats have died in the process.
• Best Friends: “Do not attempt to move or relocate healthy community cat groups to get them out of harm’s way in the event of a disaster.” Animals are resilient, it says, and their best chance is for you to keep supporting them afterward.
• ASPCA: relocation only as a last resort, when the cats are at known risk, other strategies are unavailable, and relocation is permitted under applicable law.

When this page says to move something, it means a shelter, a station, a pallet or a tarp. It never means a cat.

The ground you do not own

This is our observation, not a finding attributed to anyone. Read the physical instructions as things done to a property: move a structure, set it on pallets, tie it to a fence, hammer stakes, post a sign. Most colonies are not on the caretaker’s land. They are behind a shopping plaza, along an alley, in an apartment complex’s landscaping, under a church shed. None of the organizations addresses whether the caretaker has permission. The closest any comes is Best Friends listing parking and entry codes among what a stand-in needs. An entry code is somebody else’s door.

No published rule fills that gap. What follows from the guidance:

• The property owner answers property questions, not an animal welfare organization or this page.
• If you have a relationship with the owner or site manager, storm season is the time to ask what you may do to the shelters, whether you may drive stakes, and how you get in afterward. That is far easier before a hurricane watch than during one.
• If you do not, prefer the low-friction version of each instruction: things moved rather than fixed, weights removed rather than added, ties to an existing structure rather than stakes in the ground.
• Your access arrangement is also what your backup caretaker inherits.

Getting back in afterward

Neighborhood Cats and Humane World both send a caretaker whose colony is in a closed area to the local police precinct (Neighborhood Cats names the officer in charge of Community Affairs). Best Friends gives the rule that comes first: caregivers must wait for local authorities to lift travel restrictions to the area and observe any curfews. If you are not allowed in at all, Alley Cat Allies says to reach out to local humane groups, tell them where the colony is, and ask them to provide water and food until you can return. How closures, re-entry passes and escorted access work is on the re-entry access page. A colony caretaker is asking on behalf of animals nobody has recorded as theirs, which is why the photo record below matters before the storm.

Once you are in:

• Take care of yourself first. Neighborhood Cats says that on arrival “the first thing to take care of is yourself.” It names weakened overhanging branches, falling debris, and downed power lines that can turn puddles into electrical hazards.
• Give it weeks, not hours. Alley Cat Allies says cats can hide for days after severe weather. Humane World and Neighborhood Cats say most cats return within a week but some take a few weeks.
• Look up. Neighborhood Cats says cats may have climbed trees or rooftops to escape flood waters. Humane World adds they may be hiding in or under a building that has not been badly damaged.
• Clean what the water touched. Neighborhood Cats says to bleach shelters, feeding stations and dishes exposed to flood waters, which may carry toxins from sewage or other contamination. Humane World says to use a nontoxic, cat-safe disinfectant and to check with your veterinarian or animal shelter about which products are safe. Ask before choosing a product. Both say to discard or clean wet bedding and insulation.
• Contact shelters and rescues. All but Neighborhood Cats say to contact local shelters, rescue groups or organizations in your area with descriptions and photos of missing cats and ask how to claim a found cat. Alley Cat Allies, Best Friends and Bideawee recommend going in person.
• Injured cats go to a veterinarian, not treatment at the site. Neighborhood Cats and Humane World say to trap injured cats and get them veterinary care. Humane World’s qualifier matters: the disaster may have limited veterinarians’ capacity, so “make sure any sick or injured outdoor cat can be seen by a veterinarian before trapping”. An injured feral cat sitting in a trap with nowhere to go is worse off than one not yet trapped.

The record, and what the free forms leave out

Every organization here says to keep a written record of the colony with photographs. It turns a vague sense that someone is missing into a description a shelter can match. Neighborhood Cats puts it first in its storm sequence: catalogue your cats well before bad weather, with descriptions and photos, even if you know the colony well. Best Friends gives the fullest field list: number of cats, descriptions and photos, known injuries, where they sleep and eat, and feeding routines. It says to make copies, take one if you evacuate, and secure a copy where the cats sleep, with caregivers’ names and phone numbers, in a plastic sleeve for waterproofing.

Do not build the general form from scratch. Alley Cat Allies publishes a free Community Cat Colony Tracking System as a printable PDF and an editable Excel spreadsheet: caregiver blocks, a colony block (location, street address, cross street, setting), counts of cats, and a per-cat grid with columns including Color/Markings, Sex, Age, Eartip, Vaccines, Microchip ID Number and a Labeled Photo Attached column. Bideawee points caretakers to it. Alley Cat Allies also publishes a Cat Identification Worksheet for per-cat detail. Its opening line is worded for an owned cat, but the organization’s disaster page points colony caretakers to it.

Neither form carries the storm half. This list is ours, from what the storm guidance asks you to decide:

1. Which published criterion each cat meets, if any. Friendly; pregnant, kitten or elderly; young enough to socialize. Note which document you applied.
2. What each shelter is anchored to, and what was removed. Which fence post or tree, and whether winter weights came off and where they went.
3. Where the stations are, in a form someone else can follow. Best Friends: draw a map or pinpoint the stations on a satellite or street-view map, with photos of landmarks such as light poles or groups of trees.
4. How to get in. Entry codes, gate combinations, parking, and who at the property gives permission.
5. The date your backup caretaker last walked the route with you. Not just their phone number.

Print it, sleeve it, and place copies where the cats sleep, on the refrigerator or inside the front door, with your evacuation documents, and with each backup caretaker.

The handoff most plans skip

Four of the five say to have a named backup caretaker; Neighborhood Cats’ storm page does not raise it. Alley Cat Allies says to enlist a backup caregiver, set up a buddy system with other caregivers, and make an emergency contact card to carry in your wallet and car, give the backup, and post at home. Humane World gives the same wallet-and-refrigerator instruction. Bideawee argues for a team, so the colony stays covered if something happens to one caretaker.

Best Friends gives the fullest list of what the stand-in needs. Its footnote says it was adapted from the Alley Cat Allies website, so on this question that publisher is heard twice:

• Exact station locations: a drawn map or satellite pin, landmark photos, and “parking and entry codes or any other instructions that may be needed to access the sites”.
• Feeding details: what to feed, how much, and usual times. If the substitute cannot keep the times, they should be consistent with whatever new times they set.
• Cat descriptions: how many cats at each location, with descriptions or photos, names where possible, and microchip numbers if they have them.
• Contact information for all fill-in caregivers.
• The clinic, veterinarian or organization that spayed, neutered and vaccinated the cats, plus surplus food handed over in advance if you can.

It adds a rehearsal step most plans skip: the stand-ins should learn your routine and go with you a few times before a disaster, so the cats become familiar with them. And print the handoff and put it on your refrigerator or inside your front door, not only email it. For an apartment complex, the apartment building pet buddy system checklist covers how neighbor agreements are structured; it is written for owned pets, so use it as the structure and this page as the colony content.

The colony storm checklist

Two lists: the season, done once on a quiet afternoon, and the event, done when there is a track. Neither replaces what your municipality and property owner tell you.

Before the season

• Build or update the colony record with a photo of every cat, starting from Alley Cat Allies’ free forms, and add the five storm fields above.
• Sleeve the record and place copies: where the cats sleep, refrigerator or front door, your evacuation documents, each backup caretaker.
• Name a backup caretaker or team, give them the record, and walk the route with them once. Make the emergency contact card.
• Find out who owns the ground, settle what you may move, tie to, stake into and re-enter, and write down the entry code.
• Read your municipal animal ordinance for anything about feral cats, keepers or registration, and ask animal services what they expect of caretakers in a declared emergency.
• Get the eartipping and photographs done. Alley Cat Allies’ fact sheet puts neutering, eartipping and a good photo of each cat first, and says to keep the photos with your own pet documents.
• Check whether shelters can be raised where they stand and whether there is something permanent to tie to. Better to learn there is not in March than in September.
• Give the cats a second, cat-sized way out of anywhere they shelter: more than one escape route from beneath a shed or building (Alley Cat Allies, Best Friends), or elevated perches and a non-ground-level exit inside a shed or garage (Neighborhood Cats).
• Stock the colony kit. Bideawee’s list: a first aid kit, colony records with photos, 3 to 7 days of cat food and dishes, a 7-day supply of bottled water, humane traps, blankets or towels, and heavy gloves.

When a storm is forecast

• Decide your own evacuation status first. It gates any trapping decision.
• Take winter weights off shelter roofs, tie the shelters down, and clear or secure loose objects, including the bricks you just removed.
• Move shelters and stations to higher ground if there is any, inside the cats’ territory. Raise them on pallets or cinder blocks so ground water or snow cannot reach the doorways.
• Turn openings away from the surge direction if a surge is forecast, or toward a wall if not.
• If you tarp, tie it at an angle with the overhang past the door, and stake or tie it to a permanent structure. Only Humane World gives a method.
• Leave extra dry food at the station. The only published station figure is Bideawee’s 3 to 7 days, written for a caretaker who has to evacuate. Best Friends cautions that return may take weeks.
• Put dry food inside the shelters, in the back inner corners. Do not put water inside. Leave water outside; several bowls matter most when the hazard is fire.
• Post the laminated managed-colony sign with a contact number, knowing it also identifies you as the regular feeder.
• If you are considering trapping anyone, read all four positions above, apply your capacity gate before choosing a cat, and ask local animal services what they expect.
• Take the colony record if you evacuate, and tell your backup caretaker you are going and confirm they still have the map, the codes and the food.

Afterward

• Wait for the closure to lift and observe curfews. If you cannot get in, ask local humane groups to feed and water, and tell them exactly where the colony is.
• Watch for falling branches, debris, sharp objects and downed power lines in standing water.
• Restore the normal feeding routine right away; Neighborhood Cats and Humane World name it as what draws cats back. Count heads and expect a low count at first; a week is the published expectation, with stragglers taking a few weeks. Look high as well as low.
• Check shelters and stations for damage, discard or clean wet bedding and insulation, and clean anything floodwater reached (bleach per Neighborhood Cats; a nontoxic, cat-safe disinfectant per Humane World, who says to ask a veterinarian or shelter which products are safe).
• Contact shelters and rescue groups with descriptions and photos of missing cats, and ask how to claim a found cat.
• Get injured cats to a veterinarian, and make sure a veterinarian can see the cat before you trap it.

The version you do in twenty minutes

If the storm is close, do these four things in order:

1. Take the weights off the shelter roofs and tie the shelters down. Free, fast, and the one instruction where doing nothing leaves a hazard you installed yourself.
2. Raise the shelters and the station on whatever you have, and check the doorway height against where the water will be. Pallets and cinder blocks are the published materials.
3. Put dry food in the back corners inside the shelters, extra dry food in the station, water outside, and nothing wet indoors.
4. Photograph every cat you can see and text the photos, the address and the cross street to your backup caretaker. If nothing else gets done, the record is what lets someone else find these animals, and it still works after you have left.