I thought I was prepared - leashes were by the door, food was in containers, meds are kept in a small box, bowls were near the front door normally, cat carriers were stored in an accessible area and their were enough for all cats, we even had a much smaller rodent cage, arrangements made with a friend who was much closer to the main city and had plenty of room to stay. Then we were given all of 10 min to get 4 dogs, 3 cats, 2 rats, a guinea pig, ourselves and anything else we didn't want to lose loaded into the cars and get out as a fast moving brush fire jumped the freeway. (We were actually lucky, some people were woken up in the middle of the night and told they had to go now as they saw flames coming up their front porch!). All I'm going to say is the best laid plans...... We got everyone out went to our friends, 4 hours later we were doing the same loading as she was given about 20 min to get out. Some things I learned: 1)Your pets sense panic and may not react normally so don't assume they'll listen or do what's normal, load them into the car on a leash even if normally you don't, no matter how good a recall they have. 2) Always take your pets! Don't assume they'll be fine. It comes down to choices, the extra time you spend trying to get your scared cats from under the bed you could have saved pictures or heirlooms, but in my opinion not worth it against your pets life 3) Load your pets 1st into the car, once you don't have to worry about them you can pause and think what else do I/should I take. 4)Have a place to board your pets if needed for an extended period, preferably a few places since if it's a large scale emergency a lot of people will have the same problem as most hotels and shelters don't take pets. We spent the night in our cars at the beach, then the next day snuck everyone into my moms 2 bedroom rented townhouse. It was there I realized I didn't have a litter box or litter and had to make a trip to the nearest pet store once it opened! I spent most of that day calling around to try to find somewhere to board at least the dogs but everything was full. We were lucky our house survived, but because of the destruction in our area we had no power, phone, gas, and water was undrinkable so we didn't return home for about a week. Finding a place to stay with 4 big dogs was a nightmare. We even left the cats and rodents with my mom, but because her complex doesn't allow dogs we couldn't really hide them. All I can say is being over prepared isn't such a bad idea. Have a plan, then a backup plan or 2.