The short answer
Have the carrier available, keep your cat’s essentials together and agree who will help before bad weather makes those jobs urgent. Add current identification, vet details and a possible place to stay to the household plan. Follow official warnings and evacuation instructions; this checklist is preparation, not a reason to delay leaving.
On this page
A cat evacuation plan is mostly a collection of ordinary things made easier to find. The useful question is whether someone else could collect the right carrier, food and contact details if you were away. The cat is unlikely to have packed.
Make the carrier available before you need it
Keep a suitable carrier at home, with its fastenings checked and its location known to the people helping you. A carrier stored at somebody else’s house needs a collection arrangement, not just a vague understanding that you can borrow it.
PDSA’s flood advice recommends keeping a carrier available and making it familiar. Our carrier fit guide covers usable space and openings; carrier familiarisation has the gradual training steps. Do that work ahead of time. An evacuation instruction is not a training deadline.
If borrowing is your plan, use our borrowed-carrier checks early enough to find an alternative. Do not leave a cat unattended in a carrier during flooding.
Keep the portable supplies together
Cats Protection’s storm-preparation guidance includes familiar food, water, bowls, litter and a tray, bedding and current medicines. Keep these accessible and dry. Use your cat’s usual supplies rather than changing her diet or equipment for the occasion.
Scroll across to see the full table.
| Gather | Decide in advance |
|---|---|
| Food, water and bowls | Who checks supplies, and where they are kept with the household kit. |
| Litter, tray and familiar bedding | Which items can be moved with you, rather than assuming accommodation provides them. |
| Current prescribed medicines | Ask the prescribing vet about supply and any storage or transport needs. |
| Records and contacts | Keep the documents below together, with an accessible copy for the person helping. |
Review the kit when food, prescriptions or household arrangements change. This is not a medication checklist: do not improvise doses, sedatives or treatment for stress.
Put identification and contacts in one place
Check the contact details registered to your cat’s microchip and keep a recent recognisable photograph. Gather the microchip number, vaccination record, pet insurance details and your vet’s contacts. Cats Protection includes these in its preparedness advice; they are more useful together than scattered through different inboxes.
The Environment Agency’s personal flood plan also includes pet carers and vets among useful contacts. Keep a paper copy with important records protected from water, as well as any phone copy. Record who can help, what they have agreed to do and how to contact them.
Agree the plan for when you are away
Choose a trusted person who knows where the cat, carrier and supplies are, and discuss access before an emergency. Separately, identify someone who may be able to accommodate the cat temporarily. Confirm the arrangement with them; a name on a list is not a booking.
Do not assume an evacuation centre, hotel or other temporary accommodation accepts cats. Ask about the actual destination and tell the people arranging assistance that you have a cat. GOV.UK’s plan says many centres allow pets; it does not promise admission at every centre.
Connect the cat plan to the household plan
Keep the official warning service and your household contacts with the cat’s records. GOV.UK’s preparation guide links England’s warning and risk services and the separate guidance for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Use the service for where you live. This article does not report current conditions.
Current GOV.UK before-and-during-flood guidance includes pets in moving the household to safety. Follow local and emergency-service instructions. Do not walk, cycle or drive through floodwater or put yourself at risk collecting belongings. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 999.
If you cannot safely take your cat with you, tell the emergency services where she is and follow their instructions. Do not return through dangerous conditions to attempt a rescue.
For the wider household arrangements, The Planet Brief’s household flood plan connects warning coverage with the people, assistance and essential items to organise in England.
If you live in Bristol
Make the local warning and reporting routes part of your household contact list. A warning-area page covers a defined location, not every address in the city; different kinds of flooding may need different reporting routes. Use the official services for your location, and check pet arrangements separately from accommodation for people.
For Bristol readers assembling that contact list, The British Uplift’s local guide separates the harbour and Avon warning-area information from official flooding-report routes.
Sources and approach
Prepared from Cats Protection’s storm advice (16 February 2022), PDSA’s flood advice (6 January 2023), the Environment Agency’s personal flood plan (updated 15 November 2023) and the linked GOV.UK preparation and response guidance, checked 19 October 2026. These are preparedness sources, not a current storm warning or a claim that a particular property is safe. The carrier guides retain their separate fit, training and borrowing detail.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. No charity or government photograph, map or checklist has been reproduced.