Tropical storm and hurricane recovery and preparedness strategies.

The goal of this article is to present lessons learned from the devastating effects of two specific natural disasters in Texas: Tropical Storm Allison, which flooded Houston in June 2001, and Hurricane Ike, which caused severe damage in Galveston in September 2008. When a disaster is predictable, good predisaster planning can help to save animals lives. However, as disasters are usually not predictable and tend not to follow a script, that plan needs to be easily adaptable and flexible.