Each of us hopes that we will never have to evacuate. It's a terrifying circumstance. It means leaving our ranches or our homes; and it may mean taking our llamas with us. I'm writing this article because we've just done this. Hopefully, what we have learned will help all of us prepare.

Jim and I returned home at midnight Sunday, October 19th, from Western Regionals in Central Point, OR. While we had left rain in western Washington, in Oregon the sun was shining and it was delightfully warm for October. Monday morning, back home, we awoke to the threat of the Skagit River flooding our area. There didn't seem to be any panic in the community, though, because the entire area seemed to hope that it wouldn't be so bad.

However, Tuesday morning found the entire Skagit River area preparing for the worst. In Mount Vernon, they called for hundreds of volunteers to fill thousands of sand bags to protect the downtown. As the morning went on, one of the four exits from our valley was closed. Later, a second road was closed. We realized IF the river flooded our area or IF the dike broke, we would be in trouble if we waited until the last minute. About that time, people started calling us-"Are you going to evacuate? Do you need help?" When we answered "yes" to both questions, they never hesitated but were on their way with their trailers.

As we were waiting for trailers to arrive, we moved llamas around so that they would be easier to load. There were certain groups that we wanted to stay together, so they were moved into small pastures or barns to make that easier. Halters and leads were sorted and labeled with our names on tags. I'd like to tell you that we had one halter and one lead for each llama here-not so. However, all the small groups (7-8) did go with their halters on and without leads-knowing that the people who would be boarding them would have leads with which to unload them.

We sent 25 llamas to one place in three trailers. Those llamas were haltered and tied in the trailers as we filled each trailer. When the trailer doors were shut, the halters and leads were removed from the animals and left with us. When they arrived at their destination, the doors were opened and the llamas just stepped out into the new pasture.

It took us about five hours to load 49 llamas. There were two babies-3 and 4 months old. Both had already learned to halter and walk on a lead, making it so much easier for them and for us. It helped that each llama we were loading had been halter trained and taught to load into a trailer. There were several intact males. Being stuffed into a trailer was NOT what they considered fun! One of our females thought the current stress level wasn't high enough, so she began to alert-making everyone else even more stressed. Needless to say, they were all terrified.

Before each trailer departed, I listed which llamas were inside and where they were going. I also listed whether or not they had halters or leads with them. Fortunately, there were no llamas with any particular health issues or needs that required special attention. At each ranch where they were placed, those llama owners were able to keep our llamas separate from their own herds.

Earlier in the day, Jim had removed our 5th wheel to a nearby campground. That night, when we were told we had to evacuate, we loaded our two oldest studs, Sol and Striker, into our divided trailer and took them with us to the campground. We did make the decision to leave five llamas here. One of them was a braindamaged female who could not leave this ranch under any circumstances. Four others were headstrong geldings who had proved impossible to round up. Our ranch is higher than most other land in our valley and within its perimeters, are several high "llama mountains" and shelters that are built on higher ground. All the pasture gates were left open, so we felt confident that, should the waters come, these five llamas would have lots of safe areas to go. Even so, it was difficult that night to leave.

We are truly blessed with friends who volunteered their time, their energy, their trailers, their ranches and pastures. We were also blessed in that the dikes of the Skagit River did hold in our area, so the threat of floods here did not materialize. That might not have been true, however. We learned many lessons through this event. We have shared some of them here, hoping you will never need to use them.