Pennsylvania's Office of Emergency Planning has taken several lessons from Katrina.
One of them has to do with pet rescue.
The state is beginning to make serious plans to include pets in evacuation plans -- though not necessarily to board them with their owners. The more stories are told about the New Orleanians who decided not to evacuate, or who turned down offers of rescue, the more we hear that abandoning their pets was one of the big reasons for their reluctance.
We can try to make people behave in ways we think they should, or we can deal with people the way they are. In the case of pets and their owners, Pennsylvania has decided to look at the latter.