A hurricane is barreling toward the East Coast. Right in its path is eastern North Carolina.

How many times have Beaufort County residents run through this drill, of prepping, securing, purchasing supplies, moving vehicles, lifting possessions above the high-water mark of the last big storm? Many.

But what many people often forget about in the rush of preparing for that Category 1 to 5 storm is their pets.

Worst case scenario, a bad enough storm would force emergency management to issue a mandatory evacuation for all residents of Beaufort County — think Hurricane Michael when it hit the panhandle of Florida last year. It’s never happened here before, but everyone can agree on the fact that storms these days are different, and their effects seem to be much more widely felt. Just ask anyone who is still displaced after Hurricane Florence last September.

If such a situation were to happen, and a mandatory evacuation issued, there are those, of course, who would choose to stick around and ride out a storm, wise or not. Others, in flood-prone areas, would be more likely to heed the warning that does not come lightly — the reason it’s issued to begin with is to preserve the lives of local folks.

While you may be prepared to turn out the lights, lock the door and seek shelter on higher ground or further inland, are your pets welcome there too? Will you be forced to leave them behind? Can you find safe shelter for them at a friend or family member’s house?

These are all questions to figure out now, long before any tropical depression stirs up near the coast of Africa.

The answers may be just a phone call or internet search away. An internet search can provide a list of pet-friendly lodging where you may be headed, boarding facilities and veterinarians that could provide shelter.

Consider having your pets microchipped, and make sure their ID tags include current information, including your cell phone number, just in case.

And when you’re setting aside three days’ worth of supplies (though local emergency management says that number should be upped to five days), make sure you have enough food and water for your pets.

No one likes to think of such a bad storm scenario, but planning for your pets now may mean the difference between bad and worst case — the loss of a pet.