Hurricane Ian videos show Florida animal shelters prepping rescue dogs and pet owners locking down livestock

• As Hurricane Ian hits land, people are posting online about how they're preparing.
• There's a wave of videos of people securing their farm animals and pets before the storm.

As Hurricane Ian hits land in Florida, pet owners and animal rescuers are posting videos showing them preparing for potential floods and the prospect of being trapped indoors or needing to evacuate.

Along with Florida zoos across the state announcing mass closures, there are also animal shelters and Floridians with farms posting about how they're securing their animals to keep them safe from the hurricane.

At maximum winds over 150 mph, the hurricane has almost reached the level of a Category 5 storm, with potential to cause catastrophic damage to humans and structures. It's unclear as of Wednesday afternoon when and where the hurricane will first make contact, but orders have gone out for over a million people to evacuate, according to NBC News.

Animal shelters and farm owners are protecting their dogs, cats, horses, pigs, and more

The Orange County Animal Services, an animal shelter in Orlando, has posted multiple TikToks about hurricane prep. One of the videos shows the yard fences being hurricane-readied and says that staff will be kept onsite to look after the facility's 285 animals. In another clip, staff members can be seen walking around the place cuddling and petting dogs and cats.

The shelter also posted a TikTok showing how to assemble an emergency hurricane kit for pets, which they say should include medical records, a litter box, photos of the animal, and treats, among other things.

There are also many vlog-style TikToks that follow people as they narrate hurricane preparation. One video follows Sadie Holm, a homesteading microinfluencer who lives on a farm in Northeast Florida, as she readies for the storm. She cleans her porch, puts bags of dirt outside the garage, secures extra wood, gets extra feed, and tries to buy straps for her chicken coop.

Another video with five million views follows the animal care TikToker Stephanie Moratto as she puts cow tags on her horses, goats, and donkeys, sets up ropes in case they're needed for an emergency use, loads up on food and water for the animals, and locks down windows and the barn.

"We are completely closed up and ready for the hurricane," Moratto said in the video.

Another TikTok, posted by someone who says they're a realtor in Tampa Bay, shows them creating an "area to potty" for their dogs with grass and plastic before the hurricane lands.

In the lead up to landfall, social media has been filled with Floridians across the state documenting their preparations for the potential severe impact of the hurricane. Some residents have been livestreaming from their homes to show the increasingly dangerous weather conditions, as well as attempts to get out of the state while they can.

The St. Petersburg, Florida-based TikToker Hallee Smith made a shopping-haul-style vlog about preparing for the storm, including her going to various stores trying to buy water without much luck. Other videos just show how long the lines are in various stores, like a packed Costco in Tampa.

There's also footage from people evacuating Orlando's Disney World resort, which announced on Tuesday that it would be closed on Wednesday and Thursday because of the hurricane. The renovation and building restoration TikToker Kate Dear posted a video narrating how she and her family had to leave the park after it announced its closure, and then the Orlando airport announced it would also shut Wednesday morning.

In the video, Dear said she managed to get one of the final flights from the Orlando airport.

"We left before the weather hit so it only felt like a concept at first," Dear told Insider on Wednesday afternoon. "Pretty much everyone flying out of Orlando had Disney apparel on so it felt like most people were coming from there."