If only animals could update their Facebooks, we’d know what they were going through during a storm like this.

While the rest of us are typing updates having to do with flooded streets, leaky roofs, school closures, and what old movies we’re going to watch, our animal friends would be writing something very different.

“I’m effing losing it,” would probably be a common theme.

“My animals who are indoors are completely freaked out,” said Jeff Roberts, CEO of the Norfolk SPCA. “They’ve had constant wind for a couple days now and they’ve never had that before.”

According to Kristin Dejournett, cruelty case worker for PETA, storms are a time of increased stress for animals.

“Animals don’t even really understand what a thunderstorm is,” she said. “A storm involving flooding would be especially frightening.”

Dejournett advised that should a pet be hiding during a storm, just leave it.

“Unless you need to evacuate, I’d go ahead and leave them alone,” she said. “Trying to drag them out is a bad idea and will only stress them out more.”

Roberts is expecting to get a large number of new intakes once the storm dies down.

“I’d be anticipating a surge after the rain. You have animals not being able to get back to their house or might get lost out in the bad storm,” he said.

This surge–coupled with a drop in the number of people making it out to shelters to adopt—could lead to increased numbers of animals being euthanized.

“In municipal shelters where they have three days worth of storms and have three days of people not coming in to adopt… it can put a serious challenge on their abilities,” Roberts said. “They might have to euthanize for space and time.”

With so many outages and closings in the area, it can be hard to know where to turn when faced with a sick or injured pet. Nearly every pet hospital and veterinarian I tried to contact this afternoon–including The Cat Hospital of Tidewater, Dog & Cat Hospital, Friendship Veterinary Hospital, Boulevard Veterinary Hospital–were all closed.

Should you see a stray dog or cat in the storm, Roberts recommended first calling the appropriate city services, but then giving it access to some sort of shelter.

“They can try to put some food and bedding out there in a sheltered area so at least if the animal is frightened and stressed they can get [it] a nice place to rest,” he said.

Storms affect sea life as well.

“The stormwater runoff pollution can be 40 percent higher in cases like this,” said Terra Pascarosa of the Pew Environmental Group. “It’s pulling up more pesticides and fertilizers and can affect the marine animals in a negative way.”

Should you take an animal in out of the cold, PETA recommends leaving it alone in a warm, comfortable, but also quiet place. Should you need to evacuate your home, never leave an animal alone to fend for itself, and certainly one should never tie the animal up. This traps them and leaves them unable to flee rising floodwaters.

One group of animals in Hampton Roads is fine: those at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk.

“They’re all inside. In bad weather they’ll just keep them inside for the day,” said Diane Paluzzi of The Zoo. “All of the animal shelters have been built to deal with flooding and wind.”

If only the same could be said for the rest of Hampton Roads.

If you need information about helping animals in need, try HelpingAnimals.com, where you will also find a list of local animal shelters as well as places to stay that welcome animals.