Los Angeles Veterinary Public Health has produced a brochure called Information for Pet Owners During Disasters. If you click on the link you can get a downloadable copy of it.
It seems like these sorts of considerations are in the news right after a disaster, but then they seem to fall out of favor as celebrity divorces and two-headed baby animals get back into the headlines.
I keep plenty of dry cat food on hand at home, and have a 30 gallon hot water tank for fresh water in emergency (accessed via the drain spigot). My cat carriers are clean, handy, and lined with fresh terrycloth towels. I recommend that you also have a summary of your cat's medical history and veterinary contact information stored on your computer on in paper form (I prefer Dropbox for online AND hard drive storage with synchronization for my important personal information).
It's not a bad idea, either, to have a game plan in mind for where you might house kitty temporarily in case of emergency. We can and do board our existing patients if fire threatens or someone has an urgent need to vacate their home temporarily. We are not a public boarding kennel, so your cat won't be needlessly exposed to random hordes of cats from heaven-knows-what background and vaccination status. We DO require that any cats staying with us be current on vaccinations, so if they are overdue they will need to be vaccinated upon entry.
