Six situations. The fifth comes round on the same date every year, and it is prepared three weeks ahead, not on the night.
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An animal does not get used to a noise that frightens it by enduring more of it: it becomes sensitised to it. These six situations can be prepared for, and the preparation takes weeks, not hours.
This is the misreading that costs the most. Exposing a frightened animal to a loud noise so that it will "get used to it" produces sensitisation: each exposure strengthens the reaction instead of easing it.
Habituation only works at low intensity, gradually, and paired with something pleasant. It is slow, and it is the only route that works.
A room with no window, or with the shutters closed, holding the usual bed, water, and a door that stays open. The refuge has to be known and liked BEFORE the event: an animal pushed into an unfamiliar room during a storm associates that room with fear.
A few meals eaten there in the preceding weeks are enough to make it a safe place.
A panicking animal that cannot get away hurts itself: clawed doors, broken teeth, escapes through a window. The door of the refuge stays open, and it is the house that is made safe, not the room.
The one exception is travel, where the carrier is the safety - and it then has to be a familiar place, not a place of restraint.
Many animals react before the first clap of thunder: the drop in pressure, the static electricity and the change in light all come before the sound. That is why they seem to "sense" a storm.
The practical consequence: preparation starts when the sky changes, not when the noise arrives. Waiting for the thunder means arriving after the fear.
The date is known in advance, and it is the only situation on this list that is. Three weeks allow habituation to recordings at low volume, paired with meals, turned up very gradually.
On the night itself, only management is left: refuge reachable, windows closed, steady background noise, and above all no going out. An animal lost on the night of a celebration is a common case, and an avoidable one.
Noise, strangers in the house, furniture disappearing, smells changing: it is the heaviest situation of all for an animal, and the noise is only half of it.
The rule that prevents the most trouble: the animal is not there on moving day. At someone else's house, in boarding, in a closed room well out of the way with someone - but not in the middle of it.