Hurricane Katrina Rescue Diary
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September
09, 2005 |
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Friday,
September 09, 2005
From
Debbie Hill, director of
Rescues & Investigations
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John
and Pomeranian friend |
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Mississippi Team
Our animal trailer
moves between Gautier (near
Pascagoula) and Gulfport
daily, while our daily rescue
outings in trucks continue
to spread westward. Today
our patrols went into the
Waveland/Bay St. Louis area,
where we met with local
law enforcement and animal
control officials. There,
rescue efforts were separated
into large-animal and small-animal
teams.
While on rescue patrols, we speak to everyone we see, asking
if they‘ve seen lost pets. Usually citizens flag us
down. One house contained five cats and a dog with an injured
leg that was possibly fractured. Another house had a pigeon
coop behind it, which certainly must have been submerged under
water; amazingly, seven pigeons were still alive.
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Brian
rescues a dog from
a damaged home |
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We’ve been told of pets stranded in homes and on roofs,
but when we arrive to the reported locations and enter the boarded-up
buildings to search inside the muddy homes, we’re sometimes
not finding the pets. Many people are taking in lost pets
and relinquishing them to us when we arrive in their area – hopefully
this population of strays explains the empty houses we’re
encountering.
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Brandy
and Carmen log a new
arrival. |
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We continue to house the pets in our climate-controlled trailer
and transfer them to Hattiesburg, Mississippi whenever it becomes
full – a trip that takes several hours round-trip.
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Brandy
tries to convince
a cat to come with
her. |
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We keep noticing how the bark on trees has been rubbed off from
the force of water and debris. The bark is missing off the
tree trunks a good 10 or 12 feet high. We spoke to someone
today who barely survived the flood only because his modular home
unexpectedly floated off the foundation during the storm – otherwise,
he would have been submerged.
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Carmen
and Mississippi residents |
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A sight that troubled me today was that of a leash tied to a
tree; a few feet away from the end of the leash was a small, dead
dog. Thankfully, we are finding more live pets than deceased.
Last night on the way back from Waveland to Gautier, we came
across two horses running in a brush-filled athletic field behind
Biloxi High School. The horses were very spooked but Kyle was able
to calm them down. The owner arrived and said his enclosure had
been damaged by the storm, so he had tried to use the baseball
field as a paddock, but he thought someone had let the horses out
because of fear they were tearing up the sprinkler system. Our
team managed to help the man secure the horses for the night.
More than 200 animals were received Friday by our Mississippi
team; this was our largest single intake day yet. Since we
arrived on August 31, we've rescued more than 415 animals.
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New
Orleans Team: Brett
and Tim |
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New Orleans Team
Brett and Tim are
part of an exclusive animal
rescue team working in New
Orleans. Their "special
ops" team is comprised
of the most experienced
animal welfare personnel. They
report that on Friday they
rescued 31 animals: 10 dogs,
6 birds (cockatiels and
parakeets) and 25 cats.
The animals rescued from New Orleans are
being taken to the Lamar Dixon Expo Center (a non-profit facility specializing
in equestrian and 4-H activities) located near Gonzales, Louisiana. The expo
center is filling much quicker than expected. In the four days they've been
working in New Orleans, more than 2000 animals have been rescued by 20 teams.
Tim and Brett report that most of the animals are in fair condition, some are
injured, and some have skin problems. Many pet owners who evacuated left as
much food and water as possible in higher floors of homes. However, those food
supplies are now running out, so it's critical that the rescue teams get to
pets as soon as possible.
There are dead animals everywhere they go, usually under piles
of debris. Tim says the entire city smells like death. To ease
the overcrowding at the Gonzales intake center, the next day or
so they plan to locate animals, leave food and fresh water, and
return later to rescue them.
All
copyrights in photographs and diaries are claimed and reserved
by the Humane Society of Missouri. |
