*The photos for this article were sent by blog reader, Jackie. They've traveled alot on the great email highway and at some point were attributed to a rescue attempt in Kansas after a tornado. In fact, they are photos taken by a woman named Dana, during her animal rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina. You can see the original photos along with many others that were taken by Dana at her flickr site. Her site is worth the visit.
I wrote at the end of last month about considering our pets when preparing for the hurricane season. A New York Times article in the Tampa Tribune states that the loss from Hurricane Katrina alerted us to our lack when it comes to dealing with a catastrophe of that magnitude. It was estimated that almost 200,000 animals were displaced in that storm. Lives were risked and lost because of people not wanting to abandon their pets. The recent floods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa displaced thousands, involving around 4200 homes. The local animal shelter flooded and moved their animals to Kirkwood Community College. As the situation worsened, calls came into the school to allow more animals. Within days they had almost 1000 animals. Volunteers were quick to donate supplies and offer help
, including veterinarians, technicians, groomers, even flood victims themselves. Diane Webber, director of the Humane Society of the United States says that what we learned from Katrina is that animals are a valuable part of people's lives and must be considered when planning for disasters.It's estimated that 52% of Florida households have pets. CHAART, Community of Hillsborough Animal and Agricultural Response Team, is working to assure that this county has a plan in effect to take care of the animal population should a disaster occur. CHAART estimates that Hillsborough has over 500,000 cats and dogs. One of their immediate
concerns is the lack of personnel to man shelters. There are only two designated pet friendly shelters in the county, one in the east part of the county at Burnett Middle School in Seffner, and one in the northwest at Sickles High School in Citrus Park. Would they hold all the people with pets who need to evacuate flood zones when a hurricane comes within reach? I don't know, but it's obvious that two shelters could easily be overwhelmed if Tampa had a direct hit from a monster storm.Until the time that the shelter situation for pets improves, it is up to us, to do what we can to be prepared to take our pets elsewhere, should the shelters be full. CHAART offers a pet owner's evacuation checklist, recommendations for contingency bus transportation and for
shelters that are not listed as pet friendly. For information on what is happening on the state level to help deal with petevacuation, see SART (State Agricultural Response Team.) I'm ashamed to say, I don't have a plan. And yet, I know I wouldn't leave my dogs. I don't live in a flood zone and I've been lolled by the fact that I've lived this long in my home state and never faced evacuation. But, I visited Homestead after Andrew hit in 1992 and I saw firsthand the devastation. My relatives in Homestead are also lifelong Floridians and they never expected to be living in a travel trailer for almost a year, while their solid concrete block home was rebuilt. So, this week, I will do my research and this weekend when Scott and I have time to talk, we'll form a plan. The storms they are a brewing out there in those waters that surround our dear state. Last year, our esteemed Governor, Charlie Crist proclaimed July 31, Florida Animal Disaster Preparedness Day. Seems like a good day to look fondly at our animals, and know we're prepared to take care of them, should we have to leave our homes.
