Gary Gero, professional animal trainer, took a team to Biloxi, Mississippi, to assist in rescuing the animals devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Thank you, Gary, for allowing us to put this on our Web site. And to you as well, Bernie, for lending an ear when it was needed.

A Tale of Animal Rescue

September 23, 2005

Hello all,

Just arrived home in Washington in a somewhat comatose state. Stopped in Calif. to hug my kids. Actually, I was the one who needed the hug after being where I was for the last two weeks. First thing we found was that the people that stayed and went through the unbelievable experience of 150 mph winds and surviving while their house was submerged under 25 ft. of water needed to talk. Needed to tell the story of helping old folks into the attic and then onto the roofs as the water rose. Not knowing if they would live another day. Of how God saved and delivered them back to the living. Many weren’t saved. They wanted to hug anyone who cared to listen. There weren’t many who could listen in the curfew area. I guess I understand a little bit as I’m feeling like I need to talk. So this is the way I’ll do it. Sorry if I ramble.

First a huge thanx to all that helped. You probably will never know how much it meant to us and those that really needed it.

The Geography:

As we all know, Katrina came ashore with record intensity. She made landfall in eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi. Mississippi took the worst hit from the winds as it was on the eastern eye wall where the wind and storm surge are the most intense. Their extreme damage came from the wind and waves. New Orleans suffered from flooding.

The Damage: (staggering)

From Pasqugoula to the Louisiana border, 100 miles or so, the destruction is absolute as far as 4 blocks inland from the ocean. Only foundations remain. The rubble from all of these buildings and cars, as well as barges, containers, boats and anything else washed in from the sea, is in what could be described as a surf line, blocks from the ocean. This 100 mi. long rubble pile is as much as 15 ft. high and impenetrable. The rubble stopped being pushed inland finally as it created it’s own barrier against buildings. Anyone who was in those houses by the beach is still buried in those piles. Where there was a street the rubble pushed further inland up the roads. This made the roads near the beach impassable to say the least. The rubble stopped at this surf line but the water came on and covered houses far inland. Miles from the beach, where there was any waterway or river, the houses were submerged. Houses in the south have no need for earthquake hold-downs so many floated off of their foundation and were destroyed. Even miles from the beach when we went into houses looking for critters we found a 3 inch layer of mud, sewage, rotten food, and chemicals on everything. Black mold on the walls and all the contents of the house in random piles. Imagine your home and everything in it in this state. Family pictures were everywhere. People and animals died in some of these houses. Pictures and words cannot tell the story of what is there.

The Organization:

The Disaster Animal Response Team (DART), through the HSUS, was tasked with the job of animal rescue by the Miss. E.O.C. They were the only private group permitted in. This to provide a coordinated plan of rescue and a single place for the holding of rescued animals to insure they had the best chance of being reunited with their families. The HSUS set up holding facilities 75 miles inland at Hattiesburg, in a massive horse facility. Animals were transported from the field in air-conditioned trailers to this facility. The care and maintenance of recovered animals is handled largely by volunteers. The VMET group provided vet care and some limited guidance to the volunteers.

A forward camp, as close to the recovery area as was permitted, provided some support for the people in the field and a place to pitch our tents.

The Job:

7 of us from B&A arrived at the forward camp just outside Biloxi with the Sumter Co. Fla. DART team the day it was opened for animal rescue. That was 6 days after the storm. I understand it takes time to clear small tracks through the rubble for vehicles and the human rescue and body recovery take time, but 6 days is to long to make animals wait in those unbelievable conditions. Fear. Terror. Our guys at our Fla. facility have worked with the DART team in Sumter Co. on local issues and they were glad to have our help. The recovery team in Miss. varied from 20 to 30 people. That doesn’t sound like many but a truck can cover lots of area in a long day and it was sufficient. Over the next two weeks we worked our way along the Miss. coast to the western state line. Our day was searching houses, yards, streets, alleys and rubble piles. Pleading with terrified animals to trust us so we didn’t have to add to their trauma by capturing them. Not many did. Most we captured, which only added to their nightmare. The option was to leave them in the slime and take away their chance to see family again. Most of them wanted desperately to believe we were friends. Tails wagged, cats approached purring and rubbing, but the horror they had survived kept them 20 ft. away. The odd brave soul that took the leap of faith, after long pleading, and could be scratched, petted, fed, watered, kissed on the nose and nicely put in the truck was our only relief from the nightmare. They were very few.

Animals were in every conceivable place and circumstance. They ran in small groups. They were under houses in the mud. They were in locked houses. Some had been in trees where they had found a limb when they were swimming. Some had found people to be near. Some pit bulls, chows and rottweilers that belonged to dog fighting owners were still tied to trees 14 days after the storm. Their owners houses were destroyed and they were all but left. A neighbor might water them every third day. It was near 100 degrees every day. Some near starvation.

Humans in the main are amazing. The few people still living in destroyed houses took their time and resources to feed animals. Many had animals of their own that had survived with them. Nobody had animal food. We carried food in the trucks. We couldn’t carry enough. It seemed like every person we met was desperate for food for their own animal or ones they were leaving food for. Even in the worst adversity the human-animal bond is important to us. Even the most unlikely of us.

By the second day we were nearly out of food and were realizing how important it was as the animals on the streets were surviving on the handouts. Bob Kelly, owner of Kelly foods answered my call for food with a tractor-trailer of Bijac dog food. By the time we left, there was dog food being dropped by others but Bob was there when he was needed and handled the shipping himself, which was no easy task. Thanx Bob. Folks soon discovered there was dog food in our camp and we had to delegate people to handle the distribution. They came day and night. That trailer of food was gone in 4 days and feeding animals and probably people in the worst possible places, in the worst possible circumstances.

Cats are the problem. After long negotiations with them, only one in twenty could be caught. They disappear into the rubble. Trapping is the only way to bring them in. Unfortunately when we realized the problem and asked HSUS reps. in the field for traps, we discovered no one had thought to bring any. The bulldozers were situated to begin bulldozing the rubble which spoke ill for the cats so panic calls were sent.. One call was sent to Bernie Williams. He spent his valuable time calling. Thanx Bernie. Strangely he made one call to the head office of HSUS in Maryland and let us know they would send us 50 traps. They sent them UPS. A turns out sending things into a disaster area by UPS is not a great idea. They never arrived. Jen Henderson saved us, and the cats, by organizing traps to be bought in Philly and driven to Mississippi. They arrived the day we left and were turned over to a pro trapping team from New York. Thanx Jen. Also thanx for the medical treatment.

The volunteer crew at Hattiesburg was challenged to the extreme. When we left, close to 1000 animals were being cared for. They slept in tents and worked brutal hrs.

We traveled from Fla. with 3 trucks loaned by the trainers. Thanx guys. I found my truck was in Wash. And to far away so Phil Smith loaned us his new dually and a horse trailer. I’m afraid it has some new cowboy pin striping and a lot of hard miles on it. Thanx Phil.

The field camp suffered a leadership gap when the DART team coordinator had to leave. Lorraine was with us and those of you that know her, know any leadership gap anywhere nearby, will immediately be filled by Lorraine. Thanx Lorraine.

We left when we felt the remaining job had become a local animal control issue and the cat trapping was under expert control. We left knowing that 250 animals have a better chance to find their lost life because we were there. It was unbelievably sad. Worth it all, even for Bobby Scott who did so much crawling in the mud under houses. I learned I could still get tears in my eyes.

Lessons:

Just like the human recovery effort there were lessons learned. HSUS did and does a great job. The task I’m sure was far greater then anticipated.

For everyone who wants to support the rescue group, whoever they are, please discover which group has been tasked with the job. I’m sure it changes with each event. Disasters are a great time for all non- profits to solicit donation. They will all be important down the road to house and care for these animals but if your interest is to support the acting rescue please ask questions. Please ask groups not sanctioned to be in the field to restrain from crossing the lines. Animals taken in Mississippi during this event by groups other then HSUS are not in the Hattiesburg center and have much less chance to be recovered by their families. Unsanctioned animal groups and animal oriented TV. Networks were forced out of the field by authorities. These authorities then were less sympathetic to the HSUS mission and clearance into new areas suffered.

Let your dog or cat sleep on the bed tonight. Kiss him on the nose before you go to sleep.

All the best,

G

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