Hurricane Wilma's Category 3 winds and rain roared ashore Florida's southern coast at dawn Monday, and spent six hours grinding overland before turning back out into the Atlantic. Although the storm has been responsible for ten deaths—six in Florida—and for widespread flooding and power outages, continuing assessments indicate that Florida authorities will be able to handle the animal issues without the massive outside assistance that marked the Katrina response.
The Sunshine State's extensive experience with hurricanes—seven now in the past 14 months—clearly helped the state prevent an animal disaster on the scale of Louisiana's and Mississippi's following Hurricane Katrina in August. An estimated 30,000 people evacuated to shelters across the state prior to the storm, encouraged by both The HSUS and the state to take their pets with them.
Unlike the evacuees in New Orleans and Louisiana, residents in the Florida Keys were allowed to take caged pets with current vaccination records on buses. In addition, more than ten animal-friendly shelters (along with many other veterinary offices and hotels) were available to pet owners in southern Florida counties. These include two counties that have never had a animal-friendly shelter, Miami-Dade and Lee counties, both vulnerable coastal counties.
What's more, Florida Governor Jeb Bush had announced in several press conferences last week that pet shelters would be available to evacuees. Gubernatorial spokesperson Denna Reppen told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel that, "The state has been working closely with the counties to establish more animal-friendly shelters, recognizing that this is an issue for pet owners."
"A lot of the counties in south Florida have their disaster plans in place," says Laura Bevan, director of The HSUS's Southeast Regional Office (SERO) in Tallahassee and Branch Director of Animal Sheltering/Relocation for the State of Florida for Wilma. Bevan and Arnold Baer, an HSUS staffer based in the SERO office who is staffing the Incident Command Post for the state, have been working in concert with federal and Florida state officials and animal responders to assess and respond to animal needs in a coordinated relief effort.
Wilma's Impact and The HSUS Response
Animal shelters from the Keys on north came through the storm like much of South Florida, with some flooding, power outages, and disrupted water service. Not all shelters evacuated their animals, but those that did addressed the challenge of finding shelters not already filled with animal victims from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But five days after the late-season storm unleashed on Florida, reports from assessment teams indicate that counties will not need the kind of outside help provided after Katrina. To assess and respond to the counties' needs, Bevan and Baer have been coordinating with The HSUS's Disaster Animal Response Teams (DART), which began assessments as soon as Wilma passed. The HSUS has worked with Florida shelters for years to create these highly trained, rapid-response disaster teams. They have spent the week moving through South Florida and the Keys making on-site assessments in order to respond to emergency and individual needs, and to identify long-range animal needs.
Besides making assessments and delivering fuel, clean water, generators and other supplies to shelters in Broward, Sumter, Collier, Lee, and Dade counties, as well as the Keys, DART teams have also facilitated two animal evacuations.
Yesterday, The HSUS and the DART teams coordinated and sponsored the air-transport of over 120 animals from the Humane Society of Broward County in Ft. Lauderdale to the Dumb Friends League in Denver with a flight out of Miami International Airport. The Humane Society of Broward County shelter was not severely damaged, but the shelter will be without power or water for some time. The animals are cats and dogs who were at the shelter prior to the storm.
In Miami Lakes, DART teams went to work helping the South Florida Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which investigates cruelty cases and had several smaller barns damaged by Wilma. The Sumter County HSUS DART team helped facilitate the movement of more than sixteen horses and ponies from the South Florida SPCA to Ocala, Florida on Thursday. The horses that do not have pending court cases will be distributed into foster care around the state.
Though the extent of massive structural damages to shelters in south Florida is still unclear, The HSUS has already committed to rebuilding shelters along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Katrina. In fact, The HSUS and the ASPCA have both provided an initial pledge of $2.5 million each to the Katrina Shelter Reconstruction Fund.
National Awareness
Florida may have dodged a bullet with Wilma—at least in terms of widespread animal issues—but not by accident. The state has one of the most sophisticated animal response networks in the country. Other states are not as prepared, evidenced by Katrina's aftermath.
But Congress and the American people are beginning to pay attention to animals before, during, and after disasters, so that another Katrina won't happen again.
Federal lawmakers have even taken up animal-friendly disaster planning and response: the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, H.R. 3858/S. 2548 (PETS Act), under consideration in Congress, would require state and local authorities to include pets and service animals in their disaster evacuation plans. Please urge your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative to support the bill.
Response Teams
