Louisiana State Animal Response Team - Report on Katrina

Louisiana State Animal Response Team
LVMA-SART http://lsart.evetsites.net/
8550 United Plaza Blvd, Suite 1001
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70809 United States
Phone : (225)928-5862, Alt : (225)578-9587, 1-800-524-2996
Contact: Dr. Renee Poirrier, rpoirrier@bellsouth.net

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Source: http://lsart.evetsites.net/site/view/62426_History.pml

The skeleton structure of Louisiana SART was just coming into place
under the guidance of the Louisiana State Veterinarians' Office when
Hurricane Katrina put it to the test.

Dr. Renee Poirrier was Director, and along with Assistant State
Veterinarian, Dr. Martha Littlefield, managed Rescue Shelters,
Evacuation Shelters, oversaw credentialed rescue operations and
continues to work on Recovery in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita.

Dr. Littlefield's report on the Response to the Hurricanes of 2005.


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Louisiana's Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

The Louisiana's role in animal disaster preparedness & response began
in 2002 when the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association Board of
Directors agreed to create the State Animal Response Team (SART) and
make it part of the State's Emergency Support Function (ESF) #11
(Agriculture). The lead agency for ESF #11 (Agriculture) is the
Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry (LDAF). The primary
task for LVMA-SART at that time was to set up pre-storm evacuation
shelters in the northern part of the state in order to provide a place
for people to take their (small animal) pets when they evacuate. These
shelters would open in conjunction with Red Cross human shelters as
assigned by the (human) Shelter Task Force. Evacuees would be
responsible for taking care of their own animals. Large animals were
considered in the response plan, but planning for their protection was
in a more general, owner-owned manner. In response to Hurricanes Ivan
and Dennis (and others), evacuation shelters were set up in
Alexandria, Monroe & Shreveport. After Dennis (2005), the LVMA- SART
was tasked with planning shelters in Lafayette & Baton Rouge.

Our involvement in Hurricane Katrina began with opening the pre-storm
evacuation shelters in Monroe, Shreveport, & Alexandria. These
shelters were managed by LVMA District Representative Dr. James
Rundell (Monroe), LVMA District Representative Dr. Gary Dupree, LVMA
member, Dr. Susan Bradley (Shreveport), and LVMA District
Representative Dr. David McGraw (Alexandria). Other preparations were
begun around the state. The LaSPCA (the animal control agency for
Orleans Parish), in response to the threat posed by Katrina, evacuated
their shelter animals to Houston. Dr. Martha Littlefield, Assistant
State Veterinarian (ASV) with the LDAF (Bob Odom, Commissioner)
pre-positioned VMAT & national humane groups in out of state locations
(but on call) to assist with rescue shelters. Evacuation shelters were
shelters where owners could take and care for their animals. Rescue
shelters were shelters set up to recover and receive animals after the
storm. These animals were to have no owners with them. They were to be
housed in the rescue shelter until their owners could reclaim them or
until an animal could be sent to a longer-term facility.

Katrina slammed ashore devastating the state. The first responders
were the local veterinarians who responded with great care and much
responsibility. There are too many to list, but they were essential to
this relief effort. The ability to be self sufficient for at least 3
days needs to be considered and understood. The calvary, whether state
or federal, takes time to mobilize. In a statewide disaster or
emergency, according to ESF #11, the State Veterinarian (Dr. Mack Lea)
& the USDA APHIS Veterinary Services Area Veterinarian-in-Charge
(AVIC) (Dr. Joel Goldman) are responsible for all animals in disaster.
They were the area co-commanders for the Incident Command (IC) for
both the Katrina and Rita disasters using the mandatory incident
command system (ICS) structure. For those unfamiliar with ICS, you are
encouraged to go on line and learn about how all emergencies are now
mandated to be handled. Many people don't realize that while rescue is
important and feels good, there are other aspects that happened during
a disaster and need to be done. Central command leadership including
coordination with State, Federal and Volunteer groups is important.

Red Cross opened human shelters in Baton Rouge & Lafayette. The LVMA
opened animal shelters in Baton Rouge & Lafayette. LVMA member Dr.
Paula Drone was in charge of the Baton Rouge Shelter located at the
Parker Coliseum on the LSU campus. Dr. David Orgeron (LVMA District
Representative) was in charge of the Lafayette shelter at Blackham
Coliseum. Dr. Sonya Brouillette also set up a shelter in St. Helena
Parish. They were LVMA evacuation shelters where the second wave of
human evacuees could bring their pets with them.

The LVMA SART Director Dr. Renee Poirrier was called to Baton Rouge to
assist with the establishment of a rescue shelter in Gonzales at the
Lamar Dixon Equine Center. In Louisiana's state plan for animal
response in disasters, local animal control officers are responsible
for small animal rescue until their resources cannot be met. La-SPCA
is a humane organization contracted to provide animal control services
for Orleans Parish and, by agreement with adjoining parishes provide
the local animal control officers who are responsible for small animal
rescues in parishes around the Orleans area. State resources
originally aimed at helping the local animal control officers carry
out their mission. However, when their facility was destroyed, they
were unable to take calls from citizens. Phone banks were set up at
LDAF Office of Health Services and Baton Rouge's Cajun Clicker
Computer Group helped manage the tremendous amount of data collected.

Dr. Littlefield contacted Dr. Rebecca Adcock (LVMA District
Representative) to establish a central hotline to take calls. Dr.
Adcock also set up and updated the LSU website, the official website
for animal relief efforts. Large animal, especially equine calls began
coming in and Dr. Adcock asked Dr. Becky McConnico and Dr. Rusty Moore
to field these calls & the Equine Hotline was born. Technically,
animal control officers are responsible for horses in their areas;
however, they were overwhelmed with the small animal response.

Arrangements were made to have monetary donations sent to the Walter
J. Ernst Foundation (the foundation associated with the LVMA) and
supply donations sent to LDAF with Commissioner Odom's approval and
support.

State Veterinarian Dr. Mack Lea and LVMA-SART Director Dr. Renee'
Poirrier devised a large animal response group consisting of USDA
veterinarians & LVMA equine veterinarians. Dr. Shannon Gonsoulin (LVMA
member at large) & Dr. Sonny Corley (LVMA member) were tasked with
organizing 5 LVMA equine veterinarians per day for 2 weeks to extract
horses from the affected areas. In less than 36 hours, a list was
compiled to cover a period of 4 weeks. The first 67 horses extracted
were by Dr. Fred Bourgeois, LVMA member and Federal veterinarian, his
team of Animal Health Technicians and other State and Federal
Veterinarians. As the number of horse calls increased, Dr. McConnico &
Dr. Rustin Moore mapped out the location of the calls. LVMA equine
vets went to each location, removed the horses, and with the help of
Dominic's Stockyard trailers, as well as volunteers with trailers,
took the horses to Lamar Dixon. Bonnie Clark, president of the
Louisiana Equine Council, was tasked by Dr. Littlefield to run the
equine shelter at Lamar Dixon. Dr. Denny French, LVMA member, and his
LSU students provided veterinary care for the horses. Flooding and the
storm surge removed many of the livestock to the Gulf of Mexico. Large
animal disposal was coordinated by the USDA's Natural Resources
Conservation Services (NRCS).

LaSPCA had pre-storm agreements with the Humane Society of the United
States (HSUS) to partner and manage the Lamar Dixon small animal
shelter. Other national humane groups were tasked to help relieve
various shelters around the state. The SART Director Dr. Poirrier and
Dr. Littlefield chose American Humane Association (AHA) for Lafayette,
and the Emergency Animal Response Services/United Animal Nations
(EARS/UAN) for Monroe. Shreveport & Baton Rouge did not need outside
help at that time. Prior to the storm, Slidell Animal Control had
contracted and practiced emergency response exercises with Noah's Wish.

VMAT commander Dr. Kellogg arrived to accept responsibility for
surveying areas of the state for damage and to report back to the IC.
Intake at Lamar Dixon was handled by VMAT Veterinarians. They were
tasked to staff Lamar Dixon 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Every
animal extracted from the Orleans area was to be decontaminated and
triaged on entry. If any needed intense medical care, they were to be
sent to LSU SVM. As more and more animals were rescued, the daily area
command meetings at the LDAF building centered on the need to export
animals out of the state because it was determined that there were not
enough resources in the State to care for the extracted animals. A
subcommittee, headed by the executive director of humane shelter
managers, decided to ship small animals to approved brick and mortar
shelters across the country. The LVMA-SART director participated in
the meeting and helped devise export protocols for animals leaving the
state. Each animal shipped out of the Lamar Dixon Shelter was to be
microchipped, vaccinated, dewormed and treated for external parasites
by United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Veterinarians, VMAT or
US Army 248th Medical Detachment Veterinarians.

There was no need to ship horses out of state, because of the
diligence of Bonnie Clark and the fact that each horse was permanently
identified with a microchip, brand or tattoo and ownership verified.
Equine shelter protocols were determined by Dr. French. Each horse was
vaccinated, triaged, and tested for EIA. One success has been that
microchipping interest has picked up nationwide because of the success
with Bonnie's equine program and the microchipping of the small
animals. Statistics on the large animal rescue included 382 animals,
264 horses, 3 pigs and 15 goats. Lamar Dixon handled a daily average
of 157 horses. Five horses were evacuated to Lamar Dixon, but
veterinarians and other rescuers recovered 359 animals. Lamar Dixon
was used as a large animal handling facility for 56 days.

Dr. Bill Stokes, the USPHS veterinarian in charge of Lamar Dixon at
the time, asked that the LVMA provide as many veterinarians as
possible for a weekend to check New Orleans addresses for animals left
behind. The SART director contacted the LVMA District Representatives
and in three days, 30 LVMA veterinarians agreed to meet in New Orleans
to make a push to check as many addresses as possible.

While the media focused on the dogs and cats, many other types of
animals (and cell lines) were rescued by state and federal
veterinarians and animal health technicians. Retrieval and transport
of these animals and cells during the initial days post-hurricane were
dangerous, hot and long and the efforts of these people were overlooked.

Just as intake from New Orleans decreased and export at Lamar Dixon
was gearing up, Hurricane Rita appeared in the gulf. As Rita neared
shore, preparations were begun again.

Animal control officers from Lake Charles evacuated their facility in
order to convert it to a rescue shelter for small animals. The
Sugarena was designated as a large animal shelter by Dr. Gonsoulin.
Lamar Dixon and Parker Coliseum were made as secure as possible. The
human shelter at the Cajun Dome in Lafayette was evacuated to
Shreveport and the animals in the LVMA Blackham Coliseum Shelter,
following their owners, were evacuated to Shreveport as well.

Rita slammed ashore devastating Louisiana. Lake Charles Animal Control
was paired with the American Humane Association. Since flooding in
Lake Charles was minimal and quickly receded, animals were not
extracted from homes but fed in-place. Two weeks went by before any
healthy animals were picked up in Lake Charles, giving owners time to
return and take care of their pets. Injured or ill pets were picked up
and triaged and sent to local veterinary hospitals. Severely affected
animals were sent to LSU SVM.

The equine hotline was once again set up to take calls. Most of the
horses, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs at Sugarena were transported
there by their owners.

An estimated 20,000 cattle were lost from Hurricane Rita (total loss
was 35-40,000 head). After the storm, there was a race against time to
remove as many cattle by horseback as possible out of the area and off
of the salt water contaminated pastures. USDA AHPIS personnel working
with LDAF and the Louisiana National Guard dropped feed and water to
stranded animals and assisted with the round up (food and water drops
were made to animals on levees during Katrina). The LVMA-SART provided
vaccine to local veterinarian Dr. Clyde Prejean who vaccinated and
treated the cattle. Other large animal veterinarians in the area were
a tremendous help in this endeavor. The Cattleman's Association and
LSU AgCenter personnel coordinated food and hay deliveries. Others
participated also.

Small animal evacuation shelters were again set up in Abbeville,
Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, and Monroe.

SOME OF OUR LESSONS LEARNED

We have emphasized to veterinarians the following things: "The most
important thing anyone can do to help in times of disaster is have a
personal disaster plan in place to take care of your family. The next
step is to have disaster plan for your business. Make sure your
business interruption insurance covers you until your business
reopens. Make sure you have up to date replacement value on your
equipment. What will happen to the animals in your care if a disaster
strikes your area? Last but by no means least, join the State Animal
Response Team!"

The LVMA was an integral part of the Katrina/Rita animal relief
effort, but one must not focus on just one group. The foresight of the
LVMA Board of Directors to agree to form the LVMA- State Animal
Response Team was a tremendous asset. The cooperation of the major
humane groups, especially in pre-staging and coordinating with Dr.
Littlefield, was a learning experience for the groups. Learning to
play together in the same sandbox was major step toward a coordinated
animal rescue and evacuation shelter response. Computer systems could
have come in earlier; records could have been kept better. The
volunteers needed to be better controlled and managed. Credentialing
all the players would have helped. Tighter perimeter fencing and
security would have helped control many aspects of the rescue
including the "shoppers". Working more closely with State Police and
Parish Sheriffs would have cleaned up some of the rogue
"just-got-to-rescue" groups. Exit strategies for these groups should
have been set up at the beginning of the incident. Ownership issues
during disasters need to be legislatively set. Donations need to be
better managed. In short, everything could have been done better, but
we did the best we could.

The LVMA's pre-storm evacuation shelters are a model for other states
preparing their disaster plans. The challenge becomes to build on this
foundation. To do this the La-SART will need more volunteers. We have
asked for a bank of interested veterinarians, veterinary technicians &
lay people to train for and be prepared to respond to the needs of
animals & their people in disasters – any type of disaster. Incident
Command System 100 and 200 training would be the minimum level for the
volunteers credentialed, while the upper level command would need
additional ICS training. Louisiana is moving from a state that
prepares for animals in hurricanes to a state that has an "all
animals–all disasters plan". Following after action meetings with the
LDAF & USDA APHIS Veterinary Services, the LVMA-SART has decided that
each LVMA district should have a large & small animal veterinarian
responsible for coordinating relief efforts for animals in their
district as well as veterinarians & veterinary technicians from across
the state who would be willing to respond to disasters in any part of
the state. We have emphasized that training can be done on line but we
have plans are in the works for state training meetings. The Board of
Veterinary Medicine has been made aware that veterinarians need
continuing education credits for courses taken in the preparation for
emergencies, and we continue to stress the need for CE credits and
recognition for this important segment of veterinary medicine. Cross
state line cooperation between the licensing boards will be essential
to keep the animals within the proper state. Pre-staging storage
containers with items that can be used quickly to set up a shelter are
being pre-positioned in regions around the state.

It is hoped that veterinarians remember to make plans ahead of time
for their family and clinic. Animals can be moved, equipment can be
replaced, but during the time of a disaster, having a plan and being
calm, self sufficient and willing to help makes the disaster, if it
could be, a little better.


Amazing animation of the flooding--when and where
**FLASH FLOOD /katrina/graphics/continuous.swf