9/9/08: Hurricane Gustav - From The Ground, Photo Log

It was surreal. We shifted from awards mode to action mode as Hurricane Gustav loomed behind the Katrina Animal Memorial 8/29/08 in New Orleans. When Humane Society of Louisiana's magical day ended, Kinship Circle set-up a volunteer intake table to assist MuttShack Animal Rescue for the evacuation of pets with their people. The Louisiana State Animal Response Team (LSART) implemented a system for animal evacuations under Emergency Support Function (ESF) 11 — that did not exist during Katrina. Photos courtesy of Brenda Shoss, Kinship Circle.



Katrina Animal Memorial Statue Unveiled In NOLA City Hall, 8.29.08

	HONORARY AWARDS GO TO: Garo Alexanian Amanda & Marty St. John of MuttShack Animal Rescue Foundation Shannon and Mark Martin Brenda Shoss of Kinship Circle ...and more, for their collective work during the storm and beyond.
10:00am to 12:00pm — FRIDAY 8/29/08: KATRINA MEMORIAL STATUE Join us to unveil the nation's first memorial statue honoring animals lost in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In New Orleans City Council chambers, Councilwoman Stacy Head will accept the statue on behalf of the city. We've commissioned well-known artist, Mr. Richard Chashoudian. An invocation will be read along with a special reading by Ed Kostro, poet and author...
	LEFT PHOTO: Wendy Diamond, a celebrity judge on “Greatest American Dog” on CBS, Brenda Shoss and her son Elijah, at City Hall in New Orleans
	LEFT: Kinship Circle receives a Pioneer Spirit Award, 8/9/08, Third Anniversary Of Hurricane Katrina. RIGHT: Brenda Shoss and Jeff Dorson, executive director, Humane Society of Louisiana — and host of the Katrina Animal Memorial 2008.

HONORARY AWARDS GO TO: Garo Alexanian / Amanda and Marty St. John of MuttShack Animal Rescue Foundation Shannon and Mark Martin / Brenda Shoss of Kinship Circle...and more, for their collective work during the storm and beyond.

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Introduction To Kinship Circle’s Pioneer Spirit Award Brenda Shoss formed Kinship Circle in 1999 to help animal advocates communicate influentially to key decisionmakers associated with animal cruelty concerns. Kinship Circle offers hands-on tools, such as: weekly Action Campaigns, free Fact Sheets, Animal Advocacy Advertising ideas... and much more. After Hurricane Katrina stuck, Kinship Circle united with Animal Rescue Foundation in Mobile, AL to form Grassroots Effort for Animals of the Storm — sending supplies and volunteers to nearly 80 sites across four storm states. Initially operating in overlooked Mississippi towns, Kinship Circle also worked with a National Guard unit to establish the first rescue crew in flooded Plaquemines Parish, where animals were covered in oil from a spill. By early October 2005, Brenda Shoss became one of the founding coordinators of Animal Rescue New Orleans (ARNO), serving as Food/Water Assignments Director to organize 2,800 feeding stations across 650 sq. miles in Orleans, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard Parishes. She later worked with Louisiana Senator Fontenot’s office, crafting letter campaigns and press materials to help pass the Louisiana’s Pet Evacuation Bill. Today, KINSHIP CIRCLE ANIMAL DISASTER AID NETWORK communicates during disasters to mobilize volunteers, supplies, and other resources for animal victims. Brenda continues to research and circulate disaster aid information via Kinship Circle’s mail list. Most recently Iowa officials enlisted Kinship Circle to activate volunteers to Iowa staging areas to help animal flood victims, including dogs, cats…and pigs! But Brenda’s heart remains in New Orleans…where she will never forget Katrina’s wrath and the animals left in its wake. TOP RIGHT PHOTO: Brenda Shoss and Mark Steinway, formerly Pasado’s Safe Haven. SECOND RIGHT PHOTO, LT TO RT: Charlotte Bass, ARNO Director, Brenda Shoss, Kinship Circle president, and Ramona Billot animal rescuer in Plaquemines Parish — at Katrina Memorial luncheon THIRD PHOTO, RIGHT: Ramona Billot, Elijah Ballard, Grady Ballard (Brenda’s husband, also LSART trained and credentialed in Louisiana) BOTTOM PHOTO, RIGHT: Shannon and Mark Martin, founders of animal rescue staging area at Winn Dixie parking lot, 2005 post-Katrina. Back to top

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Hurricane Gustav Animal Evacuations

PHOTOS: Union Station, Loyola Street, New Orleans: One of 12 coastal Parish Pickup Points for people to evacuate with their animals, pre-Gustav. August 28-31, 2008: Kinship Circle volunteers joined other LSART partner organizations to work at pre-designated sites where people could evacuate with their animals from 12 coastal parishes. Most attended an LSART (Louisiana State Animal Response Team) Evacuation Training to be credentialed in Louisiana.

Kinship Circle’s Brenda Shoss identifies evacuees to match their animals and fills out paperwork in triplet — one copy to go with evacuees, second copy for LSART, third copy with transporter.

MUTTSHACK AND KINSHIP CIRCLE
MuttShack Animal Rescue — on the ground pre-Gustav to help in many capacities — enlisted Kinship Circle to coordinate volunteers. MuttShack provided animal transport trucks and helped Parish Pickup Points (PPPs) before/during evacuations. Kinship Circle commends MuttShack for its professionalism without politics and dedication to animals during disasters. Volunteers associated with Kinship Circle (pre/post-Gustav) include: Cheri Deatsch, Kim Lea, Adrienne DeArmas, Kim Johnson, Robyn Urman, Teri Meier, Sandy Lynn, Kylie Shafferkoetter, Ghen Dennis, Sarah Rose, Lisa Roussel, Tracie Dawson, June Towler, Joanne Greene, Debby Osburn, Jim York, Kristy McShan, Sandi Corrado, Jeanne Develle... This list is by no means inclusive. We are grateful to ALL who committed their time and energy to the most innocent disaster victims — the animals.

LOUISIANA STATE ANIMAL RESPONSE TEAM (LSART)
LSART is an organization of groups and individuals with an interest in animal well-being related to emergencies or disasters. This includes governmental agencies, veterinarians, animal control officers, humane organizations, and citizen volunteers. LSART works as a volunteer partner with guidance from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry (LDAF) in Louisiana’s emergency planning structure. http://www.lsart.org

KINSHIP CIRCLE ANIMAL DISASTER AID NETWORK
We’re a network of independent volunteers who communicate during disasters to mobilize volunteers, supplies, and other resources for animal victims. Kinship Circle may work directly at disaster sites or in conjunction with other disaster response groups. We also provide news and updates during disasters.

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Union Station, Loyola Street, New Orleans

At Parish Pickup Points, we tagged animals with numbered bands that matched wristbands worn by their people — in case they were separated, like countless stranded animals after Katrina. After detailed paperwork, evacuees boarded buses with small animals on their laps. Large animals traveled in airline carriers on climate-controlled trucks. Animals and people went to a "Mega Shelter" in Shreveport, Louisiana, where they stayed side by side. Animals under 15 pounds (exotics, cats, small dogs) rode their people on buses. We let as many of the little guys as possible evacuate on familiar laps. (I’m fairly certain some weighed over 15 pounds).


NEVER AGAIN — BANDING PEOPLE & THEIR ANIMALS
Banding families with multiple animals:
1. First/last initial of animals’ primary caretaker
2. Driver’s license number (number on evacuee’s wristband)
3. Each animal, beginning with “A” gets alphabetical letter at end of ID

FOR EXAMPLE: Brenda Shoss has 5 fur babies — BS-S204011037-A (Mandy) • BS-S204011037-B (Cleveland)
BS-S204011037-C (Rebekkah) • BS-S204011037-D (Isaiah) • BS-S204011037-E (Baby Noah)

GREEN STICKER — Special Needs Animal Caretaker. I.E., A government-assisted evacuee who is not going to Shreveport shelter with his/her animals, so will need shelter caregivers to provide for animals. RED STICKER — Aggressive animal. Stickers on form and animal’s crate.Some animals were so afraid, they nipped or snarled from anxiety and fear. One frightened dog bit Kinship Circle’s Cheri Deatsch as she tried to load him in his crate.

	ABOVE RIGHT PHOTO: Kinship Circle’s Brenda Shoss joined Cheri Deatsch, Kim Lea, and Brenda’s husband Grady Ballard to help city-assisted evacuees with animals — working alongside LSU students, EARS, ARNO, LSPCA, and Humane Society of Missouri. HSUS dropped by Union Station after we'd wrapped operations, to photograph themselves with animals...
First responders, such as the police officer in the photo below, evacuated their companion animals while they remained on the ground for Gustav. During intake, some evacuees recalled fur kids lost to Katrina, when officials refused to let them board buses or helicopters with their animals.
	This burly New Orleans police officer brought in a Shitzu and bunny rabbit, Teddy! We also registered an iguana, several birds, and some residents with eight or more cats (who mostly traveled on laps and burrowed inside carriers...so no cat photos).
	Kinship Circle’s Brenda Shoss registers animals with their people at the Union Station PPP in New Orleans... Long days filled with stories, frustration, fear.
HOUR-54: Parish pickup points open. Volunteers report for duty HOUR-30: Contra-flow begins. Police control flow of traffic out of city only. Only credentialed responders can enter. HOUR-12: All volunteers evacuate. Can load animals until H-12.

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An Empty City On The Eve Of A Hurricane

	5:00pm on Sunday, 8/31/08 — With Gustav imminent, we registered stragglers. Rosemarie Jarreau’s family arrived late with 10 dogs (Was it 11? Many in Louisiana don’t spay/neuter animals) to band and register. A final Amtrac train stalled for them at Union Station, as Brenda, Cheri and Kim of Kinship Circle worked with LSPCA staff to get this family on board. Rosemarie Jarreau and her son Devontay Jenkins hug their puppies at an emergency pet evacuation center before boarding the last Amtrac train to depart New Orleans, Louisiana, enroute to Memphis, Tennessee, August 31, 2008, after a mandatory evacuation was ordered ahead of Hurricane Gustav. No Pets Left Behind in New Orleans Evacuation — Reuters, 8/31/08
Bourbon Street, New Orleans, 8/31/08 Kinship Circle’s Cheri Deatsch (photo below left) and Brenda Shoss found this New Orleans resident (photo above left, with Brenda) and his two dogs walking to a Parish Pickup Point. He’d already covered eight miles on foot, when we drove him to Union Station. He asked us to stop by a Bourbon Street pub, so he could get a beer. Oh well, this IS New Orleans. Cheri and Brenda hold his dogs outside the bar while their dad fills up (photo above, right). Streets are empty, except for press, cops, military, hurricane diehards...and animal rescuers.
LEFT PHOTO: Elijah Ballard, Brenda Shoss, Cheri Deatsch, and Grady Ballard (taking photo) enjoy New Orleans cajun cooking (vegan!) at Oceania’s on Bourbon Street — after the city has evacuated and Gustav is near... BELOW LEFT PHOTO: CNN crew on Bourbon Street. “Where is Anderson Cooper?” we ask. “I don’t know. Have you seen him?” they answer.

PHOTOS: Elijah Ballard (yellow tee) and his dad Grady Ballard (pretending to enter Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club) goof off on Bourbon Street. Something about an empty city hours before a hurricane inspires weirdly good moods — with a sort of “waiting for the curtain to rise” anticiption. The press want their story. The un-evacuated locals want their glory. And the rescuers want to save animals.

Gustav makes landfall as a Grade 3 hurricane on September 1 , 2008. With most people evacuated, dark waters top the Industrial and 17th Street Canals, spilling into the Lower and Upper 9th Wards... Gustav’s second band creeps in and officials worry that water topping or breeches at the Industrial Canal could flood the Lower 9th Ward, as happened during Katrina.

By noon on 9/1/08, Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré announces water is receding at the gates of Harvey Canal on the West Bank (south of New Orleans). This marks a turning point for a potential surge, similar to one that breached canal systems during Katrina and filled the area like a soup bowl. The canal system and Lake Ponchatrain appear to hold steady. But people must now prepare for a major blackout in New Orleans and southeastern areas such as Houma, New Iberia, Morgan City... Baton Rouge is expected to go dark next.

12:30 pm, 9/1/08: Awaiting Gustav’s second band, which ferries the eye of the hurricane... The Industrial Canal, filled to maximum capacity, continues to overtop. Two large Navy ships and one barge escape their bearings to drift haphazardly. If they smash into canal walls, they can breech levees (as happened during Katrina. So why didn’t they secure them better this time?)

The center of the hurricane’s eye looms seven or eight miles south of Morgan City — very far south of New Orleans. Apparently the Braith Waite Canal in lower Plaquemines Parish breeches and officials call for emergency evacuation of anyone who stayed behind. Waveland and Bay St. Louis, in Mississippi, report 10 feet of extra water...

9/2/08, 8:00am: Gustav lifts, his potential unclaimed...and Louisiana breathes its collective sigh of relief. New Orleans levees hold and sunshine revisits the Crescent City. But flood watches remain in affect for southeastern Louisiana... NEXT UP: Hurricanes Hanna, Ike, Josephine, Lowell...

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No Animal Left Behind?



Gustav made landfall as a Grade 3 hurricane on Monday, 9/1/08. WERE ANIMALS LEFT BEHIND? There are always gaps in a first-time system. While we didn't see the hundreds of thousands of animals who suffered after Katrina, phone calls flowed in about animals confined in homes, tethered in backyards, or seen roaming. A week after evacuations in harder-hit southeastern Louisiana animals were seen hungry, wandering...some dead. What went wrong?

Mainly, it seems, there was a communication discrepancy between Parish Emergency Planners and citizens within their communities.

At Parish Pickup Points, only volunteers registering animals asked: “Did you leave any animals behind?” It was suggested that volunteers ask people-only evacuees the same question. Finally, the complexity of instructions regarding animal evacuations may have overwhelmed some. Animal caretakers were told to bring carriers and vaccinated animals (with veterinary papers). In fact, animals were placed in donated cardboard carriers or mesh "pet purses" to sit atop laps on buses. Larger animals traveled inside airline carriers. If some issues had been better clarified, more evacuees might have arrived with their animals.

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Hurricane Gustav Crawls In On Dark Legs...


PHOTOS: CANAL STREET — NEW ORLEANS, LOUISiANA AUGUST 31, 2008: By 7:00pm, Gustav’s first cell crawls in, chalking over blue skies until all is black. People wait in doorways. The air hangs. Still, yet wild. Gustav is a drama king. Hurricanes are melodramatic.


CANAL STREET — NEW ORLEANS, LOUISiANA AUGUST 31, 2008: Elijah (yellow tee) befriends the son of Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel security. Astor Crowne evacuated guests on Saturday, but we had white bracelets (seen in photo) that gave us access to stay in the hotel after evacuations.

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