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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS
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NOVEMBER 2005
Hurricanes Stan, Tammy, Wilma, & unnamed twisters add to catastrophe
WEST PALM BEACH––Hurricane Wilma, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, might have seemed anticlimactic to those who were not hit by it. To those who were, including Pegasus Foundation program officer Anne M. Ostberg, whose organization specializes in assisting humane work in island nations, it was the real thing.
Wilma hit the west end of Grand Bahama island on October 24, displacing as many as 4,000 people and their animals. The Humane Society of Grand Bahama suffered only damaged fencing, Ostberg e-mailed, based on a report from director Elizabeth Burrows, but needed urgent help to feed and water displaced animals.
“The Bahamas Humane Society in Nassau sent inspector Carl Thurston to Grand Bahama on November 1 to spend four days assisting,” Ostberg said. “Inspector Thurston also delivered supplies and equipment. Humane Society International provided some funding to Bahamas Humane, and the Pegasus Foundation wired $1,000 to the Kohn Foundation, a Colorado charity that acts as a fiscal agent for the Humane Society of Grand Bahama.
“At this end,” Osteberg added, “the barn at the Pegasus Foundation’s animal sanctuary in Florida lost part of its roof, but the animals and people were unhurt. The building where our West Palm Beach offices were located was badly damaged, but again, no one was hurt.”
As Wilma approached Florida, the Humane Society of Broward County in Fort Lauderdale received an influx of 19 cats and 23 dogs from evacuees. The Suncoast Humane Society in Englewood received an additional 50 animals.
But the Florida crisis was brief. Other than the Pegasus Foundation, the only animal facility to report extensive damage was the Naples Zoo, also hit in 2004 by Hurricane Charley. A pregnant parma wallaby died from stress, zoo director David Tetzlaff said. The zoo was closed for repairs that were expected to take up to two months.
The World Society for the Protec-tion of Animals was already funding emergency vaccination and feeding in Costa Rica and El Salvador and investigating situations in Guatemala and Mexico, after hurricanes Stan and Tammy, when Wilma swung south, spokesperson Celia Wood said.
WSPA also helped the Society for the Protection of Animals in El Salvador to built a temporary cattle shelter near the Llamatepec Volcano, Wood added.
After Wilma, Juan Carlos Murillo of WSPA directed two veterinary field teams on a two-week mission to Quintana Roo state, Mexico. The Humane Society of the U.S. sent six staff members, some of whom had already assisted an HSUS Rural Area Veterinary Services team in the vicinity.
The fall tropical storm season had an impact as far north as Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where the October 15 opening of a flood control dam due to torrential rain forced animal control officer Paul Rose to evacuate seven dogs, ten cats, and the reptile collection he uses on educational visits to schoolrooms. The animals were temporarily housed by the Lincoln Animal Shelter and the Providence Animal Rescue League.
The last of the series of disasters to hit the U.S.––rescuers hoped––may have been the October 29 tornado that killed 22 residents of the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park near Evansville, Indiana. Evansville Animal Control and the Vanderburgh Humane Society recovered more than 70 dogs, cats, reptiles, rabbits, birds, and other animals from the scene, reported Evansville Courier & Press staff writer Jimmy Nesbitt.
Two cats and three dogs were found dead in the rubble.