Hurricane Rescue Center

Friday, the Mobile Rescue Unit 2 team was thankfully able to sleep in a little later after our 16-hour day traveling to and from Birmingham to New Orleans and back the night before. When we arrived at the shelter, team one had organized all of the paperwork and strategized how to get 79 animals from evacuated shelters in the two mobile units for transport to New York.

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Well another day was spent at the Greater Birmingham Humane Society. Hank and I chose to stay behind and take care of the animals, which were rescued the day before. Along with identifying which dog was which, we also found littermates and reunited them. We took the time to get to know some of them and see the personalities they had. Some were a little unsure of what was going on, but very sweet none the less. Yet others were so glad to get out of a cage and have some playtime and we were thanked with a bunch kisses and leaps for joy.

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Wednesday was a long but good rewarding day. The two North Shore Animal League America’s Rescue Rovers joined forces and traveled four hours each way to conduct a rescue in Mississippi. The Plaquemines Animal Welfare Society (Paws) based in Belle Chasse, Louisiana had evacuated for Hurricane Gustav and were being housed by Mississippi Animal Rescue League (MARL). MARL was nice enough to house animals from 4 different shelters located on the gulf coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. PAWS had contacted us to rescue animals from them because they fear that their shelter had sustained damage, the shelter is located below sea level. They also are afraid that they would have to evacuate again soon for Hurricane Ike that is projected to come to the area as early as next week. We took 42 dogs total today. Four of these will remain at Greater Birmingham Humane Society to be prepared for adoption and the rest will be transported back to New York.

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Hello to All,

Well another day was spent here at Birmingham. We spent the day getting in touch with shelters and others contacts that were stationed in Louisiana. We are on hold until we get the green light to go the affected areas for safety reasons since the storms are still present.

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Today we are excited to get to Alabama to see old friends and co-workers at Greater Birmingham Humane Society. Jen has informed me that they were currently on their way to the shelter that is set up at the civic center in Birmingham. People have brought their animals along with them to the evacuation center thank goodness, so they are going to see if they need any help at all. It had to take something as bad as Katrina to include animals in the evacuation process, but at least it is working. Hopefully all areas will be as progressive.

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Well, we have arrived in Birmingham. The shelter has welcomed us with open arms. It has been three years since we last gathered for a hurricane. Since then, we have created a great relationship with the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, as they became a partner in our national shelter outreach program, Tour for Life.

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The second Rescue Rover team left on this beautiful Labor Day. It is hard to think looking out the window at such a nice day that there is so much rain and destruction to the south of us. During our short trip so far we have seen several convoys of electrical workers, from New York and New Jersey traveling down the country just like us to help people they don’t know. Stopping at a rest area we were approached by a nice gentleman asking if we were heading down to help out. Our reply of course, was yes we certainly are. He was very happy to hear us say we were and blessed us as he knew we would help the helpless animals in need there. He wished us a safe journey as he walked away. Everywhere we have traveled to we are always greeted by supporters that really help us to complete our missions.

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