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It has been fourteen months since
Katrina struck and the Louisiana SPCA lost everything, only to regain
more than we ever thought possible.
The LA/SPCA has always focused on
disaster awareness and educating the
public; but Katrina heightened
everyone’s awareness of the
catastrophic impact of disasters on
our community. It drove home in life
and death terms an urgency to
educate the public about emergency
preparedness. During this year of
relative quiet in the Gulf, the LA/SPCA
has been churning our own waves.
areas of prevention and response,
and have created a campaign to teach
animal lovers across the state the
steps they must take to protect
their own safety and those of their
furry companions.
We’ve been hard at work forging new
relationships in areas of prevention
and response, and have created a
campaign to teach animal lovers
across the state the steps they must
take to protect their own safety and
those of their furry companions.
Animal awareness escalated to a
national level through Katrina,
starting first with the media’s
intense publicity of animals left
behind in Katrina’s wake, and
propelled into legislation first
with Louisiana’s signing into law
Senate Bill 607, dubbed the “pet
evacuation bill,” which mandates
that municipalities include pet
evacuation in their disaster plans.
The passing of Bill 607 was the
initial step in the process which
led to last month’s signing into
federal law the Pets Evacuation and
Transportation Standards Act of
2006, an amendment to the Federal
Stafford Act. PETS provides
financial backing to states and
municipalities that include
companion animals in emergency
preparedness and response measures.
The effort of the Louisiana SPCA to
lobby for these bills played a
critical role in their acceptance.
If anything can be gained from the
tragedies of Katrina it’s that
animals have truly earned a seat at
the table of disaster planning and
response. Increasingly, animal
issues have entered the arena of
generalized response.
Through collaboration with the City
of New Orleans, emergency management
plans now account for evacuation of
companion animals. The City-Assisted
Evacuation Plan, designed to
transport residents without
transportation, those without
financial means to evacuate, and
those who are elderly, ill or
disabled and requiring additional
assistance, now takes into
consideration the pets owned by
these at-risk individuals. Through
coordination with the local Office
of Homeland Security, strides are
being taken to leverage
transportation and sheltering assets
toward pet-friendly evacuation
procedures. Similar projects are in
the works to provide local
pet-friendly shelters during
low-level storms that do not mandate
evacuation, a plan that will
hopefully see its inauguration in
2007.
Because we understand the importance
of working together, the LA/SPCA has
served as an advisor to other
parishes and state agencies by
collaborating on issues such as
transportation, credentialing and
training of animal responders that
initiate steps to standardize
evacuation and response across
Southeast Louisiana.
Regardless of how the public
evacuates, the LA/SPCA has made
evacuation information available
through a series of multilingual
brochures, radio advertisements and
live television interviews on
emergency issues. Our Outreach
program and the efforts of dedicated
staff and volunteers have promoted
safe pet evacuation at a number of
events, as well as making this
information available at pet supply
centers and veterinary clinics
throughout the region.
As hurricane season winds to a
close, the LA/SPCA continues to make
plans for future disasters. Revision
of shelter evacuation plans to meet
the needs of our changed landscape, an
updated training curriculum for
employees staying behind to work
disaster response, and a workplace
safety program are among future
changes, as are modifications to our
new shelter facility which will make
daily operations safer and provide
additional resiliency to damage in
case of catastrophic events.
The past 14 months have been a hard
road paved with lessons learned, and
instilled a vow in all of us to make
sure the events of the past are
never repeated.
Heather Rigney |
