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 Riding
out the storm in Houston, the staff remained transfixed in
front of radios and television screens, hearing the news
reports that continued to escalate. Doomsday scenarios were
being projected as the storm projections increased to a
Category 5 and then were reduced to a Category 3 a few short
hours before reaching Louisiana. Katrina however turned
toward the Mississippi coastline at the last minute.
The first reports were that New Orleans had again dodged a
major bullet. But soon that news would be overshadowed by a
horrific reality. The levees and floodwalls, built after
Hurricane Betsy ravaged New Orleans in 1965, were failing.
We would learn the full extent of that damage in the coming
days but from all reports New Orleans was filling like a
bathtub. Neighborhoods throughout the city were becoming
submerged as breaches compromised both levees and floodwalls
and water poured from Lake Pontchartrain into neighborhoods
via the many coastal waterways surrounding the city. Almost
no area was safe including Gentilly, Lakeview, New Orleans
East, Mid City, the Lower Ninth and the Ninth Ward – the LA/SPCA’s
own neighborhood. The LA/SPCA’s Japonica Street shelter was
so close to the Industrial Canal you might as well call them
backdoor neighbors. It had been the LA/SPCA’s home since the
late 50’s. Tragically, in 1965 many animals lost their lives
when they were not evacuated from the shelter during
Hurricane Betsy. Forty-one years later, the LA/SPCA’s
shelter animals were thankfully out of harm’s way, but no
one could project just how many animals remained after
Katrina and were now in peril.
The LA/SPCA had to return to New Orleans immediately. |
