Pictured are three dogs waiting to be rescued after Hurricane Katrina hit back in 2005
According to weather reports, Hurricane Gustav may be a threat to the Gulf Coast by Labor Day. What happens today will help to determine its path according to the weather channel.
Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans left the Democratic National Convention early to return home to make necessary preparations in the event of another hurricane hitting the area. I don’t need to remind anyone what happened with Katrina. But we can’t forget either.
I will never forget the images (view footage of Slidell)http://www.youtube.com/v/SmjCfSEYvsg&hl=en&fs=1 that I saw when I was in Louisiana to help the animals after Katrina. I helped out with Noah’s Wish in Slidell, Louisiana. Slidell was very hard hit by a storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain. The surge wiped out homes and resembled a third world country in some areas. I can remember the homes that were marked with X’s to let agencies know if there were survivors. Homes were knocked off their foundations or wiped away completely leaving a slab of concrete as visible proof that a home once stood there.
What hit me the hardest was the makeshift animal shelter that Noah’s Wish set up basically overnight to help the lost, abandoned and injured animals. When the two other women and I stepped out of the vehicle after driving nearly 17 hours straight , the deafening sound of nearly 1,000 animals was so overwhelming that I couldn’t contain my emotions. I stood and stared at the warehouse a.k.a. shelter and couldn’t bring myself to go in.
After talking with many people while I was there, I wasn’t alone with my first impression. Once you get passed that and you did, you do what needed to be done. For me, the lasting impressions of those animals will always stay with me. I could never forget the tent city set up behind the warehouse reminding me of the show M.A.S.H. I could never forget the faces of the animals in their cages stacked on top of each other. When I look back, I believe the animals knew something extraordinary was happening because they were well-behaved for the most part despite how they had to live for a couple of months. Many of their faces are etched in my memory forever. I wish I had been able to bring some home but it was not possible at the time.
Noah’s Wish did a fantastic job organizing the rescued animals. Volunteers came from all over the country including Canada. I met alot of people including the people of Slidell who were so grateful for the volunteers to help the animals. Ninety-nine percent of the animals Noah’s Wish saved (they found many dead animals in homes, too) were either reunited with their owners or found new homes. Since Katrina, Noah’s Wish helped to implement a spay and neuter program in Slidell to reduce the pet overpopulation problem.
It was an amazing experience that changed me forever. I left Slidell a different person. I hope and pray we don’t have a repeat of Katrina next week.