Posted on March 31, 2008

BART and the Code 3 team on the Road Again after Missouri Disaster Response

The team has a busy April planned visiting Indiana, Ohio and Alabama to meet local emergency management and help educate the public on disaster planning.

BART @ Hoosier Horse Fair & Expo
Apr 4 – 6 2008, Indianapolis, IN

For more information see the web site www.indianahorsecouncil.org

BART @ Everything Pets
Apr 11 – 13 2008, Cincinnati, OH

Everything Pets Expo at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, OH For more information please see the web site www.everythingpets.org

BART @ Alabama Animal Control Association Conference
Apr 15 – 17 2008, Hover, AL

BART will be at the Alabama Animal Control Conference Jim Boller will be speaking at the conference

Come and see the Code 3 team and BART if you are in the area of any of these events.

Watch for updates and pictures from these events.

Teams Rescue 170 Animals From the Floods

Tuesday 3-25-08 – As we kept a cautious eye on the river and the flooding situation the Code 3 team was joined by Brian Williams from the Humane Society of Missouri. The team continued to assist the Caruthersville Humane Society staff with the care of the animals being brought in.

The teams rescued another 16 dogs and 22 cats for the day and realizing that we were very quickly filling up the small shelter again we requested another transport of animals to HSMO for the next day.

Wednesday, 3-26-08 - Wednesday was a busy day and it started with filling the transport van that HSMO sent down. We were able to send 39 dogs and 18 cats for a total of 57 animals in a special transport van run by HSMO staff member Patience Scanlon.

The wildlife was continuing to be pushed into the city in large numbers and the teams assisted with several situations where the wildlife was in trouble.

Thursday, 3-27-08 – We continued to have the assistance of Brian and Kyle from HSMO and the teams continued to watch the rising river and bring in animals being affected by it. The river was due to crest Thursday evening reaching 41.0 FT which while above flood stage would be below the 42 ft that would severely flood the city and surrounding area.

The teams brought in another 13 dogs and 15 cats for the day. Looking forward to the river cresting during the night and the immediate threat being over the Code 3 team and the HSMO team realized that they had yet again all but filled the small Caruthersville shelter. One more transport was arranged for Friday before the two teams pulled out.

Friday, 3–28-08 - The river crested during the night at 41.0 ft and was receding but the teams were still busy while preparing for demobilization. The field teams brought in another 31 dogs and 14 cats finishing all the outstanding calls bringing to total for the disaster to 170 animals rescued.

The last job that he teams assisted with was loading the transports bound for the Humane Society of Missouri with 48 dogs and 9 cats. Bringing the total transported to HSMO for adoption to a total of 162 animals.

The Code 3 team ceased operation in Caruthersville at 2pm and was on the road by 5 pm.

Code 3 is on the road again, responding to the call for help and animals in need

Thursday, March 20, 2008 – We received a call from the Humane Society of Missouri that assistance was needed in the very south eastern part of the state. The Caruthersville Humane Society a small community facility that normally held about 25 animals had doubled that do to flooding from the Mississippi River starting there. Kay flew into Denver with an hours notice, Kurt drove in to Longmont with just about the same notice, meeting with Jim and Goose by 5 PM. With the advance team assembled we jumped into BART and a second truck and started the long drive. We drove through the night stopping for just 3 hours of sleep arriving in Caruthersville Missouri late Friday.

Saturday, 3-22-08 – The team was met by a local Code 3 volunteer Brett Huff and set up base camp at the Caruthersville Humane parking lot, unloading the small truck, horse trailer, boats and other equipment from BART. We met with the wonderful ladies who run the facility, City and County emergency managers, Caruthersville Chief of Police and the levy authority. The river was at 37.1 feet and we were told that we did not have anything to worry about until the river reached 42.0 feet. Our first assignment was to do an assessment of the animals and flooding situation in Pemiscot County. The team broke in to two groups with one going to the northern part of the county and one south meeting in the middle. They discovered that there were already areas beginning to flood and animal issues starting. Cattle are allowed to graze on the levees and those herds were identified incase they needed to be moved or fed in place. Populations of companion animals were also identified incase we needed to evacuate them.

Easter Sunday, 3-23-08 – We continued our assessments with one team going north to Mississippi and New Madrid counties. The other team went to an area flooding to evacuate what animals they could. The team brought in 9 dogs released by owner in flooded area. 7 dogs had to be trapped and Jim and Brett crawled under a house to bring 2 more out. We needed to open space at the Caruthersville shelter for the animals being evacuated and requested assistance from The Humane Society of Missouri. They sent their transport trailer and transport van to take 37 dogs and 11 cats that were already up for adoption to their facility in St. Louis for adoption. This freed up a large part of the shelter for the influx evacuees.

Monday, 3-24-08 – Keeping a wary eye on the river which as of today has reached 41.9 feet the teams have brought in an additional 30 dogs and 4 cats. Bringing the number of animals rescued to 67. The flood water has pushed many animals including wildlife into the city where they are not normally found. The team received a call about a deer down in someone's back yard. They investigated the call and found a young deer that was wet and tired from braving the withers of the rising Mississippi just needed to warn and rest in the sun. They advised the concerned citizens that the best thing to do was just leave her alone. Going back several hours later they spotted her about a ½ mile down the levy doing just fine. As we go into Tuesday we will continue to assist the community where we can and keep that wary eye to the river which is expected to crest by Thursday at 44.0 ft.

Stay tuned for more updates!