Veterinarians from the National Veterinarian Response Team examine a dog brought to the Animal Disaster Response Facility staged in the Ford Arena outside Beaumont,Texas, following Hurricane Rita's landfall. Photo: Bob McMillan/ FEMA

Power outages most pressing concern for Texas DVMs

Texas A&M serves as human hospital during Hurricane Rita

By Jessica Tremayne

Associate Editor

Galveston, Texas - An estimated 100 Texas veterinary practices were located in the area hardest hit by Hurricane Rita, according to the Texas Veterinary Medical Association (TVMA); long-term economic damage to practices had not been estimated at presstime.

“All of the veterinary practices in the area suffered some type of damage,” says Dr. Elbert Hutchins, TVMA executive director. “The severity varies.”

In what is labeled the largest evacuation in U.S. history, Texans weathered Rita much better than early predictions warned. Officials credit lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina as encouragement to leave homes and businesses.

“Economic loss in Texas will be more of business interruption rather than the massive structural damage issues found in Louisiana and Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina,” Hutchins says. “Everything is in disarray right now, power is still not up. Members are reporting a lot of collateral damage from trees falling on signs and crushing roofs.”

The American Veterinary Medical Foundation supplied Texas veterinarians with basic medications and vaccines, Hutchins says. Early estimates predict the foundation will donate $5,000 for the needed supplies, while the American Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) gave TVMA two $25,000 grants to provide veterinarians with generators, gas and some supplies.

“We have been delivering generators to practices that could operate with the aid of a generator,” Hutchins says. “So far we have purchased 35 generators and delivered 750 gallons of gasoline along with extension cords and other supplies.”

The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) estimated more than 30,000 pets and livestock were evacuated prior to Rita's landfall.

Although TAHC typically handles livestock issues, the commission also organized small animal rescue during the storm, as part of Texas' evacuation plan.

ASPCA workers teamed up with TAHC and operated a “Meals on Wheels” campaign for animals left in homes that had been evacuated by owners. The Ford Center in Beaumont served as a central site for injured and displaced animals, where veterinarians and volunteers from TAHC, ASPCA, HSUS and other animal organizations cared for and sheltered animals found wandering hurricane-affected areas.

Livestock and horses that were turned loose during the storm were able to be rescued by relief workers. Photo: Bob McMillan/ FEMA

Evacuating animals

Unlike evacuation orders for New Orleans, Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas allowed residents to evacuate with their pets. Houston Mayor Bill White followed suit.

“One of my first emergency decisions was to allow, even encourage, evacuees to take their pets with them on our public buses to shelters we ascertained would accept pets,” Thomas says in an interview with DVM Newsmagazine. “This was prompted not only by my love of my own pets, but also by the vivid images of dogs and cats struggling to survive Katrina's flood waters. The fact that more than 90 percent of Galvestonians evacuated attests to the wisdom of that decision.”

Legislation to include pets in evacuation plans is being sponsored by Reps. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Barney Frank, D-Mass.

If the bill passes, states would be required to install an evacuation plan for pets in order to receive Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.

Elaine Rayne,DVM, part of the National Veterinarian Response Team, examines a rescuee in Texas. Following its examination and vaccinations, this dog will be housed until its owners return from evacuation. Photo: Bob McMillan/ FEMA

Texas A&M

Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences became the largest human hospital in central Texas in the wake of Hurricane Rita.

The CVM large animal hospital served 650 special-needs human patients, families and caregivers from Houston and Galveston hospitals.

Drs. Bill Moyer, head of the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Dean Gage, Debbie Kochevar and other faculty, staff and students volunteered to help care for the patients at the university during their week-long stay.

“About 350 of the patients were children recovering from burns from the Shriners' Hospital, physically handicapped children and geriatric patients,” says Keith Randall, assistant director of university relations, CVM. “All of the reports we've heard from patients since staying here were great.” Hospital staff relocated the horses housed at the hospital days before the human patients arrived. It took one day to sterilize the facility and prepare it for the arrival of hundreds of human patients.

“I've never seen anything remotely like that in my lifetime,” Moyer says recalling the hundreds of human patients in the large animal facility. “Outside of the parameters, it was a huge success. It was the first time in veterinary medicine something like this took place. We turned the equine facility into a human hospital in less than one day.”

While veterinarians and volunteers worked to treat displaced animals, Texas lawmakers allowed pets to accompany evacuees.

National legislation might follow to include a plan for pet evacuations. Photo: Bob McMillan/ FEMA

Livestock

The rescue of cattle posed other problems for authorities. In fact, there were thousands of stranded animals and early reports indicate losses of 4,000 to 5,000 animals in affected states from Rita alone.

From both storms, 20,000 to 30,000 cattle are estimated to have perished in Louisiana and 2,000 to 3,000 in Mississippi due to drowning, consumption of toxic material and injury sustained from downed fences, according to Blair McKinley, beef cattle specialist, Mississippi State Extension Service.

“Many dairy facilities were without power, couldn't cool milk tanks, and processing plants were down. Once plants' electricity was running, trucks couldn't get to and from the dairies to haul the milk,” McKinley says. “The increased cost of running generators and loss of available feed supply also hit the industry hard.”