Veterinarians stung by Hurricane Isabel

Hurricane Isabel's wind and rain lashed at North Carolina and Virginia coasts Sept. 18, leaving practitioners and animals in distress.

It took four days for Dr. Cheryl Powell to regain power at her veterinary clinic in Bertie County, N.C. With disaster assistance from the State Animal Response Team (SART), backed by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, Powell was able to care for the 35 animals housed in her clinic as well as the displaced wildlife in need.

Winds in excess of 115 mph totaled Dr. Ruston Howell's family beach house on Kitty Hawk island in the Outer Banks. An hour inland at his animal clinic in Hertford, N.C., siding and insulation were torn off the walls and the practice's sign was dumped in a field. The area incurred an estimated $200 million in damages.

"It's a good thing we didn't take any boarders for the outside runs, because they all blew away," Powell says. "If I would have known the winds were going to be so bad, I would've taken the animals somewhere else."

On Ocracoke, an island at the tail end of North Carolina's Outer Banks, Dr. Amy Ruth Campbell braved the wind and waves. While her village and mobile clinic sustained minor damage, pens for the island's herd of wild horses were destroyed when a six-foot wall of water struck. One horse died when a barn fell on it.

"Economically, this can be devastating for a practice," she says. "If things end up getting real tight down here, veterinarians will be faced with clients not being able to pay for basic care. It's a good thing this part of the Outer Banks will be up and running next season."

An hour inland, Dr. Ruston Howell estimates his clinic in Hertford, N.C., incurred roughly $40,000 in structural damage, property loss and earned income. The electricity was out for days and most of his vaccines and other refrigerated products were lost. With the power, so went the water pressure, which made it tough to care for the hospital's boarded dogs and cats.

"Looking back on it, we definitely need to develop a better disaster plan and have that in place for the hospital," he says. "We just weren't ready for this to happen. We didn't expect it to be this bad."