Hurricane Gustav Response Efforts a Success in Pet Evacuation

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — Hurricane Gustav hit the coast of Louisiana as a Category 2 storm, bringing high winds, flooding and millions of dollars in devastation, but this disaster was tempered by excellent disaster preparedness efforts. Particularly impressive was Louisiana's revolutionary new program to evacuate pets.

In advance of Hurricane Gustav, the state of Louisiana—with the help of veterinarians and animal welfare organizations volunteering time—prepared for the disaster as never before. Louisiana established a Critical Needs Transportation (CNT) system prior to Hurricane Gustav to assist owners who couldn't evacuate with their pets. Without the CNT system in place, many of these pets would have been abandoned or owners would have refused to evacuate.

"This is the first time in Louisiana that there has been a coordinated effort to evacuate these pets. Hurricane Gustav provided a real test of the effectiveness of this system, and it was a success," explains Dr. Becky Adcock, deputy director of the Louisiana State Animal Response Team (LSART). "This was our first test of the new federal legislation requiring the evacuation of pets, and now we know it can work."

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005, the U.S. Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act passed, which requires local and state disaster plans to include provisions for household pets and service animals in the event of a major disaster or emergency. Dr. Adcock said that other states, including Texas, have similar pet evacuation plans, but Louisiana's is the first to be used.

LSART established and managed three shelters to take in evacuated pets: a shelter in Shreveport that took in 1,300 pets, one in Monroe that took in 100 and a third in Alexandria that took in 100.

Under LSART's new system, animal control officers in each parish affected by Gustav oversaw the relocation of these CTN pets to the three shelters in northern Louisiana, where animal welfare organizations, veterinarians and volunteers took care of the animals during the evacuation. The vast majority of pets at the Shreveport shelter, approximately 1,000, were CTN pets. In the days after the storm, LSART began plans to return these relocated pets to their home parishes.

"Our goal is to have the pets waiting for their owners when they get back home," Dr. Adcock explains.

LSART received $40,000 in grants from the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF) to help fund its disaster preparedness efforts, educate the public, and to provide disaster training. The AVMF may also reimburse veterinarians who help during this and other disaster response efforts for their out-of-pocket expenses on medical supplies or facilities, and offers grants to help rebuild veterinary clinics destroyed in a disaster like a hurricane.

To make a donation toward these programs, contact the AVMF at (800) 248-2862, ext. 6689 and make a donation toward the Animal Disaster Relief and Response Fund, or visit www.avmf.org for more information.

Source: www.avma.org