From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

WEST PALM BEACH–Hurricane Wilma, after Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita, might have seemed anticlimactic to those who were not hit
by it. To those who were, including Pegasus Foundation program
officer Anne M. Ostberg, whose organization specializes in assisting
humane work in island nations, it was the real thing.
Wilma hit the west end of Grand Bahama island on October 24,
displacing as many as 4,000 people and their animals. The Humane
Society of Grand Bahama suffered only damaged fencing, Ostberg
e-mailed, based on a report from director Elizabeth Burrows, but
needed urgent help to feed and water displaced animals.
“The Bahamas Humane Society in Nassau sent inspector Carl
Thurston to Grand Bahama on November 1 to spend four days assisting,”
Ostberg said. “Inspector Thurston also delivered supplies and
equipment. Humane Society International provided some funding to
Bahamas Humane, and the Pegasus Foundation wired $1,000 to the Kohn
Foundation, a Colorado charity that acts as a fiscal agent for the
Humane Society of Grand Bahama.
“At this end,” Osteberg added, “the barn at the Pegasus
Foundation’s animal sanctuary in Florida lost part of its roof, but
the animals and people were unhurt. The building where our West Palm
Beach offices were located was badly damaged, but again, no one was
hurt.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2005:

NEW ORLEANS–The biggest animal rescue
effort in U.S. history officially ended on
October 25, 2005.
On advice of assistant state veterinarian
Martha Littlefield, Louisiana Governor Kathleen
Blanco allowed the temporary permits issued to
out-of-state veterinarians assisting animal
relief efforts in New Orleans to expire.
Out-of-state rescuers still operating
temporary shelters and feeding programs were
thanked and asked to return home, to leave the
remaining work to local agencies.
“We are literally seeing animals on the
streets starving to death,” objected
AnimalRescueNewOrleans founder Jane Garrison, of
Charleston, South Carolina. “We need more
volunteers to feed and water the thousands of
traumatized animals still on the streets, we
need to keep trapping animals so we can reunite
them with their guardians, and we need a massive
spay/neuter program.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2005:

HOUSTON, BUCHAREST, SAN DIEGO– Insisting in 1996 that the
current Houston SPCA shelter be built to withstand a Category 4
hurricane, longtime executive director Patty Mercer was accused of
alleged extravagance–but Mercer had seen in 1992 the damage done to
shelters in southern Florida by Hurricane Andrew.
Mercer looks like a seer today. The Houston SPCA, already
handling more than 35,000 animals per year, took in 270 animals from
the Louisiana SPCA and much of the Louisiana SPCA staff just ahead of
Hurricane Katrina, and continued to house most Louisiana SPCA
activities for weeks afterward, after Katrina wrecked the Louisiana
SPCA shelter and inundated most of New Orleans for a month.
More than a million Houstonians evacuated ahead of Hurricane
Rita, but the Houston SPCA didn’t. Animals were trucked to shelters
farther away, so that the Houston SPCA could accommodate evacuees
from elsewhere–like 57 dogs and 28 cats who arrived the evening of
September 25 from the Humane Society of Southeast Texas in Beaumont.
In Romania, Asociatia Natura cofounder Carmen Milobendzchi
showed similar foresight. An architect by trade, Milobendzchi opted
to build slowly, as funding became available, rather than take
chances, cut corners, and get the job “done” only to have to
rebuild after one disaster.

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