Story of our trip to Pearlington, MS 9-11-05
Katrina Pictures
8-29-05
Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 storm, going just east of New Orleans and directly over the small coastal towns of Pearlington, MS, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pass Christian. These small towns were literally wiped out by a 30-foot wave called a tidal surge.
During the news of New Orleans
flooding and the people of the Astrodome being trapped not much was mentioned
about these small towns on the news. I watched in horror as they showed people
and animals struggling to stay alive as the water rose.
9-10-05
After watching the news all week
of the Hurricane that hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and seeing humans and
the animals stranded on rooftops or in stables that were under water I could no
longer watch it. I kept reading email messages that animals and people down
there needed help and I knew there was no way I could get into New Orleans so
when an email came asking for help in the little coastal town of Pearlington,
Mississippi I knew I had to at least try to do something. I sent out emails to
friends and made some phone calls to people that I knew were interested in
helping, and within 24 hours I had donations and commitments for making the trip
to take supplies to them. They desperately
needed hay and feed and veterinary supplies and they were such a small community
that they weren’t yet getting help from the outside world. Elsie Roth, who is
very well known in the community, introduced me to Nora Schild, who agreed to go
with me. Veterinarians and other horse friends came by with supplies and feed.
We already had 100 bales of hay in the trailer that we had just purchased. I
knew that we needed a sign for the truck stating that we were doing Animal
Rescue so Ben Ziglin of Ziglin signs in Washington, MO was nice enough to donate
two large magnetic signs for the truck and trailer. He had them made and ready
within an hour. People came by with food, cash donations and supplies so within
a few hours we were loaded and ready to go.
I left New Haven at 1 AM and
stopped in Washington, MO to pick up Nora Schild who was going with me to help
find and rescue the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina in Pearlington, MS.
Pearlington is a small town about 30 miles east of New Orleans right on the Gulf
and the center of where the ‘eye’ of Katrina came through. We drove all
night and all day the next day before getting into northern Mississippi where
the mood and landscape started to change. We met many nice people along the way.
As we stopped at a traffic light in northern Mississippi a man in a pick up
truck next to us rolled his window down and asked if we were going down south?
When I replied ‘yes’ he handed a folded bill out the window of his truck. As
I unfolded it and realized that it was a $100 bill the light changed and he
waved and said ‘have a good day’ and drove on. We were so taken by the
generosity of a total stranger. As we drove through northern Mississippi people
were happy and busy as normal but as we moved further south we could start
seeing damaged truck stops, rest areas, highway signs etc. As we got further
down toward the Gulf we had no road signs, no exit signs, very few fuel stations
open, no rest areas, and debris was scattered everywhere. We carried extra cans
of fuel with us as we had been warned that fuel was hard to get down there.
There weren’t many people on the roads and our contacts were waiting for us up
near the Interstate to show us the way in to the devastated little town of
Pearlington. Two other young women from Florida with a horse trailer were parked
up near the road to show us the way.
As we got out to introduce
ourselves to the other volunteers ‘clouds’ of mosquitoes swarmed around us
to the point of getting into our ears and mouths as we tried to speak. We soaked
ourselves with insect repellent and as it was just getting dark we hurried on to
get into town before the 8 o’clock curfew. We were told not to be out of the
National Guard compound after curfew or we would be in trouble.
As we drove the winding road down
into Pearlington we were not aware that there was a town. There were fallen
trees everywhere that had been sawed enough for a car to pass through but we
really couldn’t tell we were on a road. The trees covered the road everywhere
and the pavement was covered with dried mud so we really didn’t realize that
it was paved. We carefully navigated our way to the Firehouse where we were told
to come. The Firehouse was one of only three structures visible in the rubble
and it was heavily damaged. It was total devastation and very eerie to see. We talked
with our contact, Sam Bailey, who told us to go ahead and get to the compound
for the night and we would start our work at daybreak.
We pulled the truck into the area
that had been cleared by the National Guard and opened our cooler for a snack
and a drink and soon tipped the seats back for some much needed sleep. It was
too hot to sleep outside and the mosquitoes were too bad so we slept in the
front seat of the truck and started the engine periodically to run the air
conditioner. The silence was surreal. There wasn’t a sound of anything except
an occasional sound of dogs yipping or a cat howling, none of the regular
nighttime sounds of crickets or frogs chirping.
At daybreak we awoke to a grey
overcast morning light that showed more than we could possibly imagine. The
trees were down everywhere. What was a house at one time could not be recognized
as a house. Some were leveled into a pile of rubble. Others were thrown upside
down. Others had boats in trees in what used to be their yard. We walked over to
the schoolhouse where the National Guard was setting up and one of the soldiers
offered us a left over cup of coffee. They were still setting up there and
cleaning up rubble around the school, which was still standing but the windows
were broken out. We left the compound and drove back into town where we were
based to start our search and rescue of animals.
Several other groups were getting
ready to go out looking and we dropped off our supplies in a yard where the
house had been destroyed but they were setting up a shelter for the animal
crates and portable kennels. We helped the vet administer meds to dogs and a
couple brought in a dog with a broken hind leg. The husband was driving the
pickup and the wife was sitting in the back with the dogs head in her
lap. She was crying as she told the story of how he
had been lost during the flood when the water came up into the house and they
got into a boat. Their other little dog jumped out of the boat and drowned and
this chocolate Lab had jumped out of the boat and swam away. They had been
searching for him for over a week and had just found him when a car hit him. The
vet, Anne, had volunteered her time and her vet tech to come down and help in
this small community. She worked on the dog in the back of the pickup truck to
set the leg and get him stabilized.
While she worked on him another
dog I was near had a seizure and was taken out of the crate to see how he was.
After he was stabilized we were told to move him to quarantine for fear of
rabies. (His owners later picked him up and said he was old and had epilepsy and
had seizures often).
We disconnected the trailer loaded with hay and feed on the slab of concrete that used to be the Post Office. All that was left of it was the slab and the flagpole with a tattered flag flying. We set off to look for animals. We were sent down back roads out into the forest and swampland. We navigated our way through small roads that had trees and debris scattered across them. The huge pines were snapped off about twenty feet up and looked like broken toothpicks on both sides of the road. We stopped at properties along the way checking to see if people needed anything for their animals. As we introduced ourselves we found most people sitting on their property in tents with nothing but what they had when the water came.
They told about the water coming
up so fast and not being able to get away from it before it took everything.
According to what we heard, a thirty-foot wall of water hit the whole area after
the eye of the hurricane passed. Many thought the storm was over when they went
outside and realized that they were actually in the eye of the storm.
On the day that we arrived not many of the hurricane relief groups had gotten to this small town yet. Many of the people that had ridden out the hurricane in their attics or in small boats were still trying to dig out from under the debris. We found that the people needed help as well as the animals and we carried cases of water and some food to hand out as we searched for animals. We went down small roads that were basically dirt tire tracks at this point. We had to navigate under power poles that were leaning over with wires dangling and through tree branches and sometimes had to stop and crawl between fallen pines to get to a dwelling.
We
met a man and his wife named Catherine, who had pancreatic cancer and they sat
in front of the remains of their home with a pup tent and were so appreciative
of a little food for the remaining two goats they had and some food for their
cats. We asked Catherine what she
needed for herself and the only thing that she really wanted was a flashlight
because it was so very dark out there at night. When we went back to the base
with our rescued dogs we made another loop down that road and took Catherine a
flashlight. She was so appreciative of something so trivial.
As
we drove from farm to farm and house to house the terrible stench of death was
always there. Sometimes it was stronger than other times but it was always
there. One young man rode out the storm in his little house in the forest but
most of his animals died. He said the sound of the animals dying was a haunting
sound. He had burned them when the water receded and was apologetic for having
to burn them but didn’t know what else to do.
We
stopped and picked up dogs that had been left behind by their owners and those
that we couldn’t catch we put out food and water for. As we filled our crates
with dogs we would take them back to the shelter, which was quickly filling up
with animals.
We heard of some cattle that were on the roads at night and some pigs that were rooting through the rubble for what they could find. We didn’t see them during the daylight when we were allowed to be out but in the evening one of the other rescue groups told us that the cattle were down on the highway again so we went to look for them. They were out in an open area near the highway and the police were up on the road with their flashing lights on. It was a longhorn cow and two good-sized calves. I knew that they must be hungry and thirsty so I carried some hay and a bucket of water out to where they were. The cow immediately slurped down the bucket of water so I got another off my truck for the calves. They started eating the hay and I thought that I could get them to follow me to my stock trailer with some feed and perhaps pen them up for the night. They all followed me to the trailer but were very frightened and skittish after their experiences of the week. After much coaxing and baiting with feed I was able to get the cow onto the trailer. Later some men came and set up portable corral panels and loaded the calves. We trailered them to a quarantine facility in the northern part of the county where they would stay until possibly being claimed by their owner.
While we were down on the highway trying to catch the Longhorns we met a young man named Robert, who asked if we had seen a little Paint horse in our searches. We told him that we hadn't seen any horses yet but that we would certainly watch for him. He said, "That little horse saved my life". We asked how he did that and he told the story of how he sat out the storm for over six hours and when it let up he thought it was over. He went outside to check on his animals and they were all doing fine. He didn’t know that he was actually in the ‘eye’ of the hurricane. All at once the water came so fast that he tried to run back to the house and before he could get there it was chest deep. He grabbed onto the mane of his little boy's Paint horse and they both started swimming. As the water got deeper and was over their heads they swam and swam the horse pulling him along as he held onto the mane. A boat came within reach so he reached out with his left hand and grabbed onto the boat. He turned loose of the mane with his right hand and watched as the water carried the little Paint horse towards the trees and he couldn't see him anymore. He had been searching for him since then and it was day 12 after the storm. Two days later he told us that they had found his horse. He was dead and hanging in the alligator sign down the road. (I found a picture of the Alligator sign before the storm and will post it here).
Another
person told about his niece and her family who lived in a big two-story house
near Waveland. The water came up fast and they were trying to get the family to
the second floor as the water was coming up. They wrapped an extension cord
around the neck of the little girl's pony and held onto it while the pony swam
till it could get to the second floor of the house. The pony was saved by
holding onto it with an extension cord.
We
were also told about a family that was found dead with the father's arms around
his wife and children when they found them. They were trapped when the water
came.
We saw three beautiful Charolais cows and a huge bull that had been picked up. They were the only ones that survived out of their herd of 14 when the water came. All were beautiful registered breeding stock. They were recovering at the quarantine station that we took the Longhorns to.
As
we went back to the shelter for the night the dog pens were filling up with dogs
and volunteers were caring for them along with Dr Anne who was treating their
injuries and vaccinating and tagging them. Each dog was vaccinated for rabies,
tagged, treated for fleas and photographed for identification.
The ones that were stabilized were being moved to Kendra Williams kennels
in Mandeville to make room for the ones that were still coming in. We saw that
the animals all had feed and water for the night and went back to the National
Guard compound to settle in for another night’s rest in the truck.
9-13-05
All
of the people we met had a survival story to tell and most wanted to tell it.
They were such appreciative and strong people that as we prepared to leave the
devastated area we were forever changed. We hooked up to our trailer and had the
Longhorns loaded for their trip up to the northern part of the county for
holding until their owner could claim them. We bid our good byes to Sam and
Kendra and started heading out of the little demolished town. As we were winding
our way out we saw much progress already of people cleaning up the debris, and
backhoes, and bulldozers pushing things off the road. The road was now a
two-lane road and the debris was pushed to the side. Power company crews were
working everywhere and as we turned onto the main highway we got in to a huge
convoy of military vehicles that was moving eastward. We flowed in line with
them until we made our turnoff at Waveland and went north to the farm that the
cattle were being taken to. As we went through the town of Waveland we saw slabs
where houses were and pillars that were the only things left of houses. It was
another town of total devastation that the news media had not shown us. Such a
vast area was totally devastated. So hard to visualize. People still dazed and
in shock at the horrendous losses. We dropped the cattle off and headed north to
return to our homes and own animals. As we left we felt so much sadness for what
we had witnessed. It was a long sad drive home. We were so impressed with the
fact that these people are such a strong people and are out their helping each
other and helping their neighbors. Unlike what we had seen on the news of racial
problems in New Orleans, we saw people in these small communities working side
by side to help each other.
I felt as if we had only done a microscopic amount of helping in this vast area of devastation. I think that anyone that hasn’t seen the amount of damage done cannot possibly imagine the enormity of it.
I have been home a couple of weeks now as I write this last bit of my experience in Pearlington and Waveland MS I know that witnessing it will forever change me. The people of southern Mississippi are continually on my mind and I feel that I will be making another trip down there in the future. They are strong people in very closely knit communities that will rebuild their lives and their futures. I only wish that I could do more to help them.
If you would like to help the animals that are still in need please contact any of these rescue groups at this link:
"As
life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should
share the passion and action of his time, at peril of being judged not
to have lived." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
11/28/2006
hurricane, rescue, relief, Rita, Katrina, animal rescue
©
Lois Aichholz
hurricane stories, boat, flood, Katrina, water, rescue, animals, dogs