LSART equine/EHSP activities as of September 4, 2008

District 1 Shreveport  Neil Henderson
No equine needs at this time

District 2 Monroe Chris Sullivan
Severe flooding in Franklin County.  Horses have been moved around in the area due to flooding but no assistance/shelter requested at this time.

District 3 Alexandria Justin Gregg
No equine requested needs today

District 4 Lake Charles Dr. Harry Kleinman
No issues.  Ready to assist other areas if needed.
 
District 5 Lafayette Area  Shannon Gonsoulin DVM
Dr. Gonsoulin – no equine needs at this time – assessments were still on-going today

District 6 Baton Rouge Area  Becky McConnico DVM – 
1) LSART equine branch assisted EBR animal control with the rescue of 10 horses from Green Ridge Rd where the Hurricane Creek was flooding – from the Comite River cresting.
2) LSART & LDAF communicated with a local agriculture  facility for possible equine shelter
3) 8 horses  evacuated to drier stabling areas in EBR parish today  (WBR parish & EBR parish). 4 horses had cellulitis on distal limbs from standing in water. 
4) LSU-EHSP 2 ambulatory calls for storm related equine injuries

District 7 Covington Area  Jay Addison DVM
no reported needs at this time

District 8 New Orleans Area  Alison Barca DVM
Everything fine. 


LSART ACTIVITIES WITH REGARD TO PET TRANSPORT AND RELIEF AS OF SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

All families and pets whom the state assisted in evacuating from the 12 coastal parishes have been re-united with the exceptions of those from LaFourche and Terrebonne Parishes.  The evacuees from those parishes are now in the process of returning to their parishes and their pets will be returned when the owners are in a position to take them back.  The Shreveport shelter and the Alexandria shelter are closing today.  The remaining pets whose owners cannot yet reclaim them are being transferred to the care of Dixon Correctional Institution in Clinton, LA.


Dr. Sonny Corley and Mr. Dusty Castille successfully & safely delivered the LSU-SVM mobile small animal unit to Houma, Louisiana (Petsmart Parking lot). This unit & scheduled staff will be in place to support the local veterinarians until they can open back up for business. Ms Valerie Robinson (Animal Control for Terrebonne Parish) has the keys. It will be open from 8-5 pm daily starting Sunday and will be staffed by LSART veterinarians. Dr. Paccamonti & Mr. Winkler are working together to organize this work schedule. The mobile unit may need to be returned quickly back to LSU in the event that Hurricane Ike decides to target south Louisiana.  This will support Louisianians in need. The mobile unit was provided to LSU-SVM by a generous donation from the AKC.






LSU School of Veterinary Medicine Gustav Wrap-up (pdf)


 FINAL MART (Mississippi Animal Response Team) REPORT downloadable pdf (Sept 5).  MART demobilized.


GENERAL INFORMATION ON GUSTAV

Gustav madelandfall as a Grade 3 hurricane on Monday, September 1 , 2008.   http://weather.gov;  5-day forecast , Demco storrm tracker

Contact your PARISH Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) for specific needs.  Contact information for Parish OEPs online.

Recovery operations in southern Louisiana parishes are in progress NOW.  Gustav was a major wind event and spawned numerous tornadoes as well.  Power outages are more widespread than those experiences after Katrina.  Baton Rouge and surrounding communities were unexpectedly very seriously impacted. Unfortunately, one of the facilities with power outage and communications outage is the LDAF building where LSART Command Post is located.

INFORMATION FOR ARCHIVING

If you are self-evacuating to a state-operated shelter, drive to one of the Red Cross Emergency Shelter Information Points (map and list below) where you will be directed to a shelter with available space.  SPACE IS LIMITED.  The checkpoints will have current space availability information .   You must accompany and care for your own pets in state-operated shelters.


1.  Tourist Welcome Center at U.S. 165 and U.S. 84, 1401 Carter Street, Vidalia, LA

2.  Tourist Welcome Center at 836 I-20 West, Tallulah, LA

3.  Paragon Casion at Paragon Place, Marksville, LA

4.  Sammy's Truck Stop at I-49, Exit 53, 3601 LA 115 W, Bunkie, LA

5.  Med Express Office at 7525 U.S. 71, Alexandria, LA

6. P.E. Gym, LSU-Shreveport at One University Place, Shreveport, LA

7.  Pickering High School at 180 Lebleu Road, Leesville, LA

8.  Tourist Information Center at 8904 U.S. 165, Oberlin, LA

9.  Maddie's Truck Plaza at 15972 La 1, Simmesport, LA




Contact your PARISH Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) for specific needs.  Contact information for Parish OEPs online.

LSART IS NOT IN NEED OF NEW VOLUNTEERS AT THIS TIME.  PLEASE SEE OUR DONATIONS PAGE IF YOU CAN HELP IN THIS WAY.

Donations of supplies are not needed at this time. Monetary donations should be made to the Dr. Walter J. Ernst, Jr Veterinary Memorial Foundation. Further information is available at http://www.lvma.org/wjefoundation.html.

NOTE:   Texas has temporarily waived the entry requirement of a health certificate and current EIA test for horses evacuating ahead of the hurricane Gustav. We are not waiving entry requirements on cattle at this time because there was immediate abuse of the situation after Katrina/Rita by dairy traders. But if the hurricane does affect your dairy operations or other animals that need consideration, let us know, and we could quickly do the same for them. These waivers will be rescinded as soon as they are no longer necessary. Call if you have any questions.