More mock disaster

Along with the mock animal rescue drill Monday, the American Humane Association brought their 82-foot rescue rig to the Dutchess County Farm and Home Center in the Town of Washington.

See my story in today's Poughkeepsie Journal and Karl Rabe's pictures here.


Todd Simons, promotion manager for Animal Emergency Services of the American Humane Association, gave me a tour of the tractor-trailer. In addition to the surgical theater (above) and the command center (below), complete with satellite uplink and downlink which provides Internet service, the rig can sleep up to 12 volunteers, stores two large free-standing tents for extra room or animal sheltering and has a 100-gallon water tank, one 14-foot johnboat, two inflatable boats and three outboard motors and a sling for lifting horses via helicopter.


For the mock disaster drill, volunteers surveyed the area in which they would be setting up the temporary shelter (below).


The drill was interesting. The assumption was that a flood had forced people — and their animals — from their homes.

The 31 participants were split up into five different groups, each having a particular function during exercise. There were four stations set up at the temporary shelter, which according to the scenario was located 2 miles from the shelter for humans. There was a station for taking animals into the shelter, one for distributing supplies, another for signing up and working with walk-in volunteers and one for actually sheltering the animals.

The fifth group was the public, an anguished, panicked group of people crazy with worry about their pets.