Hurricane Sandy Brought Out The Best In Us All

As an animal rescuer, I spend a great deal of time fundraising, because when you work in rescue there is never enough money.  And with this economy, it's really hard work when so many barely have enough to feed themselves.

But when I saw the devastation being caused in New York and New Jersey on October 29th by Hurricane Sandy's brutal storm surge, my first thought was for the animals that would be affected.  I knew that many would die, and grieved for them.  But I also knew that many, many more would be displaced along with their human companions, and it was those that I worried most about.

On Thursday, November 1st I started getting facebook messages about people and rescuers who were running out of drinkable water, food and necessary medicines.  One lady posted that she had fed her dog and cat potato chips that morning for breakfast, and had herself eaten cold oats with water and sugar. Another lady who had been rescued reluctantly from her home on Staten Island went back that day to find that most of her rescue cats had drowned when her home had been flooded to the roof, and that for the few who had miraculously survived, she had no food, clean water, or a place for them to stay.

Our parent rescue, Commonwealth Humane Society, is based in the Washington, DC area and is an extremely professional operation.  They had or could get their hands on a great deal of pet supplies, blankets and other things in a very short period of time, and had a pool of donors to contact in times of need.  I contacted Chris Haslam, CHS's Director, and he immediately started putting together a transport and relief effort.

Chris coordinated with Mellie McClellan of Posh Pet's Rescue there in New York on Long Island to find a place to store the supplies as well as find volunteers to distribute them, and he put the word out to over 25,000 people via email soliciting donations.  Many of these folks, in return, forwarded the same email to their lists, and so on.  In the meantime, I had rescuers and even celebrities coast to coast sharing donation information via their Facebook and Twitter accounts.  Chris filled a 26' truck to the brim with donations of everything, including generators, that he could think of that those in need could use.  He then solicited the help of Nick Acker, a manager with Petco in the DC area as assistant driver, and drove north to New York as fast as possible to dodge a follow-up snowstorem to deliver some much-needed help to both humans and animals.  

Volunteers with Posh Pets were extremely glad to see Chris, Nick and the truck roll in!  Many of them had been without power for days and were living in third-world conditions.  One rescuer told Chris the next day that it was such a blessing to wake up that morning and not see her breath when she stuck her head out of the blankets.  Another rescuer said that when they started delivering pet food to families who were still living in terrible conditions, one entire family cried tears of joy at seeing them bring not only supplies for them, but for their dog as well.

Chris called me practically as he was leaving to let me know that although he had taken them a great deal of supplies, it wasn't going to be near enough.  I had already reached that conclusion, and started working on my own Sandy Pet Relief Effort here in Oconee County, SC.

I knew that I needed two things - a place to hold the event and a way to get the word out.  The first thing I did was run by Seneca Tractor Supply and talk to Mark and Joey there, who have worked with our rescue in the past with adoption events and fundraisers.  They thought it was a wonderful idea and we agreed on Thursday, November 8th as a good target day.  Gary Butts with WGOG has known me for years and has helped me with PSA's (Public Service Announcements) in the past regarding rescue efforts and pet spay and neuter.  I went by to see him next with a press release and copy for a PSA prepared, and Gary came on board as well.  We taped the PSA immediately and they started running it as much as possible that same day.  

At the same time, I had left a note on WSPA's Facebook page about our relief effort, and Laura Thomas contacted me about doing an interview.  We taped one at my job and it went out that evening at 5:55, again at 7:00, at 11:00 p.m., and I am told again at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday before the fundraiser.  I can't thank Laura and WSPA enough for their help in this.  We received a very large donation of supplies from a group of employees at Confluence Watersports in Greenville as a direct result of this interview! (Thank you!)

November the 8th dawned bright and cold, and we were blessed with wonderful weather the entire day.  By the time the day was over, we had received enough supplies to fill our 6x10 trailer two feet deep, and had received approximately $200 in cash donations.  Unfortunately, as we needed to raise about $600, I was disappointed at that point that we were not going to get to make the trip.

Then Chris called.  Online monetary support had been overwhelming, and there were a number of people along the way with loads of supplies for me.  He told me to immediately rent a 26' truck and get started as soon as possible.

I was skeptical, even more so when I actually stood in the truck that Penske practically donated us.  260 sq ft x 10 ft high is a LOT of room to fill.  I hoped I wasn't going to show up to disappoint with only a small amount of the truck filled.  I needn't have worried.

I left Seneca early Saturday morning the 10th, headed north on I-85.  I drove into the Baltimore area late that evening and met two wonderful people in Maryland who had two SUV's packed completely full of supplies.  When we added what they had to what I had brought, the truck was about 1/5 full.  One of the volunteers followed me back to Chris' location in Oakton, VA and there we discovered the reason Chris said I needed such a big truck - a virtual mountain of donations!

We packed everything into the truck as well as possible, placing the heavier pet food and bottled water at the front of the truck, with the lighter items like blankets, coats, clothing and long underwear toward the back.  Five igloo-style doghouses were included in the mix, stacked and filled as well. By the time we were done packing at approximately 1:00 a.m., the truck was full to the brim in front (behind the cab), and was about 3/4 full total.  Knowing how much these supplies were needed, I chose to get back on the road immediately and continue north on I-95 a ways until I was tired enough to get a little sleep.  While to sit on the seat of that Penske truck was murder, to sleep on it was actually very nice.  It was a wide bench seat, and I could stretch out entirely.  As the cab was the same heighth as many commercial trucks, the only way anyone could see into the cab was to either climb up on it (which would wake me immediately) or pull up next to me in a similarly-sized truck (which would also wake me).  I made it to a few miles from the Maryland/Deleware border and pulled into a rest stop for a nap.  An hour and a half later, I was back on the road headed for Newark, Deleware, and the only rest stop on I-95 in that state.  I arrived a little after 6:00 a.m., and fell back asleep immediately, to be woken at 8 by a trio of wonderful ladies who had three more SUV's packed to the brim with supplies for us!

After we loaded their supplies in, the truck was almost completely full.  There was a small amount of room at the very back of the truck, and that was it.  I pulled out, headed north again, when I received a call from one more donor who was supposed to meet me in Newark.  He was on his way.  I quickly turned around and headed right back!

His SUV full of cleaning supplies filled out the truck the rest of the way, and with that I started north on I-95 again, to brave bad traffic, even worse roads, a VERY scary toll booth operator, and long gas lines.  I didn't see much in the way of signs of damage at that point...some sand along the road, obvious signs of water runoff in vegetation, trash caught in that same vegetation, etc.  But otherwise things looked pretty normal.  Later, driving through Brooklyn on the way back, I saw some very sad things, and couldn't even bring myself to take pictures of them.

The major highlight/scary moment of the trip was when I was dumped off of the interstate because my truck was deemed too big for the stretch ahead, into downtown Manhattan.  I am proud of the fact that I manoevered that truck through the narrow city streets and around the number one NYC annoyance - double parkers without so much as a ding or an injured pedestrian.  But eventually I found my way back onto the I-295 and out onto Long Island, arriving just as it was growing dark in a residential neighborhood in Islip, where snow was still lining the streets in dirty piles.  A large group of exuberant ladies met me at the storage yard, actually physically helped me out of the truck (I had been in it a long time and was very stiff), and proceeded to cheerfully unload the truck into separate storage units, divided between pet and people supplies.  

I was to later find out that many of these ladies still didn't have power on where they lived, that some had vehicles stranded because of no gas, some had storm damage to their own homes and that all of them were impacted in some manner by the storm.  Still, they had all given their Sunday night and many of their days to helping other victims of Sandy's wrath, even as they went without themselves.  They told me stories about going into areas where all of the doors look like they had been kicked in.  When they questioned a resident of that area, they resident assured the girls that it hadn't been looters that had done the damage - it was Sandy's storm surge hitting the doors full force that made them look like the homes had been violently entered.  One lady told me about her husband's job on Fire Island, and how badly that area had been damaged.

I realize this tale is long, and I thank you for staying with it.  I wanted to tell it because I believe that this story speaks to the American spirit in all of us.  A group of people across the US, who had no relationship and no knowledge of each other, were able to work together and get help to people who could not help themselves.  People who counted themselves fortunate that they were not caught in the path of this horrible storm reached deep into their pockets and donated generously.  Others who had no money had time, and gave that time to make sure that people could feed themselves, and their pets, and would have a warm, dry bed to sleep in for both.  Still others knocked on neighbor's doors, gathered donations, and either stayed up really late Saturday night in cold and damp conditions, or crawled out of their warm beds at ungodly hours on Sunday morning to meet a total stranger and have faith that she would take what she was given and make sure it went to those in need.

In the week since I took this trip, I've made wonderful friends and heard wonderful stories.  I've seen heartbreaking photos and photos that will warm your soul.  This trip was a birthday present to myself, and I didn't realize it until it was over.  There are still many people there in New Jersey and New York stuck in shelters, their jobs gone, their houses gone, their lives in shambles through no fault of their own.  Many of them have pets.  Whether they be of the two or four legged variety, Posh Pets Rescue, Commonwealth Humane Society and Dot's Place Animal Haven will still be doing what they can to help.  If you would like to make a monetary donation to help, please go to www.humane.pro and click on the Donate button.  Please specify Hurricane Sandy Pet Relief in the comment line.  If you would like to donate to Dot's Place Animal Haven to help local cats in need, you can donate via paypal at carolinadancer1@gmail.com.  Every penny donated goes directly to the animals. If you would like to donate to the Red Cross, who are also helping people who were affected by Hurricane Sandy, you may text REDCROSS to 90999 and $10 will be donated and charged to your bill.