Day One
By Rich Crook, Best Friends Rapid Response Manager
Karen and I arrived early this morning to find the rental car companies not willing to rent us a vehicle. Luckily, there was a Hilton transfer van making their rounds so we hitched a ride and scored a deal on a couple rooms, and, as it turns out, the hotel was within a mile of the airport.
Considering both of us hadn’t slept since the day before, we grabbed four hours of rest and began to plan for the day.
The city still under water We started out looking into what routes, if any, were open within Villahermosa. We found the city (800,000 plus) to still be completely under water and only passable by boat, large military type truck or helicopter.
It was clear to me the only realistic shot we had was with the military, so back to the airport we went (which also doubled as a military base). Within about an hour we met a very nice military officer who was more than happy to arrange whatever we needed. My first thought was to get in one of the choppers before they changed their minds. Then he was kind enough to inform us that the President of Mexico, his wife and part of his cabinet were due to have a press conference in one of the hangers within the next couple hours. Naturally, we agreed, and he found us a nice spot to wait (inside the hanger where the conference was to be held). Talk about a stroke of luck.
While waiting in the hanger, we managed to locate a representative of the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Health himself, after having lengthy conversations with both gentlemen, we were able to gather the following information:
The Minister of Health (who spoke English, thank the Lord) told us that he believes that most of the companion animals made it out with their owners. Unfortunately, he feels that the ones that were left behind (some 9,000 plus) had perished due to the fact that most houses in the region are single story and the height of the water went up as high as 15 feet in some areas, leaving no hope for those people and animals trapped inside (very sad situation, if this turns out to be true).
The Minister of Health is open to any help we or any other organization can bring to the table. We ended the conversation with the Minister suggesting we get back together as early as tomorrow afternoon to discuss more of his concerns and needs.
Another view of the devastationThe representative from the office of the Minister of Agriculture had a much different opinion (as one would expect). He shared that they have some 1,800,000 cows in the region with many of them still roaming the streets and fields up to their bellies and necks in water and unable to eat. He did share with us that they were able to initially move about 10% of the cows out of harm's way prior to the flooding. When asked what he thought about the companion animal topic, he felt it was pretty well under control. He said people had been allowed back into the city (by boat) to return to their homes to salvage what they could and save any animals still alive.
Evidently, the local government knew the waters were rising and were monitoring the weather well in advance and had hit the streets roughly five days prior to the rains and asked people to prepare for the worst and get out while they still had time (right on). I’m sure that saved many people and animals.
I found the whole press conference experience very interesting and impressive. Originally, we were told we may have an opportunity to ask questions. As it turns out, no questions were allowed, and when the president got down to the real nuts and bolts, most of the 50 or so in the hanger were asked to step outside. I had to get creative, but I still managed to get a few decent pics (provided I get my camera back). Stay tuned :]
Continued at
http://network.bestfriends.org/News/Admin/EditPost.aspx?np=20440Photo: Rich Crook / two dogs just rescued from the flood