Day Three (part two) -- a telling conversation
By Rich Crook, Best Friends Rapid Response Manager 
After lunch, I had about five minutes to lay out a potential plan for Mr. Tellez to kick around while he met with the IFAW folks. This included securing a local university both to house volunteers and to serve as a triage site for the sick and injured animals. Along with this, several boats would be needed to make continuous food runs and rescues. Mr. Tellez said, "Ok, let me think about it, and we can talk more after my meeting with IFAW."
When Mr. Tellez returned from his meeting and sat with us, he said, " I thought about what you’ve suggested, and I think we just need money for supplies, and I think we have plenty of people here to take care of the animals."
I said, '"Ok, what’s your plan for tending to the 25 to 30,000 animals potentially stranded without food and water?"
His answer was “Well, we have a small group of dedicated individuals out as we speak delivering food.”
I asked, "Are those individuals from the local group (APTA)?"
He said, "Yes, are you familiar with them?"
I said, Yes, we are the ones that bought the food they are delivering," I then went on to pose the question: "Do you feel five people in one boat can deliver food enough to feed 25 to 30,000 animals at least once a week?"
(Thanks for that one, Paul.)
He answered, "No."
I said, "Then animals are going to die. Are you ok with that?"
He said, "No. What do you suggest?"
I then went on to explain what we had experience with during Katrina (in graphic detail) and reiterated my initial plan. By this time the poor guy was literally shaking and said, “Ok, forget the money. Can you help us?” I think it was at this moment that he started to realize the magnitude of the responsibility he was given.
Mr. Tellez informed us that the military had shut down open traffic on the water, and he had no authority to grant permission to enter, so off to the EOC center we went. We arrived around 6 pm and after 20 minutes of name-dropping, we finally made our way to central operations (it was what you would expect to see at a FEMA EOC). It was very busy--maybe 40 people on computers, full of military folks and federal officials, etc.
After another 45 minutes of talking to six different people, we found our friend Mr. Rivero (from breakfast). He was able to introduce us to the secretary of the Secretary of State. After another 30 minutes of "Yada, yada, yada," we were in agreement as to what we needed to do to get permission to help the animals. Basically, we had to type (on one of their computers) a report of all our activities since arriving, all the officials we had had conversations with to date, what we could do to help, and what we would need from them.
To summarize, I suggested we could help coordinate feeding the animals stranded, rescue the animals sick or injured, help to recruit volunteers, and possibly bring in additional groups. The time frame for this would be until the water recedes, and the people can return to their homes or take care of the animals themselves (30 days).
Now, for what I felt we needed from them; I asked for official credentials giving us permission to be on the water and on structures, two boats, two trucks, another staging site closer to the working zones, and a designated contact person within the military who would have a full understanding of our mission. Mr. Rivero, who typed all this up in Spanish seemed to think this was reasonable, but he wasn’t sure how the Governor would feel about the equipment, (it never hurts to ask).
This will be placed in front of the Governor in the morning, and we should have an answer by noon.
Mr. Tellez said he would talk to the university to secure a site and look into recruiting students to help. We spoke to Mr. Tellez at approximately 8 pm, and indeed, he has the vet university for both volunteers and animals!