Day Six - Other teams to head to outlying areas
By Rich Crook, Best Friends Rapid Rescue Manager
The situation here has changed drastically (for the better) just in the last 24 hours. The Government brought in many large pumps (the largest I’ve seen). Once their pumps were up and running, the water dropped overnight. The water is nearly gone in an area that was under several feet of water just the day before. When I first arrived I estimated (based on water lines on the buildings) that the water would be gone in just seven to ten days, it took only seven (so much for the Government's 30 day theory).
Jessica Higgins (HIS) and I spent the morning meeting with the Director of the Biology Campus (Dr. Wilfrido Miguel Contreras Sanchez), We now have an area set aside for staging supplies and housing a few local volunteers. I’ve set a meeting tomorrow at the campus for most all groups involved to discuss operations for the week. I plan to establish several teams to hit the streets (by vehicle) passing out food and assessing the health and basic conditions of the animals as they go. I also plan on sending basic recon teams into the outlying areas to assess the rural situation (any areas beyond the sewer system will most likely still have quite a bit of water). I don’t anticipate hearing about much in the way of companion animal issues in these areas.
After meeting with the director of the campus, we met with Dr. Jorge Thomas Tellez (vet in charge of all operations) and Mario Orlando Reyes Sangri (President of the Veterinary college). We discussed operations, timelines, and who will deal with injured or sick animals that we may come across. We also visited a few offices within the Health Department structure to locate a suitable map to work off of.
Photo: Rich Crook