Horses of the Storm

The book Horses of the Storm was written by KY Evan Mortensen.  It was about the rescue efforts of LSU and other volunteers and their efforts taking place in New Orleans right after hurricane Katrina.  They stuck to the animal rescues, not people, and helped transport, feed, house, and provide veterinary assistance to a lot of animals on their campus and in different locations as well as organizing the communication and dispatch of resources.  They had a help line as well for the concerned owners of the animals they went and got.  There were descriptions of the devastation and miraculous rescues of animals that shouldn’t have been left, but were.  There were amazing stories about rescues with gunfire and running out of gas, as well as dealing with the owners of the animals that were left behind.  This is pretty amazing, these people were let back into the city before most of the residents to rescue animals with the National Guard and law enforcement guarding roads.  I found that this book was written by a man that had a big heart towards animals, and I find it amazing that the people of New Orleans would wine and complain with that level of attention and outpouring of support from so many people across the country that they got after the hurricane.  It is staggering to me, here in Montana, that anyone would have stayed or left anything behind in that situation.  I am quite sure that I would have packed up long before the storm came aground.  I like the way the author talks about how much work it was, he doesn’t paint a rosy picture of what happened, it was a lot of dirty, long hours kind of work and they did a lot to help the community in the weeks following.  I think the story about PETA and the Humane Society coming in and trying to cause problems really helps to show the reader (who might not know their true intentions in life) what they are really about and how little they actually know about the animals they are dedicating their cause to “protect”.  There should have been a plan in place to evacuate and provide food and water, and if there was a plan why didn’t they stick to it?  Why didn’t the different agencies work with each other?  There was a large gap between agencies and the volunteers.  There were all on the same side, why didn’t they help each other?  For the police officers to refuse giving the LSU people fuel was really not helpful for anyone.  I think that this book helps solidify my view on New Orleans.  I am not impressed with the people of New Orleans, how they handled the hurricane, their reaction before the hurricane, their reaction following the hurricane and their attitude during and after the hurricane, kind of like the people of Galveston texting the Coast Guard during the worst part of the hurricane (mandatory evacuations are set for a reason).  I think that this book really drives that home, for me anyway; there is some serious room for improvement in that city, as with any city.  Overall it was a good book with a lot of lessons to be learned following a disaster, how to not handle it and how to properly step in and take the lead.  The readers should come away thinking about their own situation.  What can go wrong and what can we do to not repeat what happened in New Orleans.  New Orleans was a good example for the country of what not to do and how not to handle a large disaster.  Everyone should think about what can happen and what they are going to do in the event that something does happen in their own home town.  This was a good book that illustrated the heroics of some and the, um, not so heroics of others; there are many lessons that we can learn to plan and prepare for the future.