Animal Response Team Updates
——————————————–Summary of Animal Response Efforts
Reno county emergency management initially activated animal response through the Reno county liaison (RL), of the South Central Regional Animal Response Team, to provide shelter and care for the displaced pets of Hutchinson residents in the Reno county wildfire evacuation area. Through emergency management, the RL requested additional support from the full regional team. Regional volunteers where then notified. Eight volunteers worked with several Hutchinson Animal Shelter staff to temporarily shelter pets at the Hutchinson fairgrounds. Shelter setup began about 8:00pm Monday, March 6 and was demobilized about 3:30pm Wednesday March 8th. A few pets were transferred to the Hutchinson Animal Shelter to continue boarding until their owners were able to take them home.
Click here for media reports on the Reno county fires.
The updates below were shared with volunteers in the south central region who deployed, who replied to the call out with availability and to the KS SART board. Both communications were sent via email and offer only animal response deployment details.
——————————————–First Update March 7, 2017 7:09am
- Reno volunteers were put on standby, conversations with Reno Co EM
- call came from emergency management for assistance,
- a small group of south central regional team volunteers + the CAMET housed in Reno were requested but needed assistance outside of their county
- request came in to ask for south central regional volunteers in surrounding counties
- a strike team of 5 volunteers were asked to head to Hutch w/the CAMET housed in Sedgwick Co to assist with shelter setup and assessment of the situation
- reports were coming in of the possibility that most of Hutch could be evacuated
- strike team heads to/arrives in Hutch
- Shelter moves to Hutch fair grounds
- standby notice out to SC regional responder volunteers via email w/link to provide availability details
- social media posts also posted asking volunteers to check for email notice and reply
- small shelter, 20 kennels are set up and ready
- a few animals are being housed so skeleton crew stays, rest of crew are sent home to rest
- review with crew to develop plan for today
- overnight crew headed home by 8am
- Reno group will cover sheltering today
- Reno group will reach out if reinforcements are needed (if fires flare or situation worsens)
- Crew will return tonight to retrieve CAMET housed in Sedgwick Co
——————————————Second And Final Update March 9, 1:06pm
- 15:00 3/8/2017 – temporary animal shelter at Hutch Fairgrounds was demobilized and animals transferred with owner permission to the Hutch Animal Shelter for a few more days of boarding.
- Some horses still remain at the Hutchinson Fairgrounds, KS SART helped coordinate supplies and manage donations for those animals, working with the assigned veterinarian on scene. Update as of this morning, most horses have gone home. Expectation is remaining horses will go home Friday 3/10 and the temporary large animal shelter at the Hutch Fairgrounds will be demobilized. Expecting a final report Friday from assigned veterinarian on scene.
- a hot wash of the deployment with those who responded from the south central animal response team (in the next week)
- submission of animal response details to emergency management, including time, donations & veterinary costs (in the next week)
- review/approval of suggested deployment process modifications as a result of the hot wash (in the next month)
- implementation of approved deployment process modifications for animal response (in the next few months)
- sharing this information (review and implementation plan) with the other regional animal response teams