By Stephanie Schupska
University of
Georgia
When Paul Williams called Don Hamilton on Thursday, Sept. 8, it
wasn’t to chat about Hurricane Katrina. Mississippi needed
Georgia’s help.
In just two business days, they had 13 people ready to go.
Williams is a veterinarian and Georgia Emergency Management
Agency program manager, and Hamilton is a University of Georgia
Cooperative Extension specialist and agrosecurity expert. They
led a state agricultural response team that consisted of
veterinarians, livestock/poultry specialists, an animal health
technician and Extension specialists. UGA’s contribution
included Hamilton, Bill Thomas, Don Shurley and Curt Lacy.
Other agencies involved were the Georgia Department of
Agriculture, USDA and GEMA.
On Sept. 12, the Georgia team arrived in Hattiesburg, Miss. On
Sept. 20, they came home. Between those dates, the group added
disaster response to their list of expertise.
“The most important thing in dealing with a disaster is
attitude,” Hamilton said. “It has to be an attitude of whatever
it takes to help is what needs to be done.”
The chaos following Hurricane Katrina “affirmed that there is a
need for a county-by-county plan in each state,” said Bill
Thomas, the team’s safety officer. Thomas, a retired Extension
economist, is a grant coordinator for the Georgia Department of
Agriculture.
“Every county needs to know what you’re going to do with 12
dead cows should the need arise,” he said. “They need to know
who’s doing what, who’s bringing the backhoe to the party.”
Training Mississippians
Over in Mississippi, the Forrest County Multi-Purpose Center
lived up to its name as it became the Mississippi Emergency
Management Operations Center staging area. The Georgians joined
Mississippi’s Board of Animal Health, Extension Service and
Department of Agriculture, and the Humane Society of the United
States as they took care of companion animals at the center.
For Hamilton, that meant 12 to 14 hours of daily situational
reports and paperwork. Thomas spent long days making sure
workers were healthy and didn’t keel over in the mid-90 degree
heat. Others worked with operations, loaded and unloaded supply
trucks, did agricultural damage assessments, oversaw livestock
and poultry carcass disposal and took care of animals.
The Georgia State Agriculture Response Team was called in to
relieve the Florida SART team. North Carolina came in behind
Georgia.
Before the hurricane, Mississippi “was not trained on an
incident command system,” Hamilton said. That was one of the
Florida team’s first jobs. “When Mississippi started using it,
they were sold on it.”
When Georgia’s group arrived, Mississippi Extension agents were
just getting involved in the recovery process. By the time the
Georgia team left, they were arranging the agricultural supply
depot of everything from fencing to cat food, Thomas said.
“It’s very important that agents be involved in the assessment
of need,” he said, “even if they’re just supporting the
community’s mental health.”
Be prepared
Having a disaster plan is vital for both Extension agents and
producers.
“Extension agents can be working with the farmers about the yo-
yo period, the 72-hour period when you’re on your own,” Thomas
said. “For example, farmers need to be working with their power
providers to see if they are first on the line or if it’s going
to be two weeks before their electricity’s back up. People come
first, yes, but agriculture and animals don’t have to be put to
the side.”
The Mississippi trip, “gives us a much better idea of how to
actually get Georgia prepared,” Hamilton said. “… Your mission,
your goals can change very quickly. You have to be ready to
adapt, be flexible.”
The disaster memories will never leave Hamilton. He clicked
through photos detailing the damage they saw – homes crushed as
they were wiped off their foundations and a boat parked by
receding flood waters next to a Burger King’s front door.
“It was amazing,” Hamilton said of Katrina’s damage. “You could
ride for hours and see nothing but destruction. It’s like if
everything between Athens and Atlanta was destroyed.”
(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)