FILE – In this Oct. 31, 2012, file photo, a dog named Shaggy is handed from a National Guard truck to National Guard personnel after the dog and his owner left a flooded building in Hoboken, N.J., in the wake of superstorm Sandy. The storm drove New York and New Jersey residents from their homes, destroyed belongings and forced them to find shelter for themselves – and for their pets, said owners, who recounted tales of a dog swimming through flooded streets and extra food left behind for a tarantula no one was willing to take in. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)
Weather » The region socked by storm hurt even more by many animals’ deaths.
New York • Kate and Warren Sherwood had to think quickly about what to take when Superstorm Sandy’s surge flooded their barrier island and caused five houses on their block to burn to the ground. Luckily for their two black cats, Schwartz and Scooter, their pets were a priority.
But the narrow escape wasn’t the end of the road for the felines. Their owners took refuge at a hotel that didn’t accept cats.
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Senators plead for more federal aid
Thirteen senators from seven states damaged by Hurricane Sandy asked President Barack Obama in a joint letter Tuesday to add more emergency aid for federal disaster assistance programs in his 2013 budget request.
They want quick action to help speed recovery efforts from the superstorm that pounded the East Coast. The lawmakers are seeking the money as leaders wrestle with how to avert a fiscal crisis, and conservative lawmakers are expected to oppose new spending without offsets elsewhere.
Over the past two weeks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent $1.5 billion mitigating Sandy’s effects. FEMA’s disaster relief fund has about $6 billion left.
“We sneaked them in and put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door — pretending we’re on our honeymoon,” said Warren Sherwood, 56, a systems analyst. “But after three days, they got restless and starting meowing.”
The couple ended up having to take them to a shelter set up in a gym near their hometown of Long Beach, N.Y.
Entwined with the human costs of the storm, which killed more than 100 people and caused billions of dollars in damage, is another significant toll — that of the cherished pets that died or were left behind as families fled for their lives, adding in many cases to feelings of displacement and trauma.
Some find it hard to understand why animals are a key concern in disasters engulfing human lives, but owners feel an attachment and responsibility to their pets, said Niki Dawson, director of disaster services for the Humane Society of the United States.
“There’s such a strong bond between people and animals that people will put their lives at risk not to leave a pet behind,” Dawson said. “So they stay, even when they’re told to evacuate, and that puts first responders going back for them at risk.”
Owners have recounted tales of a dog swimming through flooded streets and extra food left behind for a tarantula no one was willing to take in.
In New York City and on Long Island, the ASPCA has rescued more than 300 animals and treated or provided supplies to about 13,000, working with government and private animal welfare agencies, said spokeswoman Emily Schneider.
City shelters took in about 400 animals along with their families in the first days after Sandy, Schneider said. There are now more than 100 in shelters with their owners, and a mobile animal medical clinic is cruising decimated neighborhoods in the Rockaway areas of Queens and on Staten Island.
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In New Jersey, the Humane Society deployed dozens of first responders using mobile units and boats to bring in about 60 displaced animals each day on the barrier islands hit by the storm.
Two weeks after Sandy made landfall, followed a week later by a nor’easter, search-and-rescue teams were led by Animal Care Control of NYC, a city-contracted nonprofit responding to hotline calls about pets in distress. Callers are owners forced to leave animals behind or unable to care for them, or people who see them wandering in hard-hit areas.
A Manhattan shelter takes in animals round the clock, hoping for owners to show up. And social media teams scour the Internet for reports of lost pets, helping reunite them with owners.
Rescuing animals is mandatory under federal law, which requires local and state governments to include plans for pets in emergency procedures. Federal Emergency Management Agency funds go toward the welfare of animals in disaster zones.
New York City’s human shelters are required to accept pets, and so are taxis and public transportation.
More than 200 dogs, cats and other pets from a devastated area of Long Island are being sheltered in the gymnasium of a community college, set up by the North Shore Animal League America, the nation’s largest no-kill rescue and adoption organization. Many, like the Sherwoods’ Schwartz and Scooter, belong to owners in nearby shelters and hotels.
“We’re ridiculously stressed out; we’re freaked out,” Warren Sherwood said. “But I’d do anything in the world for these people who are keeping our cats alive.”
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