I have just returned from southern Mississippi. My team and I have spent ten
days out there rescuing animals. We were staged at Jackson Mississippi from
Thursday till Sunday before the state would let us go in. They then told us
that we had to be 100% self sufficient with fuel water and food. I had to
spend an additional $3000.00 buying kitchen equipment and food to feed 30
people for 14 days before they would let me mobilize out team. The state
would not even replace our fuel that we had burned up while staging. Fuel
lines were extremely long, tempers were flaring because we could not do
anything.
Myself and a part of my team were dispatched at 9 pm one night to make an
emergency run to a humane society in southern Miss that had been next to a
sewer plant. We had waste on the cages, stresses out animals and the workers
from the shelter were doing all that they could for 120 animals. My trailer
is air conditioned and so was a group from Missouri so we loaded the animals
up, drove until 4:30 am to get back to Jackson , got a couple hours sleep
and then had to decontaminate all of them. The next day, we were allowed to
create a compound in Gautier, Mississippi at the animal control.
For those of you who are not aware of our team, it is called DART. Disaster
Animal Response Team.
I sold my drag racing team and funded our equipment to further our rescue
efforts.
Here is some of our equipment to date.
32' Kenworth Toterhome for pulling a trailer
35' flatbed trailer that we have built for rescue purposes only. It has:
1. 30 kw diesel generator
2. washer dryer
3. freezer
4. jenn air stainless barbecue
5. 600 gallons of diesel capacity
6. porta potti shower combo with hot and cold water
7. 690 lb per day ice maker
8. 1200 gallons of water
9. slide in camper for a sleeping quarters
10. 750 of sewer storage
44' cargo trailer with 39 stainless steel kennels for transporting animals.
We also have water on board and the ability to air condition them during
transport.
We also have a dedicated team to go in and rescue.
We have pulled hundreds of animals out of harms way. We have cried, hugged
each other and the animals we could save and had to say good bye to the ones
we could not. This is by far the hardest disaster I have ever had to work.
>From a business standpoint, I would like to say thank you to all of my
customers that have waited until I return to get you leg shaped by Ronnie.
It's nice to know that the greater good comes first.
I am returning next week to pull another ten days and will try to update
everyone.
Thank you,
Ronnie
Ronnie N. Graves, LPO
Prosthetics Research Specialists
720 Southland Avenue
Bushnell, FL 33513
352-793-4477
352-793-1448 (fax)
ronnie@prostheticsresearch.com
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