Hello, media? Did you not notice the huge flood?
May 04 2010
Someone just started a facebook group to ask the national media where the Hell they are while Nashville is flooding. This is an excellent question. It is a huge disaster and simply not getting the coverage it deserves in order for donations to come in.
Since there hasn’t been enough coverage, I want to address it here. Who is in the area and needs help? Who is within a few hours of the area and can offer help, i.e. foster space for animals or a place to stay for their people? Can you haul? Do you have extra hay for anyone who lost theirs in the floods? Are there any local organizations that can help? If you are there and can tell us which organizations are ACTUALLY HELPING so that we know where to send our money, that would be great. Let’s discuss this and see if we can help today!
We were planning on having the Homes for Horses Coalition conference there next week – I don’t know what’s going to happen with that yet. But I’ve got my ticket, so if we cancel out on the conference, maybe I can come and just volunteer somewhere. I’m game for that. Fortunately my 30 year old mare who is boarded in that area is on a nice hilly property – woo hoo, good planning by Paradigm Farms! 
Oh, and that vaccine recall you all need to know about is here: West Nile Vaccine Recall
68 comments to “Hello, media? Did you not notice the huge flood?”
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Were all the horses in that video alright? How did they get left there in the first place when a hilly bit was not three hundred feet away?
All I know is what is on youtube. I also did not know it was THAT bad until last night. So that’s why I really want to talk about it here and get the facts and find out what we can do to help the horsepeople!
The horses in that video were ok.
There were some horses airlifted out of flooded areas yesterday and this morning with a sling, or so I heard. Others were led to less-flooded areas but most were still at least chest deep in water.
The floodwaters rose so fast that people and livestock couldn’t get to safety. Also, I saw footage of those horses before the airlift video. They were in a fenced paddock which you can”t really see in the video because the water had gotten higher by the time the rescue got there so it was covering most of the posts. So many places that flooded were not flood zones so this has been a huge, huge shock to everyone.
It’s getting good press here in Canada, was on the TV news last night and on the radio too (country radio though – so maybe it’s location was the reason – they were talking about the Grand Ole Opry building and contry stars homes being effected). But there were 11 deaths so far too was there not?
Was reported as 11 this morning – but just googled it and the death toll is up to 28 now…. how is this not front and center on US news?
I know, SO weird. Where IS the media on this?
People can’t help if they don’t know how!
My horse, Chance, is also retired at Paradigm- and it’s because of you and your post about Lacy that he’s there! Very very glad that they’ve remained unaffected by this disaster.
Isn’t it the greatest place ever? The horses are so happy there.
Yes, please let us know where we can send our donations and know that they are going to directly help the people in need. Thank you.
We are actually moving there in about 4-6 weeks, just got our financing for the new house. I’ll be about 45 min. away, we haven’t closed yet so can’t even offer the pasture. But let us know who is helping. I’ll donate to anyone except HSUS.
Kallista, would you mind sharing what problems you’ve had with HSUS? I was considering donating, so would appreciate your input.
Check out http://www.humanewatch.org. HSUS only donates 0.5% of the income they take in to help animals. Sad, but true. I’d rather donate to local shelters who ARE helping out.
I’m about 2 hours from Nashville. I have room for temporary boarders – a lot of areas surrounding Nashville were also hit hard by floods, but fortunately all my family lives on high ground. I can help as needed, but even this close, there hasn’t been much outcry for assistance – no idea where to go or what to do.
The Obama regime’s national state-run media are in HELL.
Maybe your local news stations are ignoring it? It’s been on NPR, CNN, the New York Times, Huff Post… I’m getting updates every news site I look at and every time I turn on the radio! There’s been a move on the part of local stations to report less national news and more local because people get national for free on the Internet. You may need to let your news sources know that you DO want national stories on issues like this where you can help…
I agree. Its been on, its just been buried by news about the oil spill and the Times Square bombing.
The South just cant catch a break… (this, the Oil Spill, Katrina, and on and on)
I had to stop watching that video cause I felt so bad for those two guys velcroed up to the side of that barn.
Make that failed/attempted bombing… thankfully.
It’s been all over MSNBC.com all weekend as well. Their coverage has put it front and center, which also explains how I heard about the schoolhouse floating down I-24, long enough ago to reroute my husband who delivered in LA (Louisiana), yesterday morning.
There is just a ton of news happening right now. I can see where catching a suspected terrorist in the airport as he’s about to hop a plane for Dubai might take some emphasis away from the flooding for sure.
Well this is a prime example of why EVERY horse should be taught, from birth, to be catchable, and to lead!! Can you imagine, as difficult as it is to rescue a horse that is halter broke and handleable, how much more difficult it would be to rescue a wild one?
Even if you don’t live in a flood zone- a storm could flatten a fence, or a horse could flatten a fence, or jump a fence, or open a gate, and get loose, and it might be a stranger who has to catch it and lead it to safety.
Every horse needs to learn to be caught and to lead and tie, and to load on a trailer, at a very young age!!
BTW I’ve been seeing plenty of news coverage on the flood, but then, I am in central GA so not far away (6 hours or so south of Nashville).
Yep! I’m in LA, where we have fires (not floods), and I firmly believe that every horse on your property should be catchable, leadable, and trailer-able. Thirty foot plus walls of wind-whipped fire surrounding or moving in on your property is not the ideal time to see if you can get that three year old on a trailer. Same goes for a flood zone, or ANY zone for that matter: in an emergency, be it medical or natural or whatever, you (or the rescuers involved) want to be able to safely and quickly move and load your animals.
Thank you so much for posting this, Cathy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For those who don’t know, I’m about 30 minutes north of downtown Nashville, and we escaped the worst of the flooding. We also are not experiencing any power outages or water problems. Anyone who needs help, email me at atxhalt@_nospam_yahoo.com (take out the underscores and “no spam” part).
As far as the news goes, the national media didn’t really start reporting anything of substance until late yesterday. I know because I kept checking and couldn’t believe they weren’t reporting. The flooding started Saturday, and we’ve been declared a disaster area since mid-day on Sunday. I think the national attention was focused on the oil spill and the Times Square bomb. No one really seemed to care about the Nashville area until the Grand Ole Opry went under water. Hellooooooooooo…..we’ve had catastrophic flooding on par with Katrina flooding (thankfuly without the same loss of life). There are still people stranded in their homes, livestock stranded (no clue on deaths yet), many homes & major businesses destroyed (like the Opryland Hotel), etc. Most of the interstates were impassable in not just one, but several spots (and that includes I-40 which is THE major east/west interstate for the entire country). I believe they’re all open now with the exception of I-24.
I don’t know….it’s all just surreal, esp. since I’m looking out my window at a cloudless blue sky. The last I checked, none of the area rescues had anything in place specifically for equine-related assistance. I’ll post if I find out anything more. Any readers in the Nashville area or reasonably close can sign up to volunteer at http://www.hon.org (Hands On Nashville but the site is currently down probably because it’s getting swamped). This is the main group that is coordinating relief efforts and you can specify what skills, etc. you have to offer. I personally am still trying to find out about the Girl Scout camp in Ashland City (north of Nashville). The last I heard, they were completely cut off, all their barns flooded, outdoor arena all but washed away, etc. The horses are okay, but they have probably lost all their hay. Oh, and there were between 50-80 girls there on a camp-out, and no one seems to know if they made it out. I’ll post when I find out.
Anyway, there are lots and lots of people affected by this: Nashville, Brentwood, Franklin, Ashland City, Hendersonville, Gallatin, Goodlettsville, Bellvue, Clarksville (the Cumberland there is over 20 FEET ABOVE flood stage!!!), LaVergne, etc. All the counties surrounding Nashville & Davidson County are in need. We’re starting to see gasoline shortages, there are water quality & quantity issues, etc.
Please keep me posted about the Girl Scout Camp! I was the riding director at a Girl Scout camp in San Diego for a few years, and have the best memories. Our barn burned in one of the wildfires in 2004, and it was devastating. Luckily, our horses aren’t onsite during the winter. I can only imagine what this flood is like for them, with horses and campers on the property! I would love to do anything I can to help them.
My friend who works there has talked to the director. They have enough pasture (esp. for the short term) for all of the horses. The horses were turned out to begin with, and their pastures are large enough so the horses were able to stay away from the flooding. My friend thinks their stockpile of round bales is toast, but they do have intact small squares for the ponies who are a little too rotund to be turned out on spring pasture. Although the tack room was flooded, they had moved everything from the lower saddle racks up so all the tack was spared. The biggest concern right now seems to be the structural integrity of the bridge going into the camp which sustained direct hits by several full-grown trees not to mention the tremendous continual force of water against it. The funny thing is that I asked my friend about the girls, and she said “Oh, I forgot to ask about them.” She was more interested in the horses. LOL. Anyway, we both feel certain the director would have mentioned something even without being asked if the girls were still there. I also haven’t heard a peep on the news about it since the initial story that they were stranded so I’m sure they got out somehow. Despite the general lack of national media coverage, I’m sure our local news would have something to say if a large group of girls were still stranded there.
This is a good time to point out that a barn is NOT a safe place for a horse when either tornadoes or flooding are predicted (unless your barn is located somewhere that will definitely never be in the path of a flood, esp. a flash flood). I’m always amazed by the people that rush to put their horses inside no matter what type of weather is predicted.
Good point. When we had flooding in WA, the horses who were loose went to high ground – the ones in barns drowned in them.
And yet another reason to not have barbed wire. If your horse has to swim out, you don’t want him getting tangled in that!
It’s been in the top three stories every night since it started in the DFW news — oil spill, attempted NYC bombing, and TN floods. And lots of coverage on NPR.
Blame the networks, not the politicos. Yeah, I hate ‘em all, but they do NOT run the media, which just wants to attract advertising $$. I’m really getting tired of people blaming the administration for everything from earthquakes to unwed mothers.
If this were facebook I would “like” your comment. Hahaha.
I’m over in NJ and have heard nothing but stories about flooding and NY since I think Sunday, but nothing about an oil leak….will google asap. And IMHO the car bomb thing was a set up to learn more about the police reactions and barrier size, things like that, like a practice for a real one… mental note to stay on my little farm and away from big cities for a while.
By the way, college lets out next Monday, if anyone needs an extra pair of hands let me know and I can road trip it up and maybe even nab a few more willing people.
I did send this to a couple of groups I belong to and got this reply:
I asked a friend of mine who lives in Nashville about the horses and other animals and here is what she told me:
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“Thanks ….! You will be happy to know that 300 horses were rescued in Bellvue during the flood. They are all safe! They didn’t lose or injure a single horse in the evacuation. That is soooo awesome! It seriously makes me tear up hearing about stuff like that
So it seems that there are some organizations helping, but it’s hard to find info. I will follow up with her tonight. I know she is volunteering today at the school she teaches at. They are taking in dogs and cats there while waiting for openings at shelters.
Does anyone else have any info?
Yeah, if they had to take in 300 horses, someone needs help! Who is it? Where are the horses and what organization is doing this?
I’ve been trying to find out about shelters/assistance, but I have no idea at this point. The biggest & most well-known rescue here has no info posted on their site. Nashville Humane doesn’t really have anything either except general info on pets. The water is recediing fairly quickly in some places so it could be that housing isn’t an issue at this point. This flood situation is weird because some of the flooding was just extremely bad flash flooding, which will recede comparatively quickly. Other flooding has been caused by overflowing rivers, taxed sewage systems (yuck), and then collection spots where no drainage is possible. I know it seems like splitting hairs because it’s all flooding, but some of it will recede more quickly than other places.
Someone posted on FB that the “Humane Society” was helping dogs/cats but I don’t know which one.
It was probably the Nashville Humane Society (http://www.nashvillehumane.org/). There’s a link on the main page with flood assisntance information including a list of pet shelters. I haven’t heard of any human shelters refusing to take in pets, and there’s been a fair amount of news coverage about owners being allowed to go back to their homes to get pets. Actually, a lot of pets were taken immediately so owners didn’t have to go back. I think emergency folks learned from Katrina that it’s a lot easier to get people out of their homes when they can take their animals with them. We hear so many stories of bad pet/livestock ownership that we forget there are a lot of good, responsible, caring owners out there.
On a side note, I’m glad nothing happened to Boone—he got his West Nile shot two days before the recall. I just noticed that in your blog post.
Oh, Cathy, I was so relieved to hear about Paradigm Farms and your mare!!!
Wow, that black horse with the star and snip being pulled out of the water looks just like my mare (although I don’t think the horse in the video has blue eyes). I’m glad they were all okay!
I’m in Ireland at the moment and hadn’t heard a thing about the flooding until just now.
I may live too far from Nashville, (about 6 hour drive) but I do have 8 acres available in Indian Valley, Va if someone needs a safe place to keep their horses until the flood waters recede
I still remember being rousted out of bed by my mom in the middle of the night during the ’96 flood here in Oregon to go help evacuate horses from the stable where I boarded my mare…after that night I don’t think I could ever live or board any place that wasn’t on VERY high ground. I still get flashbacks when I drive by a barn right on the river’s edge.
I remember that one – very very bad. Were you referring to the stables nicknamed Serenity Lane because of the total insanity in that self-care barn? Or the SB barn lost with all horses in Mapleton? I had an eq facility in north Lane Co. at the time, that Nov of 96 and we had 8 inches of rain in the first 7 hours and it kept coming down for two more days after that, and even if you were far from the river you stood a good chance of having water water everywhere “and nary a drop to drink” as the wells got polluted with the onslaught and overtopped site-sewer drainfields. Problem with the rivers in W OR there’s no place for water to go except eventually out to sea. The flat valley running from PDX to about Yoncalla, hemmed by two mountain (term used advisedly) ranges, just means flood waters simply spread out and keep rising. We were two miles as crow flies from the McKenzie but still ended up with about six inches of cold water in the stalls which wasn’t “technically” from the rising river per se but ground water from overly saturated soils – like I say, nowhere for water to go except eventually drain out to the sea. Our hay crop was ruined. Even tho the flood was in late fall the ground never really drained out and much of the grass bolted when the weather warmed in March/April but then rotted in the still sodden earth. We had to cut and bale nonetheless (because otherwise future crops get wrecked) but donated to local construction for mud control as that hay wasn’t even any good for cows. A lot of people had same problem – ’97 was a very very tight year for hay in the valley. Not sure how TN will fare here if that area doesn’t drain well or the soils are heavy clay, their 2010 hay crops may not be salvageable. Hope that state has started “hay banks” like some of the others have.
All in all I am very glad I now live “on high ground” with no barbed wire and an evacuation plan just in case.
I have no idea who is heading up rescue efforts. Its getting plenty of media play here. We are located 2 hours northeast of Nashville and were hit pretty hard too, thankfully not as bad. We can offer foster services, hay donations and transport if needed! mountainviewrescue@yahoo.com
And those were full sized horses up to there necks. God Forbid if there were foals or minis or other small ponies out there.
Looks like many people posted in Craig’s List “Farm & Garden” section with offers to help:
http://nashville.craigslist.org/search/grd?query=flood
Hey Fugly, this isn’t related to the topic of this post, but I was wondering what your advice is for the inexperienced rider and how they can avoid ending up in some of the messy, unhappy situations you report on your blog.
Take me, for example. I only ride during the summer months when I’m home from university, once, maybe twice a week, in lessons. I am not much of a horsewoman and I have many interests, so I’m not the type to get up at six am and muck out because I love horses that much, and I certainly have no plans to compete or own a horse. Nevertheless, I want to ride responsibly and learn good habits.
I am confident I ride at a decent stables. The horses are all a healthy weight, well-mannered, have good feet to my inexpert eye, and while the school horses sometimes have days when they want to be lazy, they never seem to be resentful of working. I’ve had my lesson horse switched around on me before because he was moving a little funny when they brought him in and they wanted an experienced rider to check him out for lameness, rather than put a beginner like me on his back.
But how do I tell anything more than that? How do I know that I’m being taught good, safe ways to ride that benefit myself and the horse? How can I be confident that I’m being taught in a way that will stand me in good stead, and know that myself and the horses I ride are protected from the mistakes my inexperience brings? I want to be a good, responsible rider, but I don’t have the knowledge to be able to judge whether I’m getting a good education.
What would you recommend to help guide the ignorant-but-wanting-to-know-more riders out there?
What you’ve said definitely sounds good to me. Past that, whether you intend to show or not, show ring success is one indicator that an instructor is good at teaching, so how do your trainer’s advanced students do at the shows? Another question – are you learning horse care along with riding, or does the barn not address that? Have you learned, for example, how to see if the saddle fits the horse, how to pick feet and how to deal with it if a horse freaks out in the cross-ties? There are very good barns that simply don’t cover care/handling issues that you need to learn.
I always advise watching video of yourself riding. You will learn so much from watching it, if you can have a friend tape you!
And if you are at a good barn that *doesn’t* address horse care…then get together with some of the other students and ask…ask for barn lessons, stable management days…even adult weekend camps if you can get enough interest together.
If the barn owner realizes they have students willing to pay a few extra bucks or maybe not ride for a lesson or two…they WILL cater to you if they’re any good.
Other than that, it sounds like you have the basics. I always say to look for horses in good weight…neither thin nor obese (If they have like ONE fat pony, then it’s probable…some ponies won’t lose weight for love nor money). Tack that is clean and fits. Instructors who are willing to pull a horse that looks lame out of a lesson. One thing I would suggest with a new barn is to watch both a beginner lesson AND an advanced lesson.
When watching the former, are they telling people to get out of the horse’s face? Do they demonstrate safe mounting and dismounting?
When watching the latter, does the instructor listen to the students? If you get to that level, you don’t want a ‘my way or the highway’ trainer. The trainer I ride with…if I say ‘This horse is lame’, she listens. If I notice the horse I’m riding is tired or hot, I’ll refuse to do an exercise and there is absolutely no sanction. If I’m working with a difficult horse, she’ll let me adjust the exercise accordingly…for example, one horse I ride produces a much more balanced canter if I ask from the walk, so if we’re doing circles or direct changes or something else that requires balance, I’ll often ask from the walk.
Another good sign is if you walk down the barn aisle and all the ears swivel towards you
. Happy, healthy horses tend to react with curiosity (or perhaps the hope you have a treat). If the majority of the horses ignore you and its not feeding time, there might be a problem. Besides, there is nothing better than walking into a barn aisle and seeing an entire bunch of cute noses pointing your direction. Right?
Sad to say, I don’t have any friends at the stables! Last summer I tried to figure out a way to ask if I could have lessons in horse care too but I never found one.
I think I’m seeing the things you’re saying to look out for. I was taught how to lead the horse and how to mount and dismount safely, and the instructors seem to be firm but fair to the horse. It’s definitely /not/ my way or the highway – for example, I was riding a horse who often decides there’s a monster hiding in a particular corner of the arena. She doesn’t do anything dangerous but she does kind of not listen so much in that corner and try to cut it. I was supposed to be asking for a canter and the monster had just moved; I could feel her tense up so I slowed to a walk and took her deep into the corner so she could see it was okay, and then went round again and got a good trot-canter transition, no monsters
My instructor praised me for that. Also, if I’m exhausted they let me take a break xD
The horses are definitely friendly
Some of the lesson horses have sort of small indoor paddocks instead of individual boxes, and they’ll come over and chat if you call them. If they’ve been tacked up ready for a lesson and are waiting in a tie stall, you can walk right in and say hi. They usually try and sniff your pockets to see if you have anything nice to give them.
I haven’t seen anything that’s appeared to be a warning sign. But I do wonder if there’s subtler things a more experienced horse person would pick up on that would say ‘this can be done better’.
I really do enjoy horses, but sometimes it seems like you have to devote your whole life to them or not ride at all.
I’ve only had riding lessons, not actual horse care. I have been shown how to groom a horse and pick out feet, as I like to do that after my lesson if the horse isn’t working again and can be untacked, but that’s about it. I would like to find out more about horse care, but – I don’t know if this is something you’re aware of – the horsey world can be very intimidating to outsiders like me. It can be difficult to ask the instructors and stable workers to teach you things outside of lessons when they live and breathe horses and you’re a very casual rider.
I know the stable owner and her daughter compete nationally, which I assume is good! Some of her older horses, who are retired from competing, work in lessons with the advanced riders. I’ve managed to ride well enough to have a couple of lessons on one of her former showjumpers, and it was amazing. I learned so much from just half an hour of riding such a quality horse.
About the watching videos of myself thing … I can pick up some things from that, e.g. it can be obvious that my heels are too high and I’m bouncing in the saddle, but I don’t really have anyone to sit down and point out anything more subtle to me. When you post videos and point out things to look for, I almost never see what it is you’re seeing!
This is terrible, and I had no idea! I don’t have cable, so I have to search for news on the computer or hear it on the radio at work. With 26 horses in training and show season in full swing, as well as foal watch for 4 mares, I have been living in a bubble and walking around like a zombie. Still, how has the local radio station not even mentioned this ???!! I mean really.. I know who was last kicked out of American Idol, but massive flooding in Nashville doesn’t quite make it onto the news break?
Whats the name of the facebook group, for those of us who like to champion a good cause, lol.
There are actually a couple of Facebook groups. The most popular one is “Hey National Media — WHERE ARE YOU while Nashville is flooding???” Well, I can’t find the name of the other one…it was very similar to the one I just named….maybe they merged with each other. There’s also a great FB group called “We Are Nashville.” From our local perspective, this blog entry is probably the best commentary I’ve seen written about the lack of coverage:
http://www.section303.com/we-are-nashville-4366
And please feel free to join us! We don’t care where you’re from….Nashville’s all about having awesome people from everywhere! We just heard tonight that Keith Urban lost ALL of his touring equipment and ALL of his guitars in the flood. I have to say, I know it’s not a loss of life, but I cannot imagine being a musician and losing what is your lifeblood. And, supposedly, he had some amazing old Fenders and, of course, his concert guitars. Yeah, he can afford to replace them; but only sort of. You can’t just go out and replace something like that. It’s like losing your perfect saddle—-there’s just no replacing it. People in our city are awesome. We have great musicians, not just musically gifted but kind people. Vince Gill is hosting a telethon on Thursday. Keith Urban is planning a benefit concert, and I know there will be lots of other benefit concerts. But, the most important thing is that we are HELPING EACH OTHER. No waiting for the government to step in. The local news showed quite a bit of footage tonight of neighbors helping neighbors. It actually made me tear up. My husband went and helped clean up our favorite bookstore and comfort the owner who’s facing the reality that he may have just lost his whole business. This is real life, and this is how I think a lot of people in this country really are. They’re honest, hard-working people who step up to the plate when it’s time to do so. So, if that’s not newsworthy, then our media really isn’t even worth our time. They can go keep reporting and making it appear that our nation is just a bunch of good-for-nothing, screw-up losers. In Nashville and in TN, we’ll just keep proving them wrong.
Well, I know it was on CNN and USA Today because my parents (who live on the east coast) have called or texted me every 6-8 hours checking in starting Sunday morning before I knew whether or not my house survived (it did and compared to some areas…the damage we had was minor). I am about 30 miles east of Nashville and we evacuated with our dogs to higher ground. The boarding barn is on high ground, but the pasture is built on a hill. The lower part basically has a creek running through it which in turn flows into the Cumberland. At this point and the fence is down on the pasture closest to the creek where the flood came through. We have consolidated all the horses to two pastures until the water goes down far enough to actually set new posts and fix the fence. The tame little creek flooded high enough and moved fast enough to rip 8×8 wood posts, concrete base and all, out of the ground. The water at its highest was at the 5 ft. mark judging by the debris left behind. Pretty amazing to see. And again, we feel very lucky that our damage was as comparatively minor as it was.
Some business associates evacuated 40 horses from near Opryland.
Nashville Humane was taking in dogs and cats for people who had to go to shelters. The Lebanon fairgrounds was serving as a temporary site to the New Leash on Life (Lebanon no-kill shelter).
I have not heard anything about “official” shelters for large animals, just a lot of volunteers posting on services like Craigslist that they have pasture available. And lots of word of mouth, just friends making room for a couple extra animals for as long as it takes for the water to go down. That’s one good thing about the more rural areas that got hit pretty hard, like Dickson and Centerville – neighbors are used to helping one another.
I’m glad I do not live near water and have a hilly pasture. I honestly haven’t heard anything on TV but did read a small article in the local paper.
Just showed up on the local news as I write this. Kentucky also flooded?
Yes, Kentucky is flooded! We live near the KY river and our creek rose 2 feet an hour on Monday. Between 7 a.m. and noon it completely covered my low-lying pasture way over the fence posts. It happened so fast it caught everyone by surprise. While I was at work my neighbor took the boards off the fence to get my horses out and let them run around in her front yard above the flood plain. If she hadn’t done that they would have been completely under water. We now have 20 feet of water over our road in places but the waters are beginning to recede at last.
Yes Brenda we here in KY got flash floods. We are more hilly than the Nashville area, so ours runs off faster. In our county alone there is millions of dollars in damages to roads, bridges and our waste water plant is completely submerged still. There have been several deaths reported in KY due to these storms.
Would like to point out we got coverage on the news about the flooding in bloody AUSTRALIA
A friend of mine on facebook has posted several updates from someone with “Almost Home Animal Rescue.” Looks like they do horses and dogs. Website here: http://www.almosthomerutherford.com
They would be right outside the worst hit areas (Rutherford County is just south of Davidson, which is Nashville/Bellevue, and just east of Williamson, which is Franklin) and from what I saw they were trying to coordinate some horses coming in there over the weekend, and getting some hay to some horses that could be accessed by boat but couldn’t be moved. Last posts I saw showed they were working on displaced dogs as well, and maybe even some cattle?
Guidestar says they are 501. I asked my vet, who called a vet friend up there. Said to be small with regards to their horse rescue, but really good at what they do. They also got some media coverage from some of the horses they took from the big HSUS seizure up there last winter. It’s posted on their site, but nothing about the current situation. I guess they might be a little bit busy.
I have an email address and phone for their director, but don’t think I should post it here. Email me if you want it. There are several email addresses on their website, too.
The local channels here (fox 59) have been doing a daily death count of the TN flooding, then it’s back to the daily summary on Idol and facebook crap. They do about 10 minutes of reporting to 50 minutes of total crap. There is a real disconnect with reality with facebook, twitter etc, why interact face to face when you can sit on your ass all day and make things up as you go or twit about your last bathroom visit? So real news can be hard to find. Sorry we aren’t closer to TN to help.
That’s one of the reasons I gave up watching TV a few years ago. A complete and total disconnect with reality. Everything is turning into a total fantasy fun-and or tabloid. Which of course has nothing to do with personal responsibility.
sorry, this is off topic but http://southbend.craigslist.org/grd/1723994096.html. This made me want to laugh and cry at the same time…and not in a good way. >.<
and of course they have a mare for sale that is due anyday. They think he is the father of the baby. The fact that they don’t know for sure makes me want to start up a spay/neuter clinic for humans.
Do you know why specifically they are having the West Nile Vaccine recall? Where I’m from, I’ve heard of quite a few horses having life threatening reactions to the shot and was wondering how common it was.
I guess this poses the question, what’s worse…. West Nile or the West Nile Vaccine?
Hi , off topic , but I am trying to legally rescue a little horse in need in Europe. It seems that the County vet that has the ability to take the horse out of the owners possession is friends of the owners and is corrupt. I have asked the owner who thinks I am her friend to give me the horse because ” I think its sooo cute” , she is thinking about giving it to me for a month to see if i can help a conformation issue. This was a 6,000 dollar show horse purchased from the US and imported to Europe. Is there a loophole in the US for imported animals that land in the wrong hands that might give me or the breeder in US legal rights to get that horse? Breeders please write contracts in the future that would give someone like me a way to get a vet to check on the horse if someone suspects abuse , and the power to take the horse or , give it back to the breeder.If there was such a contract I would have gotten this horse and it would be resting in my stall now with a good vet assisting her recovery. On another note I found an anti slaughter group in Switzerland. Seems that the horsemeat here (Switzerland) is comming from a Belgium guy in Texas. So in 2004, the US was selling horsemeat to Switzerland . I cant tell you if its still happening.
I’m not so good with the serious stuff . . . thanks for covering this. I’m directing Brays Of Our Lives readers here for further advice on charitable giving for flood victims . . . sounds like you and your readers will point them in the right direction!
http://www.BraysOfOurLives.com
Someone may have already posted this, but say it in an article:
“The Middle Tennessee Red Cross is taking donations here and via text if you text “REDCROSS” to 90999 (that will automatically charge $10).”
Rescue Info Update:
I just talked with someone from Horse Haven of TN (forgot to ask who it was that picked up the phone). Even though they’re in East TN, they’re the biggest and most connected rescue group here in the state. They are not aware of any current equine-related needs here in Middle TN. She agreed that it could be because there just isn’t information getting out or that people just haven’t had a chance to assess everything. However, we both felt that they would have heard something particularly about immediate housing needs. That’s not to say that needs won’t crop up, but there just isn’t anything known now. She did ask me to sign up for STERN (State of TN Equine Rescue Network), which I did. Any TN residents who can offer temporary housing, round-up assistance, or transport are encouraged to sign up and get your name & info in the database.
The price tag for this disaster is going to be astronomical. Nashville/Davidson Co. alone just gave a preliminary estimate of 1 billion dollars in damage (which is, sadly, probably conservative)! There are many other hard-hit counties in our state, plus several counties in KY. On the bright side, there will be many new job opportunities for a while.
I don’t watch TV, but on the news aggregation sites I visit it’s nothing but that would-be Times Square bomber (who didn’t even know what kind of fertilizer to use) and the Gulf Coast spill (which, to be fair, is rather big news. It’s a huuuuge environmental disaster that’s going to effect that whole ecosystem and the fisheries). Beyond that I don’t know, maybe it’s because Nashville isn’t near New York.
I haven’t seen much coverage around here. The only reason I even knew that there was flooding at all was because Dierks Bentley posted something on facebook about having to bail out his basement. When I Google News’d “Nashville flooding” the top five links were about country stars tweeting about the flooding, and then the sixth was about somebody drowning in their car on the highway. Screwy world we live in, when we hear about singers barely managing to rescue their guitars before we hear about somebody dying.
Hi folks,
I’m just west of Nashville. I work with sanctuaries fostering animals ~ mostly pot bellied pigs and horses ~ and was one of the foster farms after the 2008 tornadoes, when I brought in 9 extra horses (7 of which were draft or draft x) and a pet turkey.
We’re on a hilltop and didn’t experience any damage to our farm. Ok, well, the barn flooded, but my pot bellied pigs thought I’d built an indoor swimming pool just for them! I pasture my horses, who have access to run in’s unless they’re sick and need to be in a paddock with a stall. All my guys (I have 9) did fine, altho by Saturday afternoon I was tossing out lots of hay to them so they could keep warm in the rain.
The biggest problem I can see with not knowing what animals are in need, has to do with infrastructure. It’s shot. Phones have been out, cell phones haven’t been working, roads are messed up, cluttered with junk or missing major areas, and bridges are destroyed. So, while there are farms able to take in horses, cattle, goats, pigs, etc., we either don’t know about it or can’t help with the transportation because of the roads. I have a neighbor about 6miles down the road, who lost 100 head of cattle (and I have no idea about the horses). I STILL can’t get to her to help. Some places can be accessed by ATV, or even a small truck, but forget trying to pull a loaded trailer in or out.
Many places have lost fencing, have lost barn, have lost equipment. We went thru a really bad tornado in my area in Feb 2008 and I have to say, the damage from this flood is worse than the tornado damage. We have a DART (Disaster Animal Response Team) but I don’t know if they were activated during the flood.
What I can say, from having dealt with a disaster in TN in the recent past, is IF animals are still in trouble it’s important to get a vet to designate any injury as disaster related. Then grants can be applied for to help cover the costs. After the tornado, we were able to find grants to pay EVERY vet in our area who provided emergent care to animals, PLUS got another grant to cover all medicines and drugs. No homeowner/pet owner ended up having to pay for those horrendous vet bills. The key to this was that the vets were given the information about the grant and THEY had to apply for reimbursements. I believe the grantors were AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) and MERC (who handled the drugs).
We were able to get donations of pet (dog/cat/small animal) feed, shelter, etc from Petsmart Charities. This one had to be applied for thru the DART directors of our local DART, but we provided him everything he needed, he just signed off on it and we sent it in.
The biggest thing is reminding folks that getting fencing back up is SUPER important. Our town ended up having a volunteer group that worked with The Red Cross, The United Way, and other relief agencies. Those agencies are geared towards helping humans, not animals, and will flat out refuse to help the animals unless a big stink is made. We insisted that The United Way set up a sub account so that people who wanted to donate for animal issues could do so (and it didn’t end up in their general fund, which they wouldn’t use for animal/farm needs). We also worked with TSC (Tractor Supply Company) and the two local feed stores to see if they’d help in any way. In all cases, they would sell, AT COST, all materials & animal feed to those people who were identified as being in need for farm/animal issues. We later had United Way issue “gift” cards to those people for TSC, Home Depot & Lowe’s. We got HD & Lowe’s on board and they lowered their prices to help make those gift cards stretch further. We finally convinced Red Cross & United Way that having animals contained in sturdy (even if they were makeshift) fences was of utmost importance as loose animals presented a real risk to volunteers traveling the area trying to help. In our litigious society, if a volunteer had hit a cow or horse that was loose, their insurance company would have sued the farmer even though that farmer had already lost everything… Of course the other part of that is that hitting a horse or cow with a car will total the car, possibly kill the occupants and most likely kill the cow/horse.
Another source to remember is the Telephone & Electric company. After our tornado, we requested that any poles they took down be held specifically for farmers who needed to rebuild their fences. The used/old poles were free to the farmers. Most of them had been up so long that the creosote had disappeared.
I hope this all helps. If anyone finds that there are horses that need a foster farm, I can arrange for pasture here, or possibly with some of my friends. Transportation might be an issue though (I can’t get a trailer down my road yet).
Best of luck to all who’ve experienced this disaster.
Vivi
Hi Vivi,
I don’t know if you remember me from several years ago when that tornado hit your town. My name is Marian Robinson from Minnesota. I’m on the Mn. Horse Council.
If you don’t remember no biggy.
My heart goes out to the animals for sure. What organization is sheltering those that have been misplaced? I’ve heard that some states are putting together hay banks for when they need the stuff after a disaster or when someone can’t afford to keep their horse because they’ve lost their job, etc. We have something similar to it with our Horse Council. It’s called TEEFA….Temporary Equine Emergency Feed Assistance…..where we will accept donations of money, hay, grain, feed, salt licks, whatever. For us it’s a real new small group and the chairperson is a 4H leader and is hoping that 4H horse projects will help out with donations as time goes by. As it says it’s only a temporary fix and a one time assistance. People asking for help need to apply and so forth. It got its ‘baptism’ at our Mn. Horse Expo the last weekend in April this year. It’s on our Minnesota Horse Council website as well.
Just some ideas that might be of help to you folks.
Marian Robinson
Minnesota