Digging through my personal archives

I have thousands of files and folders stored on my computer and on various CD's as well as on a few crashed hard drives. I'm attempting to sift through most of it in hopes of finding bits of information (that were useless in September- October) that may prove helpful now. I'll post some of the 'other' stuff I come across that may be of general interest here.

From Noah’s Wish Website:

· Update: August 31, 2005 - 9:00 p.m. Louisiana Time

The Noah's Wish team reached Slidell, Louisiana today. We have met with emergency management and animal control. Tomorrow we will begin to provide assistance for animals in this devastated area. Almost everyone we talked with this afternoon had a story to tell of an animal. Unfortunately, many of the stories were of animals that were left behind when people had to evacuate. People are getting desperate to find their animals.

Areas of Slidell are still underwater this evening and the devastation is widespread. There is no electricity, gasoline, or phone service (landlines and cell). In order to post this update I had to travel almost two hours back to Baton Rouge where I could get internet access. Even here cell phone usage is impossible. We truly feel cut off. I will be driving back to Hammond tonight where our team is staying at the home of one of our Volunteers.

Tomorrow evening I will return to Baton Rouge with a much more detailed update and photographs.

Report Submitted By: Terri Crisp - Noah's Wish Director

· Update: August 30, 2005 - 12:00 a.m. Louisiana Time

The 10 member Noah's Wish initial team is now in the outlying areas of the disaster area. Since our arrival earlier today we have been:

· gathering supplies we will need and will be unable to find once we get into disaster area.

· determining what the road conditions are, where the closures are, and the best route to take when we head into some of the worst hit areas tomorrow.

· listening to reports on where it is flooding.

· completing rescue requests.

· networking with other animal organizations to determine where the greatest needs are.

At this stage of a disaster there is a great deal of information gathering that needs to be done quickly. Noah's Wish always makes a serious effort to ensure we are getting correct information to pass along. In the early days there can be a lot of incorrect information exchanged and we try very hard not to contribute to the confusion. One of the many things that makes this challenging is the information continues to change and the normal methods of communication are not always available. We have already found that our cell phones will not be a reliable means of communication until damaged equipment can be repaired or replaced by the phone companies.

Tomorrow we will be starting the work we came down here to do for the animals. During the next couple of days it may be difficult to get to a phone that works and to find electricity so we can use our computers. We will make every effort to get an updated posted tomorrow night as I know people are waiting to learn of how the animals have been impacted by this hurricane but the next one may not be until Thursday.

It is important to let everyone who has contacted us in the last two days to request assistance in locating a missing animal, that we still have your information. Just as soon as we can get access to the areas where these animals are located we will. At this time though we cannot say for sure when that will be as the danger is still extremely high and for this reason the authorities are restricting access.

We definitely understand how difficult it is to be separated from an animal and the worrying is horrible. Knowing how this feels, is what makes us even that much more determined to get ourselves in a position to get to these animals so the reunions we all want to see do happen. We have received word today from a growing number of people who we have talked to who were frantic to find a missing animals that their animals have been found, safe. Nothing could please us more!