Emergency preparedness and response are not just for people anymore – or at least not just for two-footed people. Last October, members of the Greenbelt Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) presented a request at a city council meeting for support from the city in forming a Community Animal Response Team (CART), which in Greenbelt will be known as GCART (pronounced GeeCart). The team is hopeful that it may be up and running by the start of next year.
On May 24, six members of GCART, led by Laura Kressler, and Kris White, met with the city council to provide an update. All six are also members of CERT. Kressler and White are, respectively, the commander and vice-commander of GCART. Kressler, a veterinarian, is also a past-chair of the city’s Public Safety Committee. White is the long-time chair of the Greenbelt Homes, Inc. Companion Animal Committee. Two additional members of the GCART board, Ronnie Mitchell and Ellen Weiss, were present, as were team members Charlene Backstrom and Pam Lambird.
Mayor Pro Tem Judith Davis conducted the meeting since Mayor Emmett Jordan was away on business. She pointed out that the events of 9/11 had awakened Americans to the need for emergency preparedness. Kressler agreed, adding that Hurricane Katrina was also instrumental, especially with regard to animal rescue. In her presentation last fall, she demonstrated that there are likely more companion animals in Greenbelt than human residents and that even if only 10 percent (2,500) of the animals were to require emergency shelter, that’s a lot of animals.
In addition to concern for the animals, another driving factor for animal emergency response nationally is that it was realized during Katrina that the inability to rescue pets along with their people was a leading cause for residents to refuse to evacuate their homes or, in some cases, to attempt to return home before it was safe to do so. Kressler pointed out that this problem endangers not only residents but also the emergency responders attempting to help them.
Read more about GCART in the June 1 News Review