Wildlife Losses Being Assessed in Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Heavy equipment operators clear clears a passage to SE La. Complex Headquarters following Hurricane Katrina. Click on photo to enlarge. Photo by Mark Tom MacKenzie/USFWS

The full extent of wildlife losses from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is still being assessed in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which left a trail of destruction on national wildlife refuges along the Gulf Coast. National wildlife refuges remain closed in Louisiana and Alabama as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to assess damage on its facilities. Already, the estimated toll has topped $225 million; further assessments are still being undertaken. Combined with flooding in May and Hurricane Dennis in July, storm damage to the National Wildlife Refuge System in 2005 has topped $300 million.

Even in the face of personal loss, Service employees brought their expertise to aid those devastated by Katrinia and Rita. In response to Hurricane Katrina, the Service established an Incident Command Post, which provided housing for 100 Red Cross volunteers and 50 FEMA workers as well as hot meals and showers for National Guardsmen, local law enforcement and fire personnel, staff and patients from the Louisiana Heart Hospital, and others engaged in search and rescue.

By the time the ICP was demobilized on September 28, the Service had provided more than 20,400 meals. In Louisiana alone, work crews opened access to the Louisiana Heart Hospital and cleared more than 14 miles of roads, 318 driveways and 7.5 miles of canal and drainage ditches, disposed of 106 truckloads of debris, and cleared 11 miles of Wildland Urban Interface fire breaks.

Significant issues exist for wildlife and endangered species in Louisiana and Mississippi. Because of reduced habitat, animals were forced onto high ground such as levees and berms. Roadway accidents are increasingly a problem.

Refuges in the southeast were still cleaning up from Hurricane Dennis in July and Hurricane Ivan the year before when Katrina and Rita barreled over them. Cleanup of more than 170 acres of wildlife habitat began in late July on Bon Secour Refuge in Alabama, slammed by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. A public ceremony was being readied to celebrate restoration when Bon Secour, whose name means “safe harbor,” was hit by Hurricane Katrina. The refuge is again temporarily closed.

For more information, contact the Southeast Regional Office of External Affairs, (404) 679-7287.