Temporary homes found for horses
SANTA CRUZ >> A large focus of pre-emptive evacuation efforts in the San Lorenzo Valley and North Coast of Santa Cruz County have revolved around getting people to safety, but some people have much more than themselves and family to worry about.
Household pets may be easy to evacuate, but large parts of the San Lorenzo Valley are rural and residents there have much larger animals such as horses and livestock. While the animal shelter offered advice on evacuating large animals, it mainly focused on preparedness and getting them used to their trailer.
“For livestock, a big thing was people had horses and other large animals that had never been on a trailer before,” Erika Anderson, the program and development manager at the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter told the Sentinel in December. “Their animals are going to be scared to do that and it’s going to be such a stressful situation.”
That is where the Santa Cruz County Equine Evacuation Unit comes in. The unit assists in the evacuation of horses during natural disaster, such as wildfires and debris flow events as the name suggests.
When Equine Evacuation evacuates horses in the area, it usually takes them to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville or the Graham Hill Showgrounds in Santa Cruz. Horses are kept at those locations while the unit “farms” them out to ranches around the county for them to stay during disasters.
However, neither of those facilities were available to Equine Evacuation this week for debris flow evacuation. The Graham Hill showgrounds are unavailable after PG&E set up a base camp there on Monday to respond to anticipated power outages during the coming storm.
However, the County Fairgrounds are a different story. Mary Sullivan, who is in charge of logistic for Equine Evacuation, learned at 3 p.m. Sunday that they would not be able to use the County Fairgrounds.
The reason Graham Hill is tied up is understandable, she said, but she did not know why the County Fairgrounds are unavailable.
“Well, we have to do a little preparation work to be ready,” said County Fairgrounds Manager Dave Kegebein. “We were not able to on Sunday. We started yesterday morning, getting ready. We are able to receive the animals now.”
The County Fairgrounds are not as readily available to receive evacuated animals in the winter, according to Kegebein. The regular permanent stalls at the fairgrounds aren’t accessible during the winter months due to water and mud.
Evacuation warnings went out Sunday night and evacuation orders went into effect Monday morning. That is when the fairgrounds staff got to work.
The fairgrounds set up temporary stables to house evacuated animals. Part of the stalls are set up now to receive animals and the rest can be set up in a matter of hours in the event the fairgrounds need more places to house animals.
Sullivan had heard rumors of the temporary stalls but was under the impression that they wouldn’t be available until Wednesday.
Sullivan said Wednesday would be too late, as Equine Evacuation stopped sending crews into the field at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
“I heard (the fairgrounds were) preparing some, but for us, (Wednesday) is too late. We’re trying get ahead of a storm,” Sullivan said. “For our Equine Evac team, as of 4 o’clock were not going to send anybody out. I’m not going to send them out in the rain if it’s dangerous.
However, the animals were not left without a place to go. Since both of the normal transition grounds were unavailable at the time, Equine Evacuation was given the choice between Quail Hollow Ranch County Park in Felton or Pinto Lake in Watsonville, according to Sullivan.
Horses were taken to Quail Hollow Ranch County Park in Felton as a transition area. From there, they were sent to ranches across the county.
“We have enough community support that we’re farming these horses out to different ranches in the county,” Sullivan said.
As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday no debris flows had occurred. Equine Evacuation has seen smooth operations so far, evacuating and reranching horses.
“Knock on wood, it’s running so smoothly,” Sullivan said. “I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s gone really smoothly. Animal services has been a great support and equine evac has a great team. Now it’s just a hurry up and wait to see what’s going to happen.”