The macabre images flashing on our television screens don’t even begin to capture the grief, the chaos, and the stench that is being experienced by individuals in several Gulf Coast states as a result of deadly Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of horses have probably been impacted, but the current reality is that human welfare must be tended to first, and many areas containing horses are simply unreachable due to fallen trees and buildings, and widespread flooding. At this moment, nobody can say where physical help is needed the most for horses. But this current uncertainty isn’t keeping hundreds of passionate volunteers from offering their barns for evacuees, their financial help to charitable organizations, or their organizational capabilities for sending supplies to the hurricane-ravaged areas, which have been described by one rescue worker as requiring months or even years to clean up and rebuild.

A pocket of farms near New Orleans, La., has a number of horses that were abandoned. Rose Westover, emergency evacuation coordinator of Habitat for Horses/Lone Star Equine Rescue in Hitchcock, Texas, told The Horse that she’d received calls from several worried owners who had to leave horses behind when they evacuated. “The stories I’m getting are not nice,” she said. “I got a call yesterday from someone who had to leave five horses behind at a stable with water up to their knees.” Westover said two of the horses were foundered before the owners left and all five were left standing in stalls with water up to their knees.

“There are 65 horses in the property next door,” she added. The woman who reported information on these horses had broken into an abandoned home to use the phone. “Those are not criminals, those are people who are desperate. I have places and people who are willing to take in horse owners with their horses,” said Westover.

Another individual identified only as Jacqulyn called Westover in tears last night, saying her 1-year-old Appaloosa filly and five other equines, including two Thoroughbreds (one of which is pregnant), two ponies, and a Quarter Horse cross had been left behind in their pasture when the area was evacuated. “She placed a yellow halter on her horse and spray painted her cell phone number on the horse’s back in hot pink,” said Westover. “And she left them on Saturday. She lost everything–her house is gone, her job is gone, her car is gone