Devastation of the Texas Fires vs Hurricanes

by Jerry Finch, Habitat for Horses

3/29/06 - There is a difference between hurricanes and fires; the fires hit the Panhandle and an old man with tear stained cheeks says, "I'm fine, thank you"

What do they need? Hay, feed and horse blankets. If you can, if you have it in your heart, please help. See previous article>

There is a vast difference between the results of a hurricane and a fire. Yet as I looked at the devastation surrounding me today, I was struck not by those differences, but by the similarities. Death by water and death by fire both spell a horrified loss. Destruction by winds and high water, of destruction by fire still destroys the lives of those people who look upon the remains of their home with tears streaming down their face.

Picture, if you will, a family loading their horses in a trailer, the fire a few hundred yards away. A sixty mile an hour gust blows down upon them. Try as they may, there is simply not enough time. The horses, all of them, perish in the trailer as the family screams and runs away. Picture an eighty-three year old man, a cowboy of the purest kind, who has lived all his life in the home of his grandparents and parents. Not only is the home destroyed, but all of his cattle and most of his horses. Nothing of his life is left.

But we are about horses, and that is what I have come to see. This afternoon I looked at the burned legs of a horse, blistered and bleeding. I saw the belly of another, the skin sloughing off, leaving only red, bloody meat underneath. Mouths too burned to dip in the cool water of a tank, too painful to touch the watery mix of feed given by the loving hands of a human that sheds tears when she feeds. Tomorrow I will see more, far more than I want to see. It will be real, and it will hurt, but it is our touch that offers a slim chance to heal, to live another day. It is not only for the horses that life is offered, it is for the humans as well. Having lost everything, they cling to a small hope that life will somehow continue, that the horses will live, that the world will return not as it once was, but better and safer than ever before.

Outsiders have not helped here for reasons that are beyond my imagination. These folks help one another, neighbor helps neighbor, one town helps another. That's just the way things are done in this part of the country. They are independent and proud, perhaps a little too much so, for when you ask what you can do, they answer, "I'm fine. I have everything I really need, but old Mr. Williams might need some help rebuilding his fences." One family that lost everything spent the next three days moving cattle for their neighbors, never once stopping to mourn their loss.

There is a difference between hurricanes and fires; the fires hit the Panhandle and an old man with tear stained cheeks says, "I'm fine, thank you"

What do they need?

Hay, feed and horse blankets. If you can, if you have it in your heart, please help.

Please be aware - some of thesre pictures are very graphic. (They will open into a new browser window.)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean056.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v311/jfinch/McLean019.jpg

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Evelyn Bench
Emergency Coordinator
Region 9 Representative
1.866.434.5737
Habitat for Horses, Inc/Lone Star Equine Rescue, Inc
http://www.habitatforhorses.org/
http://www.lser.org/

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