As news editor of The Horse, I had asked myself: How was I to communicate to readers the enormous amount of devastation Hurricane Katrina caused to everything in her path? Her effects on people and property have been extensively covered in the mainstream news media, but her wrath was no easier on animals. And early on, there was precious little information about their plight because no one could get into storm-ravaged areas to investigate.

Eventually, word on horses started trickling in…63 rescued here, 60 perished there. It was an emotional time, punctuated by goose bumps, as when I heard the particularly harrowing story of the carriage animals’ rescue (see page 23), or shed silent tears as I was told about touching reunions or barns full of drowned horses. All the while, I was swimming in e-mails from concerned readers who were missing horses or offering help.

Finally, it was decided that I would travel to Louisiana. Covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina from more than 740 miles away was one thing…seeing it in person was quite another, starting with the ghost town that the New Orleans International airport had become.

I arrived expecting to learn how leadership roles in this colossal effort were decided, how different committees were organized, and how a master plan had been executed