Louisville Metro Council
Government Accountability
and Oversight Committee

Director: Dr. Gilles Meloche
Staff: Asst. Directors Wayne Zelinski & Jackie Gulbe; Lieutenants Adam
Hamilton and Ann Camp; Public Education Coordinator, Jessica Durbin; Animal
Care Manager, Holly Hood; Volunteer Coordinator, Karen Dixon

time. I told our guests; someone had asked if we were going to go to 6:30
and I can assure you we are not. This meeting is scheduled from 4:00 to 5:30
and it will never go beyond that. I don\u2019t think it ever has, but it may
someday; won\u2019t be today.

Let me start off and first, on the agenda, there is some pending legislation.
An ordinance discussing changes in the recordkeeping and audit requirements
of recipients of Metro Louisville funds of any sort. We will not be addressing
that today. I\u2019ve talked to the\u2014I\u2019m co-sponsoring that with Councilman Jim
King, who will be here shortly\u2014we decided we would like to finish up. There
are a few legal questions we want to be sure we answer before we discuss it,
and also we want to provide time for all the Committee to have looked at it
and then come back and see any other things that we might have. So, we
won\u2019t be discussing that today.

We will be going through, I think; we\u2019ve asked to join us today, Dr. Gilles
Meloche, the Director of Metro Animal Services and we\u2019re going to talk about
the flood.

library, also\u2026.yes? You can\u2019t hear me?
[Unintelligible comment from the floor]
Okay, well, gee\u2026as much as I talk, I need to be heard!

I sent a letter off to the library this morning to ask them about their
contingency plans, evacuation plans, etcetera, in light of the fact that there\u2019s
bookmobiles and millions of dollars of things lost in the basement. And so, it\u2019s
an effort, I think, to eventually end up with Doug Hamilton to come over from
Emergency Services and talk to us about the emergency plan for all of our
agencies in government.

But this is the first one because I think it got the most highlight during the
flood itself. I had said\u2026I\u2019d offered Dr. Meloche some time\u2026 First, let me say
who\u2019s here. I guess I ought to announce\u2026

I had asked Dr. Meloche and offered to have him give a slight entr\u00e9e if he
would like, and I\u2019d said five minutes, but you can go a little over if you want.
So, somewhere between five and ten minutes if you could. We\u2019re used to
having people come in and do 45-minute presentations and we never get to
ask questions, so that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do\u2026.

[As Dr. Meloche begins to introduce himself and his staff, discussion ensues in the chamber about whether or not all Council members can hear him through the microphone. Councilman King arrives; the audio issue is resolved and Dr. Meloche completes his introductions.]

of the flood that we have. And I will say what we have done during that time.
So let\u2019s go back on August 4th. It started to rain, and suddenly the rain was
increasing, gradually.

We were trying to avoid it to come to our administration [building]. It was
one or two inches above. And of course, everywhere in the shelter where the
animals are, we were okay because we have a lot of drain so all that the rain
that was coming automatically were going in the drain over there.

So, but gradually, went to three, four inches. And suddenly, it\u2019s where the
creek that we have on one side start to be totally overwhelmed and it drain.
And so we went from probably four or five inches to three feet in the space of
twenty, thirty minutes.

So most of the staff, what they have done--you can see on this slide how the
dog were in the dog ward\u2014so they try to move, first and foremost, all the
kittens that were [in cages] on the floor. So that was the first phase, to move
them to the second level, which is normally to six inches.

So that was the first thing that they do, and after that when it start to move
fast, we move all the small dog to be sure that they were secure from one side
to the other side where we think that the water was not as big because you
have some different level, depending of the slope.

So gradually, when it went to six inches to three feet, everything get flooded in space of twenty minutes. So, at that time we move all the small dog. We have several trailers, so most of the small dog were moved to the trailer. All the kittens were move higher. All the cats were move higher and after that we start the complete evacuation of all the animals.

So you can see [on this slide] the administration; how it was flooded. We
have a couple of slide that show the difference between\u2014this supposed to go
up front--so you can see the level of the water that we have are different. So
the idea was first to move them secure in our own shelter. We didn\u2019t think
that will go that fast or that high because we had drain.

You can see the difference between--on that slide--what was inside and when
it start to come. So after that of course it went fast. We had a couple of
inches inside and that was at one point of the time.

So, same here [different slide]. You can see the difference between the two
there\u2014how it started [referring to the water level inside administration
building versus the higher level outside as seen through the glass door and
front window].

So the idea was to move all the animals from different level and after that
when we saw that was impossible, we start to evacuate them. We have
different trailers, so we\u2019re able to move them to trailers. All the small dog;
and after that we move all the big dogs, and all the cats in crates. And after