I just had the opportunity to speak with Julia Cumes, a photo journalist who was out with the rescue team on the water today. She arrived yesterday at the Expo Center and described her first 24 hours. Here are the highlights of our conversation.

When she first arrived, she saw a plane take 200 dogs to Arizona, so that is a good sign that animals are starting to leave the Lamar Dixon Expo Center.

There are literally thousands of dogs there. Many are tagged with an owner's name and a "will pick up" date. Unfortunately, this date has come and gone on a number of dogs.

Today in New Orleans they waded through knee high water, if you can call it that by now, to get to specific addresses they have been told have animals. At most of these addresses, there is no sign of animals. Some houses are too hard to get in to due to overturned furniture or other items blocking the door. Some are searched and deemed to be impossible for pets to have survived in. At others, they assume the animals have either died or managed to escape the house.

On their way from one address to another today, they heard a dog barking. They managed to locate the dog. It was stranded on an "island" behind a house with a dead dog next to it. The dog apparently had not left this area that had remained above the water since the hurricane. As they got closer, the dog was extremely scared and barking like it was ready to attack — completely freaked out. It took a full 30 minutes of gentle coaxing to allow the rescuers to get close enough to feed the dog. It was at this point that the dog immediately calmed down and allowed the rescuers to get a collar and leash on him. He seemed like he didn't want to leave the dog at his side. This dog had survived by eating the legs of the dog next to him, something he clearly was upset about. They brought him back to the staging area and when Julia saw him at the end of the day, he was like a different dog — cleaned up, fed and wagging his tail.

At the staging area, she also saw a saved parakeet and a python, so dogs and cats are not the only animals being rescued.

Julia was in Thailand a week after the tsunami and said that while the loss of life from Hurricane Katrina can not compare to the tsunami, the physical destruction the infrastructure was worse here. The wave came in and receded, but the standing water in New Orleans continues to do damage.

Please see Julia’s website, http://www.juliacumesphoto.com, for some amazing photographs, including photos of her experience in Thailand.