Articles
The Great River Rescue
Maryann Mott
Rally to Rescue magazine
A small motor boat with a disaster rescue crew from Best Friends Animal Society quietly glides through the flooded town of Oakville, Iowa. It’s the fifth day of a week long mission in the rural farming community to find pets left behind after the Mississippi River overflowed, submerging area homes and businesses.
“When the wind picks up, which it usually does late afternoon, the sound of the waves against the abandoned buildings and the slapping of loose tin makes a lonesome tune that gives you goose bumps, even under a drysuit,” blogs Best Friends responder Barb Davis of their rescue mission in late June.
For weeks heavy rain storms saturated Iowa and five other mid-western states, causing rivers to rise and burst through protective levees guarding dozens of communities.
Iowa was the worst hit state sustaining 8 to 10 billion dollars in damages, making the flooding one of the ten costliest disasters in U.S. history.
Nearly 40,000 people, many with pets in tow, rushed to safety as the Mississippi River and its tributaries washed into neighborhoods. In Oakville only roof tops peaked above the dark water as animal rescuers floated through streets, fishing cats out of trees and off of roof tops.
Faint cries lead the team inside an abandoned barn where three kitties, sitting on rafters, sought safety from the diesel filled water below. “With a little maneuvering we were able to pick them off the beams and slide them into waiting crates,” writes Davis. “One of our volunteers cozied a big blue-gray male who glared at him, then melted in his arms.
“It felt great finding those three cats,” she says.
In Cedar Rapids flood waters covered 9.2 square miles of the city, destroying 5,000 homes and businesses. Residents brought their pets to nearby Kirkwood Community College where a makeshift emergency animal shelter was set up on campus to house them.
Anne Duffy, a professor of veterinary technology, headed up the task of sheltering the influx of animals. The first six days, she says, were chaotic as drenched owners distraught over losing everything, arrived practically nonstop with their pets.
“All you could do is promise them: ‘I will take good care of your animal,’” says Duffy, her voice cracking with emotion. “It was really, really rough.”
More than 1,300 animals were ultimately housed at the college’s equestrian center. Not all of the animals in Cedar Rapids were as lucky as those at Kirkwood Community College that had been whisked out of harm’s way. Hundreds of requests from owners poured in with pleas to rescue their pets.
“No one ever expected the water to get that high,” says Duffy of why so many pets were left behind. “Houses in the affected areas were older, two story homes so people took their animals upstairs and left them with food and water. They figured they’d be back in a day or two.”
Trained rescue workers from national animal welfare groups helped pluck animals from the putrid water. Groups of 25 were sent back to the college where veterinarians and volunteers vaccinated, microchipped, bathed and photographed each one for identification purposes.
For more than a month, the college’s staff, students and volunteers cared for the storm shaken pets as owners’ scrambled to piece their lives back together.
Ultimately about 80 percent of animals were reunited with their owners, says Duffy. She recalls one family who had requested a water rescue for their black domestic shorthaired cat named Sabrina.
The mother, father and two teenaged daughters showed up on campus in the afternoon wondering if their kitty, Sabrina, had been found yet.
She wasn’t there, but Duffy told them another trailer full of rescued pets was due to arrive shortly. The family anxiously waited in the parking lot. A few hours later the trailer arrived but the ebony cat wasn’t on board.
Determined to find Sabrina, the family waited for the next load of animals to arrive. The truck finally pulled into the college at 10:15 pm – six hours after they had first arrived on campus. When the doors swung open -- revealing crates full of wet, frightened animals the family immediately spotted their cat.
“They were jumping up and down in the parking lot,” says Duffy. “They were so happy to be reunited with their kitty.”
A Makeshift Shelter
Barb Bryant received an urgent late night phone call from Iowa’s state veterinarian asking if she’d run a temporary shelter for pets displaced by flooding. She agreed. The next morning Bryant, co-founder of the Animal Protection League, reported bright and early for duty at the Lee County Fairgrounds in Donnellson.
Right from the start, she and the other volunteers were eager to help.
“Since this was the first time any of us had done this type of rescue, we were fortunate to receive assistance from members of Kinship Circle, who helped set up our operation. These volunteers had done this many times. Most had worked at Katrina.”
Two trailers full of leashes, crates and food were delivered to the fairgrounds. For more than two weeks volunteers did their best spending 12 hour days caring for about 100 cats and dogs.
“We made sure that every animal out there felt safe and secure,” she says.
They also fielded phone calls from owners about missing pets. Bryant recalls one man who called the fairgrounds searching for his beagle. One had been brought in but it wasn’t wearing identification tags.
“Go to the kennel and call out ‘BudLight,’” the man said. “If he bays at you, he’s mine.”
“So the volunteer put down the phone, went outside to the kennel and yelled ‘Bud Light.’ The Beagle immediately answered. He was so happy someone knew his name,” recalls Bryant with a laugh.
Not all reunions were that easy. Some owners had to work hard to find their missing pets. An Oakville woman called the fairgrounds everyday inquiring if any of her 20 cats had been brought in. Every few days she also drove an hour to the fairgrounds where she peeked in cages looking for her brood.
Her persistence paid off. “Lo and behold we found six of her cats,” recalls Bryant. “She was real thrilled about that.”
In the beginning of July the fairgrounds needed the facility back for an upcoming event so Bryant had to scramble to find a new place for the remaining animals. That’s when her husband of 20 years, Mel Bryant, suggested bringing the remaining animals to their 72 acre farm in Keokuk, Iowa.
“If it wasn’t for Mel, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do,” says the long time animal rescuer.
Even though Mel is battling his fifth bout with cancer, he gathered up his strength to clear off part of their pasture so wire kennels could be erected for the dogs, and their barn became the cattery.
Several volunteers from Noah’s Wish – an animal disaster response organization – camped out in tents on the property. The group helped Bryant with the seemingly endless daily chores of walking, feeding and watering the animals.
After two long weeks the 16 pets not claimed or adopted to new homes were transferred to Kirkwood Community College then shipped to out-of-state shelters for eventual placement.
In The Wee Hours
In Iowa City some people had days to evacuate; others only had 30 minutes before the Iowa River – a windy stretch of water that feeds into the Mississippi –washed over banks into their neighborhoods.
A few blocks from the river, the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center filled with three feet of water, destroying the facility.
Luckily, shelter director Misha Goodman didn’t take any chances. A few days earlier she and her staff began working in the wee hours of the morning to move 100 animals to the Johnson County Fairgrounds located about a mile away.
As the flood waters approached, residents from Mosquito Flats and other neighborhoods brought their pets to the fairgrounds for safety too. The Red Cross also set up shelter at the fairgrounds for human flood victims.
Having the human and animal emergency shelters near each other made the process of dropping off pets much easier, says Goodman. It also allowed people at the shelter the opportunity to visit the animals, even if they weren’t their own.
Providing a safe haven for pets was only one aspect of Goodman’s job. Working in conjunction with firefighters and police, she and her staff waded through flooded areas – in some cases where the electricity was still on -- to rescue pets trapped in their homes.
During one rescue, staff headed to an A-framed house where an elderly man’s six cats had been left on the top floor with food and water. Half way there, the team was blocked by raging floodwater filling the street.
“The flow was too much,” says Goodman. “We were seeing massive trees flow by at a rate of 20 miles per hour, if not more so it was determined that it was unsafe.”
A few days later, as conditions improved, rescuers successfully made it to the home and got all of the cats out alive.
The frail man, in his 90s, was thrilled his cats were OK but fell ill shortly afterward and was rushed into intensive care.
“A lot of people didn’t think he was going to make it,” says Goodman. “But he did and came down here two months later to reclaim his cats. He loved his cats.”
Maryann Mott is a pet journalist based in Arizona.