Hurricane Michael: Kinship Circle In Florida For Animals

KC-DARTFIELD LOG

Hurcn Michael

KC-DARTFIELD NOTES

Hurricane Michael

Hurcn Michael

Sad family can't keep their babies #KinshipCircle #Rescue — Kittens now homeless.

Saved from Michael ruins #KinshipCircle #Rescue — Kittens now homeless.

Animals live with people at staging site #KinshipCircle — Rescued dogs at staging site.

Goodbye

KC-DART — Kinship Circle Disaster Animal Team find dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, goats, chickens… in search-rescue across Florida Panhandle counties wiped out in Hurricane Michael. A week after the storm, communities are dark with no electricity, water or cell service. Animal survivors need help. They are alone, scared, starved.

Michael kills some 35 people as a Category-4 hurricane in the Florida Panhandle. A dangerous storm surge and 100mph winds decimate coastal towns, with buildings uprooted from their foundations. As Michael travels inland across Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, its destructive force dissipates into a tropical storm. Hurricane Michael is the most potent storm to make landfall on Florida's Panhandle and strike Georgia since 1898. Kinship Circle Disaster Management Director Bonnie Morrison drives cross-county with volunteer Damien Oxier in a veterinary-equipped truck that belongs to Tri-State County Animal Response Team (Tri-State CART), an animal response unit for Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Bonnie founded Tri-State CART and Damien serves as the nonprofit's current president. The Ohio-based rescuers lead a KC-DART team in Calhoun County, Florida. Volunteers assist from Blountstown, where North Florida Rescue, Inc. has a staging area for hurricane animals. All utilities are down, so volunteers camp-out in tents or vehicles, with power and water fueled via generator. Humans reside alongside hurricane animals in donated kennels. Floridian animal rescuer Holli Miller is exhausted, and grateful for helping hands. Holli, who oversees the staging area, works tirelessly to arrange transports to (no-kill) rescue and foster groups. But as soon as placement and foster/adopt provisions are underway for some animals, more animals are admitted to the makeshift emergency site.

THE LONG GOODBYEA family struggles to say goodbye. They lost their home when Hurricane Michael battered northern Florida. Trees crashed through walls and windows. Their possessions are mostly gone, with scant means to build back their lives. With nowhere to live, they sadly surrender four one-month old kittens. A male family members assures us that all the kittens have undergone veterinary exams and blood labs, to confirm their good health. He hands us a carefully assembled package of their familiar food bowls, blankets, toys…plus eye medicine for one. Bonnie comforts the scared little kits as they are documented and prepped for transport. All will be sheltered and eventually adopted into safe homes. The future looks hopeful for these ittle-bittles. Still, the family's grief is evident in a long, tearful goodbye.

HUNGRYHurricane Michael tore apart his pen. The bull is roped to a fence post on a 30-ft lead, exactly where a family left him when they fled with their dog. Most of their home, dislocated from its frame, is jumbled scraps. The bull has no food, no fresh water. Just grimy rainwater in a jagged container. Still, “he's one of the nicest, sweetest animals I've ever met,” says Damien Oxier, a disaster responder with Kinship Circle. Damien adds: when the animal spies “my bag of feed, he becomes my new best friend!” The bull is so ravenous, his head dips into the bowl before Damien can fill it. Neighbors indicate the family left with their dog, with indefinite plans to return. Their home is badly damaged. More cows are found without food or water. Two cows outside a demolished home in southern Calhoun County back away in fear as the team approaches. But when they hear the crackly sound of a bag torn open, they're interested. Fear gives way to intense hunger. All left-behind animals we encounter are documented for follow-up welfare checks and feeding stations.

A roped bull is left behind #KinshipCircle #Michael — Damien feeds left behind bull.

Deserted bull is roped and starved #KinshipCircle #Michael — The gentle animal is starved.

Michael ➊Goodbye ➋Search-Rescue USA Aid Volunteer

Family who lost home surrenders cats (c) Kinship Circle — Search-Rescue

Search-Rescue

Search-Rescue

Notes From The Field

Field Notes

Forgotten horses saved, #Michael #KinshipCircle #Rescue — Forgotten horses are saved and rehomed.

Horses are saved. We find horses, pigs, cows, chickens and goats, starving and disoriented, across Florida Panhandle counties. Local feed/supply stocks are gone in the wreckage, without new resources to fill the vacuum. Donations are critical, so animals can survive. Some residents are here, but without utilities businesses are shut down. Power may not be restored for one month or longer! In this Forgotten Coast part of the Panhandle, hard-hit towns are left in the shadows with no financial safety net to rebuild. Damien Oxier moves from home to home, each in broken remains. The Kinship Circle responder scans rubble for signs of life. Behind fallen trees, Damien spots two skeletal horses in a swampy pen packed inside a 5-ft tall shed. Neither can lift a head. Both are ill and injured. Damien speaks with the guardians, who lack means to care for their horses and agree to surrender them. The team arranges for an equine rescue to take and rehome the horses. KC's Damien notes: In non-disaster times, this would be a serious neglect/cruelty case. But we avoid confrontation to secure same-day release of the horses. Barb Thompson, a Kinship Circle disaster aid volunteer, works with a ground team to save the two horses.

TEARS FOR CATSA family with 9 cats loses their home in wind gusts up to 155-mph when Hurricane Michael smashes through Calhoun County, FL. They've lost everything, with sparse means to recover. A woman weeps as she explains a decision to surrender their four most social kitties. We assure her the friendly four will get new homes via local rescue. The five, least-adoptable cats will remain with the family. Their choice is clearly heart-wrenching. Kinship Circle responder Damien Oxier holds one of four sweet cats surrendered amid Hurricane Michael destruction. Beside him are Bonnie Morrison, Kinship Circle disaster manager, and Holli Miller, a shelter/rescue director and Florida resident. Holli first alerted us to post-storm animal needs and coordinated ground operations with Kinship Circle director Brenda Shoss.

SEARCH AND RESCUENo power. No water. And starving animals across four Florida counties. A dog mom is found with just-born pups. They get food and comfort, plus a second chance when an outstate rescue takes them. Bonnie Morrison, Kinship Circle Disaster Manager, plays with a dog surrendered amid Hurricane Michael destruction. In hard-hit Florida counties, resources are scarce for animals and people. Bonnie networks with local emergency managers, ACOs and nonprofits to secure animal aid and supplies. Right now, your donation is a lifeline for these animals! Damier Oxier, Tristate CART director from Ohio (deployed with Kinship Circle), works logistics at the Blountstown, FL staging area. He and Jeff, a volunteer, help a local veterinary office reopen after Hurricane Michael. They supply a large generator and more CART equipment so the veterinarian can use her x-ray machine and operate as the sole vet in the county. Kinship Circle finds animals alone and scared along Hurricane Michael's brutal path. They need food, aid, comfort. In one harrowing rescue, a mama cat hovers over newborns. But one kitten is unresponsive. Damien Oxier, with Kinship Circle, revives the tiny kit and treats him for hypothermia. Another volunteer sleeps with the kitten to warm him until transferred to a vet.

TRAPPED CHICKENS AND GOATSA bashed in home and tossed trees bear witness to Hurricane Michael's historic 155-mph winds. One fallen tree is lodged atop a chicken coop with two roosters trapped inside. The birds crouch beneath their sunken roof, desperate for food and water. Damien Oxier, in Calhoun County, FL with Kinship Circle, carefully clears away the tree in sawed pieces and then cuts the coop open to free the chickens. After a near-death wait, the birds finally eat and drink… A goat strains to nibble scant leaves above his wind-beaten pen. He and a second goat pace their destroyed enclosure, waiting for food and water. But a nearby home, ravaged and uninhabitable, suggests no one will return soon. “When we dole out feed for these guys,” says animal responder Damien Oxier, “they gobble it up as if they've never seen food before!” We deliver food/water to many starving animals, plus assist local authorities with a long-term survival plan for left-behind animals. Volunteers even repair rooftops and move debris as they conduct search-rescue in hurricane-torn communities. Your donation gets boots and gear on the ground for animals! Kinship Circle deploys overseas and in the U.S. as emergency responders for animal disaster victims. We work in unison with officials and nonprofits to offer skill, stamina and leadership — in a spirit of cooperation that best serves animals. Follow us on Facebook to stay current with Disaster Watch News as it unfolds. To volunteer, register with KC-DART for placement on our deployment standby list (based upon your availability). And please make a tax-deductible donation to our Animal Disaster Fund, so we are always ready to go — where animals need help. Your kind heart saves lives!