Saving dogs and cats caught in Hurricane Helene’s wake

As Hurricane Helene bore down on North Carolina last week, taking down power lines in its path, a litter of four pups with the whimsical names of Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, and Happy — huddled together in a Burke County animal shelter in western North Carolina, their futures uncertain amid the surrounding chaos. 

Dedicated shelter staff kept them safe through the storm, but the entire area was destroyed. They, and all the other pets at the shelter needed a place to go. Within days of the storm hitting, Best Friends arrived to drive them and other dogs and cats, to a partner shelter in Ohio. There, they’ll be safe away from the area impacted by the storm, and soon placed in new homes. 

Best Friends staff and volunteers are in the Southeast, helping to save pets’ lives and providing aid to animal shelters damaged by a once-in-a-lifetime storm surge that submerged communities in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee and left people and pets without power, drinkable water, food, and supplies. 

“We’re concentrating on helping our animal welfare partners, not just with immediate needs but also their ongoing needs,” says Sharon Hawa, Best Friends senior manager of emergency services. “So, this is part of a much larger effort that we can support over a period of time.”

Best Friends’ work is divided into three principal areas: helping get displaced animals moved to safe locations, distributing critical supplies (food, water, medical supplies, and even gasoline), and organizing volunteers who can relieve shelter workers who need a helping hand. 

“Asheville has been mentioned prominently in news reports but there are so many people who live in more remote northwestern part of the state,” says Audrey Lodato, Best Friends regional director. “I have 26 shelters I’m in contact with right now and they are all without power in rural areas. 

“But it’s amazing how willing individual animal shelters have been to help each other and how the various communities have stepped up. It’s unimaginable devastation and yet, people are just doing any little thing they can to help. So, we want to do everything we can to help people retain their pets and keep them safe.” 

The team is establishing an emergency operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina, which will serve as a hub for Best Friends’ work in the area. Three pet resource hubs, located in and around Asheville, North Carolina, will serve as staging areas for gathering and distributing supplies such as pet food, fresh water, cleaning supplies, and gasoline, all of which are not readily available anywhere in the area. 

“It could be some time before shelters are back online, so the faster we can respond to the current situation, the better,” says Audrey. “The idea is to provide an avenue where families have the resources to keep pets with them”

Getting dogs and cats out of harm’s way to safe locations with basic services such as electricity and water is a high priority in the coming days. For maximum efficiency, Best Friends is working with local, state, and federal agencies as well as other animal welfare groups by combining efforts move animals to partner organizations located in other states. 

Some of the displaced animals have already arrived at St. Francis Animal Sanctuary and Rescue, a receiving partner organization located in Tylertown, Mississippi. St. Francis has a history with Best Friends, having served in 2005 as the principal staging area for Best Friends emergency response work connected with Hurricane Katrina. 

When Esther Neonatal Kitten Alliance, located in Arden, North Carolina, lost electrical power that was critical to keeping its neonatal residents alive, the Best Friends emergency response team helped by delivering a generator and other supplies.

In the coming days, Best Friends’ lifesaving operations will be expanding into Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee. 

In Georgia, Best Friends is giving $15,000 grants to be used by shelters to purchase items such as generators, pet food, kennels, crates and other materials for Berrien County and for the cities of Millen and Lyons. 

With heavy flooding occurring in and around the Tampa Bay area in Florida, Best Friends will be providing emergency response assistance to Pasco County and Pinellas County, both in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. 

In Tennessee, Best Friends has assisted one shelter by purchasing supplies and general shelter assistance. It’s only the beginning.

The puppies, Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, and Happy were carefully tucked into crates, which were loaded into a van to leave Burke County. The next stop was Heart of Foothills Animal Rescue in Rutherford County where they received their vaccinations and travel certificates, and then the longer drive to the Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals (SICSA) in Dayton, Ohio. 

Eryn Carper, SICSA’s help center program manager, says the three boys and Bashful (the girl) have settled in without a care as to what they’ve just been through. “We got them last night and just let them rest and be comfortable before doing their full medical exams this morning,” she says. “They are just happy-go-lucky pups, as if they were telling us: “Oh hey! Hi everybody! We’re just glad to be here.” 

While the dogs are all good-natured, Grumpy and Happy do behave in ways that belie their own given names. You see: Grumpy is actually a happy and gregarious guy who usually wants to give and receive attention. But Happy, well, let’s just say he can be a bit cantankerous. 

“Happy guards his food bowl from his brother,” says Eryn. “And if Grumpy gets too happy, then Happy gets grumpy and just pushes him out of the way.” (Follow that?) 

SICSA will soon be promoting the four for adoption, but chances are they won’t really need any extra hoopla. With such fairy-tale names, they’re already marquee stars. 

In the coming days and weeks, Best Friends staff and volunteers will be on the ground to support the animals and the people taking care of them. 

“This is not a one and done type of deal,” says Sharon. “The storm caused so much damage, with whole shelters wiped out, that we’re in a situation where they will be dealing with the aftermath for a long time. And Best Friends will be there to help.”

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill in 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.