Tropical Storm Helene brought heavy rains to Southwest Virginia and North Carolina, including along the New River. In Radford, the National Weather service expects the river will crest around 27 feet, which would make it the second highest level on record. An animal shelter there evacuated animals Friday morning, as they prepared for possible flooding.
“I’ve been here 14 years,” said Adele Katrovitz is the animal control officer at Radford. “This is kind of the highest crest I think predicted since I’ve been here.”
Friday morning, her staff were packing up cat travel bags, pet food and office equipment into a U-Haul.
They evacuated nearly 70 animals, including three rabbits, 50 cats and kittens, and 14 dogs.
The Radford shelter is located very close to the New River, and Katrovitz said this isn’t the first time they’ve had to evacuate. She said they evacuated just in case the water reached their building. “And we’ll see what happens. It’s always an adventure,” she said.
Local residents have come to the shelter to help, taking the animals to stay in their homes temporarily. By noon Friday, they had evacuated the shelter. Katrovitz said thanks to volunteers, all animals have available places to stay.
“Radford is fabulous, and surrounding counties. We love them,” Katrovitz said. “Everybody that has stepped up as always at a moment’s notice that’s come and take one of our animals home and keep them safe and secure, whilst we’re going through this emergency evacuation. Thank you very much.”
