Posts: 3561
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted May 26, 2015 06:54 AM            

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After days of severe weather, parts of Central Texas are still being hammered. The damage is taking a toll on infrastructure, cars and homes. The storms have also taken at least three lives and left 12 others missing outside of Austin.

“A lot of people have lost their homes whether it's from tornadoes or flooding and so is just very extreme at this moment,” said former KFOX14 traffic anchor Chrisdyann Uribe.

Uribe said she has never seen anything like this before, saying it looks like a scene out of a horror movie with damaged homes, uprooted trees and car accidents throughout the streets.

“I just moved here and it's been nothing but rain. I've heard a lot of people say, you know, tornadoes are very uncommon here and right now, we just had two touch-downs today. There's been multiple warnings. The weather has been very extreme and very severe and it's just wet,” she said.

Uribe said many of the planned Memorial Day and graduation celebrations that were planned had to be put on hold or cancelled altogether as a result of the storms. Gov. Greg Abbott has declared a state of emergency in 37 counties across the state and some areas have been put under a curfew including San Marcus.

"Not even media was allowed to be out there because it was just so dangerous they didn’t want to risk it," Uribe said.

However humans aren't the only ones who have been left helpless as Mother Nature takes its course. Hundreds of animals have flooded area shelters after escaping during the storms. Animal shelters in Austin report that they are being stretched to their absolute capacity with runaways as a result of the storms.

Here in El Paso, the Animal Rescue League said it has taken in pets from other areas in the past during emergencies.

“When (Hurricane) Katrina hit in Louisiana, we took in a number of dogs and that is something with the Red Cross. We work with them in disaster situations. They call the people who are backups,” said Sally Green with the El Paso Animal Rescue League.

Green said these emergencies take a toll on shelters, pushing them to their limit.

“It becomes a huge burden if you don't have room for them because it's all about space so then they start creating and putting them in crates and rooms as opposed to putting them in kennels and runs and they can only go so far. They only have so much food they only have so much space so then they start asking other shelters open their doors to these animals that don't get returned to their owners quickly because a lot don't,” Green said.

To help alleviate that pressure, the El Paso Animal Rescue League teams up with the Red Cross to help other areas during emergencies. But at this point, they have not gotten any calls for help as a result of the Central Texas flooding, but they are ready to help out if necessary.

Even if their home doesn't get destroyed a lot of times the damage it takes way too much time for them to get things fixed from the storms and so a lot of them don't take them back for that reason or they want to but they don't get to get to them fast enough for the shelters to hold onto them that long.

http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/Animal-shelters-overflowing-with-pets-during-Central-Texas-flooding-136138.shtml#.VWRSGdJVhBc

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Posts: 144
From: Canada
Registered: Dec 2014

posted May 26, 2015 10:25 PM            

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My heart goes out to the population there, and I hope
they all get the help they need,- all the people and the
animals.

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Posts: 3561
From:
Registered: Apr 2009

posted May 27, 2015 07:44 AM            

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