News Reel ... Flooding in Washington -- Crosspost

This was originally posted on a blog I read called Fugly Horse of the Day, but I thought I'd help spread the word by crossposting the topic. For those of you who may not know, Washington State has experienced some serious flooding this month. This has resulted in a LOT of animals without food as their owners may have lost a lot of resources (food, bedding, buildings, etc) during this time.

The picture to the top right is I-5 at the 76 mile marker. It is under 2.5 ft of water.

The picture of the truck to the left shows just how high the flood-waters rose.

The next picture to the right is inside someone's home. You can see how much water there is in the home and I'm sure you can imagine how much damage there will be!

Over 18 counties declared a state of emergency, as a combination of heavy rain and previous snowfall caused a number of rivers to break their banks. 40,000 residents had to evacuate their homes, many with their pets and livestock. Over 300 horses are being temporarily housed at area fairgrounds.

This last picture shows where the waters have begun to recede. See the damage to the road? Or should I say ... what road?

For the cats and dogs that were rescued from the floodwaters by local humane societies and shelters - they will be given a certain amount of time for the owners to claim them (different for each shelter), after which the animals will go up for adoption. I was unable to find much info on efforts to assist dogs and cats online - did anyone else find anything of interest? All that's posted are links to help people and horses - which are also worthwhile endeavours, but OT for this blog.

If horse owners were storing their Hay in the barns or outside and did NOT have a hay loft lifted to the second floor, than all their Hay was ruined. Unfortunately, hay is quite expensive in Washington (I don't know why, but it's almost 3 times as much there as it is here in Ontario). There is a website that is collecting donations for "Virtual Flakes" of hay which basically allows you to offer to purchase some hay to help out the owners of horses that were worst affected by the flooding. The website is http://www.flakesale.com/

Here's some hopeful news ... Washington State is Introducing "Animal Disaster Planning Legislation". They are currently estimating that more than 1200 animals died in this month's flooding. Let's hope that in the future, there aren't so many animal lives lost.