JACKSONVILLE, Texas — County Roads Rescue, an animal shelter in Jacksonville, is needing help from the community in fostering large dogs following flooding and storm damage these last couple of weeks. On Sunday night, one of the facilities suffered flooding from the heavy rains.
"We see the water rushing from that door and from the front door and we also see it coming from the drains," said Dava Cooley-Cook, executive director for County Roads Rescue. "We got pallets, like I said for the ones that needed it and moved beds around."
The shelter is about two dozen dogs over capacity, making an already difficult task of moving dogs to a safe area even harder.
"We're not setup for how many (dogs) we have," Cooley-Cook said. "The animals are in the elements for a lot longer in that situation and we’re in that situation and we’re in the elements for a lot longer – last night we were in lightning storms which is not fun."
Thankfully, they were able to get all the dogs to safety, but not without some added damage to one of their buildings.
"The water sits in here because we the rest and it’s starting to degrade the walls in here," Cooley-Cook said.
The shelter sits in a flood prone area, but this year they've seen more flooding and damage than in years past.
"The first storm that hit us last week was Tuesday – that came out of nowhere, took a whole tree fell and took out our back fence," Cooley-Cook said. "It pulled some of the concrete blocks up. We haven’t even had a chance for anyone to look at it because we keep getting hit."
Cooley-Cook is hoping the community will open up their doors and foster some of the larger dogs through at least the summer.
"With how many storms we keep having – I just feel like it’s going to keep happening – and the best way to prevent is for us to not have as many animals here," Cooley-Cook said.
The best way to get in contact with County Roads Rescue is to message them through their Facebook page. Another way to get in contact with them is through email at Countyroadsrescue@gmail.com.