A small motorboat with a disaster rescue crew from Best Friends Animal Society quietly glides through the flooded town of Oakville, Iowa. It’s the fifth day of a weeklong mission in the rural farming community to find pets left behind after the Mississippi River overflowed, submerging area homes and businesses.

When the wind picks up, which it usually does late afternoon, the sound of the waves against the abandoned buildings and the slapping of loose tin makes a lonesome tune that gives you goose bumps, even under a drysuit,” blogs Best Friends responder Barb Davis of their rescue mission in late June.

For weeks heavy rainstorms saturated Iowa and five other Midwestern states, causing rivers to rise and burst through protective levees guarding dozens of communities. Iowa was the worst hit state sustaining $8 to $10 billion in damages, making the flooding one of the 10 costliest disasters in U.S. history.

Nearly 40,000 people, many with pets in tow, rushed to safety as the Mississippi River and its tributaries washed into neighborhoods. In Oakville only rooftops peaked above the dark water as animal rescuers floated through streets, fishing cats out of trees and off roofs.

Faint cries lead the team inside an abandoned barn where three kittens, sitting on rafters, sought safety from the diesel-filled water below. “With a little maneuvering we were able to pick them off the beams and slide them into waiting crates,” writes Davis. “One of our volunteers cozied a big blue-gray male who glared at him, then melted in his arms.

“It felt great finding those three cats,” she says.

In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, floodwaters covered 9.2 square miles, destroying 5,000 homes and businesses. Residents brought their pets to the nearby Kirkwood Com­munity College, where a makeshift emergency animal shelter was set up to house them.

Anne Duffy, professor of veterinary technology, headed up the task of sheltering the influx of animals. The first six days, she says, were chaotic as drenched owners, distraught over losing everything, arrived practically nonstop with their pets.

“All you could do is promise them, ‘I will take good care of your animal,’” says Duffy, her voice cracking with emotion. “It was really, really rough.”

More than 1,300 animals were ultimately housed at the college’s equestrian center. Not all the animals in Cedar Rapids were as lucky as those at Kirkwood Community College that had been whisked out of harm’s way. Hundreds of requests from owners poured in with pleas to rescue their pets.

“No one ever expected the water to get that high,” says Duffy, explaining why so many pets were left behind. “Houses in the affected areas were older, two-story homes so people took their animals upstairs and left them with food and water. They figured they’d be back in a day or two.”

Trained rescue workers from national animal welfare groups helped pluck animals from the putrid water. Groups of 25 animals were sent back to the college where veterinarians and volunteers vaccinated, microchipped, bathed and photographed each one for identification purposes.

For more than a month, the college’s staff, students and volunteers cared for the storm-shaken pets as owners scrambled to piece their lives back together.

About 80 percent of animals were reunited with their owners, Duffy says.

She recalls one family who had requested a water rescue for their black domestic shorthaired cat named “Sabrina.” The mother, father and two teenage daughters showed up on campus in the afternoon wondering if their cat had been found yet.

She wasn’t there, but Duffy told them another trailer full of rescued pets was due to arrive shortly. The family anxiously waited in the parking lot. A few hours later, the trailer arrived but the ebony cat wasn’t on board.

Determined to find Sabrina, the family waited for the next load of animals to arrive. The truck finally pulled into the college at 10:15 p.m. — six hours after the family first arrived on campus. When the doors swung open —- revealing crates full of wet, frightened animals — the family immediately spotted their cat.

“They were jumping up and down in the parking lot,” says Duffy. “They were so happy to be reunited with their kitty.”

A Makeshift Shelter
Barb Bryant received an urgent late-night phone call from Iowa’s state veterinarian asking if she’d run a temporary shelter for pets displaced by flooding. She agreed. The next morning Bryant, co-founder of the Animal Protection League, reported bright and early for duty at the Lee County Fairgrounds in Donnellson.

Right from the start, she and other volunteers were eager to help. “Since this was the first time any of us had done this type of rescue, we were fortunate to receive assistance from members of Kinship Circle, who helped set up our operation. These volunteers had done this many times. Most had worked at Katrina.”

Two trailers containing leashes, crates and food were delivered to the fairgrounds. For more than two weeks volunteers did their best, spending 12-hour days caring for about 100 cats and dogs.

“We made sure that every animal felt safe and secure,” she says.

They also fielded phone calls from owners about missing pets. Bryant recalls one man who called the fairgrounds searching for his Beagle. One had been brought in, but he wasn’t wearing identification tags.

“‘Go to the kennel and call out, ‘Bud Light,’ ’ the man said. ‘If he bays at you, he’s mine,’” Bryant says.

“So the volunteer put down the phone, went outside to the kennel and yelled, ‘Bud Light.’

“The Beagle immediately answered. He was so happy someone knew his name,” recalls Bryant with a laugh.

Not all reunions were that easy. Some owners had to work hard to find their missing pets. An Oakville woman called the fairgrounds every day inquiring if any of her 20 cats had been brought in. Every few days she drove an hour to the fairgrounds, where she peeked in cages looking for her brood.

Her persistence paid off.

“Lo and behold, we found six of her cats,” Bryant says. “She was real thrilled about that.” In the beginning of July the fairgrounds needed the facility back for the Lee County Fair, so Bryant had to scramble to find a new place for the remaining animals. That’s when her husband of 20 years, Mel Bryant, who’s battling his fifth bout with cancer, suggested bringing them to their 72-acre farm in Keokuk, Iowa.

“If it wasn’t for Mel, I wouldn’t have been able to do animal welfare work for all these years,” says Bryant.

Mel Bryant cleared off part of their pasture so wire kennels could be set up for the dogs, and their barn became the cattery. Several volunteers from Noah’s Wish, an animal disaster response organization, camped out in tents on the property. The group helped Bryant with the daily chores of walking, feeding and watering the animals.

After two weeks the remaining 16 pets not claimed or adopted to new homes were transferred to Kirkwood Community College then shipped to out-of-state shelters for eventual placement.

In the Wee Hours
In Iowa City some people had days to evacuate; others only had 30 minutes before the Iowa River — a windy stretch of water that feeds into the Mississippi — washed over banks into their neighborhoods. A few blocks from the river, the Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center filled with 3 feet of water, destroying the facility.

Luckily, shelter director Misha Goodman didn’t take any chances. A few days earlier she and her staff began working in the wee hours of the morning to move 100 animals to the Johnson County Fairgrounds located about a mile away.

As the floodwaters approached, residents from Mosquito Flats and other neighborhoods brought their pets to the fairgrounds for safety too. The Red Cross also set up a shelter at the fairgrounds for human flood victims. Having the human and animal emergency shelters near each other made the process of dropping off pets much easier, says Goodman. It also allowed people at the shelter the opportunity to visit the animals, even if they weren’t their own.

Providing a safe haven for pets was only one aspect of Goodman’s job. Working in conjunction with firefighters and police, she and her staff waded through flooded areas — in some cases where the electricity was still on —- to rescue pets trapped in their homes. During one rescue, staff headed to an A-frame house where an elderly man’s six cats had been left on the top floor with food and water. Half way there, the team was blocked by raging floodwater filling the street.

“The flow was too much,” Goodman says. “We were seeing massive trees flow by at a rate of 20 miles per hour, if not more, so it was determined that it was unsafe.” A few days later, as conditions improved, rescuers successfully made it to the home and got all the cats out alive. The frail man, in his 90s, was thrilled his cats were OK. Shortly thereafter, he fell ill and was rushed to the hospital.

“A lot of people didn’t think he was going to make it,” says Goodman. “But he did and came down here two months later to reclaim his cats. He loved his cats.”

Saving ‘Jackson’
“Jackson,” an injured Boston Terrier-Beagle mix, was found wandering along the Mississippi River in Hancock County, Ill., after flooding ravaged the area last summer.

The 20-pound dog was brought to a local animal control facility where he lay for a week in excruciating pain without any medication. Luckily, a rescue group spotted Jackson and took him to a veterinary hospital where he was immediately put on a morphine drip and partially sedated. X-rays revealed his pelvis was shattered in six places, and he had two torn cruciate ligaments.

To save his life, surgery estimated at $1,800 was needed right away. The group sent an urgent e-mail request for donations to dozens of shelters in the Midwest. That’s when a volunteer alerted Dana Deutsch about the electronic plea for help.

“We have a reputation for saving those that most other rescues won’t,” says Deutsch, shelter manager at Save-A-Pet Adoption Center in Grayslake, Ill.

She immediately responded, offering not only to pay for Jackson’s surgery but also to provide a foster home for him afterward. Meanwhile, donations quickly poured in. Within a matter of hours the money was raised. The next day Jackson was whisked into surgery, pulling through with flying colors.

After two months of rehabilitation, the sweet-natured dog was driven five hours to Save-A-Pet’s shelter. Deutsch put Jackson into foster care, where he’s now awaiting adoption. Save-A-Pet also paid hundreds of dollars in follow-up medical care.

“We don’t turn away the ones that really need us,” she says.

How to Volunteer

You may be surprised to learn that many animal rescue workers deployed in the wake of natural and man-made disasters are volunteers. These volunteers undergo special training that prepares them to respond to disasters anywhere on a moment’s notice. To learn more about volunteering, please contact the organizations listed below.

American Humane’s Emergency Services Volunteers Englewood, CO (303) 792-9900 www.americanhumane.org

Best Friends Animal Society’s Rapid Response Team Kanab, Utah (435) 644-2001 www.bestfriends.org

Noah’s Wish El Dorado Hills, CA (916) 939-9474 www.noahswish.info

Kinship Circle Animal Disaster Aid Network University City, MO www.kinshipcircle.org/disasters/

Purina Aids Flood Relief Efforts
As last summer’s flooding in the Midwest displaced hundreds of pets and their families, Purina donated more than 50,000 pounds of pet food and $50,000 to support flood relief efforts in Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. Among the donations were several pallets of Purina® Pro Plan® brand Selects® Natural Turkey & Barley Puppy Formula that were donated to the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Animal Shelter.