Dog Saved From 20-Foot Tree After Being Swept Away In Helene Flooding

A small dog that authorities said was washed 20 feet into a tree by the powerful floodwaters of Hurricane Helene last week is back on solid ground thanks to some local firefighters and a K-9 unit in east Tennessee.

The gray and white dog was plucked from a nest of debris near the Nolichucky River in Washington County on Wednesday after a K-9 search team alerted rescuers on the ground to her whereabouts, the Kingsport Fire Department said in a statement.

Firefighters with the department were able to climb the tree with a ladder and retrieve the dog before giving her food and water.

“A lot of people were displaced, and the waters came up pretty fast. So them finding that dog yesterday was a bright spot in the middle of this chaos,” Barry Brickey, a public information officer with the Kingsport Fire Department, told HuffPost.

The dog was taken to a local animal control facility and reunited with her family on Thursday morning, Makayla Cloyd, who identified herself as a cousin of the dog’s owner, told HuffPost.

“She was in the tree for about 5 days. No known injuries,” Cloyd said of the dog in an online message.

In online posts, Cloyd helped raise awareness about her cousin’s two dogs and cat after his family’s home was swept away Friday by the floodwaters, not long after he was able to evacuate his wife and children. As of Thursday afternoon, the other dog and the cat remained missing, she said.

“By the time they got back the water had already rose to the front door and water was surrounding them,” she said in an online message to HuffPost. With the water rapidly rising, Cloyd’s cousin ended up taking refuge on a neighbor’s roof with his grandfather, she said.

“His papaw and him sat on the roof for 3 hours waiting on the rescue team to save them as he watched the river take his home with his pets inside,” she added. “By the time [a] rescue team got there the water was to the roof on the garage and it was cracking. Minutes after they got on the rescue boat the garage collapsed. We still haven’t found his home anywhere so his family is now homeless.”

Cloyd said she had created the online posts and a GoFundMe account for the family since “they don’t have any service or anything where they are.”

A growing number of displaced pets have been found since the catastrophic storm washed through the region last week.

As of Wednesday night, the Washington County animal shelter, which initially took in the small gray dog, said it has sheltered 77 animals from the storm within the last six days, bringing the total number of animals at the shelter up to 500.

“The past week has been unbelievably hard, heartbreaking and devastating for everyone in East Tennessee. The amount of loss people are coping with is unbearable,” the shelter said in a statement. “Our Animal Control Officers are working around the clock to help animals in need … Our amazing volunteers have done anything we need. We could never care for these innocent pets without everyone doing their part.”