Storms flood dog rescue, volunteers help move dogs out of the shelter

HERRIMAN, Utah — A Salt Lake County dog rescue was flooded Thursday, forcing volunteers to quickly remove the animals from the rising water.

Outreach Pawsabilities, Inc. director Kim Mikesell said Thursday’s intense storms left the dogs shaken and the shelter damaged. The shelter takes in several senior dogs and those that need medical care.

“We had that prior storm, and I didn’t really have an issue, and so I look at the [security] camera, and I see one of my dogs had gotten out, and their whole paw was covered in water,” Mikesell recalled.

The shelter, which holds around a dozen rescue dogs, flooded with several inches of water within minutes.

“I came down in bogs and my whole boot was covered in water,” she said.

Mikesell runs the rescue with her daughter, Brittany. The team knew they couldn’t get the dogs to a dry, safe place by themselves.

“It was muddy, so it was slippery,” Kim said.

They posted on their Facebook page Thursday night, asking for help.

“By midnight, we had 30 people here, including Lorin (Palmer), the Herriman mayor, and Teddy Hodges, the councilman for Herriman,” Kim said.

They carried the dogs and their crates up and down the hill to put them in a drier space.

“The dogs were horrified. They were roughed up,” she said. “It was scary to them.”

Days later, the dogs are still scattered around the property, and the flooding damages aren’t fixed.

“It would be a little over $20,000 to repair it to stop leaking,” Kim said.

She has greater plans for the space but said the storms set the shelter back.

“Ideally, what we want to do is expand it down,” Kim said.

She wants to increase the size of the shelter so it can house more dogs and give the senior dogs, in particular, more space to run around.

Kim said the storms traumatized some of her animals. She worries about another round.

“If we had another like that, it would be a rough one,” she said.

The animal advocate is touched by how her neighbors responded to help her move her small, beloved herd.

“They came right to our rescue at our rescue,” Kim said.

Outreach Pawsibilities, Inc. information on dog adoption and donations can be found here.