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Exploring how the way we live influences climate change and its impact across the Carolinas. You also can read additional national and international climate news.

Recovery efforts after Helene include keeping lost animal companions safe

Virginia (above) and Bruce Carpenter are operating an emergency animal shelter in Newland, North Carolina.
Zachary Turner
/
WFAE
Virginia (above) and Bruce Carpenter are operating an emergency animal shelter in Newland, North Carolina.

During Helene, the stream that borders the north end of Katherine Oglietti’s home swelled high enough to remove a car-size chunk of asphalt from her street.

“This whole road looked like a raging river with rapids,” Oglietti said.

She took shelter with her two-year-old in a neighbor’s home while her partner looked after the house. Behind Oglietti, chickens clucked contentedly around their enclosure.

“Our chickens are good,” Oglietti said. “The chickens were in the coop. The water actually didn't hit them at all.”

Many of the fruit trees and vegetables she had been growing were washed away by Helene. In a small way, the chickens have relieved some of the stress when food access became scarce after the storm.

“It's kind of heartbreaking to know that you're going to be out of food, and there are people that are going to be out of food, and you have all this food rotting in a refrigerator,” Oglietti said.

Her home still doesn’t have power, so cold storage isn’t an option. She feeds the chickens the produce that risks going rotten, and, in return, the chickens provide her a daily supply of eggs.

When stormwater overloaded the culvert outside Oglietti’s house, it washed out the gravel supporting the road. The rest of the road is out of frame.
Zachary Turner
/
WFAE
When stormwater overloaded the culvert outside Oglietti’s house, it washed out the gravel supporting the road. The rest of the road is out of frame.

Oglietti’s chickens are safe, but the same cannot be said for many animal companions in Avery County. Already, the human toll of Hurricane Helene in the Carolinas has been immense. But alongside lost homes, roads and businesses, the floods stranded many animals as well. Electric fences failed and outside animals became separated from their owners during the storm.

Bruce and Virginia Carpenter are running the emergency animal shelter in Newland, where they say many stranded pets have been spotted near town.

“We know that there are some on a river bank on Elk River,” Virginia Carpenter said. “They’re safe right now, just no one can get to them.”

Virginia Carpenter led one dog on a leash around the pop-up shelter, while Jeb, the Plott hound, barked from his spot by a nearby tree, his leash wrapped around the trunk. He appeared to be in time out.

“He’s in need of being fostered, but, as you can hear, he’s a very loud dog,” Carpenter said.

Community members have donated food, puppy pads, litter and treats. Four animals had been recovered by Tuesday afternoon. They’ve already fostered one beagle and reunited a pitbull with its owner.

Information and support resources for western North Carolina:

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Zachary Turner is a climate reporter and author of the WFAE Climate News newsletter. He freelanced for radio and digital print, reporting on environmental issues in North Carolina.