Alexandria community supports flooded volunteer animal rescue

In disasters like the historic flooding in Indiana, sometimes the helpers also become those who need help. In Alexandria, that was a local volunteer animal rescue. IPR’s Thomas Ouellette talked with the operator on Friday, as the flood waters were receding.

View Transcript

Audio Transcript

00;00;00;01 - 00;00;08;17 Thomas Ouellette Heike Ramsey operates Homers Helpers out of her basement in Alexandria. She says during the flooding, her basement held more than a foot of water. 00;00;08;19 - 00;00;17;23 Heike Ramsey There it all was. Yeah, we're we're a fancy rescue. What do you get when you go to a hotel? You get poolside. We had poolside cages yesterday. 00;00;17;25 - 00;00;34;26 Thomas Ouellette All of the kennels were elevated prior to the flooding, and none of the animals were harmed. But the basement was left uninhabitable. With only so much space in her house, Ramsey turned to her community for help. She made a social media post asking for volunteers to foster the animals while the basement is drained. 00;00;34;29 - 00;00;52;05 Heike Ramsey We started yesterday with 37 animals on site that needed to go somewhere. As of this morning, I have only three adults and ten kittens that still need to go to foster, so people really did come when we needed them. 00;00;52;06 - 00;00;59;11 Thomas Ouellette Ramsey hopes to reopen Homer's Helpers sometime in October after the flood damage is fixed. I'm Thomas Ouellette.

Heike Ramsey operates Homers Helpers out of her basement in Alexandria. She says, during the flooding, her basement held more than a foot of water.

“There it all was,” she said.  “Yeah, we’re a fancy rescue. When you go to a hotel, you get pool side. We had pool side cages yesterday.”

All the kennels were elevated prior to the flooding and none of the animals were harmed. But the basement was left uninhabitable. With only so much space in her house, Ramsey turned to her community for help.

She made a social media post asking for volunteers to foster the animals while the basement is drained.

“We started yesterday with 37 animals on site that needed to go somewhere,” Ramsey said. “As of this morning, I have only three adults and 10 kittens that still need to go to foster. So, people really did, you know, come when we needed them.”

She says the first people showed up to help not even an hour after she’d posted. 

“I was still putting on boots to kind of gear up in my living quarters, and you know, someone knocked on the door, and it was someone here saying ‘Hey, I put in an application to foster,'” she said.

Homers Helpers also runs a monthly outreach program that she says is vital to many pet owners in the Alexandria area. It provides free vaccinations and a pet food pantry.  Ensuring that the program continues is one of Ramsey’s chief concerns. She says some of the pet food they had in storage was destroyed in the flood, but the outreach program will continue during the shelter’s brief closure.

“Our pet food pantry is such a needed resource in this area and that’s not gonna stop. We’re determined, we’re a determined lot.”

Ramsey hopes to reopen Homers Helpers sometime in October, after the flood damage is fixed.

Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer.  Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu