Pet airlift
The Heat, Warriors and FedEx teamed up to ship about 150 animals to Oakland, Calif.
Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem felt he had no other choice.
He was born and raised in South Florida. When the threat of Hurricane Irma first surfaced, he knew he would not be among those who chose to evacuate. He rode out the storm that wreaked havoc throughout South Florida last week.
“I understand,” Haslem said. “I grew up in this. It’s not that I don’t respect the power of Mother Nature because I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mother Nature. But I built a bunker, I paid a lot of money for it; I’m going down with my ship.”
Haslem and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra were among those presnt as the Heat teamed up with the Golden State Warriors and FedEx Friday for a Pet Rescue Airlift Post. They combined to help ship about 150 cats and dogs by plane from Miami shelters to Oakland, Calif. Direct Relief, which provided more than $11 million worth of relief for Irma victims, was also a participant.
Haslem was the lone Heat player to endure the storm. At the urging of Spoelstra, most of the team was encouraged to evacuate because many had never experienced a hurricane.
“With a lot of our players, they haven’t gone through a hurricane before,” Spoelstra said. “It doesn’t make you more courageous to stay. I think we all learned a lesson from Houston. If you can get out early and secure your house and secure your properties that discretion is the better part of valor oftentimes.
“I think we were all very fortunate with this storm but I think the numbers were roughly 7 million [people] that evacuated. That was the smart thing to do. Once everybody is able to come back safely now we all have to lace up our boots and get to work and build back this community.”
Haslem initially thought he would have a bunker mate when guard Rodney McGruder said he planned to stay. That changed when McGruder jumped on a last-minute plane home.
“Rodney ended up leaving,” Haslem said. “Rodney chickened out. At the last minute he got a flight out. He got a flight out Saturday morning. I was the only one who bunkered it.”
No Heat players had serious damage to their homes. Haslem, who lives in Southwest Ranches, said he dealt with the same minor issues most South Floridians have faced. He checked into a hotel once his home lost power.
“My yard took a beating,” Haslem said. “My house, my foundation was great, which I expected. My yard took a beating. Trees knocked down my fence. I sent [Spoelstra] a lot of videos. I was cleaning up my trees on my own. It’s been a long time since I did that kind of work. I just saw everybody in my neighborhood cleaning out trees. I said let me get out there and clean out my trees. Why not? Besides that, I’m blessed my foundation was well. My family, my mom, my grandmother. Everyone is fine.”
Spoelstra and his wife, Nikki, chose to evacuate to the West Coast. They returned two days ago and immediately jumped into action to help with relief efforts. On Thursday, Heat owner Mickey Arison facilitated a $10 million donation to help victims, through his foundation, the Heat’s foundation and Carnival Cruise Lines.
“We made a pledge to really get things going right away,” Spoelstra said. “We obviously need to come together. We’ve been through quite a bit the last week, all the way down to the Keys, all the way up to Boca … there’s a lot of devastation.”