Irma sends tree into roof of animal shelter clinic

Tri-County staff rushed sick critters into main building during storm.

BOCA RATON — A massive tree branch crashed onto the roof of a building at a no-kill animal shelter near Boca Raton during Hurricane Irma.

Rain pelted through an opening in the ceiling, flooding the clinic where 51 sick cats and dogs were housed.

“You heard the water rushing in,” said Paul Motz, one of nine staffers who rode out the storm at Tri-County Animal Rescue, on Boca Rio Road between Glades and Palmetto Park roads in suburban Boca Raton.

The staff carried the animals to the main building, about 100 yards from where the other 300 animals are housed, overnight Sept. 10 when the rain and gusts still were pelting Palm Beach County.

“We rushed,” Motz said, “back and forth, back and forth.”

It took about 45 minutes to move the animals.

The pets and staff are safe, the shelter said. But the clinic, called the Sanctuary House, was damaged beyond repair.

“The important thing is everyone is safe,” said Sharon DiPietro, board chairwoman of the 21-year-old Tri-County Animal Rescue. “The staff was tremendous, putting themselves in peril, stepping outside during a hurricane to rescue those animals.”

Irma’s winds downed massive trees at Tri-County, toppled fencing, ruined play areas and blocked paths used to walk the dogs. Much of the debris was cleared following the storm as volunteers rushed to help.

It could take up nine months to replace the shelter’s clinic. It was an old building, DiPietro said, and isn’t worth repairing the extensive roof and water damage.

The sick pets are temporarily being housed at the main building of the 44,000-square-foot campus. But it’s filled beyond capacity with more than 300 animals, DiPietro said.

Before the storm, a surge of abandoned animals ended up at the shelter.

Puppies were left in a cardboard box at a Boca Raton gas station. Kittens were left in a pillowcase near the fence that surrounds the shelter’s land, DiPietro said.

“We don’t leave any furry treasures behind,” she said. “We took them all in.”

The shelter is equipped to handle the 300-plus animals they now care for. But the volume of pets has impaired Tri-County’s ability to rescue more — the purpose of the nonprofit.

“We want to go to the (Florida) Keys,” DiPietro said. The Keys were devastated when Hurricane Irma made landfall. Much of the area is still without power.

Tri-County Animal Rescue staff had planned to head down and bring back stray or unwanted pets and planned to do the same post-Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

“We’re family, all rescue shelters,” DiPietro said. “We have one mission: To rescue. And sometimes we have to rescue each other.”

Tri-County Animal Rescue is accepting donations through its website, tricountyanimalrescue. com, and at the shelter. It also needs donations of pet food and medical supplies.