KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Animal Search and Rescue , a local Kansas City-based organization, has been on the ground in western North Carolina for about a week now.
It’s a national disaster response team that specializes in technical animal rescue. The team has an agreement with the State of North Carolina that during disasters, the state can call the group to help evacuate animals and their owners.
“I’ve met many people on the mountain this week that we were the first people that they made it out to,” Eric Thompson, the Executive Director of Animal Search and Rescue said.
“Every community and every mountain town that we’ve been to, that we’ve rolled into, there are needs; both large animal and small animal.”
Thompson has been involved in this line of work for 24 years. He says every disaster is different, including this one.
“… but the impact up in the mountains and the amount of rain that has taken out the infrastructure. The recovery is not months here, the recovery is years,” he explained.