Animal Shelters want to make sure pets are taken care of during the storm this week.
To ensure that, some are looking for emergency foster homes for the animals over the weekend and others are offering free adoption.
With Hurricane Ian expected to bring heavy storms and winds to the Lowcountry, animal shelters are preparing for the worst.
Dorchester Paws was looking for foster homes to send their animals due to past intense flooding.
“So as soon as we hit 3-inches of rainfall, the dog kennels will start to flood, so this is precautionary. If the storm worsens, all the animals are in good homes. If the storm weakens, at least the dogs get a shelter break and we will accept them back on," said Danielle Zuck, the Director of Development and Interim Director for Dorchester Paws.
When the shelter asked the community to volunteer to foster, staff said the response was almost overwhelming.
"(Wednesday) was purely about let’s get animals into humane care, let’s make sure they’re not on campus sitting in four or five, 10-inches of water. Normally when it rains, we get buckets and dig the water out but luckily, we don’t have to do that on Friday because of the community," continued Zuck.
The Charleston Animal Society also reached out to shelters in Florida and helped out in areas that would be impacted by the hurricane.
“Earlier this morning around 5 or 6 a.m., we received 68 cats from the Naples area in Florida, the major impact area from Hurricane Ian, and these are really the last 20 from the nearly 70 cats that are going out to other organizations throughout South Carolina," said Aldwin Roman, the Vice President of Operations and Strategy for the Charleston Animal Society.
The goal is to get as many animals as soon as possible out of flooding zones.
"Because of the storm and these shelters know they’re going to have an influx of animals after the storm hits with the flooding, so they’re trying to get as many animals out of harms way so that they have space to take in those animals that are going to be affected by the storm," continued Roman.
But shelters hope that this will lead to more than a few forever homes.
“Our hope is to adopt out every animal that we have in our care before the storm gets here," said Roman.
The Charleston Animal Society is offering free adoption to house their animals before the storm hits and both shelters advise that if your pet foes missing during the storm to check in with all local shelters.
The Berkeley Animal Center is also looking for emergency storm fosters for dogs. The dogs need to be picked up from Moncks Corner between 10 a.m. and noon Thursday.
Dorchester Paws urges residents who find stray animals after Hurricane Ian passes through the area to temporarily foster and provide care for them in their homes and post about their discovery on social media.
Dorchester Paws will be closed Friday through Sunday.
Anyone unable to care for a stray animal can call Dorchester County Animal Control for support at 843-563-0015.