Roads closed
Flooding cut the rescue off from the volunteers who would normally come running.
The day everything changed
When the roads disappeared, the mission didn’t.
Floodwater isolated Buck Wild Rescue. Volunteers could not get through. Katie was there alone—and the animals still needed her.
The water kept rising
There was no one else who could reach them.
With roads closed and volunteers unable to reach the rescue, Katie moved animals to higher ground by herself. There was no audience and no promise that help would arrive soon. There was only rising water, vulnerable wildlife, and the next decision that had to be made.
She did what Buck Wild Rescue has always done: she kept going.
No cameras. No help on the way yet. Just one person, rising water, and animals who had nowhere else to go.
What the flood revealed
Character under pressure.
Animals moved
Katie worked alone to move vulnerable animals toward safer, higher ground.
Care continued
Feeding, monitoring, and protecting wildlife could not pause simply because disaster had arrived.
The team returned
When roads reopened, volunteers helped clean, repair, rebuild, and restore the facility.
After the water
They rebuilt because the animals still needed them.
Flood recovery meant damaged habitat, lost supplies, repairs, cleanup, and the continuing cost of daily care. The facility had already been built carefully on limited resources; rebuilding demanded even more from every donated dollar and every volunteer hour.
The flood did not create the character of Buck Wild Rescue. It revealed the character that was already there. Now it's asking something of the rest of us, too.
Help Us Rebuild →She did not stay because it was safe. She stayed because they could not leave.
A quiet truth about the flood—and about Buck Wild Rescue.
From the Ground, As It Happened
Photos and video from the flood
