Dogs rescued from flooded animal shelter

By Janice Yu

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    ENGLEWOOD, New Jersey (WABC) — Residents in a New Jersey community stepped up to help after an animal shelter completely flooded during Tuesday’s drenching storms.

Cleanup is still underway on Cedar Lane Wednesday, but rescuers were able to save six dogs during the storms while various residents opened up their homes to the animals.

The manager of START II said first responders had to bring shelter volunteers down the street because it was so flooded.

She said the area where the dog kennels are had so much water that the dogs were on top of their beds — but they still weren’t high enough to avoid the water.

Outside though, the water pushed the heavy cat houses all over the yard and left behind a mess.

It appears the water in the back yard rose to at least a couple of feet.

Manager Jodi Lepera said they were all aware that it was going to rain, but didn’t realize things would get that bad.

“Sometimes the street will get flooded but it doesn’t come in here, it’s a strong current I guess that comes through,” Lepera said. “All the cat houses in the back are in one big bunch, the last time that happened was when the hurricanes were here.”

Cleanup efforts are underway at all of the businesses on the street and some cars even had to be towed away.

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