Rain came, then ceiling tiles started falling like dominoes at Gulfport’s animal shelter

Roof tiles started falling like dominoes early Tuesday afternoon at the Humane Society of South Mississippi, where about 360 dogs and cats are housed right now.

Before the staff knew it, the building was flooding from heavy rainfall. Staff members are mopping up and a roofer is on the way.

Katie King, the nonprofit shelter’s development manager, said HSSM is going to need help from the community to recover, namely financial donations for roof repairs, shop vacuums to suck up water, towels, sheets and squeegees.

“It was stressful at first but now everyone’s calmed down some,” King said. “The animals are good, so that’s all that matters.”

She said the shelter didn’t even see this kind of flooding from Hurricane Katrina. The animal clinic, dog and cat day rooms and kennel rooms, offices and other areas flooded with water.

She said some of the shelter’s cats had to be moved, but the dogs were all in kennels in the center of their room, so they stayed dry.

“Right now,” King said, “we’re just trying to clean up and save everything that was getting wet. We haven’t assessed all the damage yet.”

This story was originally published July 17, 2018 at 2:24 PM.