The flooding and winds Hurricane Helene brought have devastated the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Americans, many in western North Carolina. Pets aren’t being overlooked.
“This is about helping families whose lives have been turned upside-down,” Jessica Arias says. “Their pets are a comfort – they’re a part of the family.” They want to know that if their pets are missing, someone is doing what they can to help keep them cared for till they’re reunited.
UNC Greensboro alumna Jessica Arias ’23 is director of Burlington Animal Services (BAS), a department of The City of Burlington. She’s a leader statewide, as past chair of the NC Animal Federation and a consultant to other North Carolina animal welfare agencies. On the national level, she serves on the Best Friends Animal Society’s National Network Strategy Council and with the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement.
Many animal shelters in the High Country were left with no power or clean water. And past experience showed those shelters would soon be called on to shelter many pets separated from their families in the coming weeks. Because BAS works as part of the NC State Animal Response Team during disasters, Arias recognized a need to coordinate communication between animal welfare agencies across the state, national animal welfare agencies, and NC emergency operations centers. She quickly created a simple, shareable Google doc for agencies to share information about their individual resource availability related to deployable personnel and equipment to support temporary emergency shelters in western North Carolina (WNC), as well as their available capacity for taking in pets from there.
BAS immediately deployed two staff specialists to the hard-hit Buncombe County area, and they brought a trailer and van load of pet food, crates, water, and emergency supplies to assist displaced families and pets.
On Sunday, Sept. 29, BAS appealed for pet supplies via social media. “By Monday, our main room was overflowing with supplies,” Arias says. Pet food and water were key.
On Monday Sept. 30, BAS – and other animal welfare agencies from the Triad and Triangle – received adoptable pets from the Asheville Humane Society via a BISSELL Pet Foundation’s emergency rescue flight to the Winston-Salem airport. The foundation is a national animal welfare organization.
Their department and another sent a pair of staff on Tuesday, Oct. 1, to further assist the efforts, as they took a second load of supplies. That first pair returned later that week and will head back with more pet supplies the week of Oct. 6 as they deploy to assist with recovery efforts in another WNC county.
BAS – and even more animal welfare agencies – received more dogs and cats from the (Polk County) Foothills Humane Society via the BISSELL Pet Foundation’s emergency rescue flight on Thursday, Oct. 3. “These pets are just as sweet and loving as the first group, and we are thankful that our community has given us the support needed to assist our neighbors to the west,” BAS said in a Facebook post.
These were just two of multiple pet rescue flights during the week. Together, these agencies collectively transferred over 400 adoptable pets that had been housed in impacted WNC shelters before the storm. Several other national groups, including Best Friends Animal Society, the Humane Society of the US, and the ASPCA also evacuated hundreds of additional pre-storm pets from other affected WNC shelters on ground transports, Arias notes. Many of these pets were received by shelters in other states. This effort has helped ensure pets displaced from their families during the storm could be assisted locally until reunited with their families.
The City of Burlington has sent 22 staff members from many departments so far to help with various facets of recovery and rebuilding, says the assistant city manager, Rachel Kelly ’07, MPA ’09, another alumna of UNCG. City governments throughout North Carolina have done the same, through a reciprocal mutual aid agreement known as the NC Mutual Aid System, Kelly notes.
As a UNCG undergraduate, Arias majored in Peace & Conflict Studies and earned minors in sociology and communications studies. Among her influential professors were Dr. Joe Cole and Dr. Jeremy Rinker. “My experiences in the PCS practicum, courses on conflict research, and cultural connections to conflict were influential to my work in leading a community animal welfare agency.” The most memorable course, one that’s turned out to be extremely relevant to her work, she says, is a storytelling course In Communication Studies taught by Professor Kim Cuny.
The story of hurricane recovery is in its early chapters. Among the many critical challenges in the coming weeks will be, in the mountain areas, reuniting many temporarily lost pets with their families and supporting displaced residents and their pets at emergency shelters. Animal welfare agencies like Burlington Animal Services are working hard to do that both from their communities and by sending their staff to help directly in WNC. As for BAS and other shelters that received pets from WNC shelters, they’ll be keeping pets safe and encouraging those who are in a position to do so and want to help to foster or adopt a pet from a local shelter. Opening your home to a pet from your local shelter helps pets across our state and in WNC, as efforts are all interrelated, she explains.
Many entities throughout North Carolina’s Piedmont and beyond are working on this, Arias explains. When BAS arrived at the airport for the most recent transport of pets, a line of agencies was there ready to help. Looking at the big picture of hurricane recovery in its early stage, she has seen federal government and national organizations, state government and statewide groups, local government, community groups, and residents all working to help victims of this disaster and begin the arduous process of rebuilding.
Arias says, “Compassion always shines brighter than the darkness of disaster, and what I have seen this week has been people putting aside differences and coming together in a big way to support others in their time of need. It fills me with hope and inspiration.”
By Mike Harris ’93 MA, UNCG Magazine
Courtesy photo. Jessica Arias, director of Burlington Animal Services, at far right in red shirt; Kim Alboum, director of field operations for BISSELL Pet Foundation, center in red shirt – as dogs and cats arrive to safety at Winston-Salem regional airport.