Odisha, India: APOWA’S flood relief team is helping animals, following cyclone Phaillin

 

 

 

 

The fierce winds of cyclone Phaillin blew away the outside extension roof of APOWA’s animal shelter, though the rest of the shelter is okay.

 

Cyclone Phaillin was the strongest cyclone to hit India in 14 years, and it caused widespread damage. Nearly a million people were evacuated before the storm hit, which saved a great many lives, and the human death toll was low.

 

However, many homes were lost; there are many displaced pets, and farm animals are left without a source of food, since pastures are covered in water and food supplies were drenched by the storm.

 

At APOWA’s shelter, they are coping with an influx of new animals, brought to them when people in the nearby villages, Poipat and Ghigidia, rushed to take cover from the storm in their shelter.  There are now 48 animals, both large and small, being cared for at the shelter.

 

APOWA has sent a team of rescuers to the worst-hit areas nearby in the Kendrapara district.  The team is providing vet care, food and medicine to animals stranded in the floods.

 

The electricity is still out most of the time, and the flood relief team has not yet been able to send back reports or photos.  The images above are of the work that APOWA did in 2011, following another cyclone, in which they provided much-needed food and vet care to thousands of cows whose pastures were covered in floodwaters and rescued many pets who were left homeless.

 

For more information or to help APOWA’s flood relief work with a donation, visit the website of Help Animals India.

 

Photos: Courtesy of APOWA