i hope they get to them in time and they are still alive. you did the best you could for them. thats all anyone can do. it is heartwarming to know that they are saving animals too. they have been through a truama and have been separated from their families and some of them owners are not coming back. this is a time when having pet id , microchips, tattooes, and pet tags, will play a major role in reuniting them with their owners.

The kennel is no-crate.  The dogs are never in cages.  Five of the dogs were in a large training room that has cinder block walls, no windows, and a metal door.  Assuming the roof didn't come off or that something didn't fall through it, they should've been safe from the stuff flying around in the storm.  However, they wouldn't be able to get out of the room.

Two dogs were up in the front of the building.  Those two dogs are too intense for most dogs, and I thought it dumb to put all of the dogs in the safest storm room, only to have them die in a fight.  The front has windows, but they have protective plexi glass over the bottom half, which isn't as good as cinder block but is better than nothing.  They had access to a windowless room (I left the door open), but the windowless room tends to flood when it rains, so I didn't want to lock the dogs in that room.  The flooding in that room is from a leak in the roof, not from ground-level flooding.  (The training room also floods because of the leak in the roof, but the room is so large that only a small percentage of it actually gets wet.)  If the kennel flooded like the rest of the city, the dogs in the front would have more stuff to climb up on (desk, counter) than the dogs in the back but less protection from flying objects during the storm itself.

I read an article a couple of days ago that people were looting the Winn-Dixie and Sports Authority across the street from the kennel, so if the area was dry enough for looting, it may not have accumulated so much water that the dogs needed to swim.  There was a table in the back that some of the dogs could have gotten on, but it wasn't large enough to hold all of them.  There were also more than enough chairs for each dog to stand on, but of course, they aren't as high up as the table.

They're all really nice dogs, not that I would wish being stranded on the meanest of dogs.  I used every dish and bucket for fresh water, so I hope they're still alive and will be rescued in time.  I keep going over everything in my head, and I can't think of a way to have done things better, but I feel terrible nevertheless.

I will keep everyone updated if I hear back from the rescue people.

 

How sad!! I pray that all the dogs are safe and sound....