Animal Storm Squad: Saving Pets From Natural Disasters | Nat Geo Live

Karissa: Almost three years ago, my life changed. A powerful EF-5 tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, which, tragically, killed twenty people. That day, my friend Dave Holder, he's a Meteorologist, and he called me about forty-five minutes after the tornado went in. And he had found a litter of kittens that had been displaced, the mom had, sadly, been killed by some flying debris, I believe. So, he called me, asking for some advice on what to do. So, I'm telling him to, you know, get them really warm; if you can put them against your skin, please do so. You need to get them to a vet immediately. Unfortunately, the next day, three of those kittens passed away. Dave, however, thankfully, adopted one of the kittens. And then Shanda, another friend of mine, she adopted the other kitten. That day the tornado inspired me to go down a new path. I decided that I wanted to help reunite families with their pets and that has been my mission ever since. Within a few weeks of that mega storm, I had registered my not-for-profit organization: Never Stop Saving. Chasing tornadoes introduced me to many great meteorologists, other storm chasers, and just a really great community of people, where we could share stories, kind of be nerds together, and really just share our love and crazy obsession for extreme weather and the beauty of the natural world. Around that same time, a film production company, called BCII had heard about us, and they asked if they could come out and film a short clip of us. So I said: "Sure, why not?" We're already going to be out there. So they came out, and they started filming, and it was actually perfect timing, because they were able to film our team as we bonded. Actually, here is a clip of our team members in action as-- on our first deployment as "Animal Storm Squad."

Narrator: They arrived thirty miles outside of the fire's perimeter. Could be if the animals that are still alive, they may have gone to the safer ground. We did hear yesterday some firefighters and other people, there were some touch-and-go moments where they almost got trapped.

Erik: They have no cell data up there right now. So we need to make sure we know where that fire's at. Winds in a fire drive the fire; it's like the engine. The winds will fan the flames, so as the wind blows higher, your fire's moving faster, making it more and more dangerous. We're here in Wenatchee right now; we know there's a fire break up here, so we want to try to get into the town of Pateros or the town of Brewster.

Narrator: Disasters are by definition unique. Survival and success come down to being prepared.