SANDUSKY, Ohio — Several inches of standing water over the past two days trapped people in their homes and animals inside the Erie County Humane Society. The area remains flooded.
"Everything's saturated from torrential rains from hail damage and damaging winds that we've suffered, so it's going to take the community a long time to recover from all this," Sandusky Fire Chief Mario D'Amico said.
Back-to-back storms Wednesday and Thursday slammed northern Ohio. The Sandusky Fire Department's max call volumes doubled from Thursday evening and the 11 firefighters on duty were faced with challenges unlike any other day.
"All of our underpasses under the railroad tracks were flooded. We had areas with standing water that I had never seen have standing water in my 25-year career," D'Amico said.
The challenge of getting through flooded areas left many Erie County residents caged in, including 90 animals at the humane society.
D'Amico said the standing water turned the shelter into a makeshift island and the animals needed to be rescued.
"We called for an inflatable boat that we have here. The guys took that out with a pick-up truck and they loaded all the cats and the rest of the animals in the boat and ferried them to dry land where the humane society had a box truck waiting to transport them," D'Amico said.
In total, 74 cats and 16 dogs were rescued.
Melissa Gundlach, the executive director of the Erie County Humane Society, said dozens of community volunteers, fosters and nearby businesses also assisted in the rescue effort.
"It seemed as though neighbors were helping neighbors and everyone was pitching in to get everybody through this traumatic event that took place," D'Amico said.
The humane society is still examining the scope of the damage and workers continue to remove water. Donations are appreciated as recovery efforts continue, the humane society said in a Facebook post.
As for the rest of the county, D'Amico said cleanup efforts are just getting started.
Parts of Erie County got six to eight inches of rain Wednesday night and under half an inch of rain Thursday night.