A Hurricane, a Creek, and 20 Farm Animals

Rocco, Khali, Phoenix, Teke, Gracie, Jack, Jill, Willow, Ellie, Bob, Tucker, Dottie, Georgie, Penny, Blue, Brie, Ana, Elsa, Thor, Hulk, and Luna. Those are the names of the animals we have taken in since starting our large animal rescue non-profit.

A Brief History

In 2021 we bought a ranch on 7 acres, in Dover, FL just outside of Tampa, that had previously been used for horses. In 2022, a friend who knew we bought land called and asked if we could take in a horse from her stable because the owner could no longer afford the cost. That was Rocco. He was an older horse that lived out his last years here, with us. That is how it all started. Word got out and we found ourselves with another horse. And another. Then tragically our neighbor died of cancer, and they asked us to take theirs as well.

Fast-forward a few years, and we are now a registered 501(c)3 non-profit with 20 animals: horses, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, and a few farm cats. All of which were rescued or surrendered.

A Hurricane and a Creek

Hurricane Milton devastated the West Coast of Florida and unfortunately, we felt that impact too. It was the scariest night we have ever had.?

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Our property backs up to Baker Creek, which normally has a very low water level with a steady but innocent current. You can't even see the water from certain parts of the bank it is so low. That would soon change.

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The creek overtook the banks and made its way into our yard. At 2 am the creek water was up to our front steps and you could see the water flowing from one side of the property to the other. Snakes and fish swimming across the property. Our property was now part of the creek.?

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We kept hearing a loud metal banging sound. Bang. Bang. Bang. We thought it was our metal roof. Then we saw the roof to the nursery float across our front yard. George and Penny, our baby pigs, were now in a roofless shelter. With a raincoat and boots (that turned out to be too short for the water level) we went out into the storm to make sure they were not stuck in the nursery and they could find cover out of the rain in the other shelter. They made it out. We found them cuddled together on some hay surrounded by the bigger animals under the other lean-to.?

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As the storm continued we could also see something was wrong with the chicken coop. There was brown metal on the side of the coop which is the color of the roof yet the sides are wood. At the time we thought one of the drip edges had been ripped off. We were wrong. One of the walls of the coop had been ripped off and it had been flipped over. They were soaking wet but we found the chickens to be just fine, sitting in their nesting boxes.

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With a tow strap and the help of the kids we were able to flip the coop back over (which is no small feat, it is probably 18' long and 7' high) and we reattached the side panels so the chickens are safe from the foxes. Only one thumb was cut during this project.?

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At first light the morning after, the water had subsided back towards the creek side of the property. It was wet but the house was no longer in danger. However, as the day progressed we noticed more and more water coming into the yard. The water was coming back.

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For the next 12 hours, we watched the creek slowly taking back our yard as it eroded more and more of the creek bank. The water was getting higher and higher. How do you stop a creek? How can a normal family with normal farm equipment stop a creek?

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You can't. We tried.?

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We brought some 20' telephone poles over to the bank to try to dam up the low area but the ground was too soggy and the water was too deep. We could only bring over two before it got too dangerous.?

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The neighbor called us and asked us what to do. They noticed the rising levels too.

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Pray?

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A few weeks back after Hurricane Helene we had a lot of standing water in the pastures. There is a failed drainage feature that the previous owner installed that is good for collecting water but not actually discharging any of it. To deal with it we bought a sump pump with a 2" outlet. It made pretty quick work of that standing water. The pastures are on the other side of the property from where the water is flowing in from the creek so we thought maybe we could pump the creek water out of the yard and discharge it upstream where we had more of an outfall.?

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180,000 gallons.

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That is how much water we estimate that pump moved on that day. It does about 9,000 gallons per hour and it was on most of the day. 180,000.?

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We went to sleep with the water level still rising and the pump on - hoping that we could at least move enough water to avoid the structures from further flooding.?

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It worked.?

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By the next morning, the creek level had subsided below the top of the banks and the buildings were dry (or at least only as wet as they were previously). The standing water that had flooded the buildings had receded.?

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The creek is still high and it is still eroding away the banks because of how fast it is moving but it isn't flooding the property.?

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We still don't have power and no running water. I am writing this email from my laptop with internet that is being powered by the generator. The same generator that powered that pump. We have a lot of work to do. A lot of it we can do. We can clean up the yard. We can cut the fallen trees.?

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But we can't fix the creek banks by ourselves.

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We are great helpers. We are not great askers.

But here is the ask, if anyone in my extended network, maybe from my Engineer/ Hydrologist days could help or point us in the right direction that would be much appreciated.

If you would to check out some of the pictures and videos, you can do so here .

If you would like to support our nonprofit's rebuild campaign you can do so here .

Thank you so much.