“We got a boat full of beagles,” U.S. Coast Guard crew member Tyler Elliott declared. “This is the best day of my life!”
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a couple trapped in their underwater trailer and about a dozen dogs on their property in Columbus County, North Carolina on Monday as the floodwaters from Hurricane Florence continues to wreak havoc on communities in the area.
Josephine Horne and her husband, Jackie, told KARE News that they originally evacuated to a relative’s home but returned to their trailer because it looked like the wind and rains had died down. She said everything appeared “fine” but then the rains and waters “came out of nowhere all at once”.
The couple were freed from their trailer and taken to safety on a 16-foot Coast Guard punt boat while rescue crews set about saving the beagles frantically swimming in the kennels filled with floodwaters.
The coast guard crew loaded the relieved dogs on a boat and Coast Guard member Mitchell Moretti said, “if we would have gotten here just a few minutes later, I don’t know if these guys would have made it.”
Horne was relieved all the dogs (including their neighbor’s four Pit bulls) made it out alive. “Thank God,” she said. “There are some things you can’t replace.”
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