The Barren River Animal Welfare Association announced Monday it would be closed until further notice due to severe flooding.
The Glasgow-based animal shelter is dealing with standing water on their property following overnight thunderstorms that disrupted power to thousands of residents in parts of Kentucky. Kaylyn Fields, a staff member at the BRAWA, said all animals at the shelter are safe and secure.
“They’re doing good,” Fields said. “You know it upset them and everything. We’re just trying to get them all cleaned up so nothing happens, because the water is not very clean so we're just trying to make everything suitable for them again.”
The shelter is asking for community volunteers or donations, including bleach, mops, trashbags, and disinfectant wipes. Cleaning volunteers are welcome and any donations or supply drop-offs can be made at the shelter.
In a social media post, the city of Glasgow said the animal shelter would be closed until further notice. According to Fields, water began pooling from the thunderstorm in the early morning.
“We do have flood gates, they didn't help,” Fields said, adding that a co-worker "came in around 1:30 this morning just to check on everybody and the water was probably about waist-high.” Fields said that staff are now working to clear standing water in the facility, and would be reevaluating opening in the coming days.
The storm system that caused the flooding at BRAWA also knocked out power for thousands of southern Kentucky residents, as well as some utility customers further east.
At one point early Monday morning, virtually all customers of the Glasgow Electric Plant Board were without power, with the EPB saying the “feed from TVA has been compromised by the storm.”
Warren RECC also had tens of thousands of customers in multiple counties without power as a result of the storms. As of 3 p.m. central on Monday, the website poweroutage.us reported just more than 13,000 Warren RECC customers still without power.
Video footage posted on Twitter by WBKO showed downed trees on cars and homes in Smiths Grove in Warren County.
WBKO's Derek Parham is in Smiths Grove covering damage from Sunday night's storms. More to come in tonight's shows. pic.twitter.com/6lS7PXyp75
— WBKO First Alert Weather (@WBKOWeather) June 26, 2023
Nearly 7,400 customers were still without power in the Louisville/Jefferson County areaMonday afternoon.
