 | Brian Hobbs is the newly elected mayor of the north central Oklahoma city of Newkirk. we spoke on Saturday about a multi county flood relief effort he's helping to organize, for affected counties. He says the initiative was started by a young woman who used to be his family's babysitter. Thalia Douglas is working with needy farmers & ranchers throughout the flooded counties. Here's the update the field team sent him. He forwarded it to our news service.
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We got the word out via Facebook that we had a team of volunteers to help and the calls started pouring in for help. Thus far, we have had 42 rescue missions across OK, and 2 in AR, all possible through the use of volunteers. We’ve been able to help rescue, house, provide hay donations, and transport for those in need. The OK Dept of Ag has been contacting us for volunteers, as well as a Disaster Relief Team, New Hope. We have been working with them to get help to those in need, as well as monitor some of the problems livestock are facing that have been rescued (going blind, etc). Not many resources were established in this area for help when the floods came, no one was prepared for this. Volunteers have been saving cattle, donkeys, horses, cats, dogs, and even a llama in boats, as well as on their horses. We have had volunteers out with drones looking for livestock in need of help, which ultimately resulted in helping the the City of Claremore restore power. One of our drone volunteers was able to spot where power lines were crossed at the river, which helped the City solve a power problem. We have also sent volunteers to TULSA County for the transport animals in animal cruelty case. We were able to transport 100+ animals to safety in that case.
We are still receiving calls for help today and have teams of volunteers out, some of which are now being used by Emergency Management team in Wagoner County. They are using several airboat volunteers there for some of their missions.
2 days ago we rescued a woman, her 2 horses, and 7 dogs via airboat in Wagoner County and were able to provide her with feed donation and housing options. We borrowed 2 National Guard members on that case from my old guard unit because it was an emergency situation and we needed people quickly. The lady and her animals are now safe. We have also been using volunteers to get food and supplies to those in need with boats.
We have been able to house displaced cattle, and also provide hay to those in need through the use of donations. Volunteers have also been transporting it.
I am in contact with the VP of the Muskogee Cattleman’s Association. We have established a hay drop at the Muskogee Fairgrounds at 1444 S Cherokee St, Muskogee, OK 74403. People arrangements with Rowdy to have it delivered there. We have a large with hay donations can contact me at 918-720-1403. I can make need for hay donation, many people are in need and we have almost run out of what we have had available.
We accept no cash donations, nor do we ask for them. However, some of our volunteers are spending 400-500$ in fuel in boats, trucks, etc and would like to get some of money. They won’t accept a dime from those they are helping.
I have established a fuel and feed donation at
Western Market Trading Post
308 S 209th W Ave.
Sand Springs, OK. 74063.
People can call 918-245-8112 to make feed and fuel donations over the phone. Those in need of Feed can contact me by phone and we can arrange for them to pick it up at the feed store, or have it transported to them.
