Animals in Plum Grove saved from flooding disaster

PLUM GROVE, Texas (KTRK) -- The sounds of goats and donkeys are missing from Ima Survivor Animal Sanctuary in Liberty County.

Usually, there are different types of animals across the sanctuary, but they were evacuated last Monday before the storms.

"There wasn't a day to waste," owner Lester Morrow said.

When couple Lester Morrow and Jami Walker heard heavy rain was on the way, they moved the animals to higher ground at the sanctuary's second property in Livingston. They also alerted their neighbors.

"We took care of all of the Plum Grove animals that people had called about," Walker said. "We did not stop until Thursday night when we could no longer make the trip because of the waters."

As the couple predicted, the sanctuary flooded. The property has been in Morrow's family for more than a century. He explains flooding has become a common issue since Hurricane Harvey.

"Water covered our hill for the first time, destroying everything in its path," Morrow said of the 2017 storm. "We lost a lot of animals there as well. We couldn't evacuate them in time, and we lost a lot of our animals."

From that heartbreak, Ima Survivor Sanctuary was born; it was named after a donkey who survived six feet of flood water.

"A lot of this is just a way to give back to the animals, those that we lost, those that we were able to save," Morrow said. "To make sure that none of them ever have to experience that."

As the cleanup continues, the sanctuary is offering daily video updates of the animals on their Facebook and Youtube pages.