Cattle driven to higher ground survive following Laura's storm surge in Chambers County
WINNIE, Texas (KTRK) -- People and their pets aren't the only ones being evacuated before Hurricane Laura makes landfall sometime between midnight and early Thursday morning.
In Chambers County, cattle are on the move. Officials helped White Ranch get their animals to safety Wednesday morning, shutting down High Island Bridge off the Bolivar Peninsula into Winnie to move cattle to higher ground.
"Moving the cows north because of the storm surge. They don't want the cows to drown," said Shannon Meaux with White Ranch. "It's their living."
Meaux said they have lost other cattle in previous storms. She estimated they moved about 1,100 on Wednesday.
It's important to get livestock to safety when there are storm threats, and luckily all of the cattle moved were reported still alive.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, an estimated 10,000 cattle died or were displaced in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina impacted the Gulf Coast.
In Louisiana, the state said cattle and horses were most affected by the storm.
Though livestock in Texas weren't directly impacted by Katrina, animals evacuated from Louisiana and Mississippi were accommodated here.
The AMVA reports that the Texas Animal Health Commission allowed livestock from the states to enter Texas without the usual required health documents as long as owners or shippers alerted the commission before crossing the state line.
Before Hurricane Rita's arrival, more than 10,000 head of livestock, mostly horses, were evacuated, AMVA said in 2005.
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