While animals in the wild are made to withstand powerful weather, all bets are off when it comes to a strong hurricane. You’d think that water-bound creatures would be safe and could lay low beneath the waves but this isn’t the case.
Flordia’s manatees were also in need of rescue from Hurricane Irma.
Two manatees were found stranded on land just north of Sarasota by some local residents. The manatees became beached in a bay that had dried up because of the hurricane.
They were entrenched in the mud about 100 yards from the deep water in Manatee County, Huffington Post reports.
“Went out to the bay and saw two objects out where the water receded so we took off our shoes and walked out through the shells to find two beached manatees,” Steven Reisinger wrote in a Facebook post. “One wasn’t moving, the other was breathing and had water in its eyes.”
The animals were so massive that there was no way that Reisinger and his buddy could move them.
“Believe me, we tried to move them,” he said. “But between weighing over 500 lbs. and being stranded in almost mud-like sand, we couldn’t make it happen.”
So, they called in for some help.
“My friends and I couldn’t move these massive animals ourselves, and we called every service we could think of, but no one answered. We gave them as much water as we could, hoping the rain and storm surge [would] come soon enough to save them.”
Finally, some law enforcement officials arrived at the scene. They and some citizens collectively were able to move the manatees.
Marcelo Clavijo was one of those citizens. He said he felt stir crazy and decided to go for a walk when he came across the scene.
“With a handful of people and 2 of Manatee’s finest that were knee-deep in mud right next to us… we rolled them on the tarp and then dragged them 100 yards,” Clavijo said according to FOX 13.
FOX 13 reports that the east winds from Hurricane Irma blew the bay water out of the bays and along the west coast of Florida but the bay’s water level should return when the storm passes by.
“We had to do something about it,” said Tony Faradini-Campos. “We couldn’t just let those manatees die out there. We shared the pictures on social media and it just blew up.”
Clavijo’s post alone was shared more than 80,000 times on Facebook and received more than 117,000 likes.
It’s nice to know there are people out there looking after each other and the local wildlife during these crazy storms.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
