Animal groups clearing shelters in tornado-affected areas

(NewsNation Now) — Kentuckians are seeking refuge elsewhere after their homes were wiped out by last week’s deadly tornadoes.

Many homes were destroyed in the tornado outbreak – leaving families and their pets without a permanent place to live with a steady stream of dogs and cats ending up at animal shelters.

“Sunday, we started seeing the influx. Majority of them were in areas that were the hardest hit and dogs typically were walking in sidewalk areas and roadway areas. Cats were a little different; they were usually hidden in areas that people were finding them,” Lorri Hare, the executive director of Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society said on NewsNation’s Morning in America Wednesday.

The Kentucky Humane Society in Louisville is coordinating with other animal groups to take pets from shelters in areas affected by last week’s deadly tornadoes.

The Humane Society is taking animals that were in the Mayfield-Graves County Animal Shelter before the storm. The Humane Society said on its website it wants to make room for incoming stray pets at the Mayfield shelter so owners can be reunited with them and the staff can focus on the community’s needs.

The Paris, Kentucky, Animal Welfare Society and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals were helping transport animals to the Humane Society.

The Kentucky Humane Society said it is turning its main facility into a temporary emergency hub for shelter animals from tornado-impacted areas.

The Brandywine Valley SPCA was taking dogs and cats that have been at the Humane Society in Louisville to shelters in Pennsylvania and Delaware for adoption, the website said. And the ASPCA is taking cats to shelters in Massachusetts and dogs to an emergency shelter outside impacted communities.

If you’re interested in adopting a pet from the Bowling Green Warren County Humane Society or would like to make a donation, visit www. bgshelterpets.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report.