Fire Chief Carter Johnson said Monday his team responded to about 50 calls over the past few days including calls to rescue livestock animals.
That included a large group of animals called in by Head, who said in a Monday afternoon Instagram video that he was still unable to get back to his flooded property.
“A local resident — Sundance Head — called it in and said that there were a bunch of animals over by his house that were either trapped or were going to be trapped by flood waters and asked if we could go look,” Johnson said. “So, we were able to free up a unit because calls had slowed down in that part of the area.”
Eleven crews made it to the neighborhood, Johnson says they found two horses on one property. According to first responders, the horses were left in a penned area where the water continued to rise preventing them from escaping.
While rescuing the horses, fire fighters found more animals at a nearby property. In total, they rescued 11 goats, three sheep, two horses, five dogs, six puppies, one lemur and a bird.
“That’s the first time we’ve rescued non-domesticated animals,” Johnson said. “We’ve gotten horses out of floods before, but never smaller animals and it’s just part of the job. We’re glad we’re able to have a little bit of down time to go help. People’s pets are just as important as anything else.”
In addition to the animal rescues, the Porter Fire Department received multiple calls for high water rescues of humans.
“The majority of our calls were because people went around barriers and drove through flood waters,” Johnson said. “I would say that it was the majority of our calls, people who drove off into flood waters and then became victims.”
Head, who was also a semifinalist on “American Idol” in 2007 and is the son of soul singer Roy Head, was unreachable by phone on Monday, but said in his video that he is working with Montgomery County officials to organize a benefit for fellow residents who lost everything in the last week’s floods.
