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As Helene raged, animal services chief made sure families kept their pets

Henderson County Animal Services Director Brad Rayfield holds a boxer mix and her puppy in December at the animal shelter on Stoney Mountain Road. [AMY MCCRAW/Hendersonville Lightning]

By Amy McCraw, Associate Editor, Published: January 6, 2025

The long days and sleepless nights Brad Rayfield spent caring for animals in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene taught him something about humanity.

“It was humbling to see how everybody came together, just to know how much everybody needs each other at a time like that,” Rayfield said as he wiped tears from his eyes. “We’re all quick to get down on humanity. But at a time like that you see the good.”

As Henderson County’s Animal Services director, Rayfield is responsible for the care of stray animals housed at the county’s animal shelter on Stoney Mountain Road. When Helene forced the evacuation of residents in hard hit areas of the county, Rayfield also shouldered the responsibility for the around-the-clock care of pets who arrived with their owners at an emergency shelter set up at the county’s Activity Center on South Grove Street.

  From his office at the animal shelter one day shortly before Christmas, Rayfield considered the time he spent keeping animals safe during the storm. The work was exhausting, rewarding and even comical at times.

  “Overall, it was an experience I wouldn’t want to trade,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I want to do it again. It was rewarding to help people keep a little sense of normalcy, to keep their animals.”

  Rayfield’s mission to keep pets safe during the storm  — mostly dogs and cats — began early in the week before Helene hit.

  He began preparing for any animals that might arrive with their owners at the emergency shelter on the Monday before the county saw catastrophic flooding Sept. 27 from both a weather system that brought rain earlier in the week and the hurricane that slammed the mountains.

  “We always prepare for the worst,” he said. “We’ve got an equipment trailer with cages, everything you need to provide basic care for dogs and cats.”

  While the trailer with 75 to 100 crates stays stocked with basic care items, it does not keep on hand any supplies with a shelf-life, such as food and vaccines.

  Rayfield rounded up the perishable supplies the trailer needed before moving it to the Activity Center on Tuesday that week.

 The county’s Emergency Management office determined before evacuations began that the storm shelter would be located at the center on Grove Street. The possibility of bites and animal-related allergies meant pets were not allowed inside with their owners. But knowing that many people regard their dogs and cats as part of the family, emergency managers planned before the storm to also stage the animal shelter’s trailer on the activity center property.

  “A lot of people will put themselves in harm’s way if they think they have to leave their animals behind,” Rayfield said.

  Having their pets housed near them eased the minds of people the storm forced from their homes. It also proved helpful to Rayfield because the pet owners could leave the shelter during the day to visit and help care for their animals.

  Rayfield spent his first night with the animals at the Activity Center on Wednesday that week when two or three pets arrived with their owners during flooding from the first storm that soaked the county before the hurricane hit. Rayfield, who lives in McDowell County, remained at the shelter with the animals every day and night for the next week.

  “I couldn’t get home,” he said. “I live where it wasn’t possible for me to get home the first five days.”

  The driveway into his home was made impassable by storm debris and his wife and children also could not get out for several days.

  That first night at the shelter Rayfield slept on a cot near the animal cages to make sure he was available if any pets arrived through the night.

  A 16-year-old Maltese named Sugar that came to the shelter with her owner made sleep impossible.

  “I tried, but Sugar just wouldn’t hush,” Rayfield said with a chuckle. “I joked that I about choked Sugar that night.”

   By Friday night, Rayfield had moved from sleeping on a cot near the cages to a van parked nearby in the hopes that the van would offer him a little peace and quiet.

  It did not.

  People seeking shelter, including some who were airlifted from Bat Cave, arrived throughout the night. On the Friday night of the storm, the shelter took in eight animals from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.

  The commotion each night tended to “rile up” the dogs.

  Out of desperation one noisy night, Rayfield tried to drown out the sound of barking dogs by stuffing tissue in his ears.

  The homemade ear plug did not help him sleep any better and when he tried to remove it the next morning, Rayfield discovered he had stuffed the tissue down so deep in one ear that it was stuck. A county health department nurse tending to people in the shelter eventually used a “pair of pliers thing” to clear his ear.

Other animal shelter employees were unable reach the property immediately after Helene hit. So Rayfield divided his time on the Saturday after the storm between the emergency shelter on South Grove and the pound on Stoney Mountain Road.

  “Luckily, when the storm hit, the shelter was not full,” he said. “I came here and fed and everything. It was an abbreviated operation that day. I had to get back to where people were trickling in.”

  By Sunday, some animal shelter staff members were able to make it to work and began caring for animals there. One former employee also returned to the shelter and helped out for a time.

  “They all maintained great composure and were back at work as soon as they could get here.  Many worked extra hours and helped organize staffing assistance we were receiving from other agencies around North Carolina,” he said. 

   Two county social service employees also came to the shelter and helped with cleaning and caring for the animals — an example of the broad emergency response that repurposed county employees to do whatever was needed.

  Rayfield managed to spend a night at home on Thursday, Oct. 3, after he took animals from the animal shelter in Henderson County to the airport in Rutherford County for the first of four flights to animal rescue locations in other parts of the country.

  “I was pretty close to home,” he said. “That was the first time I had seen family — was that Oct. 3.”

  Two flights carrying animals from Henderson County’s shelter and other area shelters eventually left from the Rutherford airport and two flights of animals flew out of Asheville, Rayfield said. Some animals from the WNC were relocated as far away as upstate New York. In all, 122 cats and 76 dogs from Henderson County’s shelter were flown out of the county.

  Rayfield said he made arrangements with the Bissell Pet Foundation and the volunteer group Pilots to the Rescue to fly the animals away from the devastation in the county. He wanted to make room at the county shelter in case space was need for an influx of animals, either from them being displaced during the storm or from pet owners who were forced to relocate and could not take their pets with them.

  “We never had a storm this bad. We weren’t sure what we would get,” he said. “I didn’t know. In the aftermath, with so many displaced, I didn’t know what to expect.”

  In the first week, 10 animals lost during the storm found their way to the animal shelter but all were eventually reunited with their owners.

  Officials at the Red Cross and FEMA also managed to keep many families with their pets by finding temporary housing that allowed animals, Rayfield said.

  Rayfield’s workload eased somewhat and a sense of normalcy began to return by the second week in October when manpower from around the state began arriving in Henderson County to assist with the emergency response.

  By the time he wrapped up operations at the Activity Center the weekend of Oct. 19, the trailer had served 50 dogs, 10 to 15 cats and one reptile.

  One couple who arrived at the shelter with their 17-year-old dog made the difficult decision to have their pet euthanized because the dog had declined so much during the evacuation. But once things returned to normal after the storm, the man and his wife adopted a dog from the animal shelter.

  When he considers those chaotic days he spent caring for animals after Helene devastated Western North Carolina, it’s little wonder Rayfield needs to occasionally wipe away a few tears.

   The strength and gratitude of people who arrived at the emergency shelter with just their pets and not much else left in the world touched him.

  “The people there were so thankful and grateful. I built a rapport with all of them. They were just thankful we provided that for their animals,” he said.

  The hard work of animal shelter employees who worked long hours tending to the animals and county employees who took on emergency duties they had never trained inspired him.

“Just seeing how the county employees that don’t serve in emergency management really stepped up. It was ‘all hands on deck,’” he said. “They were just like ‘What can I do?’ They really stood up and helped.”