Lightning strike causes $30G in damage at Huntington animal shelter

A Huntington animal shelter is working on repairs after an intense storm caused $30,000 in damage, including knocking out air conditioning to the building that houses hundreds of cats.

Kennel workers at the Little Shelter Animal Rescue & Adoption Center were preparing to serve dinners and take the dogs  on their last walks of the night, when lightning struck during a powerful thunderstorm last Wednesday.

"All of a sudden, we heard this explosion," said George Phillips, one of the evening kennel workers. "The whole outside just lit up like a giant ball of fire — like this bright white light. It only really lasted seconds and it was gone."

The three kennel workers smelled something burning, but could not locate the cause, Phillips said, comparing the beam of light to a star crashing down into the ground because it was so bright.

The next morning, they discovered a downed tree next to the cattery, which is home to around 300 cats. Its industrial air conditioning unit, priced around $20,000 and installed about five or six years ago, was destroyed, said David Ceely, the shelter's executive director.

One cat that suffered a seizure during the storm was cared for by the shelter's vet, Ceely said. The shelter is also home to dogs, but none of them were affected by the storm.

A  memorial water fountain for Little Shelter’s late vice president, Ruth Weiss, was also hit during the storm, causing it to shatter. Broken fountain pieces flew as far as the other side of the cattery building, in front of the shelter’s medical facility, said Rowan Daray, the shelter's press and marketing coordinator.

The fountain, too, will be replaced, as it served an entertainment purpose for the cats: They'd spend their days looking out of the windows watching birds play in the fountain's water.

For now, free-standing air conditioning units that have been donated to the shelter stand throughout rooms inside the cattery to keep the animals comfortable. Lights are kept off inside the main adoption area, which houses young adult to senior cats, and in the private rooms, which are generally home to smaller cats, those not yet fully vaccinated, nursing mothers and cats with special needs. 

Additional repairs will cost $10,000, including to fix the shelter's controls for fire alarms, phone systems and air conditioning. The 30 phones throughout the shelter's adoption office, administrative office and cattery, have been repaired.

The shelter has a donation campaign set up on its website.

"Insurance wasn’t an option for us in the interest of time," Ceely said. "We felt the fundraiser was the quickest and fastest to go."

More than 450 people so far had contributed nearly $32,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.