Nebraska Humane Society still feeling impacts of summer building flood

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – It’s been four months since the fire suppression system at the Nebraska Humane Society sprung a leak and burst, flooding part of the building.

“It’s completely gutted, you can see the lights up there, they’re still up there, this would be the operating room,” said Pam Wiese while pointing out the now barren operating room at the Nebraska Humane Society.

Wiese, the vice president of public relations and marketing at NHS, said it didn’t seem so bad at first, but they later realized how much damage there was.

“It came up through the floor, it came through some of the joints between the cinderblocks and literally just flooded our animal medical area,” Wiese said.

Despite the setback, NHS staff didn’t miss a beat.

“We can be very reactive when we need to be because we may get in a group of 20 dogs that are in need, or a cat house that comes in and we’ve got 35-40 cats in need of care right away,” Wiese said. “We’re good at reacting, so reacting to this was like ‘Okay what do we need to do, how do we need to do it.’”

They moved their medical operations to their vacant spay and neuter center just across the parking lot.

But it’s been four months and vet staff are still there, and damages are still impacting operations.

“We had to remove a lot of drywall, it also undermined the floor in the medical area and so that needs to be shored back up again and be repoured before we can put medical back in there for safety’s sake and stability’s sake,” Wiese said.

The good news is that staff are still able to do a majority of surgeries, including spaying and neutering.

However, they’re waiting on insurance to be able to replace their dental table and X-ray machine, both of which were damaged in the flood.

For those procedures, they’re thankful for their community veterinary partners.

“It’s literally a lack of being able to do it because of the flooding, so being able to say ‘hey can you help us out?’ and those vets say, ‘yeah sure we’ll do what you need done,’ is really a godsend to us and we so appreciate community vets for that reason,” Wiese said. “Best Care Veterinary Hospital and Gentle Doctor Animal Hospital have really stepped up to the plate to help when we really needed it.

However, they hope insurance will get sorted out soon, so everyone can be back under one roof.

“It is totally working and our vets are able to do what we need to do, with our community partners, but you know, you’re not in your space,” Wiese said.

“We have to schlep animals across the parking lot, whereas here, when in the same building,” Wiese said. “So when it becomes winter and it’s cold out that’s probably going to be a bit more challenging for our staff, so if we can get it all back in our one building, that would be great.”

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