Chapter Fourteen
NEWS ARTICLES
Friday, September 10, 2004
Hurricanes bring out bewildered beasts
SCOTT WYLAND
The Daytona Beach News-Journal staff writer
If you should encounter an alligator or snake in your yard in the next couple of days, resist the natural impulse to freak out.
Instead, look upon the uninvited guest as another hapless soul displaced by Hurricane Frances, and leave it alone.
“Most wildlife will not stay in the area,” said Joy Hill, spokeswoman for the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “Just like the people trying to get back to their homes, so are the wildlife.”
Residents normally could call a trapper or local animal control, but post-hurricane conditions — flooded roads, spotty cell phone service — have made the agents less available, Hill said.
Extra caution should be taken when cleaning up debris, because a stray animal might be nestled underneath it, said Annie Lovelady, a Flagler County animal control agent.
Don’t ever try to capture or kill a wild animal, said Lovelady, who agrees that, if left alone, most creatures will move on.
“People panic,” Lovelady said.
Slow-moving Frances produced squalls that flooded low areas, carrying water-borne creatures to places they normally wouldn’t go, Lovelady said. Cresting waters also drive snakes toward higher spots, including porches.
She expects wildlife sightings to increase in the next couple of days when the floodwaters recede from streets and parking lots, she said. Alligators and turtles, which followed the water, are suddenly out of their element.
“We get overwhelmed with wildlife,” Lovelady said.”