Tag: South Carolina

Good Samaritans Save Elderly Man and Dog from SC Floodwaters

The so-called “1,000-year storm” — meaning a storm that has a 1-in-1,000 chance of occurring in one year — has devastated South Carolina, causing death and destruction.

Near Columbia, as much as 20 inches of rain fell over the weekend, CNN reports. That’s where 87-year-old George Osterhues of Ottawa, Canada, found himself Sunday during a road trip to Florida with Tila, his Yorkshire Terrier.

Osterhues had to take a detour off the flooded interstate and then became lost. He ended up on a country road that crosses a creek near a flood-prone lake. The creek was overflowing and flooding the road.

“Some people were turning around and I was trying to do the same thing, but I was already a little too far,” he told WSOCTV. For a couple of hours, he and Tila were trapped in their car in the raging floodwater.

Neither of them would likely have survived if Tom and Julie Hall, who live nearby, hadn’t been checking flooded roads for stranded people. Tom spotted Osterhues’ car.

“It was just about submerged,” he told the Charlotte Observer. Steadying himself with tree branches, he waded over to see if it was occupied.

“I saw some movement, and then he raised his hand and waved at me, and that kind of broke my heart because I knew at that point we had to go back and get him,” Tom told WSOCTV. Julie called 911 and ran back to the house to get rescue equipment and their teenage sons, Brice and Graham.

By this time the raging water was chest deep. Tom tried to reach the car using a canoe, but the current was too strong. Using trees and ropes, Tom was able to wade out to the car.

“The water was so strong he could hardly move and I couldn’t move either,” Osterhues told WSOCTV. He still managed to hold on to Tila.

Osterhaus, who was born in Germany, survived a Nazi death camp during World War II. When Tom reached his car, he told him that after all he’d been through, he was ready to die.

But Tom would have none of it. “No way was that man going to die out there,” he told the Charlotte Observer.

Osterhues was very calm, Tom told WSOCTV. “I begged him to leave the dog but he said the dog is going with us.”

Tom gave Osterhues a life jacket and pulled him and Tila out of a car window. Using ropes, it took an hour for the Hall family to tow Osterhues and Tila to higher ground.

Not only did the hero Hall family risk their lives saving Osterhues and Tila, but they offered to let them spend the night at their home. Julie’s physician father examined Osterhues to make sure he was okay (Tila was fine as well). The Halls even arranged for a rental car so Osterhues and Tila could continue their road trip.

“They already did too much for me,” Osterhues told WSOCTV. “They have a big family to take care of, and now me on top of that.”

How to Help Those Affected by the South Carolina Flooding

You can help people and pets displaced by the flooding by donating to the following non-profit organizations:

Photo via Twitter

Physician Faces Cruelty Charges for Leaving 9 Dogs in His Car While He Worked

The heat index rose to 90 degrees outside Charles A. Bickerstaff’s SUV Monday. Inside the vehicle were the South Carolina physician’s nine Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, who’d been left without food, water — or even a window cracked slightly open — while Bickerstaff went to work at a hospital.

When Bickerstaff returned to his car three hours later and found the dogs unresponsive, he took them to Mt. Pleasant Animal Hospital to be examined.

The dogs weren’t just unresponsive — they were dead, and rigor mortis had set in. They showed symptoms of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), a condition that causes clots to form and block the flow of blood to vital organs.

When Bickerstaff — who didn’t tell anyone his name — left the hospital, the staff notified police. It was apparent the dogs “succumbed to their injuries as a result of ill treatment,” according to an affidavit.

“This is a medical doctor. This is not acceptable,” said the woman who called 911, reports WCIV. “He had asked, ‘So, leaving the windows open is not adequate?’ No. Not when they’re in kennels and they have full coats, and you have them two by two in each kennel.”

Police were able to track down Bickerstaff, who admitted he had left his nine dogs, whose ages ranged from 5 months to 9 years, inside his vehicle in the hospital’s parking lot.

In even mildly warm weather, the interior of a car can become like an oven — whether or not the windows are left slightly open.

“The temperature inside of a car during spring and summer, and early fall, in South Carolina will rise so much that, for a dog, seconds can cost them their life,” Dr. Sarah Boyd, of the Charleston Animal Society, told WCIV.

For example, when it’s 75 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car can rise to 100 degrees in only 10 minutes.

Bickerstaff’s attorney, Bill Thrower, told The Post and Courier that the gastroenterologist got sidetracked with an emergency at the hospital, and couldn’t attend to his dogs, who he thought would be safe in the car.

“This was a tragedy that he feels as bad as anybody about,” Thrower said.

Bickerstaff has been charged with nine counts of cruelty, and his bond has been set at $90,000. Each count could result in up to five years in prison, with a minimum sentence of 180 days.

Joe Elmore, CEO of the Charleston Animal Society, told The Post and Courier that if Bickerstaff is found guilty, “we believe the maximum penalty should be applied by the judge in this case.”

Photo credit: Hugh Macdonald

Exit mobile version