Noah's Ark except it's a school bus: a truck driver saves 64 dogs and cats from the floods of Hurricane Florence

Nothing like a meal at the Waffle House after driving over 60 animals from the South Carolina coast to southern Alabama in a school bus. Tony Alsup can attest to that.

Alsup, a 51-year-old trucker from Greenback, Tennessee, was stationed Sunday night at a Waffle House near Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was on the road since Monday, when he jumped on his bus and headed to the coast, committed save as many animals as possible before Hurricane Florence.

In the bus, the seats were torn off to make way for passengers. On the bus side there are the words "EMERGENCY ANIMAL RESCUE SHELTER". But he could have said "Noah's ark".

During the past week, Alsup and his bus rescued 53 dogs and 11 shelter cats from South Carolina who were on the dangerous trail in Florence, as reported by the Greenville News.

And in the morning, Alsup expects to look for more.

"I love, look, these are lives too," Alsup told the Washington Post at the Waffle House stop. "Animals, especially pets, must always take the back seat of the bus. But I will give them their own bus. If I have to, I'll pay all the fuel, or even a boat, to get those dogs out. "

Inside the animal rescue bus of Tony Alsup. (Tony Alsup)

Alsup, who wants to open his own animal shelter one day, saves pets from flooding with his school bus since Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Texas coast last year. When Alsup learned from the press that many animal shelters had been overpopulated with lost or rescued animals, he thought he could help. He wanted to help transport the animals to vacant shelters – but he knew he could not put them in a trailer.

"I thought what can I do? "I'm just going to buy a bus."

He has since helped with hurricanes Irma and Maria (no buses for the latter, he fed horses) and now in Florence.

Last Monday, when Alsup started his last rescues, the kennels of his vehicle were stacked from floor to ceiling. Pet food, water bowls, leashes and toys were scattered in the driveway. But while he was rolling on his way, Alsup was still telling his Facebook subscribers that he had room for more, asking them to tell him where the animals needed help. "NO LEFT," he wrote in a Facebook post, before signing with his standard line, "Love y'all, mean it".

In less than 48 hours, he stopped at the Humane Society in North Myrtle Beach (SC), Dillon County Animal Shelter (SC), Orangeburg, South Carolina, and Saint Frances Animal Center in Georgetown, Carolina. from South). Sunday social media. In a Facebook post on Sunday night, the Saint Frances Animal Center said that Alsup was saving all the remaining pets – dogs and cats that the shelter did not seem to be able to pass on to anyone.

"That is true. Tony made his entrance Wednesday morning at 4 am to retrieve our "leftovers" – dogs with thick heads, those with heartworm, "wrote the center on Facebook. "Those that no one else will ever take. And he put them safe. Not the most conventional evacuation, but surely the one with the most heart.

Tony Alsup takes a selfie with rescued dogs and cats. (Tony Alsup)

Once in their bus, Alsup went to Foley, Alabama, where her friend, Angela Eib-Maddux, opened her dog shelter to the newcomers for the night. She gave them baths and fluffy blankets and "spa treatments," Alsup said, until they could find enough shelters or homes for the animals.

They managed to do it in one day. "We just burned the waves," Alsup said.

Some people came to adopt some of the dogs and cats on the spot, while Alsup coordinated with other animal shelters or volunteers to meet him in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he would distribute about 40 other. From there, Alsup said that the remaining dogs and cats have gone to vacant shelters across the country.

And then, after a little rest, he came back Sunday on the road and drove until he arrived at Waffle House.

Monday, he will travel to Wilmington, N.C. – it can happen there. He said he heard that the roads were closed, that everything was flooded and that no one could pass.