Nebraska Wildlife Rehab busy after severe storm

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - While many of us are cleaning up our own homes after the weekend storms, Nebraska Wildlife Rehab is busy saving the animals who lost theirs.

“The first 24 hours was pretty tense because we had no power,” Executive Director Laura Stastny said.

It’s been a busy few days to say the least.

“In the first 36 hours after the storm, Nebraska Wildlife Rehab took in more than 200 animals,” Stastny said. “Most were babies and the majority of them were songbirds, baby songbirds, and baby squirrels.”

And tree-dwelling bats that had their babies later than normal.

Those 200 animals are in addition to the animals already in their care.

“As of yesterday, we had 560 patients in care, with about 35 to 40 people taking care of them,” she explained.

The caregivers are made up of staff, interns, and volunteers.

Caring for the tiny animals is no small task, baby birds need to be fed every 15 minutes from sun up to sundown and baby squirrels eat every three hours around the clock.

“They basically have worked for the last couple of days have been working 20 hours a day to take care of these baby animals,” Stastny said.

As people clear debris from their yards, more calls are coming in about animals in need.

“This was a pretty catastrophic storm for wildlife,” she said.

Stastny says things won’t be slowing down for a while, most of the baby animals will need weeks of care before they’re released.

The injured adults will need to stay until they’re healthy.

“It’s a normal season in the types of cases we’re getting in, the numbers just got really amped up in a very short period of time,” Stastny said.

If you would like to help their mission, they’re looking for financial donations and donations of Cottonwood branches.

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