Dog Sole Survivor In House Pet Floated To Ceiling As Floods Filled Trailer

Way up on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard, a little white dog, wet and shivering, whined.

A woman and her 14-year-old daughter lay dead below. Vicious floodwaters in the town of Falmouth, Ky., had filled the trailer like a bathtub, drowning the woman and child.

The long-haired mixed breed, named Bird, floated to the top.

Hazel McGovney, 54, and her daughter, Crystal, had moved in with a neighbor, June Cooper, when their home flooded. The rain-swollen Licking River was ripping homes from their foundations and hurling them down the swirling current.

When neighbors knocked on Cooper’s door Sunday morning and told the McGovneys to go, they refused, preferring to watch television.

Cooper had already left the trailer, entrusting her dog to the McGovneys. Neighbors don’t know where she is now.

When the water receded Wednesday, emergency crews with German shepherds searched door to door for the missing. They found four people - including the McGovneys - all drowned.

Cooper’s trailer looked as if the interior had been hit by a twister. Furniture that had swirled with the rising water lay jumbled in corners, denting the trailer’s metal walls from the inside out.

But Bird, paddling to keep its head above water, floated to the ceiling and found safe haven in the high cupboard.

Emergency crews carried out the bodies Wednesday morning and gingerly removed the cowering dog from the top shelf.

When they returned that afternoon, the mud-covered mutt stood guarding the front door.

She snapped, barked and darted through the house as rescuers tried to corner it. “She was eating everybody up,” neighbor Tom Adams said.

On Friday afternoon, as the sun began drying out the trailer’s front yard, the little white dog curled up in a kitchen chair.

“C’mon, Bird, let’s go,” Adams said, coaxing it with a warm blanket.

Adams took Bird to Carletta Cheney, the secretary of the local humane society.

Her home has become a makeshift animal shelter since the town does not have one.

“She wouldn’t eat or drink,” Cheney said. “She just cried and cried.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: A WEEK OF DESTRUCTION State-by-state details on flooding and tornadoes since Saturday: KENTUCKY. Eighteen people dead in floods. The latest victim was a man who refused to evacuate West Point. The Ohio River crested nearly 16 feet above flood stage in Louisville at 38.8 feet Friday. Officials still assessing damage, estimated by Gov. Paul Patton at more than $250 million. Twenty-four counties declared federal disaster areas. OHIO. Five dead in floods. More than 1,100 National Guardsmen on duty; 16 counties declared disaster areas. State estimates at least 5,639 homes damaged, including about 800 destroyed. State estimates at least $100 million in damage. Nearly 5,000 utility customers still without service. Problems reported in 37 water supply systems. Boil-water alerts ordered. INDIANA. All 13 counties along the Ohio River declared federal disaster areas. At least 1,500 people evacuated. Damage expected to reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Town of Grandview filling with water, forcing evacuations of holdouts. National Guard deployed to put down sandbags to protect 40 homes downstream in Rockport. WEST VIRGINIA. Three dead in floods. President Clinton has declared 16 counties as federal disaster areas. Ohio River fell below flood stage Friday in Point Pleasant and Huntington. TENNESSEE. Six dead in floods and tornadoes. Seven counties declared federal disaster area. Waters rising in parts of west Tennessee from spillover from the Mississippi River. An estimated 900 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed. MISSISSIPPI. One killed by tornado. Mississippi River expected to crest 6 feet above flood stage at Vicksburg by March 21. Residents in low-lying areas in Vicksburg, Greenville and Natchez taking precautions. ARKANSAS. Twenty-five killed by tornadoes. Thirteen counties declared federal disaster areas, 11 for tornadoes and two for flooding. About 1,200 houses damaged or destroyed. Most floodwaters receding in northeast Arkansas. - Associated Press