Tennessee man drives a school bus full of shelter animals out of Florence's path

To say Tony Alsup has a heart for animals is an understatement. The 51-year-old truck driver from Tennessee started rescuing shelter animals in the wake of Hurricane Harvey last year, and then did the same with Hurricane Irma. 

When he learned that Hurricane Florence was expected to bring flooding to the Carolinas, he contacted coastal shelters to offer help evacuating dogs and cats. Of course, the shelters accepted the offer. 

All across the region, animal lovers lined up to offer shelter to pets. Still, some animals were left behind.  

So Alsup took the seats out of a school bus and drove to the Carolina coast. He created his own version of Noah's Ark, rescuing what one shelter called "leftovers’ — the dogs with blocky heads, the ones with heartworm... the ones no one else will ever take. And he got them to safety. Not the most conventional evacuation, but surely the one with the most heart.” 

In all, Alsup rescued 53 dogs and 11 cats and drove them to safety in Alabama. There, his friend Angela Eib-Maddux, opened her privately run dog shelter for the animals and gave them baths and TLC. Between their established networks of animal lovers and other shelters, all the displaced refugees found safety within days.