A farm in Washington County was flooded during a rainstorm on Saturday. On Tuesday, the family showed Channel 11 News the debris left behind by the weekend’s storm. They explained that the creek behind their home rose so quickly that it completely washed out the area where they kept their goats.
Cailin Knopp, the family’s youngest daughter, has raised and cared for the goats for nearly half of her life. “Those are my babies. I love those goats more than anything,” she told Channel 11 News on Tuesday. In recent years, Knopp had begun showing her goats in competitions across the country; so on Saturday evening, as storms rapidly rolled into Washington County and her farm began to fill with water, she felt helpless.
“Knowing that they were screaming and thinking they were going to die was really scary for me,” Knopp said. She shared a cell phone video showing what her backyard looked like on Saturday evening. The video showed waist-high water rushing into the yard from the nearby creek. “There was nothing; it was all underwater. It just looked like rushing water,” she explained.
The flooding affected one of the goat pens and completely washed away a portion of the other pen. Knopp walked Channel 11 News around the yard, pointing out the damage. “The barn was right there, and it was gone. Some of the cinder blocks got floated clear out into the yard. They had a little sliding board and a stand to play on,” Knopp said.
Unsure if the goats had survived, the family initiated an overnight rescue mission. While some goats were trapped inside the flooded pen, others were roaming the woods, wet and scared. “My goats are tall enough that they could keep their heads out of the water, and my two smaller ones jumped up on a table, which is the only reason they survived,” she said.
In total, 17 goats were rescued, saving her entire stock. Also safe from the storms were Knopp’s competition rabbits and the family’s chickens. The goats, now recovering, are staying on a friend’s farm while the family works to rebuild. Eager to get her goats home, Cailin expressed her urgent need for some essential items. “We need a new barn, a new fence, and probably new things for them to play on,” she explained.
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