An East Aurora Wildlife center is still recovering after last month's major snowstorm.
A number of animal enclosures were damaged by heavy snow at Hawk Creek on Luther Road. Director of Wildlife Education Tanya Lowe managed to get to the center during the storm.
"Once I got here I couldn't really go home. Because there was too high of a risk of not being able to get here the next day, take care of the animals and shovel off the roofs," said Lowe.
Lowe spent the night sleeping on the floor of her office so she could look after the animals. The next day, volunteers were able to help shovel off the animal enclosure roofs, but not before a number of them were damaged. The turkey vultures' cage was one of the worst hit.
"Supports are cracked for them," said Lowe. "So those all have to be replaced. They're all braced."
A newly-created room for wildcats was also damaged when it flooded after the snow melted.
"We had just gutted and redone that room, new insulation and all that - well the roof didn't hold and once we got the warm up we had water just pouring in," she said.
The damages are estimated at between $7,000 - $10,000. If you'd like to help out, you can donate at www.hawkcreek.org, or if you have any shopping to do on Amazon, you can go to www.smile.amazon.com - it's the same Amazon you know, but 0.5% of sales is donated to your charity of choice, and Hawk Creek is one of the selections.
