BEAUMONT, Tex. - The owner of an alligator sanctuary east of Houston worries his 350 giant reptiles could slip over fences and escape if extensive Harvey-related flooding continues, he said.
Gary Saurage, owner of the 15-acre Gator Country in Beaumont, Texas, told TV station KFDM that while his preserve uses "certified, high fences," they may not stop his hundreds of rescued alligators from sliding over fence tops if the water continues to rise.
"We're less than a foot a foot from (water) going over the fences," Saurage told the station on Monday. He added: "We've worked around the clock and I don't know what else to do. We're truly tired. Everybody's at the end of it, man. We don't know what to do."
Pounding rainfall has displaced Texas' alligators in the region, as the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office noted, leading the reptiles to seek higher ground, just like their human neighbors.
"Leave alone until water recedes," the sheriff's office tweeted last week, along with photos of alligators on a driveway, a front porch and beneath a car.
Gators and flooding advice via @txgatorsquad: Expect them to be displaced. Simply looking for higher ground. Leave alone until water recedes pic.twitter.com/nN1B5jvMyV
— FBCSO Texas (@FBCSO) August 24, 2017
None of Gator County's alligators had escaped as of Monday, the Beaumont Enterprise reported. But if they did, Saurage said, Harvey's floodwaters would allow them to travel several miles at a time.
Thankfully, Saurage's two largest gators, Big Al and Big Tex, remained safely in trailers, KFDM reported.
