Backlash after Hurricane Harvey floods survivor leaves dog 'stranded'
A Hurricane Harvey flood survivor has spoken after copping backlash from evacuating his Texas home, leaving his dog behind surrounded by rising waters.
Footage shared on social media shows the pitbull fighting tor survival, frightened and alone taking refuge on the roof of a car.
Volunteers reportedly later rescued the three-year-old pupper named Blue by boat, leaving people outraged his owner Charles Rogers fled without his pet.
Mr Rogers has hit back at criticism, saying the blame should be on rescuers, who promised they would go back to get his pet.
The Texas man told CBSDFW that rescuers gave his family only a few minutes to evacuate their flooded home, so he quickly took his other small dog but agonised over leaving Blue.
“I just jumped into survival mode,” he told.
The pitbull also appeared in survival mode of his own when he somehow found his way over a backyard fence, and climbed on top of a neighbour’s car.
Following the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, a number of displaced animals in Texas are being relocated to shelters around the country, including the The Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington DC.
The tropical storm has wreaked havoc in Texas, killing at least 31 people and destroying more than 50,000 homes.
The storm dumped as much as 1.3 meters of rain over four days in some parts of metropolitan Houston before the sun appeared on Wednesday. At one point early in the week, 10 per cent to 15 percent of Harris County which includes Houston was underwater, officials said.
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As water levels receded and search teams began checking abandoned homes for victims, Houston began a grim cleanup on Thursday and businesses began to reopen for the first time since Harvey hit last weekend.
Previously flooded streets were lined with water-damaged furniture and roads filled with vehicles as residents went hunting for cleaning supplies, insurance estimates and repair help.
Record rains and flooding from Harvey spread misery across a broad swath of the Houston metropolitan area of about 6.5 million people.
Thursday brought a sense of it coming slowly back to life, however, with the city's airports all operating again and the resumption of at least some public transportation services.
United began flying out of Houston's Bush Intercontinental late on Wednesday and American Airlines restarted flights from Hobby airport Thursday morning.
