MANITOWOC, Wis. (WFRV) – The storm on Thursday night left debris strewn across streets and properties in northeast Wisconsin; fallen trees damaged cars and houses.

The Lakeshore Humane Society is feeling the effects of the storm harder than others. A fallen tree crumpled the fence of its “enrichment area,” making it impossible to use without the chance of dogs escaping.

“It’s just heart-wrenching for all of us here at the organization of LHS because we’re going to be stuck for quite a while without this great space that is really needed for our dogs,” Lakeshore Humane Society executive director Tina Nichols said.

The space is important because it is the only fenced-in area the dogs can go relax in the grass and get off the hard concrete of their outdoor pens in the summer. It also has toys and playhouses to encourage digging and exploring.

“This enrichment area is something that is incredibly important to the health and happiness of our dogs that are waiting to be adopted,” Nichols said. “If we can’t use this space, it’s going to be a real struggle for us to try to figure out now what do we do, how do we make our dogs happy.”

Nichols is not sure if insurance will cover the damaged fence because it is not part of the building and estimates the repair costs to be thousands of dollars.

The humane society also lost power overnight, so refrigerated and frozen food and medicine for the dogs were wasted.

“We’re trying to figure out how much loss we’ve had and figure out how much we can salvage of the medications and other things that we can,” she said.

To donate, you can visit this link to help with expenses, and donating your time to help walk the dogs and clean up after the storm is also appreciated by the staff and other volunteers at LHS.