WINFIELD — Debbie Hill floated over this town's flooded streets Sunday morning in a boat full of cats.

A couple of them meowed. Others were scared and silent. All of them had been left behind.

Since Saturday, when a makeshift levee finally gave out, causing part of the town to become flooded, Hill and her disaster response crew from the Humane Society of Missouri have been patrolling the area in a flat-bottom boat, looking for animals. This month's flooding along the Mississippi River has become the largest Missouri animal rescue operation of its kind in memory. Hill expects that her crew might be needed for weeks more.

"It's important that we have no animals left behind," Hill said.

As Hill and her crew loaded up their boat after a Sunday morning rescue run, team members peeled out of the dry suits they wore to keep off the contaminated water. A small group of people circled the boat to look inside the kennels. One man, weary and unshaven, recognized his black cat. Hill asked if he planned to reclaim her. Reluctantly, he said no, probably not. His house was underwater.

The team on Tuesday set up a mobile command center here on Highway 47 about a mile west of downtown. Crew members have floated up to houses and gone inside to recover cats and dogs. They have found animals in trees and on balconies and roofs. Hill has rescued dogs, cats, chickens, a rooster, a horse, a pony and a fancy pigeon.

On Saturday, the team rescued 26 animals. The team has saved 130 animals in Lincoln County alone. Typically, a pet owner will leave a pet behind with food and water, thinking it will only be a day or two until they come back home, Hill said. But when the town flooded, many residents couldn't make it back.

After the animals are recovered, they're cleaned up, vaccinated and dewormed at no charge. They're taken to St. Louis to be boarded until owners claim them. The Humane Society works with owners who can't immediately pick them up.

"Some surrender the animals completely," Hill said. "And if that's what they need to do, we understand that."

Keith Nelson wasn't ready to surrender anything. "Baby," his white Lhasa apso, went missing Saturday night. The Winfield resident stopped by the Humane Society's mobile command center Sunday. Hill hadn't seen the dog, but her team took down Nelson's information.

"She was scared of thunderstorms," Nelson said.

"Well, that's not good," Hill said. "We've had a lot of those around here lately."