Five-month-old puppies Daphne, Scooby and Velma survived Hurricane Florence with the help of a livestock wrangler from North Jersey.

The Labrador-mix puppies were found clustered on the side of a rural road in coastal North Carolina during the height of the hurricane.

As rain and wind battered the coast, the storm made rivers out of highways and lakes out of neighborhoods. It caused at least $38 billion in damage and claimed 48 lives.

The puppies — named after characters on the animated TV series "Scooby-Doo, Where are You!" — had no food, no fresh water and no shelter, but they outlasted the storm due to a chance encounter with a farmer.

Michael Stura, owner of Skylands Animal Sanctuary & Rescue in Wantage, drove to hurricane-ravaged parts of North Carolina to save livestock. His 232-acre farm is home to chickens, goats, pigs, sheep and steer — animals he protects from neglect and slaughterhouses.

Stura said he was on his way to help a man save cattle drowning in rising floodwater on a farm near Clinton, North Carolina, when he spotted the puppies.

"I saw these three little puppies, standing on the side of the road, looking not good," the farmer said, adding that they were "very skinny — very skinny."

The malnourished puppies, found without collars or tags, devoured handfuls of dog kibble and zonked out in the rear of Stura's van.

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"Their ribs were really stickin' out," he said. "They were so grateful. You could see it in their eyes."

The puppies, each weighing about 20 pounds, are recovering and almost ready to be adopted.

"It's really amazing even just the week has made, as far as them putting on weight and becoming more friendly," said Cara Troxell, a volunteer for A Pathway to Hope, a North Haledon-based pet rescue trying to find them permanent homes.

Troxell said the puppies were carrying fleas and stricken with bloody stool, lesions, mange and pressure sores.

The puppies, being fostered at Troxell's home in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, were due for follow-up veterinary care this week, she said. Stura partnered with A Pathway to Hope and Franklin Lakes Animal Hospital to treat the puppies when he returned home on Sept. 18.

Stura also made it to the flooded farm and, with his crew of volunteers, rescued a cow that now is grazing at his pastures in Sussex County. The 850-pound bovine, named Red, was treading water for hours, possibly days.

Florence devastated the farming industry in North Carolina, which ranks among the top states in the nation in terms of production of pork and poultry. According to a published report, more than 4 million chickens and hogs perished in the aftermath of the hurricane.

Email: devencentis@northjersey.com

How to adopt

To adopt Daphne, Scooby or Velma, visit A Pathway to Hope, at apathwaytohope.org, and submit an application through the nonprofit's website.

Donations are accepted through the website's "How Can You Help?" tab. To mail donations, send them to A Pathway to Hope, P.O. Box 165, Hawthorne, NJ 07507. Donations of dog beds and towels are welcome.

For more information, email pathwaytohope@yahoo.com, or check out the nonprofit's Facebook page.