A drone flew over the wreckage, using an infrared camera to try to identify heat – a sign of possible life hidden amid the rubble.
It had been a month since Hurricane Dorian decimated the Bahamas with Category 5 strength, killing at least 50 people.
Search-and-rescue missions had long ago given way to stoic efforts to recover the bodies of the dead.
Then, the drone operated by Florida-based shelter Big Dog Ranch Rescue sensed heat.
A volunteer trudged more than half a mile over debris to where an air conditioning unit and piles of metal had trapped the survivor – a one-year-old mixed-breed puppy.
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A road is flooded during the passing of Hurricane Dorian in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
AP
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Hurricane Dorian’s eye taken by Nasa astronaut Nick Hague, from aboard the International Space Station. The station orbits more than 200 miles above the Earth. Hurricane Dorian, which made landfall on the Bahamas as category 5 and now reclassified as category 4, is expected to continue on its projected path towards the Florida coast.
Nasa/EPA
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Buildings damaged by Hurricane Dorian are swept by deep floodwater in the Abaco Islands in The Bahamas.
Latrae Rahming
4/15
Tropical Storm Dorian as it approached the Bahamas.
NOAA/AFP/Getty
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Strong winds blow the tops of trees while whisking up water from the surface of a canal that leads to the sea in Freeport, Grand Bahama
AP
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A woman walks in a flooded street after the effects of Hurricane Dorian arrived in Nassau, Bahamas.
REUTERS
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Uprooted trees, fallen power lines and debris scatter a road as Hurricane Dorian sweeps through Marsh Harbour in The Bahamas
Ramond A King via Reuters
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Buildings damaged by Hurricane Dorian are swept by deep floodwater in the Abaco Islands in The Bahamas
Latrae Rahming
9/15
A building is strewn with debris after its roof was torn off by Hurricane Dorian in the Abaco Islands in The Bahamas
Latrae Rahming
10/15
Uprooted trees, fallen power lines and debris scatter a road as Hurricane Dorian sweeps through Marsh Harbour in The Bahamas
Ramond A King via Reuters
11/15
Hurricane Dorian is pictured from a plane flying inside the eye of the storm
Garrett Black/US Air Force
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Inmates from a Florida jail fill sandbags to hand out to residents ahead of Hurricane Dorian in Cocoa, Florida on September 1
EPA
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Residents stock up at Wal-Mart in preparation for Hurricane Dorian in Orlando, Florida
Getty
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A shop is boarded-up ahead of Hurricane Dorian in Cocoa, Florida on September 1
Reuters
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Waves batter a pier in Marsh Harbour in The Bahamas on September 1e
Mark Hall vie Reuters
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A road is flooded during the passing of Hurricane Dorian in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
AP
2/15
Hurricane Dorian’s eye taken by Nasa astronaut Nick Hague, from aboard the International Space Station. The station orbits more than 200 miles above the Earth. Hurricane Dorian, which made landfall on the Bahamas as category 5 and now reclassified as category 4, is expected to continue on its projected path towards the Florida coast.
Nasa/EPA
3/15
Buildings damaged by Hurricane Dorian are swept by deep floodwater in the Abaco Islands in The Bahamas.
Latrae Rahming
4/15
Tropical Storm Dorian as it approached the Bahamas.
NOAA/AFP/Getty
5/15
Strong winds blow the tops of trees while whisking up water from the surface of a canal that leads to the sea in Freeport, Grand Bahama
AP
6/15
A woman walks in a flooded street after the effects of Hurricane Dorian arrived in Nassau, Bahamas.
REUTERS
7/15
Uprooted trees, fallen power lines and debris scatter a road as Hurricane Dorian sweeps through Marsh Harbour in The Bahamas
Ramond A King via Reuters
8/15
Buildings damaged by Hurricane Dorian are swept by deep floodwater in the Abaco Islands in The Bahamas
Latrae Rahming
9/15
A building is strewn with debris after its roof was torn off by Hurricane Dorian in the Abaco Islands in The Bahamas
Latrae Rahming
10/15
Uprooted trees, fallen power lines and debris scatter a road as Hurricane Dorian sweeps through Marsh Harbour in The Bahamas
Ramond A King via Reuters
11/15
Hurricane Dorian is pictured from a plane flying inside the eye of the storm
Garrett Black/US Air Force
12/15
Inmates from a Florida jail fill sandbags to hand out to residents ahead of Hurricane Dorian in Cocoa, Florida on September 1
EPA
13/15
Residents stock up at Wal-Mart in preparation for Hurricane Dorian in Orlando, Florida
Getty
14/15
A shop is boarded-up ahead of Hurricane Dorian in Cocoa, Florida on September 1
Reuters
15/15
Waves batter a pier in Marsh Harbour in The Bahamas on September 1e
Mark Hall vie Reuters
“It’s a miracle this little dog had the will to live and to survive in the conditions he was in,” Lauree Simmons, president and founder of Big Dog Ranch Rescue, said on Monday.
The discovery on Friday in Marsh Harbour, formerly the most densely populated neighbourhood on Great Abaco Island, was among more than 150 animals the rescue group has flown to the United States from the Bahamas since the hurricane.
Often, Ms Simmons said, the organisation finds the pets on the spots where their homes once stood. They’ve reunited some animals with their owners, while other pets wait for new homes.
Rescuers had been looking for specific dogs with known owners when they stumbled upon the trapped puppy.
Volunteer Sean Irion sat with him for a few minutes, letting him lick dog food out of a can, to gain his trust. His ribs showed through his light brown fur.
“Look at that tail wagging!” Mr Irion said to the dog, according to a video of the rescue. “We’ve got you.”
Mr Irion and another volunteer then heaved debris out of the way and gently placed a leash around the dog’s neck. He picked up the dog, silent and unmoving, and carried him out of the wreckage.
Ms Simmons’s phone rang at around 9:30am that day with a plea for help. Her volunteers had found an anaemic dog – barely alive – and needed to fly him back to Florida immediately.
She called the pilot whose planes Big Dog Ranch had been chartering, and her volunteers prepared the puppy for the flight.
The dog had survived only on rain water that filled a hole in front of him after the hurricane, so rescuers gave him some fluids to stabilise him before the hour-long flight.
When he arrived at Big Dog Ranch, Ms Simmons said, his muscles had wasted away from a month of immobility and his body weight had plummeted from about 20kg to 9kg.
His care now includes antibiotics, gradual feeding and physical therapy to help him regain his muscle tone. The road ahead of him is long, but Ms Simmons said her organisation expects the dog to make a full recovery.
Big Dog Ranch plans to post the puppy’s details on missing dog websites that will give his owners 30 days to claim him. If no one comes forward, Ms Simmons said, the organisation will put him up for adoption.
Another dog found alongside the rescued mix-breed had not been as lucky and was dead when rescuers arrived. To Ms Simmons, it’s incredible that any dogs survived the disaster.
The recovering puppy, she said, is a sign to families displaced by the tragedy that “there’s hope for rebuilding and a new beginning”.
Rescuers have named him “Miracle”.
Washington Post