Dozens of dogs took refuge on top of an animal shelter's roof during Typhoon Vamco in the Philippines.

The animal shelter was submerged after the typhoon battered the area through the night in San Mateo, Rizal province before causing severe flooding on November 12.

Amanda Ramirez, one of the facility’s staff, woke up to strong winds and rushed to save the dogs with other volunteers when the water rose to 15ft-high.

The four volunteers first checked the cages when the water reached chest-deep.

She said: “It was terrifying, we were swimming and holding onto whatever we could to survive.

“We couldn’t just leave the dogs to die inside. We had to survive for the dogs.”

Amanda and the other workers took one or two dogs in each arm and threw them to the roof, where the poor animals clung to it for safety.

After all the dogs were safe on the roof, they swam to another building with other residents while the typhoon continued battering the region with strong wind and heavy rain.

All 65 dogs were rescued and uninjured when the flood water receded two days later on November 14.

The San Mateo Municipal Dog Impounding Office is one of the few facilities in the country that imposes a no-kill policy on rescue dogs.

Instead of putting unclaimed dogs into mercy killing or euthanasia, they take care of them and give them up for adoption.

However, the typhoon has destroyed most of their supplies and extensively damaged the buildings and cages needed to take care of the dogs.

Now, the office is dealt with another crisis - how to continue to care for the dogs that survived.

Amanda said they are appealing for help to the public since the local government could only spare little resources to prioritise the residents who were affected by the typhoon.

She said: “We don’t have food, water, bowls, even volunteers, to help feed the animals. Everything is gone. We don’t know where to start. I hope people will help us rebuild again.”

The Philippines, as well as neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, has a huge animal stray problem, especially in cities. During calamities, stray animals such as cats and dogs have mostly become one of the unrecorded casualties.

Typhoon Vamco, known locally as Ulysses, killed at least 63 people in the Philippines before moving eastwards and making landfall in Vietnam.