A Tennessee trucker played a Noah’s Ark-esq role in the days preceding and following hurricane Florence recently by filling an old school bus with shelter animals left in the path of the storm and transporting them to safety.

The 51-year-old trucker, Tony Alsup, hails from Greenback, Tennesee but was most recently spotted in Fayetteville, North Carolina, grabbing a bite to eat after a long week of driving animals out of the path of the hurricane using an old gutted school bus with the words “Emergency Animal Rescue Shelter” painted on the side.

The process all started around this time last year, when Alsup got word that animal shelters in Houston needed help relocating their animals to a safer location in the face of hurricane Harvey. Alsup says he offered to help relocate several animals by letting them ride in his cab with him but the shelter misunderstood, thinking that he would be using his entire semi trailer to transport the animals. When Alsup realized that the shelter was counting on him to move a large number of animals, he knew he had to come up with a new plan.

“You’ve got to be very careful what you say on social media man,” Alsup said of the misunderstanding.

“But I’m a man of my word. If I give you my word, it’s gonna get done… So I said, you know what, why don’t I just go buy a bus?” and that’s just what he did. Alsup purchased an old school bus for $3,200, headed to Texas to fill it with animals, and has been heading into hurricane zones ever since.

During his most recent rescue in the face of hurricane Florence, Alsup rescued 53 dogs and 11 cats from South Carolina shelters, stacking kennels in the bus from floor to ceiling, reported USA Today.

“I’m like, look, these are lives too,” Alsup said to The Washington Post.

“Animals — especially shelter pets — they always have to take the back seat of the bus. But I’ll give them their own bus. If I have to I’ll pay for all the fuel, or even a boat, to get these dogs out of there.”

“It’s all true. Tony swooped in at 4am Wednesday morning to pick up our ‘leftovers’ — the dogs with blocky heads, the ones with heartworm,” said the Saint Frances Animal Center.

“The ones no one else will ever take. And he got them to safety. Not the most conventional evacuation, but surely the one with the most heart.”

Alsup says that he hopes to open up his own animal shelter one day but that he’s happy with his “Noah’s Ark” bus for now.

“I love it,” Alsup said.

“People don’t believe me, they say it’s got to be barking crazy. But no. They know I’m the Alpha dog and I’m not here to hurt them.”