Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Searching through Post IKE Debris in Chambers County Marsh

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Chambers marsh contains hazards and maybe victims
By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 30, 2008, 10:57PM



Even with long rubber boots, Jason Saunders got drenched Tuesday as he trudged through a 10-acre field of debris that Hurricane Ike deposited in the Chambers County marsh.

One leg sank up to his thigh in mud, as he picked through everything from lumber to a plastic Christmas dish. Wreckage there mostly came from beach homes demolished 29 miles away in Bolivar. But some also came from his family's and two dozen others' camp houses that no longer exist on the nearby Trinity River.

While salvaging what they can to rebuild their cabin, Saunders and his stepfather, Bryan Huckleroy, know they might also discover something else — bodies of those still missing from the storm.

"We have found some dead hogs, but that's it so far," said Huckleroy, who keeps the phone number to the sheriff's dispatcher in his pocket. "No doubt there are bodies out here somewhere. But it will be hard to find them if they're underneath this stuff."

So far only one Bolivar woman who drowned in the storm has been found in the county's marsh.

Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden Hector Gonzalez uses his 350-horsepower airboat to skim across two inches of water, avoiding alligators, snakes and nail-studded boards in this debris field, which is only about four miles south of Interstate 10 East.

"I use my nose to smell for anything dead. Or look for a finger, hand or something that might be poking up," said Gonzalez. He admits having trouble telling the difference between the scent of dead alligators, cows, birds and other creatures mixed into the piles.

Plus he noted the piles — once stacked as high as his shoulders — have settled into a flat surface, and some of the debris has also been sucked back out into the bay with the tides.

"You can tell that the storm surge was sometimes 20 feet high in this area," he said, pointing to a life preserver and salt grass draped in the treetops. "This surge went all the way to Interstate 10 and dumped debris on the Old and Lost River Bridge there."

He has crisscrossed this saltmarsh with his airboat, which is one of the only ways to search this rugged uninhabited terrain.

Chambers County Judge Jimmy Sylvia said Texas Task Force One is bringing a dozen all-terrain vehicles and eight cadaver dogs to help in the search Saturday.

One of the stumbling blocks has been swarms of mosquitoes.

"The insects will clog your nostrils," said Gonzalez.

Tuesday, the U.S. Army used giant planes to spray the insects that Sylvia jokes are big enough to "wear saddles."

Propane tanks, oil tanks, lawnmowers, refrigerators and other poisonous cleaning materials deposited in these piles may also pose a health hazard, Sylvia said.

cindy.horswell@chron.com



http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6033169.html

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