In Texas, rescue crews continue the slow and difficult search for flooding victims : NPR

Juana Summers, host:

And I am Juana Summers in the center of Texas, where today has seen more efforts to recover the victims of last week’s floods. Dozens of people are known to be dead. Officials say they don’t know how much yet lacked. Several hundred emergency workers and volunteers paint in mud, slaughtered trees and debris along more than 60 miles from the Guadalupe river. Greg Allen de NPR reports that it is a careful process that can take weeks.

Greg Allen, Byline: Loyd Thornton has been involved in many other research and recovery efforts in the past, but little as difficult as this one.

Loyd Thornton: There are fields of debris up to 35 feet in the air trapped on huge cypresses. And there are places where camping terrains were completely destroyed, washed downstream and completely destroyed.

Allen: Thornton, a volunteer in Texas Equusearch, brought out a debris crew in search of debris along the river using an airplane.

Thornton: We climb on the small islands and debris, so we can go where an ordinary boat is really difficult to go.

Allen: Thornton has three other Equusearch volunteers in his boat. He says that it gives him four eyes of eyes scanning the river and the heaps of debris.

Thornton: The boat and research – We are doing a lot of visual research now, at low speed, looking high in the trees. Remember that the water we saw in places had at least 35 feet high.

Unidentified person # 1: Very good, are we ready? Let’s do it.

Unidentified person # 2: yup.

(SoundBite of Engine Startup)

Allen: Not far away, in the city of Hunt, Brad Phillip (PH) was starting the hard work today to avoid his house. It is high on the banks of the river but has always been flooded. He says that the first thing he did after the flood was to search the banks of the survivors or the victims. One was recovered on an island a few hundred meters from his house.

Brad Phillip: Someone arrived there and pointed out to me. I reported a sheriff down. And in a few minutes, there was a black hawk and drones and people there, and they were able to take out a body.

Allen: Today, more victims have been recovered near the city of Ingram. One of the crews involved in the recovery effort is Mexico. It is a non -profit group that works with several fire services from Texas, Fundacion 911. Jorge Fuentes is with the group.

Jorge Fuentes: Today, they went to the river to make bases on the river, and they found a fair body, as 30 minutes ago.

Allen: Fuentes says it was one of the two victims recovered from the side, an extremely important debris field.

Fuentes: This area seems to be, like, on a turn. So, a lot of debris, a lot of waste and some of the mobile houses that balail the river remained stuck in this area.

Allen: The group of Fuentes works with local fire services. The expertise of its members, in particular in water research, is invaluable for the research effort. The director of the city of Kerrville, Dalton Rice, said that the operation is still in what he calls the main phase of the research mission. There are more than 60 miles of river to look for, he says, and even with large crews, checking a single mile can take several hours.

Dalton Rice: So, it means that they meet many technical challenges with the terrain, with water, even potentially, you know, over time, you know, in the mounting fields.

Allen: Kerrville local officials tried to discourage self-deployment volunteers, as they called. This caused a tension among the inhabitants who say that it has held a help that is seriously necessary. The mayor of Kerrville, Joe Herring, says that volunteers are welcome, but their request to register and coordinate with the local salvation army.

Joe Herring: We need concentrated and coordinated volunteers, not random people who present themselves and do what they do. We have to work together.

Allen: Only three days after the storm, it is clear that it will take a while to be sure that all the victims have been recovered. Greg Allen, NPR News, Kerrville, Texas.

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