Search & rescue

Game Warden Will Plumas expected to see extensive damage from Hurricane Ike, but admits he was stunned by how bad things were.

"It was more than what I expected," he said. "There were places that looked like they had been bulldozed. It's funny; there would be five houses in a row missing and one untouched."

Plumas was one of six state game wardens from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department enforcement office in the Rio Grande Valley who were sent to areas on the upper Texas coast to assist with search and rescues, as well as law enforcement duties.

The five others from the Brownsville office who went were Ken Baker, Hector Leandro, Ira Zuniga, Jacinto Gonzalez and Santana Torres.

Plumas, however, was the first of the group to arrive on the scene after the hurricane made landfall on Galveston on Sept. 13.

"I went because I have a specialized training in making maps and laying down search-and-rescue grids," he said.

"We were sent to the Bolivar Peninsula because the street signs were destroyed and maps were needed to help people get around."

Plumas said game wardens were particularly valuable "because we had specialized equipment."

That equipment included airboats and Jon boats, crafts designed for use in shallow water. He said the airboats can almost ride on wet grass.
For nine days game wardens searched for stranded residents in the beach communities of High Island, Crystal Beach, Gilchrist and Bolivar Point.

"Our first few days there we were in a search-and-rescue mode, making contact with people, providing water and (meals ready to eat)," Plumas said.

"Sometimes people didn't want to leave, but there were four ladies who decided they had enough and we brought them out by airboat," he said.

"The ladies we pulled out were worn out and needed to come out," he said. "But we couldn't force anyone to leave."

Because there was no phone service and cell phones had no way to be recharged, finding people who wanted to leave was a matter of going from house to house, or hearing about someone by word of mouth, he said.

It wasn't just high water and no electricity that caused concerns, though.

"That area has lots of wild gators and there were several reports of people seeing gators, but we didn't have to remove any," Plumas said.

But the wardens did have to conduct a bovine rescue.

"We found one cow on a second-story balcony," he said. "I don't know if it climbed the stairs or swam there when the water was higher.

"We ran it down the stairs and pulled it out of the house. I couldn't believe it!"

After they got it out of the house, "it just kind of wandered off."

It wasn't the first time Rio Grande Valley game wardens have mobilized to assist hurricane victims. They went to Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina and, more recently, helped closer to home during Hurricane Dolly, which made landfall in the Valley on July 23.

"We're there to do what we have to do," Plumas said.

Besides search and rescues, the wardens also performed law enforcement duties.

"We did things like assisting smaller police departments with curfews and that kind of business," he said.

Jacinto Gonzalez and other Valley game wardens were sent to Beaumont to help local police departments.

"There was no electricity so we helped enforce an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew," he said.

"We didn't perform any rescues, but we handed out supplies - food, water and ice," Gonzalez said. "We visited people to see what their needs were."

Gonzalez is also no stranger to providing assistance following a hurricane.

"After Dolly, I patrolled low areas west of Harlingen," he said. "I think we rescued one lady."