The great state of Texasí game wardens
were the first people to hit this island to relieve us and bring us
water and MREs
and start checking on us and that says a lot for
the Texas Parks and Wildlife for the game wardens.
[reporter] Ikeís winds toppled this brick wall
and littered roads with debris.
I spent the day Friday checking in customers
and to have them come to the line, do their whole signup
and expect to pay money to stay
and, you know, you say, ëno, this is on us because youíre an evacueeí
really does make their day. A lot of people were shocked by that.
I think the idea that theyíre letting the Texas residents
or whoever it is leaving stay free, I think that is just great.
It speaks a lot for the state parks.
Hopefully we can spot some victims and recover them,
which is not something weíd like to do but
Iím sure the families would like to find them. So do we.
[crying] Thatís my home.
Iíve got a job to do
and you go out there and do the best you can
and then you come home and deal with what you gotta deal with
and thatís what I decided to do a long time ago so Iím doing it.
I was surprised at the devastation.
I was just surprised how tore up everything was.
This is the debris field up inside.
This used to be the state parkís office.
As you can see, although the park was partially destroyed
or mostly destroyed,
our Board of Commissioners made it through alright.
These are the residences.
This house right here used to sit up
on top of these foundations on these pillars here
and you can just see the mud and everything.
The water had to have been up in here.
This is what we came down here to see if was salvageable.
In a blink of an eye everythingís gone.
Welcome to what used to be Sea Rim State Park.
Our goal was to open up the park
after being closed to Hurricane Rita back in í05.
We were, we were getting close. We were probably 2 to 3 months away
and we saw a light at the end of the tunnel.
I didnít realize it was a freight train with a hurricane behind it.
There was probably about 16 foot storm surge that hit us
and then there was 8 to 10 foot of waves on top of that
so youíre looking at a total of 30 foot of water that came through here.
All the personal property, the houses,
everything is scattered from here to Highway 73
which is probably about a 15 mile radius.
There is nothing left over there.
That was home for the last 13 years.
They went ahead and transferred me over to Village Creek.
Iíve been reassigned to Lake Brownwood.
Personal things that Iíve lost, yeah thatís sad.
That stuff can be replaced.
But working with your comrades,
that part, thatís kind of hard.
Itís kind of like one of those last looks across the Gulf for you, huh?
Everything between Sabine Pass and Port Arthur
got floated into the Murphree Area.
The winds blew in this area for over 18 hours at over 80 miles an hour.
We were on what they call the dirty side of the hurricane.
This is the Murphree WMA staff
and crew from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
checking containers that washed up in Hurricane Ike
for hazardous materials,
retrieving what containers we can and marking the others.
It was a flood of record with close to 11 feet of saltwater.
Plants just canít tolerate that kind of salt
so theyíve browned out
and many of them will die
and there will be a mosaic on the landscape
that will change the way plants and animals use this landscape
for the next probably 15 to 20 years.
We left out of here on a Thursday morning
and we drove up the river all the way to the Beaumont Yacht Club
and we tied up both boats over there,
my personal boat and this boat. It rode out perfect.
The marina where we keep the boat is totally devastated
and our office over had 7 feet of water.
I was one of the first ones to see our office
and when I opened the door, I just couldnít believe it.
I mean there was just mud, there were snakes in there,
everything was just turned upside down.
24 years of my data, personal items that I had in my desk
that I lived out of, worked out of,
almost 24 years of Parks & Wildlife is gone.
Part of your life is just gone.
Itís displaced us.
We currently have a law enforcement office trailer
that weíre operating out of
here at the JD Murphree Wildlife Management Area.
The biggest impact I guess has been the loss of our routine.
Lot of shrimpÖ
This team has really pulled together
to be able to take an insult like this
and continue doing the work that we do.
4, 48. Male.
Very quickly after the storm they were able to secure their families
and then return to work and
start our routine sampling and surveying.
We had staff members who lost their entire homes.
Thereís nothing left but a slab.
This is where my home used to sit in Sabine Pass, Texas.
Theyíre saying that the water here was probably 6 or 7 foot deep
over the top of the, over the top of the ridge.
Itís totally gone.
All I have left is some blocks and some holes in the dirt.
Iím living in a travel trailer
that was provided by the Texas Parks & Wildlife.
After 2 ? weeks of not having a place to live,
finally Iíve got my own place again
on my own property where I can
do what I need to do to get back going.
And I really do appreciate it.
[music]
You know, stuff like this is Mother Nature.
Sheís been doing this way before we even came around,
and sheís going to keep on doing it.
And this may be her way of taking care of things.
Clean this mess up, open up for duck season,
get our monitoring set up so that when spring comes
weíre ready to start watching this marsh come back together.
When you see things like this, donít let it discourage you or anything.
You know what you do is you work hard,
you put the pieces back together and you rebuild.
Thatís all you can do.
And you just thank God that you survived it.