Reaching the unreachable

As Brandon Taber’s family watched and waited in Oklahoma as Hurricane Ike approach Texas, Taber was waiting with his airboat in Texas for the waves and winds to hit.
Taber of Shawnee was one of a few people who traveled to Texas before Hurricane Ike made landfall Sept. 11. Taber said he was told he and his airboat were needed for rescues. He ended up staying 23 days.
Taber said it was difficult in the first few days, because Task Force One (an urban search and rescue response team designed to provide a coordinated response to disasters in urban environments) would not let civilians in to help with rescues.
“Their reasoning was they didn’t want volunteers to become rescuees too,” he said. “They weren’t aware of the type of boats we have.”
Taber and the others traveled to LaBelle, Texas, but they sat listening to the calls coming in to the fire department.
“It was hard sitting with the chief in his office, knowing there’s nothing we could do,” he said.
Taber said it was the next morning before they were able to go in to neighborhoods. In the first day, his team picked up 12 people. He said the water had risen to the second floor of two-story homes.
At the end of the first day, Taber was redirected to the Crystal Beach area, because teams without airboats could only get within 40 miles.
Taber said what people saw on the news was Crystal Beach, Port Bolivar and Gilchrist, but it was labeled Galveston. He said Gilchrist was completely wiped out.
“It’s not Galveston,” he said, adding Galveston did receive substantial damage, but not to the degree of the other areas.
Taber said debris from Gilchrist blew down the island and collected in large heaps of walls, wood, appliances and boats. Taber tried to explain what he saw, but “It’s too hard to put into words,” he said.
“It’s pretty devastating what happened down there,” Taber said.
During the rescue trips, Taber and his team didn’t just pick up human survivors, they picked up the four-legged ones too.
“If we’re not picking up people, we might as well pick up cats and dogs,” Taber said to his team members. In the first three days, Taber rescued several dogs and cats stranded on balconies and roofs.
Taber said there were search and rescue teams with night vision that helped during the first three days, but they left and didn’t return until the 19th day when teams found two bodies.
Taber said another problem was supermarkets with rotting food and dead animals, resulting in the teams not able to locate bodies. That’s when they brought in cadaver dogs. They were able to find four bodies and had 19 more hits under piles of debris.
Taber said the volunteers also had to watch for alligators and snakes when looking for survivors. He said he witnessed an alligator pulling a dead cow from land back into the water.
“You weren’t just looking for the rusty nail,” Taber said.
Taber said he burned 1,000 gallons of gas for his airboat and truck to haul the airboat. He said he drove down to Texas on his own dime and all his compensation was a tank of gas to get back home.
Taber said if the LaBelle fire chief called him to come back to help, he would load up his airboat and go back. He said the state is in the clean-up phase, but national officials need to figure out a plan to utilize volunteers and their assets.
“They think they have and know enough, but those directing do not understand our equipment,” Taber said, adding officials think the airboats are not as high-tech as they are.
“They are state-of-the-art boats,” he said.
Taber said he would like to see a national system developed for civilians to register as volunteers with what assets they have available and what functions they can perform.
“No matter where you live, you can be contacted for help,” he said.
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Amanda Gire may be reached at 214-3934.

Hurricane Ike tidbits
• Made landfall Sept. 11 in Texas, south of Galveston
• Southeast Texas experienced waves exceeding 70 feet
• 177 people confirmed dead, 202 missing
• $31.5 billion in damages