Searching for Hurricane Ike Victims

The dogs completely ignored animal remains, but the teams did recover a lot of mattresses because the dogs would track the DNA on them. In the thick marsh, the teams burned through all of the machetes available at the Home Depot in Galveston. At the end of the operation, Santana paid for all of the four-wheel and six-wheel ATVs he had rented, because the rough terrain made them unusable by the end of the search.

The teams regrouped each day at 6 p.m. to plan the next day so that at 4:30 a.m., everything would be ready to go. On January 30, after every square inch of Goat Island had been covered, the decision was made to end the search there.
_____________________

Courtesy J.R. Santana

The crew pulled a body out from under ten feet of debris and wrapped it in a Texas flag.

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More About

• J.R. Santana
• Hurricane Ike
• FEMA
• Pets
• Dogs

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Santana swings the airboat around the other side of Goat Island, a dense marsh facing Galveston Bay. It's about a half mile from the opposite side, but it is still speckled with the occasional upside-down boat, half-­buried four-wheeler or even a car. After looping around, Santana stops on Papa Goat. He disembarks from the boat and trudges up a steep slope of debris. The ground can only be seen where the excavators cleared away paths.

Debris on either side of one path is several feet high, like a mountain that has been cut through to make a straightaway for an interstate. At the end of this path is the spot where Santana's crew recovered the last Ike victim found in Galveston County.

"I made sure it was done with care, dignity and efficiency. I did it the same way I would want my loved ones taken care of. [The search] wasn't just a job. It was personal."

Santana admits that it isn't easy for him being back out here. He loses sleep knowing that more needs to be done. Even more debris from Bolivar — six million cubic yards — was taken past Goat Island, over Galveston Bay and into Chambers County. Roughly 60 percent of this has been searched so far, but not with FEMA dogs. There is a good chance that the vast debris fields in Chambers County contain Bolivar's lost. Unless the county can put together the resources to cover 25 percent of the search cost, that is where they will remain.

thomas.rundle@houstonpress.com