JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The search for missing people here in central Texas continues. You can hear behind me the chainsaws. We're out with a group of volunteers led by folks from the Matagorda Volunteer Fire Department, who are continuing to scour debris from the flooding as this death toll continues to rise. There are about 20 people here. They fanned out over a wide swath of land, clearing away dead tree limbs, digging into the Earth with just a ton of shovels, trying to see if there are any survivors left in this area or possibly even recovering deceased victims of this flooding.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER: The key to searching is look up, look down and look around. So as you walk in trees, whatever, make sure you look up, look down and look around because you might find that somebody will be right by a person lying in the tall grass, and you see it on the way back. So like I say, look up, look down and look around.
SUMMERS: There are a number of groups that have come out here who are volunteers, who are just trying to aid in the search and do anything they can. We've also been speaking with volunteers from the United Cajun Navy. They've traveled here from the state of Louisiana to be able to help. Earlier today, we spoke with Brian Trascher, the vice president of the United Cajun Navy. That group has been assisting and coordinating some of the rescue efforts led here by volunteers in central Texas.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHAINSAW RUNNING)
SUMMERS: Can you just put into terms for us the scale of the devastation here?
BRIAN TRASCHER: One of my guys that's here is my EOC liaison. He's had over 115 storm deployments. He said it's the worst he's ever seen. I got one of my meteorologist storm chasers here. He said it's the worst flood damage he's ever seen. And these guys had been in the business 30 years, so if that gives any kind of, you know, illustration of the scope. One other picture I can paint for you that might be helpful for your listeners to see what the community is going through - I went to a restaurant last night. It was a really big - like, one of these really giant dining rooms. So there's probably 150 people in the dining room, but you could hear a pin drop. All you heard was forks and knives. And it was not necessarily, like, first responders, just normal Kerrville, you know, residents eating dinner. But everybody's very somber right now, and you can feel it, even the people that didn't know the victims. Everybody's feeling it.
SUMMERS: This is a grim question, but I do have to ask.
TRASCHER: Yep.
SUMMERS: The search here is in its fifth day. From your experience, having been out to so many of these, how likely is it that there are more survivors who are still alive to be found out here?
TRASCHER: Yeah, it's a reasonable question. When you get past the 48 to 60-hour mark, the survivability index really goes down a lot. We always hold out hope for a miracle. But, you know, sometimes - and our K9 team has had 11 hits now, 11 recoveries since they've been here. Sometimes just bringing someone's loved one home so they can bury them, observe their religious customs, brings closure. Nothing's worse than just never seeing somebody again and never knowing what happened to him or having to - your brain's never going to stop guessing what happened. And so when we bring that closure, at least the families have a path to healing.
SUMMERS: I think one of the things that's been so hard for so many of us to take in about what's happened here is the number of children included in the missing...
TRASCHER: Yeah.
SUMMERS: ...And the fatalities.
TRASCHER: Yeah.
SUMMERS: I have to imagine that's not easy on y'all either as you're doing this work.
TRASCHER: Yep. I'm glad you brought that up, because that is another difference in this deployment. We normally have - we have volunteers that reached out that volunteer with us quite often. We had people that reached out through our website and things like that. I put a policy in right when we deployed that this was going to be what we call special ops volunteers only. The guys on special ops can pretty much handle - they're very mentally tough. I'm not saying they don't get affected, but I mean, they can come across something like that, you know, and do their job and keep working. We were very, very selective about who we deployed this time, and it's just given the nature of this particular tragedy.
SUMMERS: I know you said you're focused on those volunteers who are tested. They've done this kind of work before, given the nature of the losses here. But I do have to ask - even for the toughest person, that has to take a toll. How are you all taking care of each other and taking care of yourselves?
TRASCHER: Well, another great question 'cause we brought our chaplain, Tony Dickey. He is - got decades of experience with the Alabama State Police. He's the official chaplain for Baldwin County, Alabama. He's from Alabama, but we let him in anyway. But he's been with us a long time, and Tony is just an absolute angel when it comes to bereavement counseling. He's been in the EOC with the families as they're getting their daily updates. He's hugging. He's crying with them. He's praying with them. He brought comfort cubs for the children, the siblings of the children that are missing and deceased. And he's just been a real good spiritual guide for these people. And he is for us, too. There's times when I got to go to him at night and just talk to him about some things I saw, and he just kind of gives me some guidance on how to get through it and get to the next day, you know? So we really appreciate Tony being here.
SUMMERS: What are you hearing from this community? You mentioned how somber it is, how people are clearly still in a state of shock, a state of grief, a state of hoping that there will still be survivors found. What are you hearing?
TRASCHER: You know, there's just - we're starting to get to that point where they know there's still people missing that have to be found, but people are starting asking why, how? There's a lot of finger-pointing going on, which is a shame. But, you know, we've just tried to stick to the mission at hand. We know that what happened here is not our fault, but we're just here trying to help.
SUMMERS: Yeah. Brian Trascher of the United Cajun Navy, thank you so much for being here, and thank you for the work that you're doing.
TRASCHER: Really appreciate y'all putting us on air. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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