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20 state parks sustain damage...
Close to 200 Texas game wardens were on patrol Sept. 26 to help maintain order and safety in East Texas, particularly in southeastern counties hardest hit by Hurricane Rita. Meanwhile, five Texas state parks near the Louisiana border were heavily damaged by the hurricane, many others sustained moderate damage and some 20 state parks were still closed in late September as teams assessed damage.
About 100 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens normally stationed in East Texas worked throughout the weekend Rita hit, responding to calls for assistance and patrolling areas impacted by the storm. Another 50 wardens stationed in the Beaumont-Port Arthur region focused on that hardest hit area. And close to 50 game wardens from across West and North Texas were subsequently called to East Texas. All Texas agencies working Rita response are being coordinated through the Governor's Emergency Management Office.
Game wardens have special training, boats and equipment to aid in flood rescues, but maintaining law and order has emerged as another key task in Rita's wake. Communities left mostly empty by evacuations and the lack of fuel, water and power for lighting had increased the possibility of looting.
An additional 50 game wardens were deployed Sept. 25 to four storm-ravaged counties where local officials had expressed public safety concerns: Jasper, Newton, Sabine, and Tyler.
"There was a concern that looting would increase at nighttime," said Lt. Col. Craig Hunter, who helped organize TPWD's efforts from the state emergency center in Austin. "We had a report of a bank burglary Sunday morning in east Texas, and there were some reports of localized looting."
Hunter said game wardens arrested four people in Jasper Sept. 25 for looting. Also in that area, wardens used boats to evacuate 26 elderly people from a nursing home threatened by rising floodwaters.
On the afternoon of Sept. 24, game wardens, sheriff's deputies, state troopers, and local fire rescue workers evacuated some 1,500 people from housing subdivisions below Lake Livingston dam north of Houston, where Rita's waters had compelled authorities to release a high volume of water, causing flooding. Game wardens ferried nine boatloads of evacuees to safety that day.
Texas state parks suffered widespread facilities damage across East Texas, although no one was hurt. About 30 families were evacuated from Lake Livingston State Park shortly before high winds and heavy rains began lashing the area late Saturday. Park peace officers and game wardens evacuated the families to a school that had been converted to a shelter nine miles away.
"There were many, many big trees that blew down all over that park and several downed power lines," Brent Leisure, state park regional director for eastern Central Texas, reported.
Leisure helped lead a disaster response team for TPWD's State Parks Division that involved dozens of employees. Several regional directors and others monitored the storm and coordinated statewide efforts from Bastrop State Park. Recovery teams that had prepared in advance began field work Sunday and Monday. Fifty state park employees were deployed to provide security for park resources, assess damage and begin initial cleanup and stabilization.
Five state parks near the storm's direct path were heavily damaged. These include Sea Rim, Sabine Pass, Village Creek, Lake Livingston and the hardest hit, Martin Dies, Jr. State Park, just west of Jasper. Division employees described the damage there as "catastrophic." At Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site, where $2 million in facility improvements were done in 2004, 16 new shelters and the park residence were destroyed.
At TPWD's Sea Center Texas in Lake Jackson, the combination fish hatchery and visitor aquarium center lost 97 percent of its red drum, spotted seatrout and flounder broodfish when water temperatures soared after backup power generators failed.
For information about state park temporary closures and those able to host hurricane evacuees, phone the TPWD state park Customer Service Center reservations line at (512) 389-8900. A complete list of state parks, including a statewide map and regional maps showing park locations, is on the TPWD Web site: www.tpwd.state.tx.us.
