BEAUMONT, Texas -- The South Texas State Fairgrounds is now the hub of relief operations for several Texas National Guard task forces organized to provide Hurricane Rita victims with humanitarian relief. The storm pounded the Louisiana-Texas border Sept. 24.
Task forces Bowie, Crockett, Support, Aviation, Rescue and Neighbor have a combined strength of 1,500 soldiers and airmen from the Texas National Guard. Texas Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Eddy Spurgin commands the forces. Many of these troops had been on hurricane-relief missions in neighboring Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina.
"When Rita showed up we moved to Texas so we could help our own people," Spurgin said.
"We're proud to be here," he said. "This is Texans helping Texas."
Many of these soldiers have been eating military rations for more than three weeks. They are still taking "field showers" using baby wipes, and almost all of them are sleeping outdoors or on the ground.
"I'm just glad to be a part of it, to be helping others," Texas Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Rodrigo Bazon said.
Bazon has been on duty since Aug. 31 and sleeps in his Humvee at night. On the side of his truck he has written in chalk: "Hurricane Katrina Chasers." Once Rita slammed into Texas, he crossed through Katrina and wrote "Rita" underneath.
Guard officials here said guardsmen were pulled out of Louisiana and, within two days, were outfitted with fresh equipment and redeployed to the fairgrounds to provide support to Hurricane Rita victims.
"We were able to miss the eye of the storm," Spurgin said. "Things could have been much worse," he said, but he was quick not to dismiss what many here are experiencing. "If you lost a house, Rita had a big effect on you."
In the first 24 hours after the task forces established their base camp, 10 immediate-care strike teams were dispatched into the most devastated areas of southeastern Texas. The 50-person teams bring water, ice and food to victims and establish distribution sites for relief supplies.
The teams also link up with community leadership, which might be isolated due to communications outages, and they assess the needs of the community through the leaders. The teams are self-sufficient, carrying three days of supplies for themselves.
Prior to the establishment of the task forces on the fairgrounds, a team was sent to Beaumont to reconnoiter routes and to assess conditions on the ground. As the team proceeded with their route recon, they were redirected and told to proceed to an elementary school in Fred, a small town in southeastern Texas. The recon team was told that storm victims might be in a flooded school.
"It was bad," Texas Army National Guard Sgt. Maj. Robert Strzelczyk said.
The elementary school had been flooded and badly damaged, and 87 elderly people with a small staff of caretakers were inside. The elderly patients and their nurses had been there for four days having evacuated to the school. They were dangerously short on supplies, only had electricity for a couple of patients, and conditions were less than sanitary.
Some of the patients had Alzheimer's, experience seizures, or required oxygen, Strzelczyk said. Four were in critical condition, kept alive by equipment powered by generators.
