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Porter firefighters lend a hand on Bolivar Peninsula
  
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By STEFANIE THOMAS
More than a month after Ike, the landscape on Bolivar Peninsula still resembled a post-apocalyptic wasteland. David Teverbaugh, deputy fire chief of the Porter Fire Department, and a dozen or so fellow firefighters experienced the devastation first hand. In comparison, Teverbaugh said, hurricane troubles locally are really not all that bad.
“The only thing I’ve ever seen that looked as bad as that is the blast at Amoco/BP in 2005,” said Teverbaugh, a retired Texas City firefighter who also dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Alicia in 1983. “It looks like a bomb went off. It’s utter devastation. There’s nothing there other than some poles sticking out of the ground or maybe a septic tank that got washed up. You drive down the street and you see piles of people’s stuff that they try to salvage - toys, clothes and pictures - that’s all they have left. They lost everything.”
Porter firefighters arrived on Bolivar Peninsula Oct. 10 and stayed for 12 days, offering their emergency services to the small collection of residents, work crews and insurance adjusters who were allowed to set foot onto the otherwise deserted island.
“I had received an e-mail from the Galveston Fire Department saying they couldn’t maintain coverage at the peninsula anymore because they had run out of volunteers,” Teverbaugh explained. “The place is wiped out, uninhabitable, especially the Gilchrist area. That’s why they lost their volunteers - they have no place to stay.”
Teverbaugh said that prior to Ike, Bolivar residents received fire services from three local volunteer fire departments - Bolivar VFD, Crystal Beach VFD and Gilchrist VFD. By the time the Porter fire crews arrived in Bolivar, only two steadfast volunteers had remained. They were staying in a camper parked at what was left of a now wind-torn fire station.
The Porter firefighters took up residence at the local elementary school, communicating via cell phones and radios borrowed from Galveston County. The crews had brought their own fire truck, accessories and supplies, Teverbaugh said.
Porter firefighters responded to several emergency calls during their stay, Teverbaugh said, extinguishing electrical and out-of-control trash fires and running medical calls.
Although power workers were working to restore electricity to the main lines, the homes that survived the hurricane will remain dark until inspections of electrical and septic systems have been completed, a process Teverbaugh believes will take several more months. Clean drinking water still wasn’t available, nor was telephone service. Fire hydrants were linked into sewer lines.
Due to the limited access to Bolivar and only sporadic emergency ferry service, transporting individuals who needed hospitalization was difficult, Teverbaugh said.
“They had to fly them out,” he said, “calling either Life Flight, a PHI air ambulance or the Coast Guard.”
Teverbaugh said that he hopes that the state will reimburse the Porter Fire Department for some of the expenses the agency incurred by lending a hand on Bolivar.
“We’re hoping to get some of that money back from the state, but if we don’t, we don’t,” he said. “The point is, these guys needed help and somebody had to do something about it.”
By the time the Porter fire crews left the peninsula to come back home, most of the firefighters had come to feel better about their own, smaller worries, Teverbaugh said.
“I think we all felt a little guilty for whining about our own problems,” he said. “After the storm, people up here were complaining about not having any power. But the trees down in my yard and the fence knocked over, that’s all pretty insignificant in the great scheme of things. I think we were pretty lucky. I know we had some people in the county who lost their homes, but that was pretty intermittent. There, [on Bolivar], it’s a total wipe-out. You just can’t describe it. Even the pictures don’t do it justice.”
“The only thing I’ve ever seen that looked as bad as that is the blast at Amoco/BP in 2005,” said Teverbaugh, a retired Texas City firefighter who also dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Alicia in 1983. “It looks like a bomb went off. It’s utter devastation. There’s nothing there other than some poles sticking out of the ground or maybe a septic tank that got washed up. You drive down the street and you see piles of people’s stuff that they try to salvage - toys, clothes and pictures - that’s all they have left. They lost everything.”
Porter firefighters arrived on Bolivar Peninsula Oct. 10 and stayed for 12 days, offering their emergency services to the small collection of residents, work crews and insurance adjusters who were allowed to set foot onto the otherwise deserted island.
“I had received an e-mail from the Galveston Fire Department saying they couldn’t maintain coverage at the peninsula anymore because they had run out of volunteers,” Teverbaugh explained. “The place is wiped out, uninhabitable, especially the Gilchrist area. That’s why they lost their volunteers - they have no place to stay.”
Teverbaugh said that prior to Ike, Bolivar residents received fire services from three local volunteer fire departments - Bolivar VFD, Crystal Beach VFD and Gilchrist VFD. By the time the Porter fire crews arrived in Bolivar, only two steadfast volunteers had remained. They were staying in a camper parked at what was left of a now wind-torn fire station.
The Porter firefighters took up residence at the local elementary school, communicating via cell phones and radios borrowed from Galveston County. The crews had brought their own fire truck, accessories and supplies, Teverbaugh said.
Porter firefighters responded to several emergency calls during their stay, Teverbaugh said, extinguishing electrical and out-of-control trash fires and running medical calls.
Although power workers were working to restore electricity to the main lines, the homes that survived the hurricane will remain dark until inspections of electrical and septic systems have been completed, a process Teverbaugh believes will take several more months. Clean drinking water still wasn’t available, nor was telephone service. Fire hydrants were linked into sewer lines.
Due to the limited access to Bolivar and only sporadic emergency ferry service, transporting individuals who needed hospitalization was difficult, Teverbaugh said.
“They had to fly them out,” he said, “calling either Life Flight, a PHI air ambulance or the Coast Guard.”
Teverbaugh said that he hopes that the state will reimburse the Porter Fire Department for some of the expenses the agency incurred by lending a hand on Bolivar.
“We’re hoping to get some of that money back from the state, but if we don’t, we don’t,” he said. “The point is, these guys needed help and somebody had to do something about it.”
By the time the Porter fire crews left the peninsula to come back home, most of the firefighters had come to feel better about their own, smaller worries, Teverbaugh said.
“I think we all felt a little guilty for whining about our own problems,” he said. “After the storm, people up here were complaining about not having any power. But the trees down in my yard and the fence knocked over, that’s all pretty insignificant in the great scheme of things. I think we were pretty lucky. I know we had some people in the county who lost their homes, but that was pretty intermittent. There, [on Bolivar], it’s a total wipe-out. You just can’t describe it. Even the pictures don’t do it justice.”
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