CAMERON, La. - A military response team arrived here Sept. 15 to begin cleanup operations in the wake of Hurricane Ike.
Members of the Louisiana Army National Guard's 528th Engineer Battalion, 921st Engineer Company, from Windsboro, La., arrived in Cameron Parish to begin the task of returning the area to a fully-functioning community.
For the guardsmen, this meant working among destroyed homes, broken gas lines and massive flooding that had not yet receded.
"We're here clearing roads, clearing trees and making things safe so people can get in here and start their lives again," said Army 1st Lt. Dennis Veach, the 921st Engineer Company executive officer. "The faster we get this cleaned up, the faster people can get back in here to get their lives back."
"Our primary mission is combat engineer heavy equipment: 5-ton dump trucks to front end loaders to bulldozers," said Army Capt. Christopher Spurlock, the company commander. "We want to open up the major routes to bring in food, water, MREs, to people in need, so the parish can get back up on its feet and support itself."
This mission would not be an easy one.
"First thing we saw was water as far as you can see," said Army Sgt. Cody Hawthorne. "Our mission objective was to go as far as possible, so we took the front end loader and pushed all the way to Cameron. There were trees and cows; we had to deal with a lot of wildlife -- alligators, snakes -- along the way. Total destruction down here; water went straight through the trailers; cars underwater. It was terrible."
The first objective of the team was to clean out the parish courthouse, considered the center of government in the area. In order to get to that, the team would have a long, hard road ahead of them. They had to deal with downed trees along the 30-mile route, many of them over 100 feet high.
"We made it to the courthouse," said Army Sgt. Damian Edwards. "In the process we cleared trees off the road, and what they call around here mud patties -- big chunks of mud with grass growing on top."
At the courthouse, the company discovered flooding in the building's basement and a welcoming committee of alligators and snakes.
"We had a lot of cottonmouth (snakes) attacking everything, including our skip loader," Sergeant Hawthorne said.
Through the day, some local business owners were allowed to enter the area. Some of them stopped to see the devastation to their own homes -- houses they hadn't seen since evacuating a week earlier.
"I had a man come in this morning; he was in tears and said his wife was up all night crying," Sergeant Hawthorne said. "His house is just a stone's-throw (from the courthouse) and he wanted to come and check it out so his wife would have something to remember. It was totally destroyed; his fifth house in four years."
Despite losing his home, the man helped the team pump water from the courthouse.
"I took some guys to the gas plant earlier. They had two gas leaks down there and we got that stopped," Sergeant Edwards said.
Captain Spurlock explained that the Emergency Operations Centers in the parishes request assistance through the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Operations Center, which flows information to brigades, where units are chosen for specific missions and sent to locations.
"Initially, when we come in with our recon elements -- our engineering assessment teams -- we determine what is the need, what equipment is needed to remove the debris," Captain Spurlock said.
Working with parish officials through the EOC, and once all major routes are clear and engineer assets are no longer needed, they give a closing report releasing the team.
"We know they're getting back on their feet and we'll return to our brigade," Captain Spurlock said.
Though the damage was substantial, the cleanup team did find something that gave it a little extra energy to focus on the task at hand.
"We found the flag behind the courthouse," Captain Spurlock said. "It was buried in some of the sludge. We just dug it out and put it up on a piece of rebar that we found. We just wanted to get Old Glory flying again."
With day one of cleanup operations complete, the team looked forward to more days of clearing roads and debris, so people can begin the healing process.
"I try and think of a story when I go home and tell my wife about what I'm doing, but some of the stuff she just wouldn't believe," Sergeant Hawthorne said. "But it does feel good to help people out," he said.