Members of Minnesota task force share firsthand account of deadly Texas flooding aftermath
Crews in central Texas are still combing through debris, nearly a month after the tragic floods on July 4, which left at least 135 people dead.
Search teams from around the country, including Minnesota, stepped up to help with search and recovery efforts after the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes.
Minnesota Task Force 1, made up of primarily five agencies, just returned from a two-week mission in Texas. Now, team members are sharing their firsthand accounts of the natural disaster — both of heartbreak and heroism.
"It's hard to process just how much water went through there in such a quick amount of time," search manager Brian Plantz said. "The amount of devastation and destruction down there is hard to describe. I was surprised to see the number of family photographs that we would find."
Team members searched both sides of the river for about 100 miles with the help of their K-9s.
"The dogs were rockstars; they were outstanding. Having the K-9s there to partner with, to have them able to clear those piles and definitively say that we can move past this, we can say there's no human remains inside that pile, was just critical to the mission," Plantz said.
The dogs suffered fire ant bites and even a broken toe, but continued. Together with Task Force 1, they helped a community find some of what was lost.
"The community down there was so appreciative of us and other task force members that were down there for the search and rescue," Plantz said.
The team will have a few days to decompress, but members say they're ready for the next mission.
