While hopes of finding survivors of the central Texas flooding are becoming dim, some brave volunteers are still lending their efforts to the community and their families.
Brian Trascher, Vice President of the United Cajun Navy spoke to WWL’s Dave Cohen about the evolving nature of their assistance there.
“We started seeing reports of mass casualties. That’s when we knew it was serious. We started calling our Texas chapter to get some intel, then received a call from Congressman Clay Higgins from Lafayette (who is friends with Chip Roy from central Texas)," Trascher says. "He asked what assets we could deploy, so we got an airboat team out of San Antonio immediately. From there, we started sending in second and third waves of teams."
As Trascher noted in speaking to our own Dave Cohen, the United Cajun Navy had humble beginnings. “Nearly 20 years ago, we barely had gas money for the boats. Now, we have a 30,000 square foot warehouse at the Baton Rouge airport and have all kinds of new equipment to be force multipliers for federal and state agencies,” he noted.
Now, Trascher is calling on only the most hardened professionals at this stage of the search. “We’ve had to stick to special ops volunteers, who are all combat veterans who are mentally tough and will not be as impacted by some things that would destroy another person emotionally. Those are the kind of people we need doing these searches, because if there is a chance you might come across a deceased child, some people might never, ever get over that,” Trascher explained.
Trascher emphasized that a great many members of the United Cajun Navy are parents themselves and fully understand the gravity of the situation they’re dealing with in Texas.
“Last year, my daughter went to a camp with her classmates in North Carolina and had to cut their trip short because of Hurricane Helene incoming. Within 36 hours of them departing on the bus, that camp was destroyed, so that’s a near miss for me. I can’t imagine what these parents are going through when you send your kids to a summer camp for them to have an adventure with friends and they don’t come home,” illustrated Trascher.
He added that he hopes, if nothing else, to be able to bring a sense of closure to the families impacted.
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