Stockton Crew First on Scene in Devastated Galveston Island

Early on the morning of Sept. 13, Patrick McKeegan and 13 other Stockton firefighters staying at Houston’s Reliant Stadium were roused from their slumber and told they had five minutes to prepare before leaving for Galveston Island, Texas.

“It kind of hit us very fast,” said McKeegan, 28, with Stockton Fire Department Engine No. 6.

The team was deployed as California Swiftwater Rescue Boat Team 13, a designation it was awarded late last year and which requires it to respond to disasters well outside Stockton and even California. Their first deployment was ordered as Hurricane Gustav rolled toward the Louisiana coastline. They were diverted to Texas to respond to Hurricane Ike during their trip home.

The firefighters languished somewhat in Louisiana - Gustav was less temperamental than expected - but it was an opportunity to break in their equipment, which they had received just days before deployment.

“We were literally taking the tags off the equipment when we got there,” Capt. Brian Swanson said.

The trip from Reliant Stadium to Galveston, shared by a team of firefighters from Sacramento and 16 rescuers from Texas Task Force 1, was difficult. The roads were choked with debris. At the Galveston Causeway, the crossing from mainland Texas to Galveston Island, they had to wait for a bulldozer to clear the way.

“There were yachts and boats stacked up on the freeway,” Battalion Chief Mike Lilienthal said in a phone call from Houston two weeks ago. “Houses and rooftops and Jet Skis and personal belongings. Picnic tables and ice chests. The Causeway was full.”

Eventually, they pushed over the causeway.

They were the first rescuers on Galveston Island, Texas Task Force 1 Operations Chief Jeff Saunders said.

Over three days, the rescuers trudged through water sometimes waist-deep, searched 1,300 homes and buildings, and rescued the stranded, hungry and tired people who had braved the storm, Capt. Tony Moudakis said. “They all looked pretty tired,” Moudakis said. “They looked kind of lost.”

Capt. Gene Teves and McKeegan said Galveston residents were at first surprised that reprieve had come all the way from California, and then they were very thankful.

“I still get goose bumps from the amount of gratitude people showed,” Teves said.

Story by The Stockton Record