Lieutenant David Jasper, who is doing water rescues all weekend. Lieutenant, thanks for taking the time to join us here this morning. You.
Must be exhausted. Tell me how the troops are doing out there.
Good morning. Thank you for having me on. The troops are awesome. Our guys and our, with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Blood Rescue and our partners with the Harris County Fire Marshals Office and the Huffman Fire Department, the Crosby Fire Department. It was just awesome working with them.
I know that you got a lot of equipment. A lot of Houston area fire departments got boats and other equipment after Harvey. How handy has I come in for you folks over the course of this weekend?
Hey, that’s a great question. So, you know, just like you hear Carpenter say, different tools for different jobs. So starting Wednesday, we were using our zodiax, which are motorized inflatable boats, and we were up in the Huffman area and we performed a lot of rescues. I think it was close to 80 people and about 30 animals, men, women and children. And then we followed the flood down to the Crosby and Channel View area on Saturday and Sunday. And then the air boats were much more effective because they can go over patches of land and water. So all of the assets were used.
Tell me how many of these were like flash flooding, like roads and waters, and how many were just coming downstream, the release from the dams and people not really realizing just how much water was coming.
So that’s another great question because, you know, it wasn’t like Hurricane Harvey where it affected the entire area, but the San Jasonal River, I think the peak was about 78 feet. During Hurricane Harvey, it was 81 feet. So, you know, it all started up north, as you all know. And as like Conro build up and had to release a tremendous amount of river water into the river, which makes its way down to Lake Houston. And then that effect with the Kingwood area. And then if like Houston is dumping the water, then it affects all the community south of the Lake Houston Dam along the San Jose Central River channel view area all the way down to the ship.
Channel. Yeah, I know that Texas Task Force 1 and 2 were very quickly utilized. Did you interact with them at all?
You know, when we were operating up in the Huffman area, we were working with the Huffman Fire Department and, you know, the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office. And they told us that Task Force 1 was up there. And it w. I didn’t personally see them. And also they heard reports of the Cajun Navy and then also Mattress Mack had his heavy utility truck out there. And we helped load up about 19 people on his truck. And so it really was, it brings out the best in humanity, everybody working together to try to help these folks out there affected by the flood.
If you had to take a guess, lieutenant, how many people do you think you rescued over the course of the weekend or since all the flooding began?
It was an excess of 100. Like I say, it wasn’t like Hurricane Harvey. It was very localized. And we, as we got down there on River Road and the Channel View area, there were some die hards that are, you know, we’re walking out time waste, deep water and they don’t wanna rescue. And oddly enough, and you just can’t make this stuff up. Yesterday we had people asking us to take them back to their flooded homes.
I believe it. People hate to abandon.
Will you do that?
No. Okay. We’re not gonna provide that service.
No, that’s a one way ride. That’s for sure. Lieutenant, thanks for joining us.
You’ve had lots of grub and that you’re dried out and ready to do the next.
And God bless you and thank you for all you do. We do appreciate it. Harris County Sheriff lieutenant David Jasper.