Photos from the field
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Contrary
to popular belief Texas is not open plains of desert. We
were searching through thickly vegetated woods. Sometimes it
was so thick you just had to get down on all fours on the
ground and crawl throught the brush. Sometimes there were
open fields but mostly we were in the woods. There were
thorns everywhere. They gave us thick chaps to ward off the
thorns. Yes we
were finding lots of parts. A lot of them were tiny and
it was amazing that we were finding them out here in the
middle of the woods in such thick brush. You would never
think that there would be so many. The
slides in this series were
not
taken
by me. Taking
photos in the search area was strictly
forbidden.
Even the EPA guys with us were not allowed to take
photos of anything but the parts they were documenting.
I found these photos on the web in both the
FEMA website and in one of the websites of one of the
overhead teams. I would have loved to take pictures out
in the search area but you could not even bring your camera
out with you .
Here is an example of a perfect
situation. For at least half the crew anyway. Looks like
the rest of the crew is in the brush. Now imagine having
700 people strung out 10 feet apart. Some have easy going
others don't. Doesn't seem so easy to coordinate does it.
Eventually they decided that a line of 700 people was'nt
going to work so we got to work in smaller more efficient
groups.
Here they are in ideal
circumstances. a nice forest with no major obstacles.
Yet.......
OK now this is more like it.
Survival tactics start to take over and you fight your
way through it. There are thorns in there (everywhere) to
make matters worse.
OK so most of it was pretty much
like this. Now it is time to panic.
Probably the most dangerous part
about the search was crossing over the barbed wire
fences. You would either have to go over it or crawl
through a gap on your belly.
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