Troopers help with Houston rescues
Standing inside a flooded home on Brooklake Drive in Houston, a woman dialed 911 Wednesday, telling a dispatcher she was having serious chest pains.
The dispatcher sent a Texas National Guard paramedic to check on the woman, but the paramedic couldn’t make it through floodwater to reach her house. So the paramedic radioed to his central command post, and an Oklahoma Highway Patrol airboat was there within minutes.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Jamie Futral, 46, took the paramedic to the woman’s home, where he deduced that she was likely having a heart attack. So the two men piled the woman aboard and took her a safe spot where a helicopter picked her up and took her to a hospital.
Futral, who is assigned to the highway patrol’s Marine Enforcement Division at Lake Eufaula, was one of seven Oklahoma troopers assigned to rescue people in an area southwest of downtown Houston this week. He said by telephone he has not been able to find out how the woman is doing, but she was one of 60 people the troopers rescued Wednesday.
Trooper Lt. Michael Roe, 53, who worked with Futral this week, said Oklahoma troopers used two airboats to get into a neighborhood Wednesday in the 13000 block of Chardonnay Drive. Floodwaters were lapping at front doors of homes and people were inside who wanted to leave, he said.
On Wednesday, troopers worked from about 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Water was still rising a few inches throughout the day although the rains had stopped, Roe said.
During rescue efforts Wednesday, a homeowner reported possible looters inside one nearby home. So Roe and other troopers used their boat to take three Harris County Sheriff’s deputies to look for the men. Deputies didn’t find the looters but didn’t think they’d gotten away with anything, Roe said.
Roe said he expects to be in Houston for a few more days. He and other troopers are sleeping on the ground in sleeping bags or some on cots or air mattresses if they brought them. Local people have brought them food, including barbecue and chicken, he said.
Roe said he is glad to use his skills to help people in Texas.
“When we had tornadoes in Oklahoma people from Texas came to us to help here,” he said.
He said he volunteered for the assignment, and his family understands duty calls. Roe has been a trooper 28 years.
“My family knows what I do and when the job calls, you got to go,” Roe said.