Riding on horseback through brush and over numerous dead turkeys, Margo Mellon spent Tuesday scanning the flood-ravaged ground of Texas’ Hill Country for dead bodies.
As she and her rescue mates trudged through the muddy terrain, state officials announced that more than 160 people are still believed to be missing. With countless miles swamped by the floods, nobody knows when the searches will end.
The triumphs of finding people alive ended days ago, while the mission of recovering bodies that might include even more children is far from over. The grim undertaking has prompted questions about how first responders and rescue teams are able to mentally reckon with the work ahead.
Mellon, a 24-year-old volunteer with search and recovery organization Texas EquuSearch that is a working with local fire departments, said for now she feels emotionally detached as she focuses on the task. But she knows the experience will be difficult to process once she returns home to Corpus Christi.
“I’ll try not to think about it too much,” she said. “I’ll just think about the fact that at least the families have closure.”
The flash floods deluged homes, campgrounds and an all-girls summer camp over Fourth of July weekend. More than 100 people have been killed, including 30 children.
“We process it the best we can,” Lt. Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens said Tuesday at a news conference after taking a deep breath.
“We’re making sure they have the support,” Baker said of the search teams, adding that “to see a child in that loss of life is extremely tragic.”
Working on autopilot
The discussion about first responders’ mental health likely wouldn’t have occurred a generation ago, experts say. And while first responders have higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological health conditions, most are able to process the heavy realities of the job.
Nick Culotta, who was a paramedic in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said people in the profession are able to compartmentalize and work on autopilot. Despite the challenges of recovering bodies, he said the work is crucial.
“It’s definitely not the goal that you are hoping for,” he said. “But just being able to give someone closure that their loved one was found can give us a sense of accomplishment. There are still people unaccounted for from Katrina.”
Mental health challenges may follow, he said, which is why learning how to rest and get support is important.