An Army of Searchers Combs the Banks of the Guadalupe for the Missing

New York|An Army of Searchers Combs the Banks of the Guadalupe for the Missing

With a poke from his pitchfork, Joe Espinoza found the red door of an old Chrysler and wondered if the entire car was buried beneath it, in the mud. He called to his wife and two friends, fellow volunteers from Kerrville, Texas, who were searching the Guadalupe River floodplain for neighbors who were swept away by the July 4 deluge.

The four volunteers bent low and pried the door free. Underneath, they found only more mud.

It has gone that way often for the army of searchers hunting for more than 100 people who are still missing along the Guadalupe. More than 2,100 search workers from 12 states have descended on Kerr County, Texas, said Sergeant Jonathan Lamb of the Kerrville Police Department, including public workers from Nebraska, Louisiana, Virginia and even Mexico. Indiana alone sent people from 15 different fire and police departments.

Then there are volunteer groups, dozens of them from across the country, some who received donations for private flights into Kerrville-Kerr County Airport to begin searching as quickly as possible.

It is painstaking work, full of disappointments like the Chrysler door.

“You think you find something that might help someone, a body, or just a drivers license,” said Evan Cervantes, 34, who joined Mr. Espinoza in the search on Thursday after their shifts as psychiatric nursing assistants at Kerrville State Hospital. “But then you find nothing.”

But there is also solidarity in the struggle.

“It’s overwhelming to see so many people come and help in the search,” said Amy Vanlandingham, 38, a Kerrville resident who spent hours on Thursday searching along the river. “This is our town. I do it so I can sleep.”