Residents, some of whom are lacking heat or basic amenities in their own homes due to their exceptionally cold weather, rescued cold-stunned sea turtles and took them to a convention center in a southern Texas resort.
“Every 15 minutes or less there is another truck or SUV driving,” Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
He said sometimes people bring one or two sea turtles, sometimes more. “We had full trailers yesterday that had 80, 100, 50,” he said.
The South Padre Island Convention Center began collapsing on Monday when its neighbor, Sea Turtle Inc, could no longer handle the number of sea turtles being unloaded, and their mostly outdoor activity lost power. He said the conference center itself only had power or water early Wednesday morning.
He says they have so far “collected” more than 3,500 sea turtles. He said he was reluctant to use the saved word because ‘we know we’re going to lose a little bit’.
Caum said that with another cold front approaching, they do not know when they will be able to bring the sea turtles back into the water.
Temperatures in the area Wednesday afternoon were in the 40s (about 4C). He said it could be Saturday – when temperatures are expected to reach the low 60s (above 15C) – before the turtles can be released back into the Gulf.
He said that with the return of power, they could bring the conference center’s temperature to 60F (15C).
“We try our best to save as many turtles as possible,” he said.