SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas (AP) – Residents, some of whom lack heat or basic amenities in their own home because of the unusually chilly weather, they rescued cold stunned sea turtles and brought them to a convention center in a South Texas resort.
“A different truck or SUV arrives every 15 minutes or less,” Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, told The Associated Press Wednesday.
He said that sometimes people bring one or two sea turtles, sometimes more. “We had trailers full of 80, 100, 50 yesterday,” he said.
The South Padre Island Convention Center started pitching on Monday when its neighbor, Sea Turtle Inc., could no longer handle the number of sea turtles being deposited and their mostly outdoor activities ran out of power. He said the convention center itself had no electricity or water until early Wednesday morning.
He says they have “collected” more than 3,500 sea turtles so far. He said he was reluctant to use the word “saved” because “we know we’re going to lose some”.
Caum said that with another cold front approaching, they don’t know when they can bring the sea turtles back into the water.
Temperatures in the area on Wednesday afternoon were in the 1940s. He said it could be Saturday – when the temperature is expected to reach the low 60s (above 15 degrees Celsius) – before the turtles can be released back into the Gulf.
He said they were able to bring the convention center temperature to 60 degrees with the power back.
“We are trying our best to save as many turtles as possible,” he said.