By Sherry Koonce

The News staff writer

State and federal officials are continuing efforts to clear the carcasses of an estimated 4,000 farm animals that perished when Hurricane Ike’s massive storm surge inundated Southeast Texas pastures with Gulf of Mexico saltwater.

In the aftermath of the storm — which brought a surge up to 17 feet in some places — roadways, homes and pastures between Port Arthur, Winnie and Anahuac, and portions of Orange County were littered with cattle and horses that perished from the high waters .

“I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life,” said Mike Stellbauer, a 31-year veteran range management specialist with the National Resource Conservation Service.

Stellbauer said the carcasses — mainly cattle, and some horses — were mostly found along Texas 73.

The Texas Animal Health Commission estimated about a 20 percent death loss among the area’s cow population. The estimates were based on aerial counts taken right after the storm.

According to the Associated Press, cattle officials estimated there was about 35,000 cattle in the area before the storm hit.

Stellbauer said the USDA has a contract with the affected counties to dispose of the livestock carcasses. Most of the carcasses were taken to a Chambers County landfill, and some to the Golden Triangle landfill on Labelle Road in Jefferson County.

“Our main focus was to get the cattle off public roads and out of people’s yard’s. We’ve almost done that,” he said.

The remainder will be picked up as soon as the contractor’s dump trucks are operational again.

“We’ve had several contractors with two to four dump trucks running since Friday. Right now they are stuck in the mud trying to get to some areas that we just can’t get to right now,” Stellbauer said.

Jeff Ripley, district extension administrator with Texas Agrilife Extension Service’s Corpus Christi office, said most of the livestock died from drowning. Others, he said, died from sickness associated with the saltwater.