Local, state and federal cattle officials are also working to save stressed cattle displaced by the storm.

“All the ranchers are trying to gather their cattle back up,” Ripley said. “Everything is salt-water contaminated, so it makes recovery tougher. They can’t drink salt water and can’t graze pastures.”

Ripley said the USDA was bringing in hay and water to help the animals until they can be moved to suitable pastureland.

“The initial plan is to get 15,000 head of cattle that need to be moved,” Ripley said.

Before moving, cattle will have to be sorted — a difficult process since many have co-mingled with other herds. Brand inspectors are on site to determine who the owners are.

Officials are trucking cattle to White’s Memorial park in Anahuac where they will be sorted before moving to another location.

Ripley said there is a proposal to open crop land included in the Conservation Reserve Program. The crop land has been taken out of production and planted in grass.

Ranchers in other parts of the state are being called to see if they can take some of the Southeast Texas cattle until their pastures are sustainable again, probably by spring, Ripley said.

Ripley said in all the years he has worked with cattle, he has never seen or heard of anything like this in Texas — not since Galveston’s Great Storm in 1900.

“I don’t know that the ranchers really anticipated the severity of the storm surge. We may never see anything like this again; I hope that we don’t,” Ripley said.

Contact this reporter at skoonce@panews.com.