Search and rescue team from Riverside back home after helping with Texas flood recovery efforts

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Five members of an urban search and rescue team from Riverside have returned home after a grueling two-week mission in Texas, where they worked with cadaver dogs to help with the July 4 flooding recovery effort.

The historic floods in central Texas have killed at least 135 people, including dozens of children from a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County.

"Just like the fires in L.A. that we were just at, any time you're doing recovery, it's just a different mindsight," said search and rescue team member Sharon Gattas, who worked with her search dog Harley.

"In situations like Texas, it's more emotional because everybody is so worried, intense, and there's so many volunteers there upset," she said.

Gattas has also been on missions following the Oklahoma City bombing, as well as New York City following the September 11th terrorist attacks.

"There's literally family members out looking for their kids, so that's a part you have to put aside and move forward and search with the dogs."

The team members said the days were long and incredibly difficult.

"The challenges were first and foremost the humidity" said team member Peter Sellas with the Riverside Fire Department. "The heat is a lot like our heat, but the humidity was exhausting, both for us, especially the K9s."

But Sellas said the heat was far from the only dangerous element.

"We had poisonous snakes, we worked in areas with wild boar in the area, we were searching, and on one of the last days of searching, we had a mountain lion in the area," he said.

Out of respect to family members who'd lost loved ones, team members did not disclose whether they personally discovered the remains of the victims.

But Gattas said one of the difficult parts of the day happened even before they started searching: the morning briefing where they were informed about the ever-increasing death toll.

"In one case, I think it was the grandparents, and two grandkids in the family (who were killed)," said Gattas. "It was generations gone, it was crazy, that was hard ... and then you have to go search, and you can't get caught up in that. You have to compartmentalize and go search."