GALVESTON, Texas — As the eye of Hurricane Ike passed over the island, Greg Whittaker pulled on his wet suit.

Photo by Kevin M. Cox

Penguins at Moody Gardens doing well after Ike.

He tromped to the front door of the Moody Gardens hotel, waded out into the dark, chest-deep water and pushed his way toward the pyramids to check on the animals in his care.

He couldn’t wait for the whole storm to pass — he had to know whether the animals were OK.

He was disheartened by what he found.

Rising floodwaters breached the Rainforest Pyramid. The basement, where staff stored the only living specimens of an African fish, was underwater. It seemed that floodwaters were close to breaching the Aquarium Pyramid.

Whittaker rushed around trying to make some last-minute changes, like adjusting the oxygen tank in an aquarium to save the fish when the generator died.

He stayed too long. As he waded back to the Moody Gardens Hotel, the back half of storm slapped him with 100 mph winds. The waters rose higher.

When he saw the general manager back at the hotel, he told him to expect the worst.

At 3:51 a.m. Sept. 13, they made the call to shut down the emergency generator so the rising water wouldn’t short out the transformers. The crew sat in the darkness of their hotel rooms listening to the winds howl and waiting for the storm to let up.

Surprising discoveries

When the storm died down enough for the crew to safely assess the damage, Whittaker and other biologists waded back to the pyramids to save what they could.

Whittaker, animal husbandry manager, brought with him the fish curator, the life support systems manager, a biologist who’s worked with penguins and seals and a biologist with expertise in venomous reptiles.

They were shocked by what they found.

Though saltwater flooded one-third of the rainforest floor and seeped into the freshwater tank, killing 80 percent of the fish in the Rainforest Pyramid, the larger and more precious specimens, such as the 100-pound catfish, were still swimming.

It was unbelievable considering the salinity in the tank was about half as strong as regular ocean water, Whittaker said.

The aquarium wasn’t flooded. The penguins and seals were fine in their darkened tanks. The pumps died. Only large metal oxygen tanks placed throughout the exhibit aerated the water. Still, only three dozen fish of the 8,400 in the Aquarium Pyramid died and only one chronically sick shark died from stress.

Solving problems

The problem then was power.

The floodwaters, which Whittaker said rose 14 feet, submerged the diesel-powered generator and electrical switches, rendering the source of emergency power useless.

The biologists knew they needed to find a way to keep certain exhibits cool. The penguin exhibit wasn’t so much of a problem. The workers chilled the water to 44 degrees — 10 degrees colder than the average water temperature in the tank. The chilled water kept the air in the area cool, and biologists cut down on feedings so that the penguins’ metabolism wouldn’t rise and cause them to overheat.

Three days passed without power, and the tank’s air temperature rose from 34 degrees to 58 degrees — still not enough to stress the birds, Whittaker said.

A refrigerated dairy truck was parked outside in case the exhibit got too hot.

The kelp exhibit posed another problem. As the water temperature rose, the biologists plotted to keep it cool. The original plan called for them to punch a hole in the wall and run water hoses from the refrigerated truck into the tank, Whittaker said.

No one wanted to destroy the walls, so instead the biologists emptied frozen fish from a 6-foot deep freezer, connected two 100-foot garden hoses, coiled them inside, loaded the freezer with ice and rock salt and pumped water through hoses into the kelp tank.

It worked. Despite the lack of electricity, the temperature in the tank rose only 1 degree.

‘This far from extinction’

When the water receded five days later, the biologists slipped into knee-high waders and headlamps to check on the animals they assumed were long dead in the dark basement.

They found a disgusting grime of water, mud, jet fuel, diesel and hydraulic fluid that leaked from the elevators.

They also found the fish that exist only in captivity at Moody Gardens. They were alive.

“They were this far from extinction,” Whittaker said, pointing to a spot halfway up the tank, where he found a water line. “These are some fine, tough fish.”

The biologists scooped the fish into empty kitty litter buckets and carried them to the aquarium. They found a snake that slithered its way into a fish tank and saved it. Later, they found the rest of the snakes and some endangered turtles covered in muck.

Some of the biologists, trained to rescue animals in oil spills, swabbed the turtles and snakes with detergents and blotted the muck from their backs and bellies.

Rescuing rattlers

In the Rainforest Pyramid, a crew trapped birds. They restrained and captured three of the four sloths. The fourth one, clinging high to a tree, is still evading them.

When rattlesnakes, searching for high ground, found their way to Moody Gardens’ doorstep, the biologists rescued them, too. They placed them near the trash bins where they could munch on rats.

When the causeway was cleared of debris, trucks arrived at Moody Gardens to take the animals to the Houston Zoo.

The most valuable or the most fragile animals were trucked out, but quite a few remained.

The penguins stayed in the dark for 12 days. When the lights finally came back on, they danced, they preened, they swam.

And they went right back to mating, Whittaker said.

Future plans

The news was not all good.

The Rainforest Pyramid looks like a “war zone,” Whittaker said. Moody Gardens sustained damage to its heating and air-conditioning system, its electrical system and its infrastructure. Officials don’t have damage estimates, spokeswoman Jerri Hamachek said.

They lost tens of thousands of dollars of equipment and food for the animals.

Some animals died, including the bats that suffocated in the Rainforest Pyramid.

Others were shipped to zoos and aquariums across the state. It’s not clear when they’ll return since no one knows when the repairs will be done.

Still, the Aquarium Pyramid will open Friday.

Hamachek said officials are hoping it will be a welcome distraction for those islanders who need a little happiness in their lives.