Gene Cox

"There's a lot of work to do at both places before we can safely allow people to use the parks," said Gene Cox, lead ranger at Sea Rim and Sabine Pass Battleground.
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TPWD hopes to allow at least limited use of parts of Sabine Pass Battleground State Historical Site "before the end of the month," said Gene Cox.

The Sabine Pass park was a very popular site with area anglers and picnickers.Less than two years before Rita hit, TPWD spent about $2 million refurbishing and improving the Sabine Pass park with bulkheading, a new boat ramp, overnight camping sites and other improvements.

Rita wrecked all that.

"The damage estimate there is $1.7 million," Cox said.

TPWD plans to fence off parts of the park that might be most dangerous, allow some day use and reopen the boat ramps at least by the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

But because of all the submerged hurricane debris in the channel and, perhaps, around the boat ramps, boaters will be advised that they use the ramp at their own risk, Cox said.

TPWD officials have said they hope to rehabilitate most of the Sabine Pass Battleground park, rebuilding the bulkheading, restrooms and some of the other facilities.But the agency has no plans to rebuild the overnight campsites.

Sea Rim State Park will not be reopened by Memorial Day but could be back in operation just ahead of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Rita.

"Right now, we're shooting for late July or early August," lead ranger Cox said."But that's still up in the air at this point."

Rita inflicted severe damage to the park's crucial water and water treatment infrastructure, Cox said.

The storm, which "washed away everything that wasn't tied down," even damaged water and wastewater pipes buried as much as 8 feet below ground, Cox said.

Cost to repair the park's ruined sewer system will run near a half-million dollars, he said.

"It's hard to tell people they can't use the park," Cox said.

88 ford ranger ... 250,e-350 Gene Cox 16:45:48 6/29/102 (0) removing 1994 ranger headlight assembly - Alex 14:39:18 6/29/102 (0) problems - Tom 15:13:44 6/27/102 (0) Ford Ranger Shock Replacement - Julian ... Ford Ranger Grilles - Ford Grill ... $26.68.1993-1994 Ford Ranger Grill ... 1989-1992 Ford Ranger Headlight Door Lh (Driver Side) ...

They are greeted by Gene Cox, the acting park manager for both Sea Rim and Sabine Pass.

"Our biggest damage is the water and waste water system," Cox said, estimating $4,000 $5,000 to repair Sea Rim's sewage system.It's another story for Sabine Park Historical Park, where the storm used a metal boat ramp as a battering ram to bring down the concrete and brick front wall of a new restroom.

"All the cross-overs have 95 percent damage to them," Cox said.
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"We have the boat ramp open for duck hunting an will honor pre-scheduled airboat tours," Cox said.
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Otherwise, the park will remained closed possibly through January, Cox said.

"We want to be able to offer the same facilities that we had when we re-open," he said.

Gene Cox is a park ranger at the state park.

The beach is closed, plain and simple, lead ranger Gene Cox said.But people still can't seem to get the point.

"People come up here all the time, wanting to see the beach, and I can understand that," he said.
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Cox and a handful of other personnel have been keeping watch over the gates since Hurricane Rita blew in.
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The park was closed on the Wednesday before the storm, and Cox said the last visitors were reporters who wanted to get a look at the surf.Unlike the beaches in Galveston, Sea Rim had no surfers in the days leading up to the storm, as far as the lead ranger knows.

Cox, who lives on site in a home provided by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, evacuated the next day to Milam and came back on Sept. 25, the Sunday after the storm.

"Driving back through Sabine Pass, it was enough to make a grown man want to sit down and cry.Debris everywhere.Still nobody here but the Coast Guard," he said."It was sure a sight for sore eyes when I pulled up and saw that all these beach cabins were still here, that the headquarters was still here.There was some damage, but not near as much as I expected."

Cox slept in his truck for four days, and then brought out a little pop-up camper for his family.

"It was a really lonely feeling," he said."The telephones were gone.
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"If we put a sign in Sabine Pass, I don't suppose that people would read it, since apparently they can't read this one," Cox said.

"Saturday around 10:30 a.m. we received a call from a man who had sighted a large pool of sharks feeding in the water by his house," said Gene Cox, Sea Rim State Park lead park ranger and park peace officer."The sharks were feeding and heading west.We confirmed the sighting of five or six bull sharks."

Bull sharks are notoriously aggressive and the most feared of the sharks that are common in the area, Cox said.

In addition, a seven-foot bull shark washed up, dead, on the shore, Cox said.

Early Sunday morning, a group of Beaumont fisherman caught a 9-foot male bull shark off the coast of McFaddin Beach, a site slightly west of Sea Rim State Park.

Despite shark warnings delivered by park personnel, people flocked to the state park this weekend in large numbers, Cox said.
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Bull sharks, along with sand sharks and black tip sharks frequent the warm Gulf waters each year to feed on the abundant supply of mullet, crustaceans and others, Cox said.

People can take heart, however, in the fact that there has never been a reported shark attack at Sea Rim State Park in more than 30 years of operation, Cox said.

People are urged to be cautious, but not be overly afraid while playing in the surf, Cox said.

The beaches in the park are never closed to swimmers because of sharks, Cox said.

"Sharks only see things as food," Cox said.

Bull sharks, along with sand sharks and black tipped sharks, frequent the warm Gulf waters each year to feed on the abundant supply of mullet, crustaceans and other sea life, Gene Cox, Sea Rim State Park lead park ranger and park peace officer said recently in an interview.

"It will be primitive," said assistant manager Gene Cox.
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"Some parks had closed, so you do start to get a little paranoid," said Cox, the assistant manager at Sea Rim.