9-foot alligator hit by car wrangled in Clear Lake neighborhood
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The morning commute in a Clear Lake neighborhood got a little wild Wednesday when a 9-foot, 540-pound alligator was spotted in the road.
Houston police responded to the initial call of an alligator in the 13000 block of Garden Creek Way near Clear Lake City Boulevard around 5:30 a.m.
SkyEye was over the road, where officers were trying to get to the alligator, but quickly turned that task over to gator wrangler Timothy Deramus.
The gator came from Horsepen Bayou. It moved to dry land during the heavy rain Tuesday night, but could not find its way back, and wound up in the middle of the street.
"I saw the police cars and I said, 'What's going on? There (are) police cars here,' and so I asked the police officers and they said there is a big gator," said Cindy Walker.
By the sounds of it, it didn't seem that the gator was happy to be there.
"The sounds of the hiss... I hope y'all got some of that. It was such a gravely... a sound I never heard that before," Walker told ABC13.
"They get out of the water when it is lightning. They come up out of the water to get away from being electrocuted," said Deramus.
Deramus says the gator was hit by a car. It does have obvious injury marks on its back, but will probably be okay.
Even as it was being loaded into Deramus' truck, the gator still had plenty of fight left in it.
The gator will be taken to Anahuac to be treated for the injuries and then will live out its life on a gator farm.
According to the Texas Gator Squad, you should expect alligators and other animals to be displaced as waterways swell.
If you encounter a gator, leave it alone. It should find its way home as water recedes.
RELATED: What should I do if I see an alligator in the flood?
With the flooding all over the Houston area Tuesday, you never know what you might encounter in the water.
Raw sewage, hazardous waste, metal and branches are just some of the things you may have to deal with.
Here are more reasons why you shouldn't swim in flood waters.
