(MSN) – The power is out, cellphone service is spotty and the water has stopped running for most of South Padre Island, a normally balmy beach town in the southernmost tip of Texas that has been chilled by a deadly winter storm.

But amid freezing temperatures that show no signs of warming soon, dozens of residents have ventured on foot and by boat to rescue another species that makes its home here: The island’s famous — and endangered — sea turtles.

By late Tuesday, volunteers working with Sea Turtle, Inc., a local rescue group, had transported more than 3,500 comatose turtles for rehabilitation at the town’s convention center. Conservationists look to gradually increase the animals’ body heat as they lay on tarps and kiddie pools indoors.

But Wendy Knight, the executive director of Sea Turtle, Inc., fears that hundreds of those turtles rescued in Texas may have already succumbed to the cold. “It’s unprecedented,” she told The Washington Post. “A cold stun like this could have the potential to wipe out decades of hard work, and we’re going through it with no power and a unique, more catastrophic challenge to our efforts.” READ MORE