Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Hurricane Rita Survivors Rescued in Louisiana | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55288732
Caption:

As storm clouds from the fringes of Hurricane Rita fill the sky in Nacogdoches, Texas (AP)


As storm clouds from the fringes of Hurricane Rita fill the sky in Nacogdoches, Texas (AP)

As storm clouds from the fringes of Hurricane Rita fill the sky in Nacogdoches, Texas (AP)

LAKE CHARLES, Louisiana (Reuters) -Emergency workers searched for people stranded by high waters in Louisiana”s Cajun country while Texas officials urged nearly 3 million evacuees from Hurricane Rita not to rush home on Sunday.

The storm dumped up to a foot of rain and lashed the border region of the two states with 120 mile per hour (192 kph) winds when it crashed ashore from the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday.

Rita pushed in a 15-foot (4.5-meter) storm surge that swamped the Cajun communities of southern Louisiana and left hundreds of people stranded in or on top of their submerged homes.

The storm dealt only a glancing blow to Houston, center of the U.S. oil industry, but badly damaged small towns and cities to its east.

A key natural gas installation in southern Louisiana known as Henry Hub, through which a third of the nation”s natural gas flows and where spot gas prices are determined, was damaged by Rita, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.

&#34We understand there is a gas leak and … a possible shearing of an oil storage tank,&#34 Blanco told CNN.

She gave no other details about the damage or its effects on gas delivery, but said the leak would have to be plugged.

&#34We”re watching the situation very carefully,&#34 Blanco said.

Rita and Katrina knocked out nearly all energy production in the offshore oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico and 30 percent of the U.S. refining capacity onshore.

At least three oil refineries were damaged by Rita, oil companies said.

Risk modeling experts said up to $6 billion in damages had been inflicted by Rita, which came less than a month after Hurricane Katrina struck Mississippi and Louisiana, leaving the historic city of New Orleans in ruins.

&#34We have been struck with another very strong hurricane and south Louisiana has been dealt a harsh blow, in fact all of Louisiana has been dealt a harsh blow,&#34 said Blanco, who toured the damage from Rita on Saturday.

In scenes like those that followed Katrina, emergency workers in boats and helicopters went to flooded areas to save people who had not fled Rita and found themselves stranded in waters up to nine feet deep.

In towns such as Abbeville, Pecan Island and Dulac, where French-speaking Cajuns settled and the Cajun culture is still strong, rescue workers battled high winds that continued to push water inland to pluck people from roofs or carry them from their homes.

&#34We need to pray to the good lord to switch the wind”s direction,&#34 said Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillan.

Rita”s storm surge was so powerful that Couvillan said it reached his own ranch 35 miles inland.

Unlike New Orleans and Katrina, rescue workers arrived quickly after the storm and there was no repeat of the shocking scenes of crime and chaos that besieged the Big Easy.

In Texas, chaos preceded Rita in a different form as nearly 3 million people fled the coast to escape what was once a dangerous Category 5 storm with 175 mile per hour (282 kph) winds.

The mass evacuation caused 100-mile (160-km)-long traffic jams and drained gas stations in the Houston area of gasoline. Cars that overheated or ran out of gas lined the state”s highways.

A bus carrying elderly people from a Houston nursing home exploded, killing 23 of those on board.

One Rita-related death was reported on Saturday in Belzoni, Mississippi, where police said a person was killed in a tornado. More than a 1,000 people died in Louisiana and Mississippi from Katrina.

On Saturday, Texas officials desperate to avoid new traffic jams as evacuees go back home, urged people to delay their return and encouraged oil companies to refuel gas stations to assure an adequate supply of gasoline.

&#34I can”t say in strong enough terms to those who evacuated the coastal region that they should not begin their return for the time being,&#34 Gov. Rick Perry said.

Despite Perry”s pleas, evacuees began flooding back to Houston on Saturday, causing backups on some highways.

The center of Rita came ashore 200 miles west of New Orleans, but its storm surge caused new flooding in the city that was just drying out from Katrina.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked to plug levees fractured by Katrina and now swamped again by Rita, but parts of New Orleans, now largely deserted, were again covered by six feet.

This aerial photo taken from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter shows a sunken fishing vessel in Port Arthur, Texas (AP)

This aerial photo taken from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter shows a sunken fishing vessel in Port Arthur, Texas (AP)

Dried mud from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina cake a row of cars flooded a second time by the water flowing out of the Industrial Canal levee breached during Hurricane Rita (AP)

Dried mud from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina cake a row of cars flooded a second time by the water flowing out of the Industrial Canal levee breached during Hurricane Rita (AP)