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Rita calms down
Former isle resident
weathers big storm
A Damien graduate and
his family take back roads
to find safe haven from Rita
On Thursday, when Hurricane Rita was still gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico, Gregston Chu evacuated from Houston. Instead of getting into the traffic going north, he drove east to Louisiana, where his aunt lives.
"My plan was less and less of a good idea," Chu said, when Hurricane Rita started to jog east toward New Orleans.
The former Hawaii resident took back roads to a small town 20 miles southwest of New Orleans, as opposed to the gridlock headed in the opposite direction toward Dallas and Austin, Texas.
In the end, he and his family fared fine in his aunt's home in Luling, La. The area was hit by tropical storm-force winds but sustained little damage.
"I think the only reason that I went the way I went is because I have family and a secure place to go," said Chu, who graduated from Damien Memorial School. "And I didn't want to be stuck on the road."
Chu and his wife have a 9-month-old baby.
He said they were concerned about getting a place to stay that would be safe and comfortable enough for an infant. Before they left Houston, they called several hotels elsewhere in Texas and couldn't find a vacancy anywhere.
From neighbors who didn't evacuate, Chu was able to learn that his Houston home wasn't damaged. He and his family probably will head back to the city in a week to avoid more traffic jams.
But, he said, he'll likely take a different route, as many of the coastal towns he passed through going to Louisiana were heavily damaged in the hurricane.
Storm seems tame
compared to Katrina
BEAUMONT, Texas » Hurricane Rita pummeled east Texas and the Louisiana coast yesterday, battering communities with floods and intense winds, but residents were relieved the once-dreaded storm proved far less fierce and deadly than Katrina.
After the storm passed, authorities pleaded with the roughly 3 million evacuees not to hurry home too soon, fearing more chaos.
"Be patient, stay put," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "If you are in a safe place with food, water, bedding, you are better remaining there for the time being."
In any other hurricane season, Rita might have seemed devastating. It knocked out power for more than 1 million customers, sparked fires across the hurricane zone and swamped Louisiana shoreline towns with a 15-foot storm surge that required daring boat and helicopter rescues of hundreds of people.
But the new storm came in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with its 1,000-plus death toll, cataclysmic flooding of New Orleans and staggering destruction in Mississippi. By contrast, Rita spared Houston, New Orleans and other major cities a direct hit. By yesterday evening, the only reported death was in Mississippi, where one person was killed when a tornado that spun off the remains of the hurricane overturned a mobile home.
"The damage is not as serious as we had expected it to be," said R. David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "The evacuations worked."
Carlyss Fire Department Capt. Andy Clopton, above left, consoled 55-year-old Dale LeDoux as he watched his home of five years burn to the ground in Sulphur, La., yesterday. Firefighters responding to the blaze ran out of water during Hurricane Rita and had no choice but to let the home burn itself out.
Before it weakened, Rita showed its strength across a broad region between Houston and New Orleans.
In Beaumont, trees of all sizes and power lines were down, street signs were shredded and one brick wall of an office building had collapsed. Said Dr. Gaylon Gonzalez, a surgeon who spent the night at Christus Hospital St. Elizabeth as Rita arrived, "It sounded like a power washer hitting the windows."
Perry surveyed Beaumont by air yesterday. "Considering it was a Category 5 storm 48 hours ago, I think we're probably pretty fortunate," he said.
The Texas Department of Transportation dispatched a 30-vehicle convoy from Beaumont to clear a debris-covered highway to the north toward Lufkin. Authorities used military helicopters and a bus to move some nursing home residents who had been stranded since Friday at an elementary school without power in the small town of Fred.
Some of the worst flooding occurred along the Louisiana coast, where transformers exploded, roofs were torn off and trees uprooted by winds topping 100 mph. Floodwaters were 9 feet deep near the town of Abbeville; farther west in Cameron Parish, sheriff's deputies watched appliances and what appeared to be parts of homes swirling in the waters of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The region was largely evacuated ahead of Rita, but some residents stayed behind and hundreds were rescued by helicopter or boat. Among them were a pregnant woman and her 4-year-old son stranded in Port Lafourche, a Gulf Coast outpost about 60 miles south of New Orleans.
"Most of the town was already under water from Katrina," said Coast Guard Lt. Roberto Torres, the pilot who airlifted the woman out. "And what wasn't got flooded by Rita."
Another 15 to 25 people were reported stranded farther west along the shoreline of Vermilion Parish, but searches were postponed until today because of high winds.
Elsewhere, a portion of Interstate 10 over the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles was closed after barges broke loose from their moorings and slammed into the bridge.
New Orleans, devastated by Katrina nearly four weeks ago, endured a second straight day of new flooding that could seriously disrupt recovery plans. The Army Corps of Engineers said it would need at least two weeks to pump water from the most heavily flooded neighborhoods after crews plug a series of levee breaches.
Some New Orleans residents who had evacuated to Houston because of Katrina were forced to move again as Rita approached.
"We're tired of being pushed from place to place," said Cora Washington, 59, as she and her family sat on cots in Texas A&M University's basketball arena in College Station. "We want to try to go back to New Orleans and pick up the pieces."
About 3 million people had fled a 500-mile stretch of the Texas-Louisiana coast ahead of Rita. The mass exodus produced gridlock and heartbreak; a bus of evacuees caught fire south of Dallas while stuck in traffic, killing as many as 24 nursing home residents.
Though Houston authorities urged residents not to rush home to a city lacking many essential services, inbound roads were already clogging yesterday afternoon. Most stores in Houston were closed, bank machines had no cash and police were controlling the long lines at the few open gas stations.
"Frankly the fuel is not going to come as quickly as those here might like and those traveling might like," said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Houston.
President Bush visited the Texas emergency operations center in Austin yesterday. Like other officials, Bush urged citizens not to prematurely assume the danger was over.
"Even though the storm has passed the coastline, the situation is still dangerous because of potential flooding," he said. "People who are safe now ought to remain in safe conditions."
6 months of aloha
for Gulf attorneys
The state Judiciary is doing what it can to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
To aid Gulf Coast attorneys, the state Supreme Court has authorized them to practice law in Hawaii over the next six months, if they temporarily relocate to Hawaii.
An order issued Thursday by Chief Justice Ronald T.Y. Moon said attorneys in good standing in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are granted admission to the Hawaii State Bar Association through March 31.
However, to practice law in the islands, they must be associated with a licensed Hawaii attorney.
Meanwhile, the Judiciary is helping arrange internships at state circuit courts for displaced law students from Tulane University in New Orleans.
"Being thousands of miles away from the Gulf Coast, the Hawaii State Judiciary is limited in our ability to provide direct service," Moon said. "Nevertheless, we hope that granting attorneys temporary admission to the Hawaii bar and assisting with the placement of Tulane students will help in some small way."
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