Rita: Insult and Injury

New Orleans, while lying far to the east of the eye of Hurricane Rita, is in for it again. Rain from Rita has caused the levees near the city’s Ninth Ward to be breached and is causing the district to be flooded once again. The district had been destroyed by the floods resulting from Katrina, but the Army Corps of Engineers had already started repairing the levees. This new deluge makes all of their work for naught. This has to be very painful for that district’s former residents to watch. One wonders, however, whether the rebuilding plans for New Orleans will be reconsidered. Perhaps they should be scaled down a bit.

And Rita hasn’t even made landfall yet.

Meanwhile, East Texas is one big parking lot. For Katrina, too few people evacuated in time; for Rita, too many it seems, leaving millions stranded on the major interstates. (A little bird--not the one in my comments section--told me that the back roads are the way to go; just don't run out of gas.) I heard on the news this morning that some families were taking all of their cars, which are loaded with all of their possessions. ::::sigh:::: It gives new meaning to the phrase, “you can’t take it with you.” Since the local government opened the opposite side of the highways, however, it’s said that traffic is moving faster. And not too soon.

Horribly, 24 nursing home evacuees died in an accidental bus fire on I-45 just outside of Dallas. The accident poses a kind of gruesome symmetry to the Katrina incident in which 40 nursing home residents and staff drowned after being abandoned by the home’s owners…and their relatives.

And, finally, where’s the safest place to be during a Cat 5 hurricane (besides land-locked country)? Inside a nuclear power plant facility, with the reactor shut down of course. All bets are off, however, if Rita gets tougher than the Saffir-Simpson scale can measure.

Houston, TX (AHN) - As Hurricane Rita churns into a Catagory 5 storm, Texas officials are preparing to shut down two reactors at a nuclear power plant in Rita's path.

The South Texas Project plant is designed to withstand Category 5 hurricanes, but Rita may develop stonger winds. The plant serves 1-million customers and is built on elevated ground in Bay City, 12-miles inland from the Texas coast.

But let me hush up before the Big One ripples along the San Andreas Fault. We had a few baby ones yesterday.

One more thing: for all of you who are saying that God is punishing these people for something, maybe, maybe not. Simply put, however, you don’t know and neither do I, so stop fronting as if you have an inside line to God’s intentions. Much obliged.

Comments

[LaurieK]

Catagory 5 storms have been ripping the Gulf Coast new ones for untold millenia. Hurricane's are meteorological phenomena and have no moral qualites to them whatsoever, anymore than a sunny day does. God cares about our souls, not the weather. If you want to see God at work in the tempest, then witness the acts of generosity, caring, and love for one's fellow man taking place wherever the suffering victims of such storms are found.

[baldilocks]

Exactly.

[StinKerr]

I spent a year and a half as cadre on a reserve training destroyer out of Galveston. I had some friends among the local populace there and they were still talking about hurricane Carla ten years after it hit.

They knew what was important when it came time to head for high ground. Family pictures and other irreplacables were on the top of their lists. You can replace a TV and all the other stuff we collect now. That pic of little whatshisname peein' in the ocean is priceless. Of course, little whatshisname might see it differently now that he's bigger.

I dunno why they sere so backed up on I-45. There are lots of side roads. Texas has some excellent side roads. They call 'em FM roads (Farm - Market, I think) Of course, you're moving more than two million people out of Houston and better than 50,000 out of Galveston.

There are only three ways off the island and one of them is a ferry which I'm sure isn't running now.

The main route is I-45 and the other takes you along the gulf coast. Not the place to be right now.

There are basically three ways of getting out of Houston: I-45 North to Dallas, I-10 East towards Louisiana (probably not a good idea) and I-10 West towards San Antonio. Basically you've got two million folks taking two highways out of town.

I'm glad I'm not there.

[Anna]

[clap, clap, clap} I applaud your notice to those that would use natural distaster as a holier-than-thou religious bat against others.

(sarcasm)
Besides, we all know the hurricanes are Bush's fault!
(/sarcasm)

[Merry Whitney]

Thank you, Lauriek, and your "ditto," Baldilocks. I think if there is a "lesson" in this type of disaster, that would be the important one.

The "God is punishing sinners" thing drives me bonkers. But I do believe there's at least one good, knowable reason why God allows bad things to happen:

(from "Garden of Eden Redux," link follows excerpt)

"Without the possibility or experience of pain, we couldn't empathize with pain, wouldn't develop or need compassion. Without hunger, extreme weather or natural disasters, we'd have no impetus to seek food and shelter, help one another, or form societies. We'd have been on our way to extinction when we packed our fig leaves and were tossed out of Eden."

http://home.earthlink.net/~mjwhitney1/index.html

Merry Whitney

[Sue Bob]

Hi Baldilocks,

The owners and staff of St. Rita's did not abandon the residents. They were all there when the flood waters came in at a rapid rate (in fact, some staff brought family with them to the facility as it has been used by them as a storm shelter in the past--the owners actually lived in an attached house) One nurse aide said on CNN's Nancy Graves that the water flooded in and by the time she got a resident into bed to get her above the water(this is what they do when flooded--get them up on the beds)--the water was to the Aide's waist--it was that fast.

When the waters rose, the staff and owners started pulling people out onto the roof and into boats. The owners went back for days and discovered at least one survivor. The home was certified for 100 beds. They apparently had 60-70 residents and 34 bodies were found.

I will eagerly debate anyone here about the owner's decision not to evacuate--countering with some terrible stories about facilities who did evacuate and the toll it took on frail residents. Had the levee not broken, St. Rita's residents would have lived. Many evacuated residents died as a result of being moved.

Sorry to use so much bandwith. It's just that I represent nursing homes and I was extremely angry at the MSM's characterizations of the facts in the early days.

My sources for the above are the CNN show I mentioned, a network of clients I have who manage nursing homes in the New Orleans area and this report from the Dallas Morning News: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/katrina/stories/091805dntexkatstritas.2dcf8df.html
(you must register to read)

[Cythen]

Aw, I was joking when I said this was God's answer to Mardis Gras!

[James M. Barber]

Juliette,
I lived in Houston and realized that FM 290 (FM=Farm to Market) is not an Interstate, but I10 West is and should have been used. Still there seemed more organization than in New Orleands. All that traffice on I45 North is asking for disaster. FM 290 leads to Austin which is a lot higher ground than Houston. In Texas, FM means Farm to Market and RM means Ranch to Market.
James M. Barber

[Aidan Maconachy]

Less severe than predicted. It's been downgraded to a tropical storm.

[Rocky J. And Bulwinkle]

"I had a squirrely wife that was I'd say was close to a point 5 B word when she threatened to divorce , In her words " my rodent ass" ," I told her dont let thedoor hit your'e furry snoot on the way out !!!! "
ROCKET J. Thats when I met my best freind bulwinkle < He'd also been in an ugly relationship with a moss covered tree who he said " Was beautifull but she didnt want to go anywhere { bulwinkles always been a swinging " happening moose"
Of course the two got together for THE GOOD OF MANKIND , The rest is HISTORY.

[Jack]

Regarding Texas roads:
FM is indeed Farm to Market - a many decades old idea, and many of them are better than the US highways in some states.
It's US290, almost a freeway, but still with many grade crossings, which is why it was not made one-way outbound. TX6 (state highway) from south of Houston joins US290 just NW of town and splits off about 30 miles later; 6 goes to College Station (Texas A&M) and 290 goes to Austin (Univ of Texas). I45 North goes to Dallas, US59 North to Lufkin then Shreveport LA, I10 East is Beaumont and Lake Charles, I45 South is Galveston, 59 South is Corpus Christi - Brownsville, and finally I10 West goes to San Antonio. All of these listed roads are multi-lane (three to six lanes each way close in, two further out from town) and the Interstates are controlled access. Both 10W and 45N were made one-way outbound to use all lanes for evacuation. Enough? Close to it. Over two million people were away from the coast before Rita hit. Remember, many hundreds of thousands of these evacuees first had to come into Houston from Galveston and the bedroom communities south of town before they could then head out from here (I'm NW of Houston, just off 290, and I stayed put). An evacuation of this size has never, ever been done, anywhere. Next time (there WILL be a next time, guaranteed) we will do better, assuming we have leaders then like we have now. Our leaders Led. Our police Protected. Our firefighters went out in conditions beyond belief. As the impact point of the storm shifted east, so did the people and supplies of the relief effort. They were rolling into Houston by midnight Friday to be ready to move east as soon as they could safely do so. I am very, very proud of us, and of our officials.

[Dee]

I couldn't agree with you more Jack. I'm very proud of of state & city govenment for doing their best to get us all out safely.

The only thing I saw wrong was too many people left (and returned) ahead of their scheduled time.

We live in Brazoria, 15 miles from the coast, a normal 3 hour trip to central Texas took us 7 hours to get there on the back roads & 5 hours to return. It took our friends from East Houston 18 hours to meet up with us. Some of our family never made it but were helped by friends of friends & family to have a place to stay.

I feel very blessed for Rita to of missed us & most of the Houston area that is so heavily populated. My heart goes out to all of those in the path of Rita here in Texas & Louisianna.