HURRICANE RITA - THE CLEANUP BEGINS

The second devastating storm to hit the Gulf Coast in less than a month, Hurricane Rita, has now moved inland and forecasters are still not quite sure where she will go. Rita came ashore as a category three storm with a 15 foot storm surge and torrential rains. Some locations received more than a foot of rain with flooding wide spread throughout the region. Yet despite the devastation and the problems caused by Rita the once category five storm lost some of its punch before land fall and did not leave a path of destruction that compared to that left by Hurricane Katrina. Governor Kathleen Blanco who failed miserably in the aftermath of Katrina and now dealing with a second land fall in her state actually made some sense in a press conference that I caught the replay of last night on CSPAN. The Governor in order to minimize red tape has requested that Rita and Katrina be treated as one event therefore simply adding the areas affected by Rita that were not affected by Katrina thus expediting the relief effort. It seems that the heat that she received after Katrina has caused her to wake up and act instead of the terrible hesitation that she was plagued with after Katrina. Lake Charles was hardest hit in Louisiana and New Orleans is under water again. Texas reacted in a very timely manner. Despite the complaints that were leveled during the major traffic jams during evacuation, the Lt. Governor stated that Texas declares a state of emergency whenever a storm actually enters the Gulf and goes on the assumption that Texas will be affected. This causes all emergency services to kick in well before the storm. The Mayor of Galveston opened the city back to residents as of 6 AM this morning warning that it's not going to be comfortable with the power and many other services out but, "ya'll come home!" Some of the more hardest hit cities such as Port Arthur and Beaumont have dawn to dusk curfews and despite the damage Port Arthur had water service back on within a few hours after the storm. Reports of damage to two Texas refineries should not cause large disruption of the flow of gas from the region and with the advent of the Congressional commission to investigate price gouging the oil companies are going to be very cautious about raising prices . The President was in Texas throughout the storm personally over seeing all disaster related efforts and insuring, by his presence and authority that the debacle that occurred after Katrina would not be repeated! All in all Rita has proven to be less than expected but still leaves quite a bit of cleanup and recovery for everyone in her wake. God bless everyone in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama recovering from the storms.

Ken Taylor