My brother was at ground zero in LA

[Texas Diesel]

He is a Deputy Sheriff that was called to LA to assist. He said total devastation there. He was patrolling the coast and found where the eye went over. Trees and telephone poles blown down 180* apart. He said is was very wierd to be at the eye path and see the pattern of destruction.



I will post a pic if he has one (he thinks he does).

 

[Shrimpy]

My brother was in Beaumont with my mom's companies shrimp boat and 4 of my uncle's work/crew boats. They were as far up the Neches River as you can go. If you were on I-10 heading east or west and looked south you could see them.



They tied to a ship dock that was about 30-35 feet above the deck of the smallest boat, our shrimp boat (78 ft). All five boats tied to the largest boat (135 ft. ) and 3,500 H. P. There plan was, if the wind broke them loose from the dock, the largest boat MIGHT be able to use the HP to keep itself against the dock. He said winds reached about 125-135 mph constant with gust higher. The tide only came in about 12 ft where they were. He said that the worst lasted about 6 hrs, then started to taper off.



One boat didn't make it to Beaumont and docked at Intercoastal City/Fresh Water Bayou in LA. The docks were not for ships and were not protected. That boat, 115 ft, ended up on TOP of the dock it was tied to, then when the water receded it broke thru the dock. The Captain and Crew deserted the boat and my brother had to go get it. Since it laid on it's side during some of the storm, when he got to it 3 days later, there were snakes EVERYWHERE. He said 5ft Water Mocisons (sp) were common with an occasional 5 1/2 to 6 ft'er swimming by.



As TexasDiesel says, the destruction is INCREDIBLE. They recorded a 117 mph wind gust in Livingston Tx, about 110 miles inland.



Good luck to those affected by this storm



Jim

 

[CMacKenzie]

Rode Rita out just 15 miles west of Beaumont and 30 miles as the crow flies from Sabine Pass. I will never complain about having to build my house to windstorm code. House was built to handle 150 mph winds. We had recorded winds of 128 mph.



I have a 20 kw genset run by a ISB 4 cyl. Cummins. Started the generator at 9:30 pm on Friday Sept. 23rd and shut it down on Tues. Oct. 4. I have a 500 gal. tank and I burned 230 gallons. thats right at 1. 2 gallons an hour. I ran everything in the house including the central air and even the pumps for the pool.



We ran the city govt out of the house and were a substation for the Sheriff's Dept. and DPS since they could not stage out of Beaumont.



Southeast Texas was devastated by Rita with some areas that will not be receiving power back till Nov. , but all you still hear about is Katrina. Yes, Katrina was a horrible storm and caused countless damage. New Orleans will have to be rebuilt (maybe like a southern Las Vegas w/o rebuilding the housing projects?). But Rita was a strong hurricane too. It just did not hit a large urban news worthy area like New Orleans.



But just like many of the small towns in LA, MS, and TX, we take care of ourselves. We begged and borrowed generators and other equipment to get our water plant back up and running within 2 days to provide water to our town of 550. Other cities close to us waited on FEMA to provide for them and finally a week later they had water to the city. I'm glad we didn't wait on them.



I am proud of the way our city pulled together and helped their neighbors by putting tarps on people's houses who had evacuated so further damage was prevented. We helped clear trees and clean yards so the kids could go outside and not be in danger from falling trees and yard debris.



The one good thing Rita did for us was bring us back to being a community of friends instead of a community of nodding strangers.



Charlie

 

[BigEasy]

The one good thing Rita did for us was bring us back to being a community of friends instead of a community of nodding strangers.

Charlie

Isn't it a shame that it takes a disaster to do that? NYC is back to the same old BS it was before 9/11, though.

 

[Oasis-3]

Good Pix

This is a good picture that was sent to me of Neighbors looking out for each other.



http://groups.msn.com/oasis320015/katrinarita.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=167



Good Luck

Cliff

 

[E7mack96]

We have a good many pics of the devastation in New Orleans and surrounding Mississippi area. If anyone would like me to, I would make a gallery for them.

 

[Shrimpy]

Hey Charlie, Glad to see you made it thru everything o. k. . That little cummins was a life saver. Hope to see you at Baytown in November for the diesel drags. Mark B. will be there with his truck, look for us in the pits. Single cab, silver 4x4. Later,



Jim

 

[nps]

Oasis-3's picture was soo good I figured I'd post in in the thread in case the link gets broken.



#ad

 

[JaMan]

I was there working in the Beumont area and the above pic describes most of the people around there after the storm. LOOTERS WILL BE SHOT!!! spray painted on every other house. We brought power back to the Vidor area hope the other crews do as well soon in B-mont.



Jared

 

[B.G. Smith]

We took the 5th wheel and the Dodge and went 125 miles north to Six Mile area on Toledo Bend Lake on the 21st with intentions of going further. The traffic got so bad we stayed there through the storm, not far enough, it got pretty rough there, we got in the truck about 8:00 AM when a limb blew off a tree near the rear of the trailer and spent four and a half hours sitting in the truck. Lost all power and water at the place where we were so we moved to Athens Sunday, went on up to East Fork park on Lake Lavon the following wednesday, stayed there till the 12th when we got power back here and came home. Lots of tree damage in the yard and some roof damage but really came through pretty good considering the severity of the storm. My son is a policeman in Port Neches and they left here Friday night and went to Lumberton High School and spent the night and were back in Port Neches Saturday morning before 9:00 AM. He worked about 27 days at least 12 hours a day before he had a day off. Here is an aerial photo taken sometime the week of the 4th. Can't tell much about it but lots of big trees down and lots of blue tarps on buildings. #ad
bg

 

[Shrimpy]

Glad you and yours made it thru O. K. B. G. I was in east Texas also, about 15 miles west of Nacogdoches. Lost power Saturday about 11:00 a. m. Stayed till Sunday night then drove back to Houston, normal 3 hrs took 6!!!!!! They did not get power back until Friday of that week.



Jim