Rita Damage to SW Louisiana worse than being reported

Lake Charles.com Photos ^ | September 25, 2005

[Comstock1]

I think this photo is a little hyped. It seems to be a single housepad with scattered cinderblocks. Otherwise, I can't explain what those rectangular objects scattered all over are.

[Amelia]

Not enough coverage? Perhaps there wasn't enough blacks involved in the devastation?

Do you have to turn it into a racial thing? Most of the reporters don't know how to get out of the city to cover the countryside where most of the damage is - and the country people are too busy doing what needs to be done (and probably also don't have power or phones) to squall about it.

[Candor7]

Lets put Rita into some historical perspective in relation to Cameron, La. You will see that Cameron has had much more serious damage done to it by direct hits of hurricanes
than Rita has done, notibly the hurricane of 1865. Somehow the people survived, and note that Cameron has a culture of rebuilding and dealing with hurricanes. This is likely why there is far less media coverage, because far fewer numbers of people are whining like they did in New Orleans. In Cameron they are likely rolling up their shirt sleeves and Moving Forward.

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http://www.hurricanecity.com/city/cameron.htm

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Cameron,Louisiana's history with tropical systems:

(br)=brush (ts)=Tropical Storm (bd)=Back Door,meaning coming from over land from opposite coast.Not all names are noted,also storms before 1950 were not named.Not every stat on every storm description is given.

Years within 60 miles
1879br,1882ts,1886,1886ts,1888br,1897,1898-2tsbr,1905-2tsbr,1918,1920br
1932-37tsbr,1938ts,1940,1940ts,1941br,1943ts,1946ts,1957,1957ts,1971
1974bdts,1978,1979ts,1982ts,1985-2br,1986-89-92br,2004tsbr,(2005 not in stats)
33 times in 134 yrs end of 2004


Names from list above
audrey,bertha,edith,carmen,debra,claudette,chris,danny,juan,bonnie,chantal,Andrew ,Rita,

How often this area gets affected?
brushed or hit every 4.06 years

Average years between direct hurricane hits.(usually within 40 miles to include small hurricanes)
(7h)once every 19.14 years

Statistically when this area should be affected next
hit by Rita in 2005 ( plus 19.14 years)

Last affected by
2005 Sept 24th Hurricane Rita hits with 120mph winds. High storm surge in many areas of Vermillion parish with very heavy damage.

This areas hurricane past
in 1837 8 ft rise in lake pochatrain
1865 several thousand killed by a hurricane
1879 aug 23rd a 12 ft storm surge & many buildings destroyed.
1886 oct 12th a 9 ft storm surge as winds blew for 36 hrs,most houses removed from foundations due to storm surge.196 killed & hundreds of cattle killed
1918 early august,100mph. It struck without warning.press 28.36 gusts to 125mph.Overall moderate damage 34 killed
1940 aug 7th,6 killed 5ft storm surge
aug 1940 a hurricane well to the south slow moving dumped 21 inches of rain
1957 hurricane Audrey Thousands of buildings destroyed june 27th. Between 90 and 95 percent of the buildings in Cameron and Lower Vermilion Parishes were damaged beyond repair. 13 ft s.s inland to abbeville 556 killed 144mph over 40,000 homless in Louisiana
1971 edith gusts to 95mph 6 ft s.s ,69mph in Cameron with gusts to 96mph passed approx 30 miles east of Cameron.Heavy damage to sugarcane crops.
2005 Sept 24th Hurricane Rita hits with 120mph winds. High storm surge in many areas of Vermillion parish with very heavy damage.Moves slowly to the NW as a large hurricane weakening while moving in.

[Comstock1]

Åmen to that!

[backhoe]

I think this photo is a little hyped. It seems to be a single housepad with scattered cinderblocks. Otherwise, I can't explain what those rectangular objects scattered all over are.

It looks like cinderblock rubble to me- but I can't get any idea of scale from what I see in the pix.

[Comstock1]

Wow. Thanks for that information.

However...

To say that Cameron has been worse hit is a bit of a misnomer. There are probably no deaths from this, but this isn't the same Cameron that has been hit before. The land is physically smaller than it used to be and there are simply fewer reasons to rebuild. While the economy is still viable, it isn't what it used to be if you aren't working the oil patch.

But, I have no doubt that you are right, that this will be rebuilt. If you don't mind a few errant gusts, life is actually pretty good down there.

PS, let's not forget that Cameron isn't the only place hit in the parish. My main concerns are mainly around a smaller community named Hackberry on the west side of Lake Calcasieu (call Big Lake by the locals). We are also anxious to hear about Holly Beach and Johnson's Bayou--which were directly under Rita's eye.

[Comstock1]

Some of the other rubble looks like stepping stones (lower left). Some of the other debris is semi identifiable as other construction materials. It's just damn hard to tell. Guess that makes it a good fake photo.

Where was this guy when we were trying to show WMDs?;)

[spunkets]

Those are houses scattered around in that pic. The right side of the pic is where all the rubble and some rather intact houses piled up. The streets, or grid work looks mostly like mudflows now.

[mac_truck]

What did those folks not on the beach do wrong?

Well, let's hope they all purchased Flood Insurance more than 6 months ago, otherwise they're facing total loss of their property.

[laz]

I do give some credit to Fox for having Rick Leventhal there. When I saw him there I was then convinced that it was gonna be bad

When I saw that he was positioned atop a four-story parking structure, THAT'S when I knew it was going to be bad. Fox knew he and his crew would drown if they were on the ground.

[CARDINALRULES]

MDM =Mainly DemocRAT media

[spunkets]

Correction. Those are cinderblocks. The pic is of an area roughly 45'X83'.

[spunkets]

Correction. Those are cinderblocks. The pic is of an area roughly 45'X83'.

[spycatcher]

Smartalack is right. If it was mostly black folk being hit hard and displaced down there the coverage would be totally different. Wold Blitzer would be demanding to know "why they're so black" etc.

[Smokin' Joe]

In two words: New Orleans. If any other area seems more devastated, they don't get all the nickels...

[Shery]

Is there another source for the pictures? I don't understand what all they are asking for, so I cannot complete the registration.

[G.Mason]

Re: " Shep sounds like those professional ..."

Thanks for that. My take exactly!

Like you, (and probably thousands of others) I refuse to watch Fox, or any of those other MSM, Rita Cosby wanna be's. The weather channel is about all I can bear.

At last, my pacifier is in the garbage and I'm not even sucking my thumb! ;)

[deport]

That picture looks to me like a section of Cameron maybe 4 streets wide at the most. It was a beach side community even though it was the Parish seat. Many of the beach side structures were up on stilts and a lot were rental properties also. Cameron sits at the mouth of the Calcasieu River and the Gulf of Mexico. It is the entrance to the Lake Charles port, etc and host a lot of off shore pertroleum support facilities along with a fishing and shrimping fleet.

The reason you don't see much in the photo is that most of everything will be many miles inland because the storm surge will have washed it there.

I worked a pipeline job through that marsh north of the beach in 1957 after Hurricane Audrey came through. There were bits and pieces of houses, boats, refrigerators, all miles inland to where the originally resided.

I'm sure some of the town structures may have survived because some did in 1957. Such as the court house.

[Calpernia]

Ooo, that will leave a mark!

[John W]

"What's the reasoning behind downplaying Rita???"

There isn't a "Bush Administration Failed" potential story there.