Posted on 09/29/2005 6:51:28 AM PDT by RoseyT
Rita sends rural Texans back to 'caveman days'
By PAM EASTON
Associated Press Writer
WOODVILLE, Texas — Five days after Hurricane Rita came ashore, some East Texans took baths and brushed their teeth using water from the Neches River while others affected by the storm waited in line for federal assistance and gas.
Crumpled tin roofs and canopies in Woodville's town square still littered parking lots Wednesday. Downed power lines and trees were in people's yards and lined nearly every road. Many people were still without power or water.
"We went from normal life back to caveman days in a matter of hours," said Dam-B Volunteer Fire Department Chief Thomas Eller, whose seven-man crew has spent days moving trees out of roadways and getting food to hundreds of residents who were stranded or just didn't want to leave.
Eller worked Wednesday to get some of the area's elderly residents evacuated. Among them was 90-year-old Joseph E. Robinson and his 75-year-old wife, Wanda.
A downed power line lay in front of the couple's one-story house and three trees had fallen into a neighbor's home. Eller had persuaded the Robinsons to ride out the storm at the firehouse, but they wanted to go home once the storm passed.
"There ain't no place like home," said Joseph Robinson, who has emphysema and said he could just fan himself in the heat that neared 100 degrees. "I feel all right at times, if I could just breathe. We got winter coming on. We'll have cool weather. We'll be all right. It's been hotter than this."
But Eller said he feared the heat could endanger the couple.
"A lot of them don't want to leave, but I don't want to give them a choice, really," Eller said. "I would rather move them out of here kicking and screaming then have to put them in a (body) bag."
Eller said he had to "raise a stink" with the county's emergency management office and sheriff to finally get the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bring food and supplies to his firehouse Tuesday.
Frustrations with FEMA also emerged in Houston where a disaster center opened by the agency had to be closed hours after its doors opened when hundreds of hurricane victims waited in line and some fainted in the triple-digit heat.
FEMA officials said they were caught off-guard by roughly 1,500 people who showed up at the center after being displaced by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
The center, offering help from a variety of government and private organizations, initially opened for Katrina refugees. It closed last week when Houston was evacuated before Rita.
Back in East Texas, near Livingston, a plywood sign stood on the driveway outside a small, blue wooden home where eight Beaumont families had sought refuge with a relative: "Help Needed. Ice and Water. 43 People."
The group had no electricity, water, food and wondered how all 43, including 13 children, would survive.
"The only thing we could think of to survive was to put out that sign," said Tiffany Moten, 24. "Luckily, we were blessed, and we have a lot of friendly people who came up and brought us water and ice and things like that. We are trying to make it."
They sleep in four tents outside the house to take advantage of the cooler night air, which is still in the high 70s. Adults use paper towels, dampened with bottled water, to keep the children from overheating and built a campfire to keep mosquitoes away.
"We sat there and watched what happened to all the people with Katrina, and our hearts poured out for them," Moten said. "We never thought that a few weeks later, we would be in their predicament."
In nearby Jasper, Jeff Sargent, a vice president of an Arizona-based ambulance company that helped evacuate a Texas nursing home, helped run a makeshift triage center out of a church. Sargent was so tired Wednesday he couldn't recall his age.
He said it was difficult for many residents, trapped behind miles of downed trees, to get medical care, food or water immediately after the storm. So far the triage center has seen about 300 patients and treated everything from heart problems to heat-related illnesses, Sargent said.
Buses, ambulances and personal vehicles have been used to evacuate people needing additional medical treatment.
Some of the rural residents felt like they were forgotten after the storm.
"They are still stuck on Katrina and Rita's done some hellacious damage up in these woods," said Sharon Lakey, a 49-year-old Farrsville resident who sat in a long line of vehicles waiting to get gas in Jasper. "We're in a rural area, and people don't think about the people in the rural areas. We feel lost and forgotten."
Associated Press writers Juan A. Lozano in Houston, Liz Austin in Austin and Abe Levy in Port Arthur contributed to this report.
Well, if NO is an example - loot, burn and pillage. Don't worry, the feds will come through with billions because they feel guilty about all of it...
I am not sure that the cavemen had chainsaws, or roads to clear.
I'll be honest, right now I'm just concerned about getting the basic necessities to these folks. I posted an article about Jasper on another thread. They're saying it could take up to 2 months to have power restored. And I'm still sitting here wondering where the hell the MSM is and why they aren't on my tv screen screaming about these people needing help.
At least we know how to do it, unlike those city slickers.
Break-out the old armadillo recipes...
Look for the bear necessities
The simple bear necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife!
Somehow I think the cavemen didn't worry too much about whether the government was going to protect/save them. We've come a long way haven't we?
The lesson here is that the people of East Texas will pull themselves out of this mess, not because they have any more money than the people of NO but because they take care of themselves and their neighbors instead of depending on the government to run their lives.
Or had come to the knowledge of the concept of ice.
I do not remember pioneers to Texas taking icemakers with them. How did our ancestors ever make it?
Just as Ol' Hank Jr sang, "A country boy can survive".
I would have to say that thunder thighs should feel right at home in a cave....hence she came from.....
Ditto - I spoke with a couple of people in Jasper yesterday and they said "unofficially" they're being told another 3 weeks before electricity is restored. On the up side, there's water and gas service again...when them piney woods start crashing down, it can really get messy!
There will be many resourceful people who manage to take care of themselves and their families.
I think a lot of people don't realize that in many of these towns, evacuees sucked local resources (including gas and food) dry. It's not like these small towns are only trying to take care of their own. There are hundreds and in some cases thousands of extra people in town.
In Lufkin we had 70,000 evacuees. I don't know how many of those are still here but we still have National Guard troops keeping an eye on things inside Walmart, our shelters are packed, and we still have thousands of homes and businesses without power. This comes after our local charity organizations have spent the past month working non-stop to help Katrina evacuees.
The bottom line is that local resources are taxed, people are worn out and could use a little help. I don't believe those folks are asking for a freaking hand out. They need a little help. That's all.
Oh and for what it's worth, here's an example of how FEMA's operating down here. FEMA sent ice and water to Corrigan, but instead of contacting Corrigan city officials and asking how much they needed, they shipped an amount based on the population of the city of Corrigan. Well, that left out about 5,000 people who live in nearby areas, not to mention evacuees who are stuck there. (That info is based on a conversation my Dad has with the chief of police in Corrigan 2 days ago.) The same thing happened in Jasper.
I'm relieved to hear that. I'm also happy the much needed cool front made its way through the area. :)
Well, when the water that comes out of your faucet gets there because it's being pumped by a facility which is powered by ELECTRICITY and your 3 day supply of bottled water has run out and you're hearing that it could take a couple of weeks before power is restored would you not get concerned? What's that you say? Gas up your car and leave the area? And go where? There's not a vacant hotel room or shelter within a 100 mile radius of this area.
I don't recommend trying that in East Texas. People will take offense, and shoot your a$$. The Texas Rangers and local law won't let it slide either.
My favorite FEMA tale is the delivery of a tanker of fuel to Port Arthur. It was supposed to be for police cruisers, but FEMA delivered it to the fire department. When the fire fighters told them that the delivery was a mistake and that it was supposed to go to police not fire, FEMA just up and left town with the fuel, delivering it to no one!
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