Yep, which gives me all the more confidence it will be back. :)
-Dan
-Dan
The people of Cameron Parish will rebuild--this isn't their first go around and more than most other Americans they are pretty self-reliant. But the anger and frustration that is being caused right now by the new media for all this "dodged a bullet" crap is nothing short of infuriating.
Louisiana is a very provincial state in the plainest sense of the phrase. New Orleans is very vital to the economy of the state and is the hub of so much that goes on in the state, but, truth be told, most Louisianians don't give a rat's ass about NO. Most treat it as the brother with the felony record that you have to put up with. And take to the occassional Saint's game.
It's sad but it's true.
Rita affected more of the state physically than Katrina. Rita has probably casued mroe damage to the physical coastline in LA than Katrina--which unleashed most of her wrath on the eastern Gulf Coast. The yardstick by which everything weatherwise in SW Louisiana was measured was Hurricane Audrey. All the old timers from Sabine Pass to Erath talk about it like it was the Rapture. That's over. It will be Rita that they will describe with terrible sadness.
Economically, we did dodge a bullet with Rita. It could have been 100 times worse. Beaumont, Port Arthur, Lake Charles, Sulphur, Abbeville, etc. could have been wiped out or their industrial bases destroyed. It ddin't happen. In New Orleans the bill for the levees alone is going to be 10 -20 billion if Blanco is to be believed. You and I and everyone who reads this will be footing the bill on this one for years. But I think Rita will alter life south of I-10 in fundamental ways that haven't been accounted for yet.
There's a lot of outrage that a fairly large city like Lake Charles and the rest of SW LA is being treated like it's problems aren't real and their only impact is that they are just getting in the way of dealing with Katrina.
My Dad and I are gonna go to Sulphur today to try and see what damage has been done to mom's house and to my in-laws' house. We might be able to get down to Hackberry to see what happened to the house there, but I have heard that there is still bayou flooding on the only road into town as of two hours ago. We might try anyway.