Free Republic

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A steady procession of congressmen and U.S. senators have visited the Gulf Coast this month, inspecting Hurricane Katrina damage. But they didn't show up here, one of the places devastated by Hurricane Rita, Louisiana's "other" storm. Four months after Rita caused $4.7 billion in damage, people in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas say they're concerned the storm has been erased from the country's memory, overshadowed by Katrina's assault on New Orleans. While New Orleanians fret about "Katrina fatigue," people here say they've been victims of "Rita amnesia." "We don't want anyone to lose sight of the...

A car rests against a mound of sand and debris Wednesday in Holly Beach. The destruction caused by Hurricane Rita on Sept. 24 in coastal Cameron Parish is still evident in the background. Mandatory evacuation in place as cleanup mucks along HOLLY BEACH -- The north-south route through Cameron Parish west of the Calcasieu Ship Channel is cleared and open, though crumbling in places. But the only structure still standing in the Holly Beach community that it once led to is the water tower. A full month and a half has passed since Hurricane Rita scoured coastal Cameron Parish...

Hurricane Katrina destroyed close to 30 miles of Louisiana's levees, and while the state and the nation debate over how to rebuild them, people in southwest Louisiana wonder why they've never had them. As he sits through meeting after meeting about how to rebuild New Orleans, a state lawmaker from the other side of the state feels left out. With Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, if you think about it, we're the middle child, Rita," says Senator Nick Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. Rita's storm surge wreaked havoc on much of his district. In New Orleans, much of the flooding happened because...