Rita damage falls short of fear

PERRY, La. -- For the storm-shattered Gulf Coast, the images were all too familiar: Tiny fishing villages in splinters. Refrigerators and coffins bobbing in floodwaters. Helicopters and rescue boats making house-to-house searches of residents stranded on rooftops.\nBut as the misery wrought by Hurricane Rita came into clearer view -- particularly in the hard-to-reach marsh towns along the Texas-Louisiana line -- the lasting signs that emerged a day after the storm's 120-mph landfall were of an epic evacuation that saved countless lives, and of destruction that fell short of the Katrina-sized fears.\n"As bad as it could have been, we came out of this in pretty good shape," Texas Gov. Rick Perry said after taking a helicopter tour Sunday.\nEven with nearly 1 million in the region without electricity, some coastal towns flooded to the rooftops and the prospect of nearly 3 million evacuated residents pouring back onto the highways for home, the news was overwhelmingly positive.\nPetrochemical plants that supply a quarter of the nation's gasoline suffered only a glancing blow, with just one major plant facing weeks of repairs. The re-flooding in New Orleans from levee breaks was isolated mostly to areas already destroyed and deserted, and could be pumped out in as little as a week. And contrary to dire forecasts, Rita and its heavy rains moved quickly north as a tropical depression instead of parking over the South for days and dumping a predicted 25 inches of torrential rains.\nMost significantly, deaths were minimal -- with only two deaths reported so far -- largely because residents with fresh memories of Katrina heeded evacuation orders and the storm followed a path that spared Houston and more populous stretches of the coast.\nIn contrast to Katrina, with its death toll of more than 1,000, only two deaths had been attributed to Rita by Sunday -- a person killed in north-central Mississippi when a tornado spawned by the hurricane overturned a mobile home and an east Texas man struck by a fallen tree. Two dozen evacuees were killed before the storm hit in a fatal bus fire near Dallas.\nAlong the central Louisiana coastline where Rita's heavy rains and storm-surge flooding pushed water up to nine feet in homes, more than 100 boats gassed up at an Abbeville car dealership Sunday before venturing out on search-and-rescue missions to find hundreds of residents believed to have tried to ride out Rita.\nAbout 500 people were rescued from high waters along the Louisiana coast in the immediate aftermath of the storm and emergency calls were still coming in from far-flung areas near the Gulf of Mexico.\n"The flooding is still extensive," said Michael Bertrand of the Vermilion Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness, adding that water was actually creeping into areas that were spared flooding Saturday. "We'll be going back through there to see if there's anybody left."\nStanding in the hot sun outside Abbeville, evacuees from the flooded reaches of Vermilion Parish stared at the ground, shoulders stooped, clearly exhausted. Many recalled seeing deer stuck on levees and cows swimming through seawater miles from the Gulf of Mexico.\nTracy Savage, a 33-year-old diesel technician, said his house was four feet underwater.\n"All I got now is my kids and my motorhome," he said, camouflage jeans stuffed into galoshes. He was able to salvage a toolbox and a few life vests Sunday, but not much more. "We've never had this much water, we've just never seen it."\nAfter a briefing with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco in Baton Rouge, President Bush said, "I know the people of this state have been through a lot. We ask for God's blessings on them and their families."\nJust across the state line, Texas' Perry toured the badly hit refinery towns of Beaumont and Port Arthur area by air Sunday.\n"Look at that," he said, pointing to a private aircraft hangar with a roof that was half collapsed and half strewn across the surrounding field. "It looks like a blender just went over the top of it."\nHe said the region has been secured by law enforcement, but does not have water and sewer services available. He urged residents to stay out for now, though the statewide picture was better.\n"Even though the people right here in Beaumont and Port Arthur and this part of Orange County really got whacked, the rest of the state missed a bullet," Perry said.\nCrude oil and gasoline futures traded lower Sunday, a response to news that damage to refineries was relatively light. The 255,000-barrel-per-day Valero Energy Corp. plant in Port Arthur appeared to be the most heavily damaged, facing at least two weeks of repairs from significant damage to two cooling towers and a flare stack.\nStill, a rapid recovery for refiners hinges on power being restored to parts of Texas and Louisiana where facilities are concentrated. The area's primary utility, Entergy Corp., said 271 high-voltage transmission lines were down and 275 substations out of service, and there was no immediate timeline of when power would be restored. Residents of Beaumont have been told it could be as long as a month.