Nature’s Fury Underscored

Hurricane Rita on September 22, 2005, a dangerous category 5 hurricane heading for the Gulf states.

Just as the recovery in the Gulf States started making some progress, nature decided to deliver a second punch in a single month. Hurricane Rita lumbered along a category 5 hurricane that is so vast it almost completely filled the Gulf of Mexico. It started raining in New Orleans early and about 3 million people evacuated a 500-mile stretch of the Texas-Louisiana coast ahead of the storm, including many who were displaced from their homes in New Orelans and sought shelter in neighboring states. How can these people respond and we as a nation deal with catastrophes of this magnitude? The storm made landfall as a category 3, yet luckily the storm surge and rainfall totals were far lower than predicted. The people in Sabine Pass would not say that anything was lucky as their village was wiped away. It is probably fair to say that the evacuations helped spare lives this time. Our hearts go out to all who suffered.

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