SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2005 THE TIMES-PICAYUNE . .. A-10 H U R R I CA N E R I TA Rain jabs Orleans levee; evacuees die on bus Debra Lyons comforts her daughter, Lakosho, aboard an Air Force plane in Lake Charles. Dozens of patients from Lake Charles Memorial Hospital were flown Friday to Nashville, Tenn., to be out of the way of Hurricane Rita. RITA, from A-1 140 miles southeast of Port Arthur, headed northwest at about 12 mph. Hurricane-force winds were expected as far as 100 miles inland, the hurricane center said. Rita seemed poised to arrive as a Category 3 storm, having diminished from a top-of-the-chart Category 5 on Wednesday. The storm was expected to plow through a region thickly planted with 12 percent of the nation’s gasoline refinery capacity. Industry analysts said it probably would disrupt regional supplies and further batter pricesensitive industries such as airlines. More than 2.5 million Texans and residents of southwest Louisiana watched Rita’s approach for days. Forecasters targeted the Texas coast even as the storm entered the eastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday. Houston largely cleared itself Friday of a 100mile-long traffic jam stretching from Galveston in the south, through the city and out its northbound arteries. Outside the city, however, traffic was still bumper-to-bumper on highways leading to Austin and Dallas, officials said. National Guard trucks ferried gasoline to stranded drivers up and down the interstates. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, the chief See RITA, A-12 STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD Water over the levees creates fear In Hurricane Rita’s storm surge, water from Bayou Bienvenue overtakes a car parked alongside Paris Road in Chalmette. NEW ORLEANS, from A-9 Stainbrook, 59, a contractor originally from Iowa, said arson and squatters staking claim in abandoned homes were his worries. “I’m protecting nine houses,” he said. “We’re higher-end here. They’re going to come back and act like they live in these properties and go in the doors and take the jewelry.” It was clear from the littered neutral ground nearby that residents had emptied homes of ruined items and trash that nobody wanted. “ Toxic Art,” a handmade sign announced at the neutral ground between France and Mazant streets. “This exhibition will kill you!” Among the objects were 16 handmade wooden crosses, a hot-water heater, storm windows and paintings that included a bleeding valentine-type heart on a black canvas. The city had tell-tale signs of potential disaster. Lakeview was a haunted, sludge-coated scene of ruin. And homes that appeared spared along Grand Route St. John had parked cars with soaking floorboards. Gentilly Boulevard at Florida Street, beneath the Interstate 610 overpass, was impassable due to standing water. Debris, so many tree limbs and battered buildings, piled upon street corners. The sight of people who were not with law enforcement or news media was a rarity. One young man pushed a load of antiques through a brief rainstorm across Esplanade Avenue, at North Johnson Street, explaining to a passerby that he was saving his grandfather’s heirlooms We’re high and dry with NO FLOOD DAMAGED VEHICLES 1660 Westbank Expressway, Harvey 1-888-508-9553 JEWELRY RESTORATION Custom Jewelry by BARATTINI STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER before fading into the 7th Ward. City officials appeared passive in the face of Rita. Mayor Ray Nagin had nothing to say Friday. “No briefing today. Just watching the levees,” said Brenda Hatfield, chief administrative officer, in an e-mail. In Kenner, Mayor Phil Capitano urged residents to stay off the streets until Saturday afternoon, saying power lines were coming down in some sections of the city. In St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes, officials said the full impact of the storm would depend on flood levels. They knew the storm’s surge would threaten levees damaged by Katrina and in various states of rep a i r l a t e T h u r s d a y. B u t i n Plaquemines, they were surprised when flooding by late morning, indicating some of the levee repairs were not holding. “It’s a little earlier than we anticipated,” said Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jiff Hingle. By mid-afternoon on Friday, floodwaters arriving from a spillage on the Industrial Canal waters were restricted to parts of Arabi. St. Bernard levees seemed to be doing their job, holding a surge that began pounding the area late Thursday night, said Col. Richard Baumy, a Sheriff ’s Office spokesman. Floodwaters reached at least 2 feet on Claiborne Avenue and neighboring streets and got into northern Arabi by early afternoon. There, a raised railroad tract contained the attack, and parish officials hoped Rita’s winds would shift and the flood would stop rising before it advanced further east. Meanwhile, what passes for regular life after Katrina continued in the northern parts of Plaquemines that stayed dry during Katrina and seemed to be faring well under Rita. Even as winds picked up by midday, cars buzzed around gas stations, video stores were hoping, and at DeSalvo’s Seafood, along Belle Chasse Highway, residents lined up for the post-Katrina special: shrimp spaghetti. Yet even those businesses were feeling Rita’s impact. Watching caravans of repair trucks heading north, a DeSalvo’s waitress commented: “There go our customers.” Staff writers Brett Anderson, Jeff Duncan, Bruce Hamilton, Doug MacCash, Gordon Russell and Manuel Torres contributed to this report. GAUDRY, RANSON, HIGGINS & GREMILLION, LLC ATTORNEYS - AT - LAW Wishes to notify its clients and the general public that its office located at: 401 Whitney Ave, Suite 500 Gretna, LA. 70056 Tel: (504) 362-2466 Fax: (504) 362-5938 Email: [email protected] is open and fully operational to serve the Metropolitan New Orleans area. The firm also has office in Baton Rouge located at: 888 Tara Blvd., Suite B Baton Rouge, LA. 70086 Tel: (225) 231-4916 Fax: (225) 231-4917 ... Ray Brandt Dodge is Open for Business! 1421 N. HWY 190 COVINGTON • 1 MILE NORTH OF I-12 985-893-5253 | 985-630-0001 SERVING ST. TAMMANY FOR 22 YEARS (advertisement) Mayor Nagin: We survived a post Katrina epidemic of medical myths propagated by poorly informed public officials - cholera, typhoid, inhaled e.coli, toxic mold, toxic gumbo and venomous snake bites. Our infrastructure is in shambles, but our air is not toxic and our waters are free of man-eating sharks. There are no diarrhea outbreaks even among folks who are drinking tap water. It is time to turn on the electricity in cleared areas of the city including the French Quarter and major parts of Treme, Marigny and Uptown. There is no gas on in the quarter, so an excuse of gas generated fires is yet another myth. The continuing use of candles and generators are the real risk - fire and carbon monoxide poisoning. The world assumes Louisiana is closed for business until you allow Entergy to turn on the switches to light our high and dry historic districts. Brobson Lutz, MD