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Last updated on July 24th, 2017 at 11:28 am
An early ABC report:
Rita made landfall early Saturday as a Category 3 storm just east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana line, more than 275 miles from New Orleans. Despite the flooding in New Orleans, meteorologists said the gravest concern was in southwestern Louisiana communities, particularly the port city of Lake Charles.
“I know we’re all concerned about New Orleans, but I’m more focused on these other communities right now,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “That’s where people are going to die.”
Lake Charles was a virtual ghost town, its residents among up to 500,000 people in southwestern Louisiana who headed north. The hurricane center had no information about conditions in Lake Charles at landfall.
“Those sensors went down” hours earlier, meteorologist Dave Roberts said. In New Orleans, water poured through gaps in the Industrial Canal levee, which engineers had tried to repair after Katrina’s floodwaters left 80 percent of the city under water. The rushing water spilled east into St. Bernard Parish, where ducks swam down Judge Perez Drive.
Those ducks are faring better than poor Mayor Noggin, now trapped on the last short bus out of New Orleans. Once he escapes and finds another job, he can tell his story to the world. For further Rita info, Instapundit points to the WSJ and Houston’s Bill Dyer.
UPDATE. Kathy from Austin, God bless her, writes:
My city of about 1MM has swelled to about 1.3MM. It is really putting a strain on our resources. But hey, what can you do? It could be us for some other reason. What you do is open your arms and welcome them to Austin.
