KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |HURRICANE RITA - LATEST NEWS

HURRICANE RITA - LATEST NEWS

HURRICANE RITA - LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES 

LOUISIANA UPDATES

CHAUVIN, La. (AP) - Some residents of coastal Louisiana are unleashing more criticism of the federal government, in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. One after another, boats are bringing people from flooded sections of Terrebonne Parish. Some are in tears, as they haul plastic bags filled with their possessions out of the skiffs that carried them to dry land. One man says he called FEMA this morning, and was told there was no help available for him. Others told of a similar response. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, meanwhile, National Guardsmen are patrolling the town, and handing out water, ice and food to hundreds of people left without power.
   (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) 


New Orleans residents return, some to dry houses, some to devastation.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The mood of residents returning to their homes in New Orleans depends on where the hurricanes and flood struck the hardest. Some find the scene relatively normal, while other are confronting devastation. Algiers is the first New Orleans neighborhood officially opened by Mayor Ray Nagin. Resident Irvin Hadley says Algiers is "high and dry." Unlike most of the city, Algiers has electricity and clean water. There's a long line outside a Winn-Dixie supermarket there, as returning residents stock-up on supplies. Nagin also invited business owners in the Central Business District, the French Quarter and the Uptown section in to inspect property and clean up. Officials are letting residents into nearby St. Bernard Parish only to survey their sodden homes. That area was so heavily damaged by floods that residents have little hope of moving back. Displaced resident Owen Pascual says "There's nothing worth saving except for the things of sentimental value."
    (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

TEXAS UPDATES

 The news of the deaths of two people inside southeast Texas mobile home brings the state's death toll from Hurricane Rita to at least eight.   A Liberty County sheriff's department dispatcher told KSLA NEWS 12 the bodies of a man and woman were found Saturday inside a home near the town of Hardin.   The mobile home had been crushed by a tree.   The dispatcher did not know if the two people were related and did not have information on their identities.   
   A 79-year-old Angelina County man, Johnny Long of Hudson, died after a tree fell on him.  Long's body was found outside his home.   He was a former town manager in Hudson.
   Five people were found dead inside an apartment complex in Beaumont Monday morning.  Police suspect the victims died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a generator was used inside their apartment.   A man, woman, and three children were among the victims.    A relative found the bodies, plus three survivors who are in critical condition.

OTHER TEXAS NOTES....

    -- President Bush is set to tour damage in Beaumont on Tuesday.   

   -- Department of Transportation crews are working to remove debris from roadways affected by Rita, with most of that in eight counties: Chambers, Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Newton, Orange and Tyler.

   -- Interstate Ten in Southeast Texas is open but exits into Beaumont and other cities along the way to the Louisiana border are closed. Travel is also being restricted on roadways south of U-S 190 and east of State Highway 146. Department officials are hoping to have all affected roadways cleared by Wednesday.

     -- Harris County tax assessor-collector Paul Bettencourt says early damage estimates in the Houston area exceed 41 (M) million dollars, such as to roofs and other structures.
     (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)