LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Hurricane Rita
built 658 days ago
Places along the coast where Hurricane Rita hit are now plagued with debris from homes, cars, boats, trees, among other things. Boats were washed into residential areas and onto roadways due to the storm surge and high winds. Port Arthur Mayor Oscar Ortiz stated 2 refineries appeared to be leaking gasoline and oil rigs were ripped loose from their moorings and drifted ashore. The evaluation of damage is still underway to determine the long term environmental issuescaused byHurricane Rita.
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Tuesday, September 20, 2005 — Hurricane Rita is a Cat. 2 storm with winds at about 100 per hour and already passing the Southern Florida and the Keys with several inches of rain per hour. Forecasters are already expecting the storm to become a Cat. 4, with winds around 150 mph, by Wednesday afternoon.
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Districts that close school due to evacuation for Hurricane Rita will not be required to use their make-up days. This includes both districts along the Gulf Coast that close school due to local evacuations and districts that close school in order to house evacuees. These districts should submit a Request to Excuse Instructional Days Missed for the days of school missed due to weather conditions. Please make a note on waiver form that the missed days were related to Hurricane Rita. Additionally, the agency will make emergency funding available to affected Education Service Centers to assist impacted districts.
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Citizens at the junction of Alternate Interstate Highway 90 and Texas Highway 60 greet Task Force Crockett in convoy on Sept. 23 – the day before Hurricane Rita hit the Gulf Coast. The convoy included 140 vehicles and 500 Texas National Guard Soldiers. The convoy traveled from San Antonio to Houston the day before the storm and made Beaumont its base of operations the following day. (Texas National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Gregory Ripps)
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In some areas, the effects of Hurricane Rita were not nearly as severe as anticipated. The storm surge feared in Galveston and Houston struck farther east as the storm's center came ashore at the Louisiana border; winds blowing offshore in Texas actually flattened the surge, which was only seven feet (2 m), well below the height of the Galveston seawall. The five inches (130 mm) of rain expected to fall overnight in New Orleans ... did not happen, and the pressure on the levee system was eased. Still, storm surge of 15-20 feet (4.5-6.1 m) struck southwestern Louisiana, and coastal parishes experienced extensive damage. In Cameron Parish the communities of Holly Beach, Hackberry and Cameron were essentially destroyed. [7] In Calcasieu Parish the communities of Lake Charles, Moss Bluff, Sulphur, Westlake and Vinton also suffered heavy damage.
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Knowing H-E-B’s rich history of bigheartedness, it came as little surprise that 38 of the 66 H-E-B grocery stores in the Houston area, forced to shut down in the initial wake of Hurricane Rita, were re-opened within 24 hours. According to the press release, issued today on PRNewswire, H-E-B was the first major grocery chain in the Greater Houston area to open, despite power outages, traffic jams and staffing shortages.
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Hurricane Rita