Service honors La.'s Hurricane Rita recovery

~ Service honors La.'s Hurricane Rita recovery

LAKE CHARLES, La. -- Hundreds gathered Sunday for a church service to mark the anniversary of Hurricane Rita, a year that Gov. Kathleen Blanco called "the longest year of our lives."

"Where there was devastation, there is reconstruction. There is rebirthing," pastor Jerry Snider of Lake Charles' Christian World Church said in a prayer.

The nondenominational service, featuring scriptural readings and spirited gospel singing, was held in this city's civic center. The facility had served as a staging point for aid workers after Rita hit on Sept. 24, 2005, less than one month after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.

Category 3 Rita struck south of here, along the Texas-Louisiana border. Two Louisiana men were killed in the storm, according to the Calcasieu Parish coroner's office, and at least nine were killed in Texas. More than 100 died in the pre-storm evacuation of Houston, in accidents and exposure deaths.

Ever since the storm hit, residents here and in southeast Texas have complained of a phenomenon they call "Rita amnesia" -- the idea that the nation, the government and the news media have forgotten about Rita, fixated instead on Hurricane Katrina, the other Category 3 storm that hit Louisiana last year.

The local chamber of commerce on Sunday handed out mock prescription medicine bottles, filled with candies. The label read: "For the prevention of Rita amnesia. Take as needed."

Combined, Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged roughly 200,000 Louisiana homes, according to Blanco's office. Blanco called the two storms an "unimaginable double punch" that marked "the longest year of our lives."

"As the dawn rises on this next year, I feel the warmth of progress," Blanco told the crowd.

Lake Charles, a city of about 70,000, suffered wind and flood damage but its infrastructure has largely recovered. Further south, the small coastal towns of Creole, Johnson Bayou, Holly Beach and Cameron remain in splinters as residents try to rebuild their homes.

"I pray your blessings on the hardworking people of Louisiana," said Rev. Mark Viator of Friendship Church in Beaumont, Texas, one of several badly damaged cities in that state.

Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach praised the region's people for their recovery efforts, but said all of Louisiana faces a long road back after Rita and Hurricane Katrina, which struck a month earlier.

"We've been given the opportunity, in this state, to show what we're made of," Roach said. "Future generations will judge us by how we responded in the face of adversity."

Donald Powell, President Bush's chief of post-hurricane Gulf recovery, attended the service and was to take a helicopter flight over the areas hardest hit by Rita, for an aerial view of the rebuilding progress.

Blanco and members of Louisiana's congressional delegation were scheduled to take part in a panel discussion in Lake Charles later Sunday, to discuss the recovery effort.

---

On the Net:

America's Wetland: www.americaswetland.com