HURRICANE RITA source: Associated Press

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HURRICANE RITA(source Associated Press)

• SEPTEMBER 24, 2005

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NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER
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HURRICANE RITA
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HURRICANE RITA

• Rita made landfall 330 EDT early Saturday
  morning as a Category 3 storm on the
  Texas-Louisiana line, more than 275 miles (420
  km) miles from New Orleans.

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HURRICANE RITA

• New Orleans was under water again Saturday as
  Hurricane Ritas storm surge cascaded over the
  citys patched levees, just days after
  already-devastated neighborhoods had been pumped
  dry.

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HURRICANE RITA NEW ORLEANS
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HURRICANE RITAIMPACT ON NEW ORLEANS LEVEES
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LEVEE BREACH NEW ORLEANS
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BREACHED LEVEE NEW ORLEANS
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HURRICANE RITA REFLOODED NEW ORLEANS
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HURRICANE RITA

• Galveston and Houston were spared a direct hit.
• Port Arthur and Beaumont, TX and Lake Charles, LA
  were damaged by wind, surge, and 25 in (70 cm)
  rain.
• Only 1 death was attributed to Hurricane Rita
  because of the successful evacuation.

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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATING HOUSTON
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATING HOUSTON
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATION WOES
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HURRICANE RITAEVACUATION WOES
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATING HOUSTON
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATION OF HOUSTON COMPLETE
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATING GALVESTON
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATION OF GALVESTON COMPLETE
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUATION OF SENIORS
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HURRICANE RITA BUS FIRE
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HURRICANE RITA EVACUEES
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HURRICANE RITA PREPARATION
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HURRICANE RITA PREPARATION
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HURRICANE RITA PREPARATION
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GALVESTON AWAITS HURRICANE RITA
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HURRICANE RITA FIRE IN GALVESTON, TX
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HURRICANE RITA GALVESTON
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HURRICANE RITA PORT ARTHUR
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HURRICANE RITA PAASADENA
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HURRICANE RITA BEAUMONT
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HURRICANE RITA LAKE CHARLES, LA
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HURRICANE RITA LAKE CHARLES, LA
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HURRICANE RITA DOWNED TREES IN LAKE CHARLES
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HURRICANE RITA NON-EVACUATION WOES
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HURRICANE RITA CHAUVIN, LA
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HURRICANE RITA LAFITTE, LA
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SEPTEMBER 25 RETURN OF FIRST EVACUEES TO HOUSTON
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HURRICANE RITA

• In contrast to Katrina, with its death toll of
  more than 1,000, only two deaths had been
  attributed to Rita by Sunday
• A person killed in north-central Mississippi when
  a tornado spawned by the hurricane overturned a
  mobile home, and
• An east Texas man struck by a fallen tree.

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HURRICANE RITA

• The lasting signs that emerged a day after the
  storm's 120-mph landfall were of an epic
  evacuation that saved countless lives, and of
  destruction that fell short of that caused by
  Katrina.

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HURRICANE RITA

• Even with nearly 1 million in the region without
  electricity, some coastal towns flooded to the
  rooftops and the prospect of nearly 3 million
  evacuated residents pouring back onto the
  highways for home, the news was overwhelmingly
  positive.

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HURRICANE RITA

• Petrochemical plants that supply a quarter of the
  nation's gasoline suffered only a glancing blow,
  with just one major plant facing weeks of
  repairs.

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HURRICANE RITA

• Still, a rapid recovery for refiners hinges on
  power being restored to parts of Texas and
  Louisiana where facilities are concentrated.
• The area's primary utility, Entergy Corp., said
  271 high-voltage transmission lines were down and
  275 substations out o service.

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HURRICANE RITA

• The reflooding in New Orleans from levee breaks
  was isolated mostly to areas already destroyed
  and deserted, and could be pumped out in as
  little as a week.

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HURRICANE RITA

• In New Orleans, the U.S. Corps of Engineers moved
  rocks and sandbags into the holes that broke open
  in the Industrial Canal levee as Rita flooded the
  already devastated Lower Ninth Ward.

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HURRICANE RITA

• And contrary to forecasts, Rita and its heavy
  rains moved quickly north as a tropical
  depression instead of parking over the South for
  days and dumping a predicted 25 inches of
  torrential rains.

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HURRICANE RITA

• Most significantly, deaths were minimal - with
  only two reported so far - largely because
  residents with fresh memories of Katrina heeded
  evacuation orders and the storm followed a path
  that spared Houston and more populous stretches
  of the coast.

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HURRICANE RITA

• Along the central Louisiana coastline, where
  Rita's heavy rains and storm-surge flooding
  pushed water up to 9 feet in homes and into
  fields of sugarcane and rice, weary evacuees
  slowly returned to see the damage and to reclaim
  their lives.

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HURRICANE RITA

• There were many stories of deer stuck on levees
  and cows swimming through seawater miles from the
  Gulf of Mexico.

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HURRICANE RITA

• More than 100 boats gassed up at an Abbeville car
  dealership Sunday before going out on
  search-and-rescue missions to find and rescue
  those residents who did not evacuate.

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HURRICANE RITA

• An estimated 1,000 people were rescued in
  Vermilion Parish.

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HURRICANE RITA

• In Cameron Parish, Louisiana, hardly anything
  was left.
• Whole communities are gone.
• Debris was strewn for miles by water or wind.