Word: rita
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...dark Saturday night in a parking lot in Lake Charles, La. about 12 hours after Hurricane Rita tore through here, and Columbus, Ohio Fire Department Capt. Jack Reall is briefing his 35-person FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team. "What you see is what you got. We have no idea what's going to happen," except that the promised roof to sleep under isn't going to work out. Nearby, McNeese State University's Burton Coliseum, most recently used to house those affected by Hurricane Katrina, is dark, with standing water and no working bathrooms, and is strewn with personal...
...Welcome to life on a Federal Emergency Management Agency USAR team. TIME embedded with this group of 35 firefighters and other rescue professionals from Ohio for its first Rita response mission to glimpse the system at work. As everyone beds down, orange glow sticks form an eerie perimeter in the parking lot around the larger group, which also includes two more USAR teams, from Nevada and Phoenix. Many team members drop glow sticks near their cots to prevent any of the 100 or more total people-or the 30 or so trucks operated by the three teams that just arrived...
...houses with crushed roofs. On Hobson Street, Mary Rasmussen, 61, comes out to declare that she's "been through many a storm, but nothing like this." Between drags on her cigarette, she tells of a Miss Carry who is between 90 and 100 years old, refused to leave for Rita and is all alone in her little home around the corner. Lykins goes and knocks on the door, and a wizened old woman in a pink nightgown answers the door. "I have water. I don't have no power," she says, insisting she's fine. Is she on any medicine...
...contractors have facilities in Texas and a big natural disaster could potentially damage the military industrial base. Another concern was the ports of Beaumont and Galveston, which are key debarkation points for U.S. troops and goods going to Iraq and Afghanistan. "We're not just looking at Rita's impact over the next few days and weeks-we're looking at how it might impact the war effort," said Col. Pounding on Friday morning. "Getting those troops and all that equipment lined up in close sequence is a monumental task...
...Some military planners say it actually helped that Rita came on the heels of Katrina. "It's actually made it easier, since we were already up and running with an emergency operation, and it's a matter of shifting resources to the west," said Col. Chris Hughes, the division chief for operations and contingency plans and the officer in charge of the Katrina/Rita op center. Now, with Rita's passing, perhaps the staff can finally get some rest...