Hurricane Rita now hounds Katrina victims

By Mark Babineck

GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) – Katrina drove them from
Louisiana. Now Rita is hounding them out of their Texas
refuges.

Many victims of Hurricane Katrina, which smashed into New
Orleans and nearby cities three weeks ago, were scattered
across southern Texas. Now Hurricane Rita, gaining strength as
it crosses the Gulf of Mexico, is forcing them to take shelter
elsewhere.

“If definitely feels like they’re chasing us everywhere,”
said Stephen Travis, who fled with his parents from their
beachside home in Biloxi when Katrina drove a huge storm surge
across the town on August 29.

They went first to Alabama then came to Galveston, where
the only room they could find, with 45 other evacuee families,
was the Flagship Hotel on a pier jutting into the sea, one of
the most vulnerable buildings on this barrier island.

Galveston was always a tenuous refuge from the storm — it
was here that a huge hurricane struck in 1900 killing more than
8,000 people, the deadliest natural disaster in American
history.

The Flagship Hotel’s 220 rooms were due to be completely
evacuated by Wednesday night as part of plans to clear a
300-mile stretch of coast of more than one million people.

Cecil Brown, the Flagship’s manager, said the hotel was
severely damaged by Hurricane Alicia in 1983. “If you’ve got a
wave coming in here at 30 feet, you saw what happened in Biloxi
to those casinos,” he said.

In the Louisiana City, huge casino ships were lifted up and
hurled about like toy boats by the storm.

Forecasters say Hurricane Rita could grow into a Category 5
storm as it crosses the Gulf and is expected to cross the coast
on Friday evening.

Most of Galveston, with a population of about 60,000, is
protected from surges by a seawall, a concrete barrier built
after the 1900 disaster. But no one is betting on that keeping
out Rita’s storm surge if the hurricane comes ashore close to
the city.

Galveston officials were setting up shop at the San Luis
Resort, a large hotel that sits well above sea level.

Galveston’s permanent residents were streaming off the
island, heeding repeated dire warnings from local and state
officials about the possibility of extensive damage.

“Everyone’s scared, that’s why we’re all leaving,” said
Maria Stephens, 29, on a warm, sunny day. “I was 7 when
(Hurricane Alicia) hit and I remember it like I was yesterday.
I don’t my children to go through that.”

Stephens said she spent the morning helping fellow
residents board buses bound inland for the town of Huntsville
before she, her husband and their 3 children prepared to drive
to Palestine, Texas, away from the danger zone.

As many as 400,000 people fled Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama to escape Katrina, which killed more than 1,000 people,
and the largest number went west to Texas.