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Rita More Mild than Originally Expected

The clear difference between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita is now coming to light, more than a day after Rita made landfall. A well-thought-out and structured evacuation is definitely what saved thousands of lives in this natural disaster. Overall, the destruction was less devastating than predicted. One million people are still without power in the region, and some coastal towns are flooded, but overall the news is positive. In addition, the return of floodwaters to New Orleans from levee breaches are isolated mostly to areas already destroyed and deserted, and can be pumped out in as little as one week.

Police, National Guard troops and other rescue workers arrived in stricken areas quickly, so there has so far been no repeat of the looting and chaos that besieged New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Contradicting dire forecasts, Rita and its heavy rains moved quickly north as a tropical depression instead of looming over the South for days and dumping the predicted 25 inches of torrential rains.

Officials estimate about 90 percent of residents in the hard-hit area evacuated before Rita?s landfall Saturday. For those who stayed, rescue boats and helicopters were deployed Sunday to find those stranded on attics or rooftops. About 500 people were rescued from high waters along the Louisiana coast in the immediate aftermath of the storm and emergency calls were still coming in from far-flung areas near the gulf.

As of Sunday, only two deaths have been attributed to Rita. One person was killed in north-central Mississippi when a tornado spawned by the hurricane overturned a mobile home. And an east Texas man was killed after being struck by a fallen tree. Twenty-three evacuees were killed before the storm hit in a fatal bus fire near Dallas.