WASHINGTON, 26 September 2005 — Frustrated and exhausted, thousands of people returned to their Texas homes yesterday, some to find they were spared the worst of Hurricane Rita.
Almost three million people had fled their homes in Louisiana and Texas. Houston Mayor Bill White pleaded with people not to return until officials declared it safe — and was largely ignored.
Authorities tried to avoid the gridlock that jammed highways out of Houston and other coastal Texas towns last week by staggering when residents can return home. Residents of the southwest part of the Houston region will be allowed to head home today and northeast quadrant residents on Sept. 27. No date has been set for residents of the southeast region, including Galveston.
Forecasters say the greatest potential damage is not over yet, and could come from an unrelenting rainfall — up to 25 inches — that could hang over the region for days and inundate stretches of the Gulf coast across Texas and Louisiana.
Rainfall also will continue to affect southeast Texas, and forecasters cautioned flooding of low-lying areas was expected to continue.
A large part of Port Arthur, a city of about 58,000, is still inaccessible due to extensive flooding.
In New Orleans, flooding of the 9th Ward levees on the Industrial Canal was the biggest setback from Rita.
Mayor Ray Nagin said both businesses and residents of the Algiers parish would be allowed to return today and a schedule for residents in other parts of the city would be announced next week.
At least 15 refineries in Texas and Louisiana, accounting for about 24 percent of US capacity, shut as Rita approached. Officials said Houston and Texas City plants may restore processing within seven days.
The storm damaged oil refineries, but it did not cause the widespread destruction of the energy infrastructure that some had feared. Based on computer modeling and initial reports, the US Energy Department said it was cautiously optimistic about the nine refineries in the Houston area.
Another five percent of the nation’s refining capacity remains closed from Katrina, with four plants scheduled to resume output in November or December.
In and near Port Arthur, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, near the Texas border, officials said they expected refineries and industrial plants to remain out of service because of heavy wind damage, power failures and scattered flooding. Depending on how much of the United States’ already stretched refining capacity is affected and for how long, that could cause shortages of gasoline and other fuels and push up retail prices again.
Rita, now a tropical depression with winds of 32 km per hour, is expected to move northeast through the Mississippi Valley today, the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center said. Parts of the lower Ohio and Mississippi valleys are under flood watch.
