I Remember Like It Was Yesterday – Hurricane Rita 10-Years Later

I remember it, like it was yesterday.  The aftermath of Hurricane Rita  was devastating on many levels.  We were just coming to terms with what happened with Hurricane Katrina a month prior.  Lake Charles was one of the many cities playing host to hundreds of displaced New Orleans residents.  The last thing they needed was to be displaced again, but that's exactly what happened.

Unlike Hurricane Katrina, the devastation Rita caused was hardly mentioned.  Yet nine countries and five states were declared disaster areas after she blew through. Hurricane Rita was also the fourth–most intense (Katrina was #6) Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico.  Thank God it weakened quite a bit before making landfall.  It came in as a category 5 storm, packing winds at 180 miles per hour.

When the weather man and the mayor notified us, the city was under a mandatory evacuation, they didn't have to tell us twice.  My family would've let anyway, but I believe after people seen what happened to New Orleans, those who would've stayed to ride the storm out got outta here.

Because I'm in the media and my husband works at a local refinery, my family came right back a day or two later.  It was unbelievable. Things were so messed up and out of wack, it was easy to get lost because nothing looked the same.  It was like we were on another planet!  Our neighborhood looked as if it was hit was a couple of bombs.  Trees were down everywhere you turned, power lines were down, debris from homes and businesses were all over the roads making most of them impassable.  We had an air conditioning unit the size of a truck in our front yard from off the top of a shopping center.

We had to drive in peoples yards, but we make it to our driveway.  I was relieved to see our house was still standing, even more so because we didn't have much damage at all. We didn't have any trees in our yard or hanging over our house, so we were blessed that we didn't have a caved in roof.  However, several of our neighbors weren't that lucky.

I remember communication was super difficult too.  Even though we had cell phones in 2005, their weren't enough towers to deal with the massive calls.  Believe it or not 90% of all our family business, like calling insurance companies, getting information about supplies etc., was all handled on an old fashion push-button landline phone.  Which is why, I will always have one.  Cell phones were just about useless.

When I tell you it was hot, that's an understatement.  It was scorching hot with 100% humidity.  We stayed in our house though and we made it work.  Once we got a generator, we worked-out a schedule.  During the day, I went to work and we cleaned up around our property, assessed damage, hooked up the washer and the refrigerator (making our own ice and keeping our food cool) and washed clothes.  We strung up a few lines and let our laundry dry the old fashioned way.  We have a few grills, so my husband cooked food out our freezer on the butane grill everyday.  We ate good too, roast, steak, chops.

At night we hooked up the TV and DVD player and a couple of box fans and slept on pallets on the floor in the living room.  It wasn't to bad considering the situation.  It was SUPER dark though.  So dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.  There were no lights on anywhere.  We had gotten word, people were robbing homes and it was kinda scary because we had to leave the windows pen due to the extreme heat.  We had a plan for that to, just in case somebody tried to break in.  We had several guns strategically placed around the house, just in case. Lets just say if someone got in, they would've wished they didn't.

We repeated this for two in-a-half weeks.  We were the only ones home on our block for a long time.  The city was completely shut-down and it took a very longtime for stores, schools, various businesses and restaurants to open or stay open because so many people were gone.

My company was called Apex Broadcasting at the time and they had us hooked up with food, toiletries and pretty much anything else we needed.  They even bought washer and dryers and hooked them up outside so we could wash our clothes. The were really awesome about that.  We were one of the few companies, if not the only radio stations on the air or open the entire time.  We have a HUGE generator in the back of our building and so we had electricity the entire time.  So many of my co-workers camped out at the studios.  We have a 5 to 6,000 square foot two-story building, so we had plenty of room for everyone and their families.  Water, gas, generators and saws were in high demand.  Cash was another hot item as no credit card machines worked.

All six of our stations simulcast and did what we do best, radio. We worked together and to turns going on the air in groups of two, giving as much information we could.  As businesses, banks and restaurants would open, they would stop by and let us know and we would get the info out.  For a longtime we were the only eyes for thousands of residents on what the city looked like, what roads, stores and businesses were closed or open, etc.

It was quite an experience that's for sure, but I'm grateful that my family was OK, my house was in good shape and my job was still there.  Slowly but surely things got back to normal in Lake Charles and today we're better than ever.  Thank God.