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U.S. to pick up the pieces as Rita eases

Texas Governor Rick Perry tells evacuees to stay where they are till it's safe to return home

— Photo: AP

SWAMPED: A man makes his way in waist-high flood waters to his house while his neighbour's trailer burns in Laffite, Louisiana, after surges from Hurricane Rita flooded the area on Saturday.

BEAUMONT (TEXAS): Texas Governor Rick Perry said on Sunday that the damage inflicted by Hurricane Rita paled in comparison to Katrina, but urged evacuees to stay where they are until local officials say it's all right to return.

In southern Louisiana, rescue crews searched for people still stranded by floodwaters. Hundreds may still be trapped in Vermilion Parish's far-flung regions near the Gulf of Mexico, according to Jason Harmon, spokesman for the Abbeville Fire Department. Officials said calls for help were still coming in.

Mr. Perry, speaking before he took a helicopter tour of the Beaumont area, said the region hit by the hurricane had been secured by law enforcement, but did not have water and sewer services available.

``Even though the people right here in Beaumont and Port Arthur and this part of Orange County really got whacked, the rest of the State missed a bullet,'' Mr. Perry said. In contrast to Katrina, with its death toll of more than 1,000, only one death had been reported by Saturday night. One person was killed in Mississippi when a tornado spawned by the hurricane overturned a mobile home. During the evacuation, a bus caught fire south of Dallas while stick in traffic, killing as many as 24 nursing home residents.

Rita downed trees, sparked fires across the hurricane zone and swamped Louisiana shoreline towns with a 15-foot storm surge that required daring boat and helicopter rescues of hundreds of people.

Adam Suire, 77, said he climbed into an oak tree on Friday night with his wife, daughter and son-in-law when Rita flooded his house south of Erath, Louisiana. A Coast Guard helicopter plucked the battered family from the tree on Saturday afternoon.

More than 1.3 million people were without electricity on Saturday night, most in Texas, but also in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, local utility companies said.

Authorities used military helicopters and an air-conditioned bus on Saturday night to move some of the 83 nursing home residents from Beaumont who had been stranded at an elementary school in Fred without power since Friday afternoon. ``It's scary,'' said Jack Fair, 68, who is undergoing rehabilitation for a concussion. ``It's nobody's fault. There's just too much going on.'' Mr. Fair said he was more concerned about fellow residents who were afraid of the dark.

Damage to the vital concentration of oil refineries along the coast appeared relatively light, although industry officials said it was too early to assess whether there would be an impact on oil prices. Valero Energy Corp. said its 255,000-barrel-per-day Port Arthur refinery sustained significant damage to two cooling towers and a flare stack and would need at least two weeks for repairs.

Some New Orleans residents who had evacuated to Houston because of Katrina were forced to move again as Rita approached. ``We're tired of being pushed from place to place,'' said Cora Washington, 59, as she and her family sat on cots in Texas A&M University's basketball arena in College Station. ``We want to try to go back to New Orleans and pick up the pieces.''

Texas officials planned for an orderly return of the nearly three million people who had fled ahead of the menacing storm, setting up regions that would reopen to evacuees on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

President George W. Bush, mindful of criticism the Federal Government was slow to respond to Hurricane Katrina three weeks ago, visited the Texas emergency operations centre in Austin on Saturday. Like other officials, Mr. Bush urged citizens not to prematurely assume the danger was over. ``Even though the storm has passed the coastline, the situation is still dangerous because of potential flooding,'' he said. ``People who are safe now ought to remain in safe conditions." — AP

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