West Virginia daily

It's been two months since Hurricane Rita slammed into the Texas-Louisiana border Sept. 24, and the evacuation order is still in effect for lower Cameron Parish, including Johnson's Bayou, Holly Beach and Cameron.

Residents call daily, wondering when they can come back, Clifton Hebert, the parish's operations chief for the emergency operations center, said by phone.

The parish was on the east, or dirty side, of the monstrous Category 3 storm, which packed 120 mph winds and sent up to 20 feet of water surging through the coastal communities.

Rita initially was projected to go toward Corpus Christi, but by the end of the week, forecasters pointed to Galveston as the target. A last-minute turn north put the Southwest Louisiana coast in the crosshairs.

But the presence of people can cause other problems, including two fires last week. One was because a blower was too close to a tent wall where FEMA workers slept. No one was in the tent and damage was minimal, according to information from the parish.

A damaged chimney failed to properly guide the smoke out of the house, Chris Bowne, parish spokesman, said by phone, and the a three-day buildup in the attic, created by the family's use of the fireplace, produced a blaze.

Generally, only pilings, some slabs and half-buried debris are left in Holly Beach. In Cameron, the storm surge moved houses off piers and left a thick layer of mud covering the mangled debris.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers structural safety teams have been going door-to-door to determine if a house needs to be demolished, said Martin Esparza, parish spokesman.

More than 30,000 orphaned containers including drums, tanks, totes and cylinders have been collected by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to parish officials.

They are looking to residents for help with those, asking that anyone in Cameron Parish missing hazardous materials containers come by the EPA disposal sites.

The agency's on-site coordinator, Steve Mason, said the agency might have picked containers up by mistake, and people who can identify their containers can sign a release form and take them back.

The parish schools have reopened, with schools in Hackberry and Grand Lake sharing students who normally would attend school in Johnson's Bayou or Cameron.

Bids will go out on repairs soon for damage at the Johnson's Bayou school, which had walls blown out and damage to the gym, Chance said. Temporary buildings will be brought in after the first of the year.

The 49-year-old boat repairman and shrimper and his family are living in a relative's home in Lake Charles since their place in Cameron was ruined.

"Every time I come back, I'm still in awe of what happened. It's still unbelievable," said Taylor. His house has an 8-foot water mark and was moved off its blocks.

FEMA workers already have set up 120 trailers in Cameron Parish, and there are work orders for 222 more, FEMA spokesman Manuel Broussard said by phone from the FEMA Baton Rouge office.

And although he's headed back, Taylor isn't sure he is going to rebuild in Cameron yet. Maybe he'll move his family 20 to 30 miles inland, he says.

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