The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 299, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 2, 2005 Page: 1 of 24
twenty four pages : ill. ; page 21 x 11 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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What do we
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do next time?
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Rita whipped sustained winds of 70 to
Associated Press photo/tharfie Niebergall
See CLEANUP on Page 12A
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The money in my wallet
evacuated!
300 dollars for hotel rooms.
300 dollars for gas.
200 dollars for food, car
repair, water, survival sup-
plies. etc.
Having the wife and kids
with me and out of harms way
... “priceless”
ing down trees and cutting electricity for
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ft
By AUSTIN KINGHORNand
MICHAEL PINEDA
The Baytown Sun
For
IE M
The Baytown Sun invited
readers to share hurricane
experiences. Hgre are some
of the reports. . ,
I helped shut down the
Plant I work in yesterday until
evening, came home and
made all the preps I could till
this morning, then sat in a
non-moving line on Highway
146 in Mont Belvieu until I
gave up and came home. The
6 a.m. mandatory evacuation
did not help me.
Yes, we evacuated. My hus-
band, my two kids, and I all
left Dayton around 6 a.m.
Thursday morning and were
headed to Maurice, La., which I
is about 15 minutes from
Abbeville. Got a phone call
that they were being evacuat- I
ed. Decided to head North. ’
Got to Livingston around
11 a.m. Waited for gas til 1
p.m. Kept heading North. Got
to Sherman ... still no hotels.
Stayed in a Shelter. Then left
the shelter around 5 a.m. and
headed to Albuquerque, NM
to stay with my sister. We
stayed there for 5 days and
headed back Tuesday. It took
us a total of 36 hours to get
10 Albuquerque and 16 1/2 to
get back.
I tried to evacuate. I' left my
house around 10:30 a.m. on
Thursday, went 10 miles up
the road and spent 41/2 :
See REPORTS on Page 12A
/ ■
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were hit harder than others.
“Lakewood for instance was
because (there are) more trees and more
mature trees,” Mundinger said. “Some of
’■ • - .
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Rumbo de San Antonio photo/German Garcia
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We left Baytown at 7 a.m.
on Thursday morning. Took us
about 30 hours to get to
' Dallas (slept for three hours
along U.S. 5&).
city government, to total $500,000. Neither
he nor Bettencourt had information about
IGollisionl
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time this week. harnmpfric nrpQcnrp in rprnrripri historv
40 to 60 percent finished,” Mundinger
said. He added that his estimates are based
on what he has seen driving around town.
Mundinger said he and other city offi-
j ■■MB! STEBLHMi JM1CBULIBRARY
Serving all of Baytown, Lynchburg, Highlands, McNair, Barrett Station, Crosby, M^iit Belvieu, Anahuac and West Chambers County
Volume 84^299 Telephone: 281-422-8302" “ October 2,2005 ? ■ www.baytownsun.com r "^$L25
THE EVACUATION OF A LIFETIME
______________________ ’ *
By AUSTIN KINGHORN
The Baytown Sun
While life is returning to normal for most residents of Baytown ’
and Chambers County, officials are already considering how to
better prepare for the next hurricane that threatens the Texas
coast. . ■ ■ ’ ■
Baytown and Chambers County officials both acknowledge
the region’s evacuation plan needs revamping.
“We had a plan and it didn’t work and I don’t know who will
be able to come up with an answer
U We had a plan and for evacuating that many people at
it didn t work and I
don’t know who will be
able to come up with an
answer for evacuating
that many people at one' Daytoi
Mtn
Mayor estimates cleanup only half finished
By RYAN CULVER Rita has dominated the lives and jobs of Collector Paul Bettencourt said the official
The Baytown Sun many Baytonians since the storm rfiade county storm damage estimate is $111 mil--'
landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on lion — most of it from spoiled food in the
BAYTOWN — Baytown Mayor Calvin s 24 At one point stQrm was a grocery stores, restaurants, and other food
Mundinger estimated Friday that the city Cat 5 hurricane was recorded as vendors that lost power.
. should be back to normal business some- the third gtrongest when measured by Due to the significantly greate’r damage -
time this week. barometric nressnm in recorded hiiitorv. suffered in Chambers County during the
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Hurricane exposes
evacuation problems
I They could be more reach cities that are typically
I deadly in urgent crises oniyfour to five hours away
“ Bill Dupont, who works for
Baytown’s Health Department,
called his odyssey a “simple
22-hour drive.”
“I used no AC whatsoever,”
. many residents who he said, recalling efforts to
evacuated in the face of conserve fuel. “All four win-
Hurricane Rita, gridlocked dows were down and that was
traffic and scorching heat miserable.”
ended up posing a greater Dupont said he saw drivers
threat than the wind or rain pushing their cars to save gas
brought by the storm. and even saw families camped
For Baytown residents there out in pup tents on highway
was no shortage of evacuation medians.
horror stories as evacuees Bo Aguilar, a Baytown
. .., offered up renditions of jour-
MOTORISTS HEAD NORTH out of Houston during the evacuation in advance of Hurricane Rita Sept. 22. neys lasting nearly 24 hours to See PROBLEMS on Page 12A
one time,” said Chambers County
Judge Jimmy Sylvia.
Baytown Mayor Calvin
Mundinger recalled a bottleneck
effect between Mont Belvieu and
in on Highway 146, the state’s
time, yy designated evacuation route for
both Baytown and Chambers
Jimmy Sylvia, County, that cut traffic down to one
Chambers County Judge ]ane in each direction.
SSi, “I hope they take a look at mak-
ing sure that’s going to be a con-
traflow,” Mundinger said. “One lane of traffic outbound just can’t
handle the load.”
Along with Houston Mayor Bill White and Harris County
Judge Robert Eckels, Gov. Rick Perry on Friday announced the
creation of an evacuation transportation and logistics task force
that will make recommendations on how to better evaluate
See NEXT TIME on Page 12A
*^M
, ,, . landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on lion — most of it from spoiled food in the
BAYTOWN — Baytown Mayor Calvin s 24 At one int stonn was a orn!^rv stores restaurants and other fond
Mundinger estimated Friday that the city Qategory 5 hurricane that was recorded as
-i___..lit 4. UaaV 4^ HOrmel hiicmecc some- ' o r-
the third strongest, when measured by
barometric pressure, in recorded, history. o --- ,
Only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane that hit h™e, damage estimates were unavail-
the Florida Keys and Hurricane Camille, ab'e rl ay' ' ■ , ' I
which devastated the coast of Mississippi , said he
. in.n cleanup and recovery cost, at least for the
in . were songer. city government, to total $500,000. Neither |
iviunumgex sa.u u. ... .... .... onRlta wtaPPked su^ined v° he nor Bettencourt had information about
cials have noticed that some areas in town 80 miles per hour through the chy, knock- thc totaJ estimated damage for the
ing down trees and cutting electricity for Baytown area
hit harder almost 150,000 CenterPoint Energy cus- ..From the little bjj j Guy
tamers. Griscom, spokesman for the Harris County
uiauwiuM, “(The city suffered) limited structural Appraisal District said, “most of the real
the new neighborhoods don’t really have damage,” Mundinger said. “(The rebuild- estate damage js on the east side of Harris
trees- a four foot (tall) tree falling down ing effort) is mostly infrastructure repairs County.”
doesn’t do a lot of damage.” and the cleanup of brush.”
gleaning up in the wake of Hurricane In Harris , County? - Tax Assessor-
Another win for Drew
Iowa quarterback Drew Tate, left, celebrates with runningback
Damian Sims, right, after Sims' 66-yard touchdown run. Iowa .
won 357. SEE COLLEGE ROUNDUP, PAGE 9A.
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 299, Ed. 1 Sunday, October 2, 2005, newspaper, October 2, 2005; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1191802/m1/1/: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.