Louisiana community struggling 10 years after Rita

Gov. Jay Dardenne and other state and local officials will gather at the Cameron courthouse today to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Rita’s landfall. They still do. Some people still live in campers. That’s down to about 6,700 people. When the levees broke, 80 percent of New Orleans flooded.

One of the areas still recovering a decade after Rita is Cameron Parish in coastal, southwest Louisiana.

Vermilion dug out and rebuilt.

“It is vital that we not only highlight our successes for the parish, but also for our families, churches and schools”, Bourriaque said. With the sounds of high winds and blaring vehicle horns in the background he said, “We’ve seen trash containers, awnings, even a brick wall that collapsed from the hurricane-force winds”. The hurricane caused more than $11 billion in damage.

Houston was expected to take the biggest hit from Rita, but the storm lost strength and veered east coming ashore in eastern Texas and along the Louisiana coast. It ranks as the ninth-costliest hurricane nationally when based on insured losses.

Eleven deaths in Texas and Louisiana were blamed on Rita. Damage to the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries was estimated to reach $593 million.

Sources: The U.S. Census Bureau, The Rita Report commissioned by the Louisiana Recovery Authority, Insurance Information Institute, the LSU AgCenter and Associated Press archives.