The Odessa American from Odessa, Texas • Page 1

NFL heads south League to play its first regular season game in Mexico. SPORTS 'Winter Fantasy' CM VD Pi Junior League getting re AO IV CM Of cn- I uJ 50 CENTS TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27,2005 SERVING ODESSA, TEXAS AND THE PERMIAN BASIN I A SEP2 92C05 0 iitlh toll ell Mm MORE INSIDE New Orleans residents begin returning with mayor's invitation. INSIDE CM 8A OC'and UTPB pool resources for hurricane evacuees who decide to put down roots. INSIDE ON IB Bush urges Americans to cut back on travel to save fuel supplies. 1NSICE 2B Tug boat crews fought Rita and won. Debate begins on military role after disasters. INS1DECN3B Hospitals in Houston to get military help. CM 38 tj i 4 Rescuers find more survivors as water recedes THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CREOLE, LA. Hurricane Rita's path of devastation along the Texas-Louisiana coast became shockingly clear Monday, as rescuers pulled stranded bayou residents out on skiffs and Army helicopters searched for thousands of cattle feared drowned. Crews struggled to clean up the tangle of smashed homes and downed trees. The hurricane slammed low-lying fishing villages, shrimping ports arid ranches with water up to 9 feet deep. Seawater pushed as far as 20 miles inland, drowning acres of rice, sugarcane fields and pasture. In, coastal Terrebonne Parish, the count of severely damaged or destroyed homes stood at nearly 9,900. An estimated 80 percent of the buildings in the town of Cameron, population 1,900, were leveled. Farther inland, half of Creole, population 1,500, was left in splinters. "I would use the word destroyed," Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said of Cameron. "Cameron and Creole have been destroyed except for the courthouse, which was built on stilts on higher ground. Most of the houses and public buildings no longer exist or are even in the same location that they were." The death toll from the second devastating hurricane in a month rose to nine with the discovery in a Beaumont apartment of five people a man, a woman and three children who apparently were killed by carbon monoxide from a generator they were running indoors after Rita knocked out the electricity. A Texas couple was confirmed killed by an uprooted tree that fell on their home. See RITA Page 8A AP PH0T0HOUSTON CHRONICLE, MAYRA BFXTRAN C.J. Collins, 49, left, cries as he is consoled Monday by Beaumont Fire Captain Mark Clapp in Beaumont after the bodies of five people were discovered in an apartment. The five, a man, a woman and three children, apparently were overcome by carbon monoxide from a generator they were using after the hurricane knocked out the electricity over the weekend, authorities said. The deaths push the death toll to seven as a result of Hurricane Rita. Some evacuees expect to stay in area awhile Others head home as UTPB shelter population drops from 177 to 82 "I had to leave my sister's car on the side of the road," she said. She was finally picked up by a Greyhound bus in Warren, sent to Dallas, then Midland and finally Odessa. After reaching a relocation stopping point, Langlow then began searching for her family dad, Elbert Davis; daughter, Laura Menard; brothers, Keith and Kirby Daniels; sister, TariAnne Noe; one grandchild, Elsie Menard; two nieces, Brittany and See SHELTER Page 8A mind waiting a week to get home but is anxious to get back to her entire family. "We all were separated because I had to work the next morning." Langlow said. "It turned out that we didn't work I took off with $10 in my purse and a quarter tank of gas." The gas didn't last long in gridlock traffic 20 miles. BY JERAMY CROOK Odessa American As many Hurricane Rita evacuees quickly and quietly prepared for the long, tasking journey home, some evacuees hunkered down for a longer stay in Odessa at the UTPB shelter. Orange resident Tonia Langlow, 42, doesn't really MARK STERKELODESSA AMERICAN Gabriel Jeffrey Vejil, left, a student volunteer, bounces Douglas Garcia, 2, on one of the jumpers provided for children staying at the Red Cross Shelter at UTPB in Odessa. Also pictured are Garrett May and Allissa Morris. Jhe jumpers were donated by Crazy Frog Party Jumpers. Medical gaps in event of disaster foreseen in review eight months ago Homeland Security Department says the nation is woefully unprepared for massrcasualty event to deal with a mass-casualty event and DHS lacks an adequate medical support capability for its field operating units," the report said. Homeland Security officials said the problems identified in the Jan. 3 report were in the process of being addressed when the hurricanes hit. Secretary Michael Chertoff was reorganizing his department and created a new chief medical officer to take the lead on preparedness, they said. "I thought it (the report) was a great place to start," said Dr. Jeffrey Runge, the department's new medical officer See REVIEW Page 8A' Officials said the problems identified in the Jan. 3 report were in the process of being addressed. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Eight months before the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an internal Homeland Security Department review warned that the nation was woefully unprepared for a medical disaster and lacked a coherent plan for taking charge of mass casualties. Government medical teams had difficulty coordinating and delivering help during 2004 hurricanes in Florida, said the report obtained by The Associated Press. report also said there was inadequate planning for deal-; ing with a surge of patients during a disaster like a biological or nuclear attack. It called for creation of a uniformed medical reserve corps, including specialists, fashioned, after the National Guard. "The nation's medical leadership works in isolation, its medical response capability is fragmented and ill-prepared AP PHOTO Lance Romero helps his father, Phillip, clean out the freezers Monday at Bridgeside Seafood in Delcambre, in the remaining floodwaters of Hurricane Rita. Phillip, who bought the company shortly after Hurricane Lili, says that he will reopen when he can find a place to buy seafood and get his freezers working. I CLOSING PRICES INDEX CLASSIFIED HL DON'T MISS THIS Creepy ball CQMICS FREEDOM 'Castle Nightmare Masquerade a Posted: Not available Futures: $65.95 Natural Gas: $12,580 Crude-oil futures rose more than $1 a barrel amid CROSSWORD 4B.5C DEATHS MOVIFS 6B WEATHER Mostly sunny, warm. Winds southeast at 5-10 mph. A 92 62 PASE6D COMING SUNDAY Climbing higher The cost of oil is rising and so is our dependence on it. See a special report in Sunday's Parade magazine that looks at how we can take control. I III! I OPINION Halloween party benefiting the Education Foundation, is scheduled from 7 to 11 p.m. Oct. 20 at: Graham Central Station, 4240 Preston Smith Road 334-7185. -6A. SPORTS hurricane-related jitters. STOCKS 50 TE1 EV1SIQN 3C 1 1 S1 3(4

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