Hurricane Rita – Counting the Cost

Jasper County has 641 miles of county roads. After Hurricane Rita plowed into the Gulf Coast early Saturday, Sept. 24, each and every road was cut off, choked by fallen trees and debris.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Rita made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane just east of Sabine Pass on the Texas-Louisiana line. Jasper County was one of 22 counties cited as impact areas by the Office of the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management.
Jasper County Judge Joe Folk considers himself fortunate. Folk was at the command center when hurricane-force winds clocked at 117-118 miles per hour swirled through the city of Jasper. While Folk’s goat barn was blown away and his old barn ended up in the woods across the highway, his home remained intact.
“The things I lost can be replaced,” Folk said. “Many, many people had houses that were destroyed, and they cannot be replaced.”
While figures continue to be updated, at one time Folk received a report indicating the following overall damage in Jasper County:
96 homes destroyed
715 homes with major damage
692 homes with minor damage
994 affected homes
38 percent of the above covered by insurance
In its response to Rita, the county has incurred an estimated $6 million in expenses, Folk said. To date, Jasper County has received $1.3 million in reimbursement.
The county has kept a daily log of what items have been ordered and what jobs have been performed. For example, temperatures hovered about 100 degrees in the days following Rita, and food, water and ice were in great demand. While many people had fled the area early on, the county helped provide these necessities to those who remained at home along with the thousands who came to help clear debris and launch repairs.
Generators were an especially expensive item, Folk said. The county rented large generators for the hospital and also furnished them for relief workers and shelters housing evacuees.
Folk said he was pleased with the state and federal response to the disaster. Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were on hand within approximately 24 hours of Rita’s landfall advising officials, and other relief help came by the second day.
“They responded about as quick as they could,” Folk said.
The media also had an early presence, Folk said, however they were quick to leave, “forgetting about East Texas” within two to three days,
Still, the word got out, and volunteers flocked to the area to conduct search and rescue efforts, provide food, water, ice and health care, and help restore power. For example, close to 1,000 people worked to repair more than 5,000 broken poles in the area served by the Jasper/Newton Electric Coop. The estimated cost of these repairs is about $25 million.
“There were crews from all over the nation working here,” Folk said. “They did a great job.” About 20 days after Rita hit, approximately 60 percent of the county had restored power.
While complete damage assessments are still ongoing, one industry undoubtedly suffered tremendous loss: the timber industry. In Jasper County, which includes national forestland, countless pines were broken off while oaks, cedars, and beeches – including their entire root systems – were pulled from the ground.
Folk was scheduled to meet with key players in the response in November to review the process and determine areas in need of improvement.
“You can always do some things better, “ Folk said. However, overall, “the response went very, very well. We were able to take care of needs, evacuate nursing home patients, and feed and clothe those in need.”
Folk said he was especially grateful to his commissioners, who “worked seven days a week, 10-12 hours a day, with their crews, throughout all of this.” The commissioners have generators and gasoline at their barns, meaning when the power went out, they were some of the few who had access to fuel. So it was the county commissioners who initially supplied gasoline to emergency vehicles, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the Department of Public Safety, and other first responders.
In his 73 years, Folk said he has never experienced anything like Rita. And as he looks back on the devastation – homes demolished, trees lying in roadways and on tops of houses, people left homeless with no means to rebuild – Folk said he continues to be amazed by one fortunate, almost unbelievable fact, something he describes a miracle: Everyone in Jasper County survived.
Julie Anderson, Editor