Major General (ret.) JOHN BASILICA (photo courtesy of National Guard)
Today is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Rita’s landfall in Cameron Parish. The storm produced widespread damage across southwest Louisiana as the state was still reeling from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Katrina. Retired Major General John Basilica was the commander of Louisiana National Guard’s storm operations in Louisiana and says it was difficult to respond to two natural disasters at the same time.
“There was a lot of anxiety associated with the people that were on the east part, saying ‘Please don’t take any of the resources that you have supporting us.’ But we did have to and reposition them in order to be ready for Rita,” Basilica recalled.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29th in Plaquemines Parish, killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless. On September 21st, Rita entered the Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane and developed into Category Five storm before eventually weakening to a Category Three storm in southwest Louisiana on September 24th. Basilica says the preparation for the storm was well done, despite the tough circumstances.
“Everybody saw just how bad things can be with Katrina. When we talked about evacuation and we talked about people having to leave, everybody listened,” Basilica said.
There was only one reported in death in Louisiana that was attributed to Rita, while Texas had 113. Rita produced $4 billion in damages across southwest Louisiana and left 1 million people without power, including the thousands that were still without power because of Katrina.
Many low-lying areas of southwest Louisiana were flooded as storm surge flooding even reached Lake Charles. Many buildings and homes in Cameron Parish were washed away.
Basilica says just like with Katrina, they had to perform search and rescue operations, but they had more assistance than they did with Katrina.
“The one advantage that we had was because of Katrina. We had to ask for additional support from the other states, and we were getting it.”, Basilica noted.
Basilica says it was not until February 2006 until the National Guard restored all authority and responsibility back to civilian authorities.
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