As Rita lumbered toward the Gulf Coast last week, much of the worry focused on how the massive storm might impact Houston and Galveston. But it was smaller towns to the east, such as Silsbee and Beaumont in Texas and Lake Charles, La., that ended up reeling as the hurricane swept through as a Category 3 early Saturday.
Silsbee, a lumber and oil town of about 7,300, sits in the midst of a wooded area of east Texas known as the Big Thicket. On Saturday morning, the giant pine forest at one end of town lay savaged, scores of trees snapped in two by Rita's powerful winds.
Fallen trees and power lines littered most every street in town. Most homes had sustained damage, from shredded siding to shattered windows. The storm - still blowing with tropical force Saturday - left Silsbee without water, power and phones.
"It is devastated," Silsbee Fire Capt. Robin Jones said Saturday, as he and colleagues watched helplessly while a home just three blocks from the fire station burned to the ground.
"We've got a gas main in the back of the house that has ignited and multiple gas lines around here that have broken, and we have no water," Jones said.
Firefighters could do little but watch and warn onlookers to back away as ammunition, likely kept for hunting, exploded inside the home, along with a carbon dioxide cannister.
On the town's main drag, the Texas State Bank had its front window sheered away, exposing the office within. The steeple of the First Baptist Church sat cock-eyed. At Brooksh Brothers Market, a grocery store built of sturdy brick, the entire roof had blown off in large metal sections and one huge section of wall had collapsed.
Despite the wreckage, no injuries or deaths were reported as of Saturday.
F.A. "Buddy" Guidry, 72, a self-described Cajun who lived in Sacramento until 1960 and came to Silsbee in 1978, was wandering around his used car showroom Saturday morning.
It was soaked. The windows had blown out on two sides, and the mini-blinds hung like twisted decorations.
"I can make you two a good deal today," he boomed at a pair of visitors. "We've had a few hurricanes here before, but they haven't been this bad."
Still, Guidry and his wife had refused to evacuate when most others left town to join the massive coastal exodus.
"What, and miss all this fun?" Guidry ask. "The truth is, we didn't evacuate because my wife didn't want to sit in the traffic."
