Pittsburg Cares: Rita Update

Summary of this morning’s conference plus local update

Hurricane landfall into Jefferson and Chambers Counties Saturday between 5:30 and 10:00 am

Shreveport weather service said that Rita will remain a category one storm up and into Lufkin and will move into Longview by midnight Saturday night and then into Pittsburg by 7am Sunday morning as a tropical storm. There will be 50-60 MPH winds along the Interstate 20 corridor areas north of that can expect 30-40 MPH winds with stronger gusts. One prediction had 3-5” of rain while the next had 8-12” rain in our area with possibilities for more from Saturday until early Monday morning.

This means possible flooding and trees down. The City and County are prepared to deal with these issues and have resources in place to do so.

Locally

I have received calls regarding local tornado shelters, EVERYONE NEEDS TO SHELTER IN PLACE, that means stay at home and be prepared with water, food, medications, etc. If a severe storm strikes we will come to those in need of aid. There is no one safe place for folks to go to. There is also no place to evacuate to since the shelters are filling up and hotels are full up to Oklahoma and Arkansas due to Katrina and now Rita.

We should not panic over the threat of this weather, this type of thing has occurred before and we will respond to as planned.

The shelter at Emmanuel will be full by this afternoon. Pastors, we may need to start putting folks into the other sites as discussed, I will be in contact.

The local motels are full, the Bed and Breakfasts are full, and traffic is still coming through.

Longview has reopened their shelter; there is still room in Winnsboro. We do not know what Mt. Pleasant will be doing yet.

If any evacuees show up needing shelter I need to be contacted, we are registering folks as part of the emergency contact protocol and assessing individual needs.

Martin A. Pessink
Chief of Police
Pittsburg Police Department

Pittsburg Cares