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Search for victims goes on as Rita bill mounts

AFP, Cameron
Rescue helicpptets and boats waited for dawn yesterday to resume their search for victims of Hurricane Rita in flooded Louisiana communities as the bill from the natural disaster continued to mount even though the death toll remained low.
After the thousand-plus dead from Hurricane Katrina, only two people were reported dead from Rita though many people remain missing in small towns along the west Louisiana coast that bore the brunt of the 195km (120 mile) an hour winds and six metre (20 feet) high storm surge.
Military helicopters, coast guard boats and volunteers who brought their own craft scoured the worst hi t towns and fishing villages that were cutoff by floods.
Up to 2,500 people were rescued from Vermilion parish alone during the weekend, authorities said. More were saved In other western
Louisiana districts from rooftops and even some who scrambled up trees to get out of alligator and snake infested swamps.
One Vietnamese family rode out the storm on their shrimp boat in Intercoastal City. Many of the stranded people used cell phones to callforhelp.
Vermilion, Lake Charles, Cameron and other towns are all near the Louisiana-Texas border and took a direct hit from the eye of the storm. Some of the towns are more than 25km from the coast but still suffered severe flooding.
Rita ripped off roofs, sent trees flying into cars, fanned fires through historic wooden buildings and flooded low-lying towns, but the region's vital oil infrastructure was relatively unscathed.
Oil prices fell in special trading in New York on Sunday as fears that Rita would ravage the network of refineries off the coast of Texas
proved unfounded.
One million people remained without electricity but state officials spoke of "miracles" after studying the human toll.
Authorities in Mississippi reported one death from a tornado offshoot of thehurricane, which tore up a mobile home. InTexas one man was killed by a fallen tree.
TWenty-fourelderly residents of a Texas nursing home were killed when their bus caught fire on a highwayduringthccvacuation.
But in Louisiana, which suffered most from Katrina on August 29, officials reported no immediate fatalities, though deaths were feared.
Sheriff Theos Duhon said he expected to find bodies as the search continued in Cameron parish. "It’sa very grim picture ... There are no fatalities so far but I suspect there willbeafcw."
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Texas governor Rick Perry said the low toll was "a blessing" and praised what he called the largest evacuation in US history which saw about three million people flee the Texas and Louisiana coasts before the storm.
Officials pleaded with the multitudes who fled in advance of the storm not to rush back, warning that thczoncremalneddangcrousdueto flooding.
President George W. Bush who had led appeals for people to get away from the coast before Rita struck joined the Texas and Louisiana governors in urging evacuees to stay in their refuges. "The situation is still dangerous," said Bush.