Getting Out of Rita’s Way

Lawrence Marshall, 63, is holed up inside Hollywood Theaters in Beaumont, Texas.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Marqueli Hartman talks to her boyfriend while looking out the window of Hollywood Theaters in Beaumont where she was taking shelter from Hurricane Rita.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

A boarded up home in Port Arthur, Texas.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

A sign along Farm Road 1960 in Houston sums up the feelings of a veterinary clinic owner in Houston as area residents prepared to leave or settle in as Hurricane Rita bore down on the Texas Gulf Coast.  (Brian Vander Brug / LAT)

Southeast Houston resident Cosi Hutchins and his wife, Banita Lamb, wait for their car’s engine to cool as they limp along Highway 290 on their way to Austin, Texas. As the day wore on it became apparent their car could not make the journey and they considered riding out Hurricane Rita at a shelter.  (Brian Vander Brug / LAT)

Scores of drivers wait in long lines for fuel along Interstate 45 in Houston as area residents prepared to leave or settle in as Hurricane Rita bore down on the Gulf Coast.  (Brian Vander Brug / LAT)

Children wait to board one of the last buses for evacuees out of Beaumont, Texas.  (Luis Sinco / LAT)

Beaumont, Texas, firefighters Wyatt Boyett, left, Doug Allen and James McLean load a pair of dogs aboard one of the last outbound buses from the city’s downtown area.  (Luis Sinco / LAT)

Eva Riggins and her dog, Taco, wait to be evacuated from Beaumont, Texas, on one of the last buses to leave the city before Hurricane Rita was due to impact the area.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Max Hensley, right, Brenda Nemeth and James Nerl share food and smokes as they wait to ride out Hurricane Rita in Beaumont, Texas. “I got nowhere to go,” Hensley said. “So this is as good as anywhere else.”  (Luis Sinco / LAT)

Barbara Joe Poe looks at a photograph of her seven children as she awaits evacuation at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Several hundred ill and elderly evacuees from hospitals, nursing homes and private residences wait to be evacuated from Southeast Texas Regional Airport by military transport planes in the early morning hours.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

A weary Margeret Barlow, 73, waits with several hundred other elderly and ill evacuees at nearly 3 a.m. at Southeast Texas Regional Airport. Throughout the day and night transport planes flew people away from the approaching Hurricane Rita.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Randall Odom, a registered nurse, tends to one of several hundred ill and elderly evacuees who were evacuated from Hurricane Rita’s path at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport. The evacuees were brought to the airport by buses, ambulances and private cars. They waited several hours before being flown out on military transport planes.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Nursing assistant Helen Nichols comforts Billie Comeaux as she waits with several hundred other ill and elderly evacuees who were flown out of Southeast Texas Regional Airport by military transport planes.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Clifford Cowart hugs his wife, Theresa, at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport, where hundreds of evacuees waited to catch planes taking them out of the path of Hurricane Rita. The Cowarts brought a close friend to the airport and were planning on driving themselves out of the area.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Members of the Port Arthur Fire Department carry one of hundreds of ill and elderly evacuees aboard a military transport plane at the Southeast Texas Regional Airport.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Staff at the Cajundome at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette remove signs that could be blown away by Hurricane Rita. The Cajondome was closed as an emergency shelter before the hurricane arrived.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)

Joe Tramble of New Orleans searches for emergency shelter in Lafayette, La. The Hurricane Katrina evacuee missed the evacuation of people staying at the Cajundome at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)