My family and I evacuated to the Baton Rouge area. We have family there and decided best for us to go east. It took us 11 hrs to make the normal 3 hour drive. Cars on interstate 10 east bound were being pulled by rope or chains with families in both vechicles. Some cars were even being pushed by other cars. I was one of the first responders back in the Beaumont area and returned Monday after the hurricane Rita. I had to travel back thru Lake Charles and it was my opinion that they took the worst of it. Until I found out about Sabine Pass, Cameron and Holly Beach. The pictures I saw was as bad as the Mississippi Gulf Coast area after Katrina. \r\nNews reports were saying that the petrochemical plants in the area would be up and running in 3-5 days. In my line of business we were the people trying to get them back online and it was weeks not days before they got up and running.\r\nFor the first few nights I spent in the area without electricity it was a very wierd feeling to see total darkness in an area that is so busy with lots of petro/chemical industry. The trees that were laid down by the winds of the storm was unbelievable. Houses with roofs off of them. Some houses burnt to the ground. It looked like something you would see in a movie did not look real at all. You really do not know how good we have it with all the luxury of electricity, air conditioning and water until you go without it for weeks. You think only of water for drinking but it is also used to flush toliets and toliets will eventually quit working account the sewage pumps are not working to get the sewage out of the lines. This was an experience no one should go through. I thank God that I had very little and minor damage to my house. I see houses and buisnesses 6 months after the hurricane being tore down account damage was so great it was easier to tear down and start over.