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75 YEAR OLD DOVER WOMAN 'TOUGHS OUT' HURRICANE

Barbara Batten, a 75-year-old originally from Dover was in the path of Hurricane Rita but had to "tough it out". 

Barbara  who emigrated to America in 1951 and lives in Sugar Land, a few miles south-west of Houston was planning o­n leaving but changed her mind after news that interstate highways out of town were jammed.

She said that her bags were packed but the  authorities changed their mind and told us to stay at home and tough it out. The roads were all grid locked and the petrol stations had all run out. She said she hasn't seen a soul. and the whole place is a ghost town.

Rita spared Houston, and residents who had left the city began heading home o­n Saturday (24 September).

The hurricane did not come up to the grimmest predictions. But even if human loss was small, the economic bill could still be considerable. The oil installations around Houston survived intact, as did the city's vital shipping canal.