Texas Booksellers Spared the Worst of Hurricane Rita

As the Gulf Coast region deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, most accounts coming out of the area indicate that, while the storm's wrath was devastating in its destructive force in some areas, the consequences could have been far more tragic. First projected to hit the Houston area, the storm veered eastward to less populated areas. Nonetheless, Rita still packed a terrible and tragic punch, hitting towns along the Texas-Louisiana border with over 100-mph winds and leaving them under up to 15 feet of water.

Since Monday, Bookselling This Week has tried to reach as many booksellers as possible in Texas and Louisiana who were affected by Hurricane Rita. Calls to booksellers in the Houston/Galveston region indicate that most stores there came through Rita with relatively little damage, but booksellers in Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, remain unreachable.

In Galveston, Texas, Jay Clements, former owner and current manager of Midsummer Books reported that the city "came out of the storm relatively unharmed." He noted, "There is damage here and there, but only a few incidences that could be termed major." The store itself suffered no damage and reopened Wednesday, but business was not yet back to normal. "I expect that business will be light for a while as I'm sure there won't be much tourism and locals will be cleaning up," he said. "But we're here!"

At Crossroads Catholic Bookstore, in Lafayette, Louisiana, bookstore manager Diane Kincel said that, though they had "18 hours of high wind gusts," the store and the surrounding area came through the hurricane fine. "There were sporadic power outages," Kincel reported. "We lost power for about four hours."

In Tyler, Texas, Saturday was very rainy and windy, which prompted Fireside Books to close early, said James Leath, Fireside's manager. "There was no damage; the eye [of the storm] was probably 50 miles to the east."

Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston was closed on Thursday and Friday, but reopened for a few hours on Saturday. "We had a little scare there, but fortunately we didn't get hit hard," said Blue Willow owner Valerie Koehler. "We're fine. We're just trying to put everything back in place. I'm sorry to say our friends to the east got hit pretty hard, but we didn't even get much rain, just a lot of winds."

On Monday, business was still slightly off because many residents had not yet returned home. "We didn't see too many people this morning," she said. "Everyone's getting back into the groove. It'll probably pick up this afternoon. We lost a few days, but I'm very grateful that was all we lost."

In Houston, Kirk Thompson of Half Price Books, reported to BTW via e-mail, "Four of our Houston area stores [reopened on Tuesday, September 27] and will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Apparently, the mayor in Houston asked all nonessential businesses to remain closed until then. On Wednesday, stores will resume normal hours, which vary. Our store in Bryan-College Station reopened on Sunday, and our store in Corpus Christi opened on Friday. We are waiting to find out the status of our other area stores."

Sally Woods at Brazos Bookstore in Houston announced, "Everything's fine. We suffered zero damage." The bookstore was closed Friday and Saturday, but opened Sunday. "Lots of people came in on Sunday," said Woods. "We ended up having nearly a normal Sunday sales day. It was more than we expected." Woods told BTW that Brazos' neighborhood of central Houston experienced high winds but not very much rain. "We got nothing, frankly," she said. "Once the storm turned to the right, we were saved ... but poor Louisiana."

Woods said that a few neighboring businesses were still closed primarily because employees hadn't yet returned. Brazos was open because many employees didn't leave the city, explained Woods. Those who had attempted to leave were thwarted by the standstill highway traffic.

At R Duffy Booksellers in Houston, Richard Duffy reported 25- to 45-mph winds in his area, but his bookstore suffered no damage. The key issue on Monday was that there was no gasoline available in his immediate area. "We're grateful to be safe," he said. "And we're praying for the book dealers in eastern Texas."

Another Houston bookstore, Murder By the Book, also came through Rita unscathed. "We're fine," store manager Dean James said. "There was no damage -- we didn't even lose power.... We're counting ourselves very lucky."

Steve Bercu of BookPeople in Austin, Texas, reported that many evacuees came to Austin. "There were about 25 to 30 thousand people spending the weekend -- every single hotel room was gone." As for Rita itself, "it had absolutely zero effect." --Karen Schechner and David Grogan