Well looks like 2:42 was the last radar from Lake Charles. Looks like that is when they got hit with a band of strong convection. So now you're left to hope that the worst that happened was that their instrumentation blew down or their generator failed.

Overall it seems as though many of the strongest winds are not making it to the ground in the areas where reporters are live. Does it seem that way to any of you as well?

The difference between Rita and Katrina at landfall seems considerable. Unfortunately NOLA had no time to repair those canal walls (they'll have to be redesigned), so they took a hit with flooding again.