Rita Becomes Category 5 Hurricane, Aims at Texas
Date: 22-Sep-05
Country: USA
Author: Mark Babineck
"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst," said US President George W. Bush, who was heavily criticized for an ill-prepared federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
Bush declared emergencies for Texas and neighboring Louisiana, which authorized the Homeland Security Department and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief operations.
The US National Hurricane Center said Rita had become "an extremely dangerous" Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (265 kph) as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A Category 5 storm can cause catastrophic damage.
Rita lashed the Florida Keys on Tuesday but did little damage to the vulnerable Florida islands.
The storm was expected to strengthen over the central Gulf but may also weaken slightly as it continues west, the National Hurricane Center said earlier on Wednesday. The storm was expected to make landfall by Saturday "as a major hurricane ... at least Category 3," the center said. A Category 3 storm can cause extensive damage.
Rita would most likely hit the Texas coast southwest of Galveston, where in 1900 at least 8,000 people died in the deadliest US hurricane.
Just last month, Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and killed at least 1,037 people.
Markets reacted immediately on news the storm had gained strength, with the prospect of more destruction and oil-supply interruptions affecting everything from stocks and the dollar to oil prices.
EVACUATIONS
Galveston, on a barrier island, began evacuating residents on Tuesday. About 50 miles (80 km) inland, Houston Mayor Bill White ordered an evacuation of residents in areas prone to storm surges or major floods.
By evening, as many as 1.2 million people were expected to begin leaving Houston, America's fourth most populous city, officials said. Katrina displaced about 1 million people, including nearly all of New Orleans's 450,000 residents.
Stores in Houston quickly ran out of emergency supplies, plywood and food. The last major hurricane to hit Houston was Alicia in 1983, but Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 caused extensive flooding in the city and and killed more than 40 people across the United States.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged Texans along a 300-mile (483 km) stretch comprising most of the state's coastline, to leave. He said nursing home residents already were being evacuated.
A major hurricane could send a 20-foot (6-metre) storm surge over the Texas coast.
Maria Stephens helped fellow residents of Galveston Island board evacuation buses and then prepared to drive inland with her husband and their three children.
"Everyone's scared, that's why we're all leaving," she said, citing television images of Katrina's devastation. "I saw the people at the shelters and the bodies floating in the water. I don't want that to be my family."
NASA prepared to evacuate its Johnson Space Center in Houston and turn over control of the International Space Station to its Russian partners.
Taking lessons from problems after Katrina hit, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said authorities had positioned supplies and were checking on communications systems. The government sent Coast Guard Rear Adm. Larry Hereth to Texas to coordinate the response.
"I hope that by doing what the state officials and mayors are doing now ... getting people who are invalids out of the way, encouraging people to leave early, that when the storm hits, there will be property damage but hopefully there won't be a lot of people to rescue," Chertoff told MSNBC.
NEW ORLEANS TAKES NO CHANCES
Louisiana declared a state of emergency. New Orleans, flooded by Katrina and considered vulnerable to Rita, was taking no chances. Mayor Ray Nagin said two busloads of people had been evacuated already