Rita heads for Texas as Category 5

By Mark Babineck

GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) – More than 1 million people
along the Texas coast fled the approach of Hurricane Rita on
Thursday as it developed into one of the most intense storms on
record and threatened catastrophic damage.

With winds of 175 mph (280 kph), the Category 5 hurricane
churned across the Gulf of Mexico on a course that was expected
to take it ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday.

Having learned a lesson from Hurricane Katrina’s assault on
Louisiana and Mississippi last month, city officials along the
Texas coast told residents to clear out and arranged for buses
for those who needed help.

Residents of the island city of Galveston, Corpus Christi
and low-lying parts of Houston 50 miles inland were among the
1.3 million Texans told to evacuate. Houstonians fleeing their
city created bumper-to-bumper traffic jams on interstate
highways that lasted well into the night.

New Orleans, still staggering after being flooded by
Katrina, was taking no chances this time. Mayor Ray Nagin said
two busloads of people had been evacuated already and 500 other
buses were ready.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who told people along a 300-mile

stretch of coast to leave, said computer projections were
prepared for city officials so they could see what could be
left underwater after being hit by Rita’s storm surge.

“Between Katrina and our preparations for this, people
understand this isn’t something you’re going to play around
with,” Perry told CNN.

He said 5,000 Texas National Guard troops were on standby
and 1,000 Department of Public Safety officers were along
evacuation routes, ready to move in after Rita’s landfall.
Shelters for 250,000 evacuees were being established in
Huntsville, College Station, San Antonio and Dallas.

Corpus Christi Mayor Henry Garrett said the evacuation of
his city was inspired by Katrina and was going smoothly.

“One of the things we realized that we needed to do here in
Corpus Christi was to look at our evacuation plan,” he said in
a CNN interview. “We felt we needed to evacuate a couple of
days earlier than what we had planned on.”

THIRD MOST INTENSE HURRICANE

As of 5 a.m. EDT, Rita’s center was about 515 miles
southeast of Galveston and 615 miles east-southeast of Corpus
Christi with hurricane-force winds that extended 70 miles from
its center. It was moving west-northwest at about 9 mph (15
kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm developed into the third most intense Atlantic
hurricane on record as measured by internal pressure, the
hurricane center said. Rita’s maximum sustained winds rising to
175 mph (281 kph) over the warm waters of the Gulf matched the
peak strength over water of Katrina, which hit land as a
Category 4 storm with 145 mph (233 kph) winds.

The hurricane watch was issued for the U.S. Gulf Coast from
Port Mansfield Texas, to Intracoastal City, Louisiana, a
575-mile (925-km) stretch that covers almost all the Texas
coast.

After criticism for a slow response to Katrina, President
George W. Bush declared emergencies for Texas and Louisiana as
Rita approached.

U.S. 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.

A FEMA spokesman said Rita was not expected to re-flood New
Orleans if the storm stayed on its current westward course.

Financial markets reacted immediately to 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.

Oil companies just starting to recover from Katrina
evacuated Gulf oil rigs as Rita moved closer. Four Texas
refineries were shut down, even as four refineries remained
shut in Louisiana and Mississippi after Katrina.

The Mexican government issued a tropical storm watch for
the country’s northeast coast from Rio San Fernando northward.

The last major hurricane to hit Houston was Alicia in 1983,
a Category 3 storm that killed 22 people. Tropical Storm
Allison in 2001 caused extensive flooding in the city and
killed more than 40 people across the United States.

(Additional reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Adam Entous
and Caren Bohan in Washington, and Allan Dowd in Baton Rouge)