Gulf Coast braces for Rita

By Erwin Seba

GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) – Residents along hundreds of
miles of the Gulf of Mexico coast braced on Friday for the
arrival of Hurricane Rita, which threatened heavily populated
stretches of Texas, already storm-battered Louisiana and the
heart of the U.S. oil industry.

The Category 4 hurricane was barreling northwest across the
Gulf, with winds near 140 mph (220 kph), the U.S. National
Hurricane Center said. Rita was expected to make landfall late
on Friday or early on Saturday but its destination was unclear.

As of 5 a.m. EDT, Rita’s center was about 290 miles
southeast of Galveston and about 250 miles (402 km) southeast
of Cameron. With hurricane-force winds extending 85 miles from
its eye, the storm was moving northwest at a pace of about 9
mph (14 kmh) toward the southwest Louisiana and upper Texas
coasts.

The hurricane center said Rita could bring a storm surge of
20 feet and up to 15 inches of rain.

The storm was headed just east of Galveston and Houston
early on Friday. The storm has shifted slightly during the past
day, heading northwest, then slightly east, then back on a more
northwestern path, leaving communities along the Gulf uncertain
who was likely to bear the full brunt of the storm.

Residents trying to escape Houston, the nation’s fourth
largest city with a population of more than 2 million, crowded
inland-bound highways and sat in enormous traffic jams that
lasted for hours. Fights were reported at gasoline stations and
one interstate highway was turned into a one-way route inland
to ease a 100-mile traffic jam.

In Louisiana, still reeling from Hurricane Katrina three
weeks ago, Gov. Kathleen Blanco pleaded with residents in
low-lying coastal communities to evacuate ahead of Rita. She
recorded an automated telephone message, sent to more than
400,000 households, saying: “Hurricane Rita is heading your
way.”

Louisiana’s National Guard was trying to position its
forces to respond once the storm hits but was frustrated by the
storm’s uncertain movements, said spokesman Maj. Ed Bush.

“Everybody is watching the path of the storm and we’ve seen
it wiggle and wobble and do a few other things,” he said.

STORM REMAINS UNPREDICTABLE

A hurricane warning was in effect along a 450-mile from
Port O’Connor, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana, and officials
warned Rita remained unpredictable.

“I don’t think anyone in the Gulf Coast is out of harm’s
way,” David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, said.

To the east, Mississippi declared a state of emergency due
to Rita’s changing path and the possibility it could cause
heavy rains, flooding and tornadoes.

President George W. Bush, criticized for a slow federal
response to Katrina, planned to visit Texas on Friday to view
the emergency preparations.

As Rita threatened the region’s massive oil industry, Exxon
Mobil said it was closing its Baytown, Texas, facility, the
largest U.S. oil refinery, and one in Beaumont, 90 miles (144
km) east.

The offshore Gulf region produces a third of U.S. oil. The
closings raised to at least 13 the number of U.S. refineries
out of commission from Katrina and Rita, which have shut 29
percent of U.S. refining capacity and raised the specter of
serious gasoline shortages in the days ahead.

As darkness fell in Galveston, a huge cloud formation
filled the southeastern sky. Gulf waters began washing onto the
shore underneath expensive waterfront houses built on stilts.

Galveston, a barrier island, is prone to mass destruction.
“Galveston is going to suffer,” City Manager Steve LeBlanc
said.

Some people said, however, said they just could not bear to
leave the city, which is protected by a 17-foot (5-meter)
seawall built after a 1900 hurricane killed 8,000 people in the
most deadly U.S. natural disaster on record.

STAYING WITH THE DOG

Diane Bethea, who lives a block from the seawall, said she
would stay because her dog, a Doberman Pinscher, at 100 pounds
was too big to be caged on an evacuation bus. “If we’re going
to die, we’re going to die together,” she said.

Many who were trying to leave said they were taking heed
from Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane, which smashed into the
Louisiana and Mississippi coastal areas on Aug 29. Its force
broke levees in New Orleans, flooding the city where thousands
had been unable or unwilling to flee.

Katrina killed at least 1,066 people and displaced as many
as 1 million.

“I don’t think they would have made this big a deal about
it before but Katrina has made everybody want to get out,”
Karen Mclinjoy said as she sat in a Houston traffic jam.

Rita was downgraded to Category 4 from Category 5 — the
most powerful ranking — on Thursday as it slowed a bit.

Still expected to lose some steam as it neared land, Rita
could hit as no less than a Category 3 storm with winds of up
to 130 mph (209 kph).

In New Orleans, slammed by Katrina, water could be seen
weeping through the bottom of a newly patched levees and
forming a shallow pool, but an official with the Army Corps of
Engineers said it was not unexpected in the weakened barrier.

New Orleans was not expected to take a direct blow but the
National Weather Service warned it could face tropical-storm
winds. Rita also was expected to bring a storm surge of up to 5
feet and rain squalls.

(Additional reporting by Matt Daily and Mark Babineck in
Houston, Kenneth Li in Corpus Christi, Bernie Woodall in New
York and Allan Dowd in Baton Rouge)