Hurricane Rita heads to Gulf of Mexico

by Michael Verdon/IBI Magazine on 22 Sep 2005 Hurricane Rita largely spared the Florida Keys on Tuesday, but strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 135 mph as it moved up the Gulf of Mexico and Government officials are concerned that it could devastate coastal Texas and Louisiana by the end of this week.

There were some reports of localized flooding in the Florida Keys, but by nightfall on Tuesday, the main highway from Key Largo to Key West was passable. Thousands of residents are expected to return today.

A local US Coast Guard official in Key West told IBI that the agency was currently assessing damage to boats and marinas along the Keys, but that a full report would not be available until tomorrow.

Government officials ordered mandatory evacuations for New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, where the storm could hit. Rita is expected to remain a Category 4 storm until it makes landfall, said officials at the National Hurricane Center. That is predicted to happen on Saturday, somewhere between northern Mexico and western Louisiana, most likely in Texas.

Officials said it could strengthen to a Category 5 hurricane, with winds in excess of 155 mph.

Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Director R. David Paulison told the Associated Press that his agency has aircraft and buses available to evacuate residents of areas the hurricane might hit. Rescue teams and truckloads of ice, water and prepared meals were being sent to Texas.

‘President Bush signed an emergency declaration for Florida and spoke with Texas governor Rick Perry about planning for the storm's landfall. Perry said Texans are taking the warnings seriously after the experience of Hurricane Katrina. ‘I think Texas is as prepared as any state in the nation,’ he told NBC's ‘Today’ show Wednesday.

In New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers was racing to patch New Orleans' fractured levee system. Engineers feared additional rain could swamp the city's levees.

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