Hurricane Rita Remains at Category 4, Now Expected to Hit Port Arthur Area
Forecasters warned of possible storm surge flooding of 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels, large and dangerous battering waves, and rain of up to 12 inches in the area near where Rita makes landfall.
As hundreds of thousands of Texas and Louisiana residents remain on their exodus from the coastal region, forecasters are now saying that Hurricane Rita, which remains at Category 4, may spare the Houston area a direct hit from its 135 mph winds.
The hurricane is now expected to hit the Texas Coast around the Beaumont and Port Arthur area, which is 75 miles east of Houston, sometime early Saturday.
Forecasters warned of possible storm surge flooding of 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels, large and dangerous battering waves, and rain of up to 12 inches in the area near where Rita makes landfall.
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Evacuation efforts saw traffic backed up from Houston to Baton Rouge, with highways leading inland out of Houston clogged for up to 100 miles north of the city.
Fuel became sparse for both motorists and service stations as cars remained bumper-to-bumper for as long as 14 hours.
Drivers who ran out of gas were refueled directly by police-escorted National Guard trucks as Texas officials worked to get more than 200,000 gallons of fuel to stations in the Houston area.
Despite Rita’s new path, motorists who are still on the road when the storm hits could be in danger, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, told CNN this morning.
Last night, Houston Mayor Bill White told all residents who were not in high-risk areas to stay in their homes, especially considering traffic and fuel conditions.
“Now is not the time to get into your car to start the evacuation,” White told CNN. “We will get people who are stranded on the roadside before the storm comes in. That is our commitment.”
An estimated two million people were under mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders yesterday, including some 300,000 to 500,000 from southwestern Louisiana.
Meanwhile, Rita’s effects were already being felt in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, where rainfall breached a fractured levee, leaving dozens of blocks in the city's Ninth Ward under water.
One of the city's areas hit hardest by Katrina, the Ninth Ward is believed to be completely evacuated, according to Sally Foreman, an aide to Mayor Ray Nagin.
"I wouldn't imagine there's one person down there," Foreman told AP this morning.
Katrina’s death toll in Louisiana rose to 832 on Thursday, bringing the total body count to 1,069 in the Gulf Coast region. It has been nearly a month since Katrina came ashore as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 29.
Meanwhile, Federal relief teams and resources have been stationed in the areas in Rita’s path, with over 300,000 National Guardsmen on call if needed.
President Bush is scheduled to stop in Texas today to “get a firsthand look” at preparations for Rita and to support responders in the area, said White House spokesperson Scott McClellan at a press briefing in Washington yesterday.
Following that, the President is scheduled to travel to Colorado, where he will meet with members of the Northern Command to “look at the military response efforts from the federal government’s standpoint,” McClellan said.
“We’re going to have as minimal a footprint as possible,” McClellan said. “We’re not going to get in the way of ongoing preparations that are going on.”
Volunteer relief organizations have also begun to mobilizing to respond to Rita.
The American Red Cross has resources to deliver at least 750,000 meals a day after Rita makes landfall, while keeping appropriate resources in place for Katrina victims as well, McClellan reported.
The Salvation Army has begun deploying their mobile rescue units throughout Texas and its neighboring states, expecting to at least equal the manpower and equipment utilized for Katrina during the past four weeks, according to a statement released yesterday.
“The Salvation Army is preparing to respond to two of the largest natural disasters in our nation’s history, simultaneously,” said Major George Hood, national community relations and development secretary on Thursday. “Our sole focus is to ensure that our resources are safe and in place to meet the immediate needs of people affected by Rita, and to ensure that our care for Katrina survivors continues unimpeded.”
Jason Christy, Executive Director of the Christian Coalition of America, released a statement yesterday calling the country to pray for “divine protection” from Hurricane Rita.
“As a nation we witnessed the destruction and heartache that Katrina released upon our land,” he said. “Let us unite under the banner of faith and pray for divine protection in the wake of yet another life-threatening storm front.”
If Rita makes landfall at its current strength, it will be the first time since 1915 that two Category 4 storms hit the U.S. mainland in the same year.
