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1 Peter 1:16
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
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Posted by: Shawn on Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 11:36 AM
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Hurricane Rita spins toward Texas coast as Gulf braces 'for the worst' please pray.
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Hurricane Rita grew into a monster storm with sustained winds of 274 kilometres an hour as it swirled toward the Gulf of Mexico coast, prompting more than 1.3 million residents in Texas and Louisiana to flee in hopes of avoiding a deadly repeat of hurricane Katrina.
Traffic came to a standstill and gas shortages were reported Thursday as hundreds of thousands of people in the Houston metropolitan area rushed to get out of the path of the storm.
"It's not worth staying here," said Celia Martinez as she and several relatives finished packing up their homes and pets to head to Houston. "Life is more important than things."
As Gov. Rick Perry urged residents along the state's entire coast to begin evacuating well in advance of Rita's predicted Saturday landfall, New Orleans braced for the possibility that the storm could swamp the misery-stricken city, devastated by the recent Katrina.
Galveston, Corpus Christi and surrounding Nueces County, low-lying parts of Houston, and New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders as Category 5 Rita - ranked by winds greater than 249 km/h - drew energy from balmy Gulf waters.
Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said Thursday her island city is "fairly well emptied, but we're sending our police forces . . . with their loudspeakers reminding people that today is the day to leave."
In Houston, Mayor Bill White said residents in low-lying areas and in mobile homes should leave immediately.
Forecasters said Rita could be the strongest hurricane on record to hit Texas. Only three Category 5 hurricanes, the highest on the scale, are known to have hit the U.S. mainland - most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.
Hundreds of buses were dispatched Wednesday to evacuate the poor and move out hospital and nursing home patients. Truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals as well as rescue and medical teams were on standby in an effort to avoid the lax response in the wake of Katrina.
At 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, Rita was centred about 790 kilometres east-southeast of Galveston and was moving west-northwest near 15 km/h. Wind speed was 274 km/h, down slightly from 282 km/h earlier in the day. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi. Rainfall from the storm could reach 38 centimetres in spots, the hurricane centre said.
Hurricane-force winds extended up to 115 kilometres from the centre of the storm, and even a slight rightward turn, could prove devastating to the fractured levees protecting New Orleans.
In the Galveston-Houston-Corpus Christi area, about 1.3 million people were under orders to get out, in addition to 20,000 or more along with the Louisiana coast. Special attention was given to hospitals and nursing homes, three weeks after scores of sick and elderly patients in the New Orleans area drowned in Katrina's floodwaters or died in the stifling heat while waiting to be rescued.
Galveston, a coastal city of 58,000 on an island 2 1/2 metres above sea level, was nearly wiped off the map in 1900 when an unnamed hurricane killed between 6,000 and 12,000. It remains the United States' worst natural disaster.
City manager Steve LeBlanc said the storm surge could reach 15 metres. Galveston is protected by a seawall that is only five metres tall.
Galveston's mayor said buses used to take people and their pets off the island were running in short supply Wednesday and warned that stragglers could be left to fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Katrina passed the 1,000 mark Wednesday in five Gulf Coast states. The body count in Louisiana alone was put at nearly 800, most found in the receding floodwaters of New Orleans.
Crude oil prices rose again on fears that Rita would destroy key oil installations in Texas and the gulf. Hundreds of workers were evacuated from offshore oil rigs. Texas, the heart of U.S. crude production, accounts for 25 per cent of the country's total oil output.
Rita is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, making this the fourth-busiest season since record-keeping started in 1851. The record is 21 tropical storms in 1933. The hurricane season is not over until Nov. 30.
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Hurricane Rita spins toward Texas coast as Gulf braces 'for the worst' please pray.
GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - Hurricane Rita grew into a monster storm with sustained winds of 274 kilometres an hour as it swirled toward the Gulf of Mexico coast, prompting more than 1.3 million residents in Texas and Louisiana to flee in hopes of avoiding a deadly repeat of hurricane Katrina.
Traffic came to a standstill and gas shortages were reported Thursday as hundreds of thousands of people in the Houston metropolitan area rushed to get out of the path of the storm.
"It's not worth staying here," said Celia Martinez as she and several relatives finished packing up their homes and pets to head to Houston. "Life is more important than things."
As Gov. Rick Perry urged residents along the state's entire coast to begin evacuating well in advance of Rita's predicted Saturday landfall, New Orleans braced for the possibility that the storm could swamp the misery-stricken city, devastated by the recent Katrina.
Galveston, Corpus Christi and surrounding Nueces County, low-lying parts of Houston, and New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders as Category 5 Rita - ranked by winds greater than 249 km/h - drew energy from balmy Gulf waters.
Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said Thursday her island city is "fairly well emptied, but we're sending our police forces . . . with their loudspeakers reminding people that today is the day to leave."
In Houston, Mayor Bill White said residents in low-lying areas and in mobile homes should leave immediately.
Forecasters said Rita could be the strongest hurricane on record to hit Texas. Only three Category 5 hurricanes, the highest on the scale, are known to have hit the U.S. mainland - most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.
Hundreds of buses were dispatched Wednesday to evacuate the poor and move out hospital and nursing home patients. Truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals as well as rescue and medical teams were on standby in an effort to avoid the lax response in the wake of Katrina.
At 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, Rita was centred about 790 kilometres east-southeast of Galveston and was moving west-northwest near 15 km/h. Wind speed was 274 km/h, down slightly from 282 km/h earlier in the day. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi. Rainfall from the storm could reach 38 centimetres in spots, the hurricane centre said.
Hurricane-force winds extended up to 115 kilometres from the centre of the storm, and even a slight rightward turn, could prove devastating to the fractured levees protecting New Orleans.
In the Galveston-Houston-Corpus Christi area, about 1.3 million people were under orders to get out, in addition to 20,000 or more along with the Louisiana coast. Special attention was given to hospitals and nursing homes, three weeks after scores of sick and elderly patients in the New Orleans area drowned in Katrina's floodwaters or died in the stifling heat while waiting to be rescued.
Galveston, a coastal city of 58,000 on an island 2 1/2 metres above sea level, was nearly wiped off the map in 1900 when an unnamed hurricane killed between 6,000 and 12,000. It remains the United States' worst natural disaster.
City manager Steve LeBlanc said the storm surge could reach 15 metres. Galveston is protected by a seawall that is only five metres tall.
Galveston's mayor said buses used to take people and their pets off the island were running in short supply Wednesday and warned that stragglers could be left to fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, the death toll from Katrina passed the 1,000 mark Wednesday in five Gulf Coast states. The body count in Louisiana alone was put at nearly 800, most found in the receding floodwaters of New Orleans.
Crude oil prices rose again on fears that Rita would destroy key oil installations in Texas and the gulf. Hundreds of workers were evacuated from offshore oil rigs. Texas, the heart of U.S. crude production, accounts for 25 per cent of the country's total oil output.
Rita is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, making this the fourth-busiest season since record-keeping started in 1851. The record is 21 tropical storms in 1933. The hurricane season is not over until Nov. 30.
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