Rita 'potentially catastrophic'
2005-09-23 14:59
Houston - Massive Hurricane Rita hurtled across the Gulf of Mexico towards the Texas coastline on Thursday, forcing crews to abandon oil platforms and hundreds of thousands of people to flee.
A powerful Category Five hurricane - the most powerful on the five-category Saffir-Simpson scale - Rita packed maximum sustained winds of 280km per hour with higher gusts, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre.
At 06:00 Rita's eye was located about 870km southeast of Galveston, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico, said the hurricane centre.
The hurricane was moving in a north-westerly direction towards the Texas coastline at around 15km per hour, though it is expected to pick up speed in the next 24 hours.
Rita was described as a "potentially catastrophic" hurricane.
Rita is projected to slam ashore about 120km southwest of Houston on Saturday, exposing the city to the so-called dirty side of the storm where the eyewall packs the most power.
Many people at risk
But forecasts show that a large swathe of the Gulf coast, reaching from the northeastern tip of Mexico to southwestern Louisiana, including New Orleans, are at risk.
Still smarting over criticism for their sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, United States authorities ordered the Texas port of Galveston and parts of Houston and Corpus Christi to be emptied.
About one-quarter of US oil operations are based in the Gulf of Mexico area. BP, Shell and other oil companies evacuated more than 600 oil platforms and rigs.
US authorities said more than 70% of oil production in the Gulf has been shut down. Nerves over the new threat to world supplies pushed up crude prices. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, rose 60 cents to close at $66.80 per barrel.
On the move again
The few people in New Orleans, Louisiana, a city still recovering after being hit on August 29 by Hurricane Katrina - a Category Four storm - were also told to get out.
Many of those who fled for Hurricane Katrina are among those having to evacuate again.
"Hurricane Rita on its present course poses a risk to Houston and the whole Houston region," said Mayor Bill White, said as he told residents to flee flood-prone areas.
Houston's port and Nasa's Johnson Space Centre also closed down. Nasa handed control of the International Space Station to counterparts in Russia.
Bumper-to-bumper traffic choked the road from Galveston to Houston as the exodus got underway. Ambulances, sirens blaring, rushed out hospital, families packed their belongings in cars and school buses ferried those lacking their own means of transport.
Texas Governor Rick Perry also urged coastal residents to head to safer ground.
The storm entered the Gulf of Mexico after brushing past Cuba and the Florida Keys on Tuesday as a Category Two hurricane, drenching Havana and cutting power to more than 24 000 south Florida homes, but leaving no reported casualties.
- AFP