Gulf coast braces for arrival of Rita

A man walks on a highway as thousands of cars try to evacuate Houston in advance of Hurricane Rita. Picture / Reuters

GALVESTON, Texas - 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 US oil industry.

The Category 4 hurricane was barrelling northwest across the Gulf, with winds near 220km/h, the US National Hurricane Centre said. Rita was expected to make landfall late on Friday or early on Saturday but its destination was unclear.

As of 5am EDT (9pm NZT), Rita's Centre was about 467km southeast of Galveston and about 402km southeast of Cameron. With hurricane-force winds extending 136km from its eye, the storm was moving northwest at a pace of about 14km/h toward the southwest Louisiana and upper Texas coasts.

The hurricane Centre 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, Governor 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 Major 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.

A hurricane warning was in effect along a 724km 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, criticised 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 US oil refinery, and one in Beaumont, 144km east.

The offshore Gulf region produces a third of US oil. The closings raised to at least 13 the number of US refineries out of commission from Katrina and Rita, which have shut 29 percent of US refining capacity and raised the spectre 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 5-metre seawall built after a 1900 hurricane killed 8000 people in the most deadly US natural disaster on record.

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 1066 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 209km/h.

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.

- Reuters