Hurricane Rita now category 5

Tens of thousands of residents have been ordered from their homes in the southern United States as rapidly strengthening Hurricane Rita threatens an encore to Hurricane Katrina.


It was upgraded this morning to category 5 - the highest hurricane rating.

Rita's most likely track would take it to Texas, raising fears the sprawling storm could also bring heavy rains to flooded New Orleans and threaten the recovery of oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, started evacuating yesterday.


Rita's center was about 313km west of Key West, Florida, at 8am EDT (midnight NZT). The hurricane was headed west into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico at about 22km/h, the National Hurricane Centre said.

Storm-vulnerable Galveston lies near the projected track of the hurricane and the city's mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas, ordered a state of emergency and mandatory evacuations of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities starting at 11pm last night.

She also said mandatory evacuations of other parts of the city would begin this morning.

Officials also took steps to fly some Hurricane Katrina refugees in Texas shelters to Arkansas.

Huge waves and flooding hit Cuba, where 60,000 people were evacuated from flood-prone areas.

Rita yesterday battered the fragile Florida Keys but its powerful core stayed far enough offshore to spare the island chain its worst.

In Texas Governor Rick Perry recalled all emergency personnel helping with recovery from Hurricane Katrina to prepare for Rita, including almost 1200 Texas National Guard members.

"We're preparing for potential inland flooding and tornadoes by pre-positioning water rescue teams," governor's office spokeswoman Kathy Walt said yesterday.

Authorities stressed that those fleeing the coastal area should bypass Houston, which Mayor Bill White noted could lose power and is prone to flooding, and drive on to Dallas, San Antonio or Austin.

Harris County Judge Robert Eckels warned that the Houston Astrodome, which sheltered tens of thousands of Katrina refugees, could not be used if a storm headed that way because of its glass roof.

Katrina refugees still in Houston-area shelters were to be flown on commercial airliners to Arkansas. Many evacuees have moved from shelters to private housing.

"We could potentially be looking at taking an enormous amount of people from Houston," Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said. "It would tax us if we had to, but we would do it."

Arkansas is home to about 50,000 Katrina evacuees, most of them staying with friends and relatives.

Louisiana declared a state of emergency and New Orleans, 80 per cent of which was flooded when Katrina shattered its protective levees, was taking no chances.
Mayor Ray Nagin said two bus-loads of people had been evacuated already and 500 other buses were ready to roll. "We're a lot smarter this time around," he said. "We've learned a lot of hard lessons."

All 80,000 residents had been ordered out of the Florida Keys island chain but many stayed behind in boarded-up homes. Rita's winds pushed seawater, sand and seaweed onto the Overseas Highway, the only road linking the islands to the mainland, and flooded some buildings.

The storm swamped streets and knocked out power in Key West, the tourist destination at the western end of the island chain, but officials said the city fared well.
"We did not have the flooding I thought we'd have," Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley said. "We were extremely lucky."

"The conditions over the central Gulf are much like they were for Katrina," hurricane centre deputy director Ed Rappaport told CNN.

The hurricane could send a 6m storm surge over the Texas coast by Saturday.

President George W. Bush was briefed on the growing storm aboard the naval vessel Iwo Jima, which is docked in New Orleans and has served as the military's Katrina relief headquarters.

"I've been briefed on the planning for what we pray is not a devastating storm. But there's one coming," said Bush, who was criticised as being caught off guard by Katrina.

The President also signed an emergency declaration making federal assistance available to Florida, at the request of his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

The Navy began moving its remaining fleet of Katrina relief vessels away from the Gulf Coast.

This month marks the 105th anniversary of the hurricane that wiped out Galveston in one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history. An estimated 8000 people died.

- REUTERS and AGENCIES