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Thousands of cars try to evacuate in advance of Hurricane Rita in north Houston. (Reuters)
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GALVESTON,
United States, September 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News
Agencies) - A mass exodus from the deadly threat of Hurricane Rita has
emptied towns along the Texas and Louisiana coastlines, amid frantic
last-minute preparations for the second super-storm in a month.
With
Rita expected to hit the Gulf Coast late Friday, September 23, more
than one million people piled into cars and buses with whatever they
could carry, creating monumental traffic jams on all roads heading
inland, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
port city of Galveston was virtually empty early Friday.
Computer
projections warn that the city, built on a low-lying barrier island,
could be swallowed up by a flood tide.
Galveston
city manager Steven Leblanc estimated that 90 percent of the city's
60,000 residents fled inland. "It feels like a ghost town to me,
and that's a good thing," he said.
Some
people, however, said they just could not bear to leave the city,
which is protected by a 17-foot (5-metre) seawall built after a 1900
hurricane killed 8,000 people in the most deadly US natural disaster
on record.
Residents
also fled most other cities and towns on a 500 kilometer (310 mile)
stretch of coast from Port O'Connor in Texas to Morgan City in
Louisiana, which is under a formal hurricane warning.
In
Louisiana, still reeling from Hurricane Katrina three weeks ago, Gov.
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."
Rita
lost some power Thursday, September 22, as it tore through the oil
fields of the Gulf of Mexico, but at 0900 GMT Friday was still packing
powerful maximum sustained winds of 220 kilometers (140 miles) per
hour, with higher gusts, according to the US National Hurricane
Center.
The
eye of Rita was located about 467 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of
Galveston and moving in a northwestern direction at 15 kilometers (9
miles) per hour.
"Rita
is an extremely dangerous category four hurricane on the
Saffir-Simpson scale," the center said in a statement, adding
that "isolated tornadoes are possible today over portions of
southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana."
First
Victim
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Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco pleaded with residents in low-lying coastal communities to evacuate ahead of Rita. (Reuters)
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The
storm claimed its first victim before it even hit land when an elderly
woman died of apparent heat exhaustion while stuck in a massive
traffic jam of Texas evacuees on Thursday.
Scores
of hospitals along the evacuation routes out of Houston early Friday
closed their doors to new patients after they were swamped with heat
exhaustion victims after temperatures reached 37 degrees Celsius (100
degrees Fahrenheit).
Regional
shelters were already full, and many people slept in the cars outside
overbooked hotels.
Some
vehicles that had run out of gas were abandoned on the highway.
"We've
got no gas. We're dealing with heat exhaustion, heart attacks,"
Sheriff Randy Smith of Waller County, Texas, told local a television
station shortly after midnight.
Smith
worried many of the stranded motorists would not make it inland fast
enough to escape the hurricane, and was frustrated by the lack of
coordination with state officials.
The
governors of Texas and Louisiana asked for 40,000 federal troops to be
sent to help with any relief operation.
"This
is a big dangerous storm, it is a massive storm, it covers half of the
Gulf of Mexico," said David Paulison, acting head of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
President
George W. Bush, yet to shake off criticism of his leadership during
the Katrina crisis, warned that officials "at every level of
government are preparing for the worst."
Oil
Disruption
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, 90 miles (144 km) east.
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 specter of serious gasoline shortages
in the days ahead.
A
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. Seventy percent of US oil production in the Gulf has been
halted.
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,
spokesman Maj. Ed Bush told Reuters.
"Everybody
is watching the path of the storm and we've seen it wiggle and wobble
and do a few other things," he said.
"I
don't think anyone in the Gulf Coast is out of harm's way," added
David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency.
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.
Katrina
was also a category four on the five-level disaster scale when it hit
Louisiana and Mississippi.
The
toll from Katrina rose to 1,066 Thursday with many more bodies
expected to be found.
