/ Hurricane Rita

Hurricane remains on track to hit coast Friday

12:43 AM EDT on Thursday, September 22, 2005

By BRUCE NICHOLS / The Dallas Morning News

HOUSTON — More than 1 million people took to the highways and booked every available room inland, as Hurricane Rita – one of the most powerful storms ever to threaten the state – continued on a collision course with the Texas coastline.

Gas stations were running out of gas as roads filled with outbound traffic Wednesday. Officials estimated that as many as 1 million people, a fifth of the Houston metro area, were headed for higher ground.

They were heeding warnings and pleas to get out from Gov. Rick Perry and local officials all along the Texas coast, from Brownsville to Beaumont.

"The time to leave is now," Mr. Perry said at an Austin news conference. "It quite likely will be a devastating storm."

Rita was elevated to a Category 5 hurricane, the most destructive class on the Saffir-Simpson scale, early Wednesday afternoon, and experts said it was the fifth most powerful storm recorded in the Atlantic Basin.

The storm was packing 165 mph winds about 700 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi. Landfall was projected late Friday or early Saturday near Matagorda, but officials warned there were no guarantees where it would strike.

Wherever the storm hits, major damage was expected up and down the coast and as far as 100 miles inland.

President Bush, in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, urged residents "to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities, and follow them."

"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm," he said, "but we got to be ready for the worst."

Early indications were that evacuations were going smoothly. In Galveston, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said that about 1,500 people without personal transportation were bused from the Island Community Center on Wednesday morning.

"It went extremely well," Ms. Thomas said. "We're standing by with more buses for people who suddenly decide they want to leave."

There were glitches. Ms. Thomas said buses hired by the Galveston Mental Health Mental Retardation Center didn't show up, so the city is providing transportation to move about 200 people inland.

But Ms. Thomas praised Galvestonians for their response. "People are very committed to getting their families and themselves off the island," she said. "Everybody, I think, has been extremely calm."

Galveston officials announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday and said the inbound lanes of the Interstate 45 bridge would be closed to all but emergency traffic.

Galveston emergency officials, including the mayor, planned to move to the San Luis Hotel, 37 feet above low tide atop two World War II military bunkers.

"I would not recommend it to citizens in general, but that to me is the best place for city staff to be," Ms. Thomas said.

Fleeing Houston

In Houston, Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels requested the evacuation of low-lying areas and mobile home parks Wednesday and said areas along Galveston Bay would be first on the list for mandatory evacuation at 6 a.m. today.

"Use your common sense," Mr. White said at a news briefing. "If you're in a structure that you don't think can withstand wind damage – and I can tell you if it's a mobile home, it won't – please make your plans and leave.

"We are still well out from when the hurricane is expected to hit ... but people need to be making plans now so we're not dealing with freeway congestion."

The Johnson Space Center, in the low-lying Clear Lake area, was closed except for a skeleton crew at noon Wednesday.

Several school districts, including Houston ISD, said they would close today and Friday. "We don't know at this point when we're going to resume classes," district spokesman Terry Abbott said. "There's no way for us to know."

Tom Kornegay, executive director of the Port of Houston, said the last loads were being put on ships Wednesday as vessels headed out to sea to escape the storm. "We're battening down the hatches, getting the last loads out ... not letting more ships in," Mr. Kornegay said. "We are not receiving any more cargo at this time.

"Generally speaking, ships do not want to be in harbor when a storm comes through," Mr. Kornegay said. "They want to be at sea so they can basically run from the storm. ... The only ships we think we'll have after about midnight tonight are a couple of the MARAD ships." MARAD ships are the U.S. Ready Reserve Fleet, cargo ships kept ready in various ports in case of a national emergency.

Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority announced it would institute a more-limited emergency schedule today: buses every hour and trains every 12 minutes. The system will shut down Friday until further notice.

Hospitals scramble

Hospitals were also getting ready and, where necessary, evacuating patients.

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston said all except the sickest patients were being moved inland, officials said, and staff backed by generators on the third-floor could handle those who couldn't be moved.

A spokesman for the Harris County Hospital District in Houston said workers were making sure emergency facilities are stocked and ready for patients after the storm.

Ben Taub Hospital, the district's main facility, has stayed open during past storms and hopes to continue that tradition, spokesman John Martinez said. "We're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best," he said.

Rice University and the University of Houston announced they were closing classes today and Friday, and the Museum of Fine Arts and other arts institutions in Houston were making similar plans.

Downtown, skyscraper operators were checking their emergency plans and warning tenants that buildings might be shut down.

Mr. White, the mayor, said a lot depends on self-reliance because there aren't enough public vehicles and facilities to take care of everyone.

"We want you to voluntarily evacuate," he said. "Make your plans to voluntarily evacuate now."

Taking no chances

Authorities in coastal communities in Victoria, Matagorda, Refugio and Jackson counties took no chances Wednesday, issuing mandatory evacuation orders for residents to head inland by this evening.

"We're using every known method of communication that we have to alert the citizens that they need to leave," said Jackson County Sheriff Andy Louderback.

In Corpus Christi, Mayor Henry Garrett said the full evacuation of the city will likely be necessary after Rita strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane. "We're just trying to come up with a time," he said.

Nueces County had already issued an order for people on Matagorda Island, Padre Island and the Flour Bluff area south of Corpus Christi to move inland "high-profile" vehicles: motor homes, RVs and travel trailers. Once a full evacuation order is given, such vehicles won't be allowed on the roads.

The state's ability to cope with Rita is being strained by the thousands of evacuees Texas brought in from Hurricane Katrina's rampage in Louisiana and Mississippi. But Texas appears to be prepared, said David McEntire, assistant professor of emergency administration and planning at the University of North Texas.

"This is a big storm, and the emergency management system in Texas is already burdened by Katrina," Dr. McEntire said. "But Texas is well-prepared for this event."

Texas has begun repositioning disaster relief supplies around the state, evacuating residents from areas where Rita may strike, identifying shelter locations inland and recalling National Guard forces from Louisiana.

Shelters statewide had already begun moving Katrina evacuees to new homes out of state or in local communities, which will open space for Rita evacuees fleeing inland. Some of those new evacuees will be people who had already fled Katrina's destruction.

"The potential for damage by this storm is significant, and the risk of flooding and tornadoes exists after the hurricane has begun to dissipate," Dr. McEntire said. "But we appear to be in good shape. Texas has learned from Louisiana's example. No one wants to repeat those mistakes."

Staff writer David McLemore contributed to this report.

E-mail bnichols@dallasnews.com

The Saffir-Simpson scale classifies hurricanes from 1 to 5, based on wind speed.

Category 1: Winds 74-95 mph. Storm surge 4 to 5 feet above normal. Damage primarily to unanchored mobile homes, shrubbery and trees.

Category 2: Winds 96-110 mph. Storm surge 6 to 8 feet above normal. Some roof, door and window damage on buildings. Flooding of coastal and low-lying areas.

Category 3: Winds 111-130 mph. Storm surge 9 to 12 feet above normal. Some structural damage to small homes. Mobile homes destroyed and large trees blown down. Coastal flooding destroys smaller structures and floating debris damages larger structures. Terrain lower than 5 feet above sea level may flood up to 8 miles inland.

Category 4: Winds 131-155 mph. Storm surge 13 to 18 feet above normal. Wall failures and roof collapses on small homes. Complete destruction of some homes. Major coastal flooding damage. Hurricane Katrina was a Category 4 storm.

Category 5: Winds greater than 155 mph. Storm surge greater than 18 feet above normal. Complete roof failure on many homes and industrial buildings. The last Category 5 storm to hit the United States was Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

With more than two months to go in the official hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center is nearly out of names for storms. Only four remain from the original list of 21 names for Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes – Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma. If those run out, it would be the first time that had occurred in the 52 years that human names have been assigned to storms. The center would then switch to letters of the Greek alphabet – Alpha, Beta, Gamma and so forth.

From staff and wire reports