GALVESTON, Texas — Officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of Galveston County beginning Wednesday night as Hurricane Rita threatened the Texas Gulf Coast.
Officials said they were planning to declare a state of emergency in the county late Tuesday.
Mandatory evacuation of nusing homes and assisted-living facilities was to begin at 6 a.m. Wednesday, with the evacuation of the general population beginning 12 hours later.
Officials were taking advantage of a new state law permitting mandatory evacuations, which was passed after Florida endured four hurricanes in rapid succession last year. A voluntary evacuation began Tuesday.
Hurricane Rita was upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane Tuesday as it lashed the Florida Keys with flooding rain and strong wind. According to computer projections, it could make landfall on the Texas coast by the weekend.
"Today is boarding up and decision day for Galvestonians," city spokeswoman Mary Jo Naschke said Tuesday.
Authorities in Southeast Texas said they wanted to make sure people learned from watching the aftermath of Katrina, which slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29. Hundreds of thousands of people stayed through the storm, causing one of the country's greatest human migrations after the region's devastation.
Public schools and Texas A&M at Galveston canceled classes for the rest of the week.
Even some people who had ridden out major hurricanes along the Texas Gulf Coast were getting ready to leave. Catherine Womack, a 71-year-old lifelong Galveston resident, was busy boarding up the windows on her one-story brick house Tuesday.
"Destination unknown," she said. "I've never left before. I think because of Katrina, there is a lot of anxiety and concern. It's better to be safe than sorry."
This month marks the 105th anniversary of the hurricane that wiped out Galveston in one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history. An estimated 8,000 people were killed.
Dozens of people lined up outside a Home Depot in Texas City, north of Galveston, at 5:30 a.m. to buy plywood and other supplies before leaving town. Generators priced at more than $500 apiece were selling out quickly, and trucks were delivering plywood every two hours, said assistant manager Jeff Valentin.
Beau Shirali stocked up Monday night on canned food and water and stood in line for plywood early Tuesday to board up apartments and homes he rents in Galveston.
"There is only so much you can do," he said. "The rest is up to the hurricane and God."
Gov. Rick Perry said Texans have become "blase" about big storms because it's been more than 40 years since the last Hurricane caused serious damage to the Gulf Coast. But Katrina taught the state a lesson, he said.
"It's no longer, I think, the boy calling wolf," he said.
The state began to evacuate hurricane-weary Louisiana refugees from shelters in Corpus Christi, Houston and Beaumont. Those staying at Houston's Reliant Center were being flown to Fort Chaffee, Ark.
Officials in Galveston, about 60 miles southeast of Houston, said buses would evacuate those who couldn't leave on their own, taking them to shelters about 100 miles north in Huntsville.
The approaching storm was affecting offshore oil operations, already hobbled by Katrina damage. Chevron Corp., Shell Oil and BP all began evacuating employees, and oil companies and drilling contractors increased evacuations Tuesday.
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Associated Press writer Kelley Shannon in Austin contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
City of Galveston official Web site
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