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Her454
09-24-2005, 07:18 AM
The water is pouring back into a neighborhood of New Orleans, as the city receives wind and rain from Hurricane Rita.
Dozens of blocks in the city's Ninth Ward are under water as a waterfall at least 30 feet wide pours over a dike. It had been used to patch breaks in the Industrial Canal levee.
Water is waist deep and rising fast on the street that runs next to the canal.
A Georgia National Guardsman said, "Our worst fears came true." He said if it keeps up, the levee will breach, and he said it "will fill the area that was flooded earlier."
The area was one that was hard-hit by floodwaters from Katrina. It had finally been pumped dry before Rita struck.
The renewed flooding comes amid wind and rain from Hurricane Rita, now nearing the Gulf Coast.
On a street running parallel to the Industrial Canal, the water is waist-deep, and rising fast.
Earlier in the city, resident Glynn Stevenson said, "You can't do nothin' about it." He's from New Orleans and he's evacuating again.
After Hurricane Katrina, Stevenson had to swim out of his house with some belongings taped to his body. Now with rain falling from Hurricane Rita, he's bailed out of his Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer in New Iberia, La.
Officials are pleading with people still in New Orleans to pack up and leave. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said anyone who stays in threatened parts of the state should maybe "write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink."
The Crescent City could be soaked with three to fives inches of rain from Rita. The Army Corps of Engineers said that's about the tipping point for levees that are still holding, but were weakened by Katrina. The Corps said it would take only about a-half foot of rain to flood through them again.
At 10 a.m. CDT, the center of Hurricane Rita was located near latitude 27.4 north, longitude 91.9 west or about 220 miles southeast of Galveston, and about 210 miles southeast of Port Arthur, Texas. Rita is moving toward the northwest near 10 mph, and this motion is expected to continue during the next 24 hours. On this track, Rita will make landfall near the southwest Louisiana and upper Texas coasts early Saturday.
Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 135 mph, with higher gusts. Rita is at the border of Category 4 and 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Slight weakening is possible before landfall, but Rita is expected to come ashore as a major hurricane.
Rita Draws Closer To Texas Coast
An extremely dangerous Rita continues to bull its way toward the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana.
It's now less than 250 miles from shore, but has lost some of its punch. Rita is still pumping out 135-mph winds and is crawling along at about 10 mph. The National Hurricane Center said Rita's core will be approaching the coast by Friday night.
Forecasters predict it will slam ashore late Friday or early Saturday somewhere along a 350-mile stretch of the Texas-Louisiana coastline. Forecasters expect a 15-20-foot storm surge, along with large, battering waves and a foot or more of rain.
They're carefully monitoring a "wobble" in its course, but think Rita will strike farther up the coast toward Port Arthur, Texas, or Lake Charles, La. Earlier it looked like Galveston and Houston might get a direct hit.
The U.S. mainland has been hit by Category 5 hurricanes only three times in recorded history. The most recent one was Andrew, which crashed into South Florida in 1992. And the United States has never been hit by both a Category 5 and a Category 4 hurricane in the same Atlantic storm season.
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, was a Category 4.
Rita has veered slightly to the east, meaning Houston and Galveston should be off the hook for a direct hit. But there are concerns the storm could cripple oil production. Some refineries have shut down. Rigs in the Gulf have been evacuated.
The scramble to evacuate has created a highway nightmare. Nearly 2 million people along the Texas and Louisiana coasts have been urged to flee. Many have tried, but some have given up and gone back home. One woman stuck in a 45-mile traffic jam out of Houston said it's the worst planning she's ever seen.
Feds Ready With Food, Water
This time, the feds say they're ready.
The government has pre-positioned millions of pounds of food and water, satellite phones to maintain communications and thousands of hospital beds.
But faced with a mass evacuation that left hundreds of thousands of motorists on the highways running out of gas, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said extra fuel is his No. 1 request. FEMA said it's working on it, and the military said it's ironing out details of making roadside deliveries.
President George W. Bush flies to his home state of Texas Friday to take a look at storm preparations. He'll also thank first responders who are already in place. Bush said, "Officials at every level of government are preparing for the worst."
Criticized for a delayed response to Hurricane Katrina, the president's heading to Texas even before Rita makes landfall. Not only is he determined that the federal response will be quicker and more effective, the president also wants to avoid another round of political damage.
Bush will visit San Antonio to see preparations for the storm first-hand and thank those carrying them out. After that, he's off to Colorado and the headquarters of the U.S. Northern Command, which oversees homeland defense. That's where he'll watch Rita head for landfall.
Meantime, Bush said he's glad Gulf Coast residents seem to have learned the lesson of Katrina and heeded calls to evacuate.
Hundreds Of Mexicans Rush Home
Mexican families fleeing Texas in the face of Hurricane Rita have pulled into the border city of Nuevo Laredo in hundreds of SUVs and pickup trucks.
Some carried pets, refrigerators and TVs as they moved in with relatives south of the Rio Grande.
But after the long, hot drive from Galveston, South Padre Island and Corpus Christi, their exodus was delayed at the threshold to their own homeland. Each vehicle had to have a temporary import permit from the Mexican government, which meant a wait of about an hour on the average.
Thousands of Mexicans live and work in Texas but still have family -- even second homes -- in Mexico. With Rita bearing down on the Gulf Coast, many felt it time to go back, at least for a week or so.
The influx of Mexicans fleeing the Texas Gulf Coast was expected to increase Friday. That's prompting Mexican officials to add more customs agents and personnel at the government import permit office on the border.
The Mexican government also announced it's shifting its Houston consulate from a high-risk neighborhood to a temporary office at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Houston. It's also adding staffing at consulates in San Antonio, Austin and Dallas.
Nuevo Leon state Gov. Natividad Gonzalez had written to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, offering medical and rescue crews to Texas. Gonzalez also says Nuevo Leon -- which includes the city of Monterrey -- is prepared to set up shelters near the U.S.-Mexico border if needed

Keithb87
09-24-2005, 07:40 AM
WOW. That is devistating.. :cry:

WaterBox
09-24-2005, 08:53 AM
WOW. That is devistating.. :cry:
Mexican families fleeing Texas in the face of Hurricane Rita have pulled into the border city of Nuevo Laredo in hundreds of SUVs and pickup trucks.
Probably all stollen.. :rolleyes: