Home>News Center>World
         
 

Rita unleashes Category 5 fury over U.S. Gulf
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-22 07:17

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

By late afternoon, Rita was centered more than 700 miles southeast of Corpus Christi. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi.

But with its breathtaking size — tropical storm-force winds extending 350 miles across — practically the entire western end of the Gulf Coast was in peril, and even a slight rightward turn could prove devastating to the fractured levees protecting New Orleans.

Cubans workers clean Havana's seafront boulevard after Hurricane Rita passed near Cuba September 21, 2005.
Cubans workers clean Havana's seafront boulevard after Hurricane Rita passed near Cuba September 21, 2005. [Reuters]
In the Galveston-Houston-Corpus Christi area, about 1.3 million people were under orders to get out, in addition to 20,000 or more along with the Louisiana coast. Special attention was given to hospitals and nursing homes, three weeks after scores of sick and elderly patients in the New Orleans area drowned in Katrina's floodwaters or died in the stifling heat while waiting to be rescued.

Helicopter, ambulance and buses were used to evacuate 200 patients from Galveston's only hospital. And at the Edgewater Retirement Community, a six-story building near the city's seawall, 200 elderly residents were not given a choice.

"They either go with a family member or they go with us, but this building is not safe sitting on the seawall with a major hurricane coming," said David Hastings, executive director. "I have had several say, `I don't want to go,' and I said, `I'm sorry, you're going.'"
Page: 1234



Crippled plane lands safely at L.A. airport
Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi reappointed
North Korea to drop nuclear weapons development
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Zoellick: U.S.-China relationship complex

 

   
 

Crippled plane lands safely at LA airport

 

   
 

Russia, China warn against antagonizing Iran

 

   
 

Firms mull China-Russia gas pipeline

 

   
 

High tuition fees drive mother to suicide

 

   
 

China, Japan to meet over gas feud

 

   
  Chief US nuclear negotiator wants to visit North Korea - reports
   
  Japanese ruling party approves postal reform
   
  Yushchenko resubmits his PM nominee to parliament
   
  Germany's main parties meet to decide who governs
   
  Saddam lawyers don't recognize trial date
   
  Rita unleashes Category 5 fury over U.S. Gulf
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Rita, now category 4, heads for Gulf Coast
   
Bush administration touts Rita readiness
   
New Orleans facing more flooding by Rita
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement