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Tropical storm Rita heads toward the Keys
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-20 19:11
Thousands of residents fled the Florida Keys as Tropical
Storm Rita barreled toward the island chain, poised to grow into a hurricane
with a potential 9-foot storm surge and sparking fears it could eventually
ravage the hobbled Gulf Coast, the Associated Press reported.
Evacuees disembark a bus as they arrive at a
hurricane shelter set up inside Booker T. Washington Senior High School
Monday, Sept. 19, 2005, in Miami. Tropical Storm Rita's sustained winds
were just 4 mph shy of hurricane strength by Monday evening and it was
expected to develop into a Category 1 or 2 hurricane before nearing the
Florida Keys early Tuesday. [AP] |
South Floridians kept a wary eye on Rita, which threatened to arrive Tuesday
and drop up to 15 inches of rain on some parts of the low-lying Keys. Oil prices
surged on the possibility that oil and gas production would be interrupted once
again.
"I've lived in Florida all my life," said James Swindell, 37, who shopped
along a cleared-out Miami Beach on Monday. "You always have to be worried about
a storm, because they are too unpredictable and they can shift on you at the
last minute. Nobody knows what they are going to do."
In New Orleans, the mayor suspended his plan to start bringing residents back
to the city after forecasters warned that Rita could follow Hurricane Katrina's
course into the Gulf of Mexico and shatter his city's already weakened levees.
The storm had top sustained winds of 70 mph early Tuesday, and it was
expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of at least 74
mph, as it approached the Keys. The storm's outer rain bands began drenching the
Keys and Miami-Dade County early Tuesday after felling trees in the Bahamas.
"The main concern now is the Florida Keys," said Max Mayfield, director of
the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "It's moving over very warm water and
that's extremely favorable for development."
Hurricane warnings were posted for the Keys and Miami-Dade County, the
hurricane center said. Residents and visitors were ordered to clear out of the
Keys, and voluntary evacuation orders were posted for some 134,000 Miami-Dade
residents of coastal areas such as Miami Beach.
"We're just trying to get enough gas to get home," said Andres Sweeting, 29,
of Miami, as he stopped at a Coconut Grove gas station with his family. Long
lines of customers had depleted two of the station's four gasoline tanks.
Forecasters said 3 to 5 inches of rain was possible across southern Florida.
A storm surge rising 6 to 9 feet above normal tide level was predicted for the
Keys.
At 5 a.m. EDT, Rita was centered about 160 miles east-southeast of Key West.
It was moving west-northwest near 15 mph, according to the hurricane center.
In the Bahamas, no serious damage was reported after Rita passed to the
south. However, fishermen had dragged their boats to dry land and some people
shuttered their windows — a sign that normally laid-back islanders had been
concerned about the storm.
Officials in Galveston, Texas — nearly 900 miles from Key West — were already
calling for a voluntary evacuation. Forecasters said Rita could make landfall in
Mexico or Texas by the weekend, with a possibility that it could turn toward
Louisiana.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco urged everyone in the southwest part of the
state to prepare to evacuate. "If Rita passes us by, we will thank the Lord for
our blessings," Blanco told the state's storm-weary residents in a televised
address.
Rita is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, making this
the fourth-busiest season since record-keeping started in 1851. The record is 21
tropical storms in 1933. Six hurricanes have hit Florida in the last 13 months.
The last hurricane to directly hit Key West was 1998's Hurricane Georges,
which slammed the city with 105 mph winds, damaging hundreds of homes and
closing the island to tourists for two weeks.
Crude-oil futures rose above $67 a barrel Monday, in part because of worries
about Rita. About 56 percent of the Gulf's oil production was already out of
operation Monday because of Katrina's damage, the federal Minerals Management
Service said.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Hurricane Philippe was far out at sea and posed no
immediate threat to land. The hurricane season started June 1 and ends Nov.
30.
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