久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

  Home>News Center>World
         
 

Rita, now category 4, heads for Gulf Coast
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-21 21:43

Rita intensified into a Category 4 hurricane Wednesday with wind of 135 mph, deepening concerns that the storm could devastate coastal Texas and already-battered Louisiana by week's end.


A ocean wave crashes over a sightseer in Key West, Fla. Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2005, as Hurricane Rita brushes past the area. [AP]

Mandatory evacuations already have been ordered for New Orleans and Galveston, Texas, one day after Rita skirted the Florida Keys as a Category 2 storm, causing minimal damage.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged residents to heed calls for evacuation Wednesday.

"The lesson is that when the storm hits, the best place to be is to be out of the path of the storm," he told ABC's "Good Morning America." "There's plenty of (advance) notice about Rita."

The storm is expected to remain a Category 4 storm until it makes landfall, meteorologist Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. That's now predicted for Saturday somewhere between northern Mexico and western Louisiana, most likely in Texas.

"But our ability to forecast wind speed is limited," Landsea said. He said the storm could strengthen to Category 5 with wind in excess of 155 mph or ease to Category 3, with wind less than 130 mph.

Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency Director R. David Paulison said the agency has aircraft and buses available to evacuate residents of areas the hurricane might hit. Rescue teams and truckloads of ice, water and prepared meals were being sent to Texas.

"I strongly urge Gulf Coast residents to pay attention," he said.

Stung by criticism of the government's slow initial response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush signed an emergency declaration for Florida and spoke with Texas Gov. Rick Perry about planning for the storm's landfall.

"Up and down the coastline, people are now preparing for what is anticipated to be another significant storm," Bush said.

Perry said Texans are taking the warnings seriously.

"I think Texas is as prepared as any state in the nation," he told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday.

Rita created relatively few problems along Florida's Keys, where thousands of relieved residents who evacuated were expected to begin returning in earnest on Wednesday.

During daytime hours, several stretches of the Keys' highway, U.S. 1, were barricaded because of water and debris; by nightfall, only one small problem area remained and the entire highway was passable, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

There were reports of localized flooding, and some sections of the Lower Keys remained without power early Wednesday. But the storm's eye did not hit land.

"It was fairly nothing," said Gary Wood, who owns a bar in Marathon, about 45 miles northeast of Key West. "It came through and had a good stiff wind, but that was about it."

In Key Colony Beach, an oceanfront island off Marathon, Mayor Clyde Burnett said a restaurant and hotel were damaged by water and wind, but widespread problems simply didn't arrive as expected.

Visitors ordered out of the Keys will be invited back Friday, and virtually all other voluntary evacuation advisories in South Florida were lifted after Rita roared past.

Now, all eyes following Rita are turning toward the Gulf of Mexico — where the hurricane is causing new anxiety among Katrina victims in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama and concern around the world about possible damage to oil producing facilities.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Rita's eye was about 195 miles west of Key West. The storm was moving west at 14 mph — a track that kept the most destructive winds at sea and away from Key West. Maximum sustained wind increased to near 135 mph.

"There's still plenty of warm water that it needs to move over in the next couple days. The forecast is favorable for further intensification," Michelle Mainelli, a hurricane center meteorologist, said earlier.

Those were words that Gulf Coast residents certainly did not want to hear. Even those who had survived major hurricanes were getting ready to leave, not wanting to challenge Rita's potential wrath or cling to hope that they'd be spared in the same manner the Keys were.

"Destination unknown," said Catherine Womack, 71, who was boarding up the windows on her one-story brick house in Galveston. "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."

About 80 buses were set to leave the city Wednesday for shelters 100 miles north in Huntsville. The buses were part of a mandatory evacuation ordered by officials in Galveston County, which has a population of nearly 267,000.

"We've always asked people to leave earlier, but because of Katrina, they are now listening to us and they're leaving as we say," said Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas.

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. And with Rita, seven hurricanes have hit or passed near Florida in the last 13 1/2 months.

The hurricane season isn't over until Nov. 30.



Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi reappointed
North Korea to drop nuclear weapons development
Clinton Global Initiative Summit
 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

China unlikely to cut Venezuela's US oil supplies

 

   
 

China, Singapore to further cooperation

 

   
 

Coal mine blast kills nine in Jiangxi

 

   
 

China orders crackdown on tax evasion

 

   
 

Income gap in China reaches alert level

 

   
 

New Orleans facing more flooding by Rita

 

   
  Rita, now category 4, heads for Gulf Coast
   
  Hurricane Rita develops into Category 3 storm
   
  Iran warns against sanctions over nukes
   
  Israeli forces complete pullout from part of West Bank
   
  Rice, Chinese FM on the same page - US spokesman
   
  US Fed boosts rates, downplays Katrina fears
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 免费看黄网 | 欧美成人免费午夜影视 | 久久精品免费观看久久 | 国产一级片免费 | 亚洲人成高清毛片 | 国产午夜精品久久理论片 | 国产一毛片| 夜色福利久久久久久777777 | 亚洲国产精久久久久久久春色 | 怡红院在线视频全部观看 | 日韩在线精品视频 | 热re91久久精品国产91热 | 免费观看成年人网站 | 偷柏自拍亚洲欧美综合在线图 | 久久一日本道色综合久久 | 黄色福利站 | 国产午夜精品免费一二区 | 91手机看片国产福利精品 | 日韩三级精品 | 一区二区三区 日韩 | 香蕉久久久| 男女男免费视频网站国产 | 亚洲国产精品久久卡一 | 亚洲高清视频在线观看 | 欧美一区二区在线 | 久久久91精品国产一区二区 | 亚洲欧美日韩高清综合678 | 中文字幕一区二区精品区 | 欧美日本视频一区 | 97免费视频免费视频 | a黄视频 | 日韩福利视频精品专区 | 亚洲人成网站在线在线 | 高清不卡日本v在线二区 | 免费人成在线观看视频不卡 | 真实国产乱人伦在线视频播放 | 福利姬在线精品观看 | 国产成人综合91精品 | 一级aaa级毛片午夜在线播放 | 成人爱爱网站在线观看 | 久久综合精品不卡一区二区 |