Rita Upgraded To Category 4
On Track To Hit Gulf Coast, Most Likely Texas, Maybe Louisiana
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Play CBS Video Video Rita Swamps Florida Keys As Rita pounded Florida with rain and wind, Texas swung into action getting ready for the storm it hopes won't hit. Mark Strassmann reports.
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Video Hurricane Speed Bumps Barrier islands - the coast's first line of defense against hurricanes - are washing away. Bill Whitaker reports.
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Video New Orleans: Evacuate Again? There are thousands of residents left in New Orleans and everyone, including the National Guard, is trying to decide if they should stay or go. Sharyn Alfonsi reports.
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Trees strain against the wind as the edge of Hurricane Rita passes through Key West, Florida, leaving behind flooding and debris on Highway 1, the only road in and out of the area. (AP)
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Katrina evacuees who were being sheltered in Houston are seen here arriving in Arkansas, on their way to Fort Chaffee, where they've been transferred because of the threat posed by Hurricane Rita. (AP/Times Record)
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Texas hasn't had major hurricane damage in 40 years but is getting ready for Rita. The city of Galveston (above) has ordered a mandatory evacuation. (AP/Galveston County Daily News)
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Photo Essay Meet Rita Yet another monster storm invaded U.S. shores, this time with its sights set on Texas and Louisiana.
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Interactive Storm Tracker Follow all the storms of the 2009 season with satellite images, warnings and wind speed charts.
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News Tools How To Help Organizations you may contact to give aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Forecasters said the storm could hit Texas by the end of the week. But a slight turn to the right was possible, and engineers warned that even a glancing blow to New Orleans and as little as three inches of rain could swamp the city's levees.
Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco strongly urged people along the Louisiana coast to be prepared to get out.
Rita's threat was enough to frighten places like Galveston, Texas – potentially in Rita's path – as many people are already clearing out under a mandatory evacuation, Strassmann reports.
"You should be listening to us and you should be prepared to go on the highway," said Lyda Ann Thomas, the mayor of Galveston.
"Nobody's going to take a chance. Everybody's a little bit scared right now because of the Katrina thing," Galveston evacuee Danny Owens told Strassmann.
On the southern side of the Florida Straits, Cuba evacuated 58,000 people from low-lying areas along the northern coast, more than 6,000 in Havana alone, Cuban National Defense officials reported Tuesday.
CBS News' Portia Siegelbaum reports that as Rita continues to move west-northwest, Cuba's Civil Defense lifted the hurricane alert in four provinces in central Cuba. Cuba evacuated 136,452 people, including 5,552 tourists, as of midday Tuesday, even though the island expects to be spared the brunt of Hurricane Rita's fury.
Cuba's top meteorologist, Jose Rubiera, said the heaviest accumulation of rain was 3.1 inches in Matanzas province, Siegelbaum reports, and the speed at which Rita is moving prevented greater accumulations despite the intensity of the rainfall, he said.
Cuban officials also transferred scores of tourists from a sea-level hotel on a tip of land jutting into the ocean at the Varadero beach resort, east of Havana, where high winds knocked down utility poles and scattered tree branches.
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 hurricane season started June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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