Hurricane Rita

[shadowstar]

Rita churning toward Texas, Louisiana

Outer bands from Category 4 storm sweep over New Orleans

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- A weakened but still powerful Hurricane Rita continued its march Friday toward the Texas-Louisiana coast, with forecasters saying the storm could possibly strengthen before making landfall early Saturday.

Ahead of the hurricane, highways were overloaded with frustrated evacuees.

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, said Rita will hit a deep trench of warm water and could intensify before landfall, possibly to Category 5 status.

The storm had attained Category 5 status before losing some of its strength Thursday and falling to Category 4. Mayfield said forecasters expect Rita to come ashore Saturday morning, likely between Galveston, Texas, and the Louisiana border.

"This is still a very, very dangerous Category 4 hurricane. We'll likely see some fluctuations. ... but the wise thing to do is to go ahead and plan for a Category 4 hurricane making landfall," Mayfield said.

more of the article is in the link.

I'm a bit surprised no updates and such were posted here concerning Hurricane Rita. Hurricane Katrina was already at Category 4 when it hit, and like the article said, Rita might reach Category 5 and that's a scary thought; a lot of the news have been saying it could actually wipe out Texas if the hurricane grew stronger.

to members who are a part of this forum living in Texas (or near the hurricane's path), stay safe and get out of there as soon as possible if you haven't yet.

[Flyp]

I live in Austin, which is in central texas.  Since the storm changed its path northward, it seems like its going to miss me almost completely.  But I have friends in Houston that are unable to leave because of the massive amounts of traffic on the highways, so I'm worrying about them...