Hurricane Rita roared through the Florida Keys yesterday, dumping a foot of rain – and the rapidly growing storm is now threatening to ravage Gulf Coast areas still struggling from her sister Katrina.
Florida’s governor told any residents who hadn’t obeyed orders to leave the Keys, it was too late to risk running now.
“Now it’s time to hunker down,” Gov. Jeb Bush said. “As we say, ‘Turn around, don’t drown.’ ”
Nearly 1,000 miles to the west, officials made plans to move refugees from Katrina once again – from Texas to Arkansas.
About 1,100 Katrina victims who had been evacuated from Louisiana to Houston shelters last month began making their way to another emergency haven at Fort Chaffee, Ark.
Authorities said homeowners from Florida to Texas were taking Rita very seriously, because of fears they would end up like the residents of New Orleans.
Key West Mayor Jim Weekley said about half the city’s 25,000 residents had fled – twice the number who evacuated during previous hurricanes.
Rita grew from a 70-mph wind tropical storm to a 100-mph hurricane within a few hours yesterday as it churned through the Florida straits that separate the Keys from Cuba.
By late yesterday it had pelted the Keys with up to 12 inches of rain. More than 6,000 homes and businesses from the Keys to Miami lost electrical power.
Rita was moving at a rate of 15 mph toward the Texas coastline for likely landfall by the weekend.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry recalled emergency personnel who had been helping Katrina relief so they could be home to prepare for tornadoes and flooding due to Rita.
On the Texas coast, by 5:30 a.m. yesterday, residents were lined up at a Home Depot in Texas City, just north of Galveston, to buy plywood and other supplies.
Beau Shirali, one of those on line, said he had already stocked up on canned food and water.
“There is only so much you can do,” he said. “The rest is up to the hurricane and God.”
Rita appears headed for landfall between Galveston and Corpus Christi, but its outer fringes also could lash the area from Louisiana to Mexico.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco urged everyone in the southwest part of her state to prepare to evacuate.
It’s unlikely Rita will reach Katrina’s Category 5 status, but President Bush was told yesterday she would likely reach Category 3, with 15- to 20-foot storm surges.
A Louisiana official warned that levees in New Orleans, where hundreds died in Katrina’s floods, would fail again if the city were smashed by a new storm surge.
With Post Wire Services
HURRICANE RITA Category 2
* Wind speed – 110 mph, moving west at 113 mph
* Expected to hit Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi by Saturday
* Hurricane-force winds extending 45 miles from its center
* Better than 10% chance it’ll hit New Orleans