According to the Associated Press, Houston Mayor Bill White has now told residents in areas prone to storm surges or major floods to prepare to leave. White says "Hurricane Rita on its present course poses a risk to Houston and the whole Houston region".
Mayor White is telling those with their own transportation to use it as there are not enough government vehicles to get everyone out of vulnerable Houston areas.
Meanwhile, Michael "The Gremlin" Chertoff has been doing the early morning TV rounds.
Taking lessons from the problem-plagued response to Katrina, Chertoff said authorities had positioned supplies, begun making preparations for the early evacuation of people in nursing homes and hospitals and were checking on communications systems. He said the federal government had sent a Coast Guard admiral to Texas to coordinate the response.
"I hope that by doing what the state officials and mayors are doing now, are getting people who are invalids out of the way, encouraging people to leave early, that when the storm hits, there will be property damage but hopefully there won't be a lot of people to rescue," Chertoff told MSNBC.
Rita is currently a Category Four hurricane but is expected to strengthen in mid-Gulf then hopefully weaken again as it gets close to landfall. Even so, it will hit land, probably just south-west of Galveston, as "at least a Category Three" according to the National Hurricane Center. That would send a 20 foot storm surge over the Texas coastline sometime Saturday morning.
Much of Texas is arid and not capable of soaking up rainfall easily. Rain from the hurricane is as likely to create flash floods and widespread innundations inland this time around as the storm surge itself is on the coast. I hope both federal and local authorities are bearing that in mind as they make their preparations. San Antonio, for instance, has already experienced fatally serious floods in 1998 and 2002, and is still at least two years away from making the major improvements needed which would reduce the risk of flooding.
The authorities, both local and national, cannot afford to get it so woefully wrong again.
Yet there are some worrying signs.
Few mobile homes if any can withstand ... the magnitude that is projected with Rita," White said. "If you are in mobile homes or other structures that cannot withstand wind damage, we are asking you to evacuate."
He estimated that as many as 1 million people may eventually be evacuated from coastal areas and low-lying, flood-prone zones in the state's largest city.
Several major highways leading out of the city have been designated as evacuation routes, and White said residents should start leaving as quickly as possible Wednesday to ease traffic jams.
He said shelters would be open along the evacuation routes but encouraged evacuees to first try to take advantage of their own accommodations, including friends, relatives or hotels north and west of Houston.
Margaret O'Brien-Molina, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Houston, said residents planning to stay in shelters should try to bring as much food and water as possible. She said an evacuation of the size now ordered could put a strain on resources in shelters.
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Area schools canceled classes Thursday and Friday, and White asked all employers in the area to require only essential personnel to show up for work for the remainder of the week.
White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels also encouraged residents who need help getting out of their homes to call friends, relatives and neighbors first.
"If there is no one to turn to, then we are asking you to reach out to us so we can work with Metro and other state organizations that are capable of providing transportation," White said.
White reiterated the call for Katrina refugees who have moved to Houston to heed the warnings to flee.
Governor Perry is saying there is no need to panic and is also urging everyone in possibly effected areas to leave now rather than later. "Homes and businesses can be rebuilt -- lives cannot," he says. The Governor today issued a disaster emergency declaration
Bush has pledged that FEMA is ready, Chertoff has said DHS and FEMA are ready and Northcom are saying the military are ready.
You can follow breaking news as it hits the net at NewsNow.
You can follow the storm's progress at StormTrack
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