Rita Becomes Hurricane as It Heads for Gulf of Mexico (Update1)
Rita strengthened into a hurricane as it headed toward the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to hit the coasts of Texas and Louisiana by this weekend.
Rita is forecast to pass the lower Florida Keys by midday and head into the warm waters of the Gulf, the National Hurricane Center said. It will gain power as it moves over the warm water, and will be a so-called Category 3 storm with winds of at least 111 mph when it reaches the Texas coastline by the weekend, center meteorologist Chris Sisko said.
While Rita is forecast to hit anywhere from Corpus Christi to Galveston, there is a chance it may veer to the east and strike Louisiana’s coast, Sisko said. This threat to the coastal region already devastated by Hurricane Katrina prompted New Orleans’s mayor to suspend plans for residents to reenter the city and officials in Texas to call for a voluntary evacuation.
“The greatest chance, in terms of computer models, is for Rita to hit Texas, but Louisiana is also indicated by a few models,'’ Sisko said today in an interview.
Rita was located about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east- southeast of Key West, Florida, as of 8 a.m. local time, the hurricane center said. The storm is moving west about 15 mph and may dump as much as 12 inches of rain on the Keys.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin yesterday suspended plans to allow residents to return to their homes and businesses because of the risk posed by Rita. The Louisiana city, once home to a half a million people, was flooded after Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge overwhelmed the system of levees and pumps that held back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
More: bloomberg.com
Hurricane Wilma heads for Gulf of Mexico
Hurricane Wilma strengthened in the Caribbean Tuesday and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it seemed likely to spare battered U.S. oil and gas fields but threatened storm-weary Florida.
The rapidly intensifying storm also menaced Honduras and Nicaragua with up to 10 inches of rain, compounding the woes of Central America. More than 1,000 people in Guatemala and El Salvador were killed by landslides and floods triggered by Hurricane Stan this month.
Wilma was expected to strengthen into a major hurricane with winds of more than 110 mph by Thursday and its likely
Hurricane Rita ploughs across the Gulf of Mexico
Hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated and as many as one million others were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast today as Hurricane Rita intensified into a Category 4 storm with 140mph winds that could batter Texas and bring more misery to New Orleans by the weekend.
Galveston, parts of Houston and New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders, one day after Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys as a Category 2 storm and caused minor damage.
Having seen what Hurricane Katrina did just three weeks ago, many people decided not to take
Oil, Gasoline Rise as Hurricane Rita Shuts Gulf of Mexico Rigs
Crude oil and gasoline climbed as Hurricane Rita threatened rigs, refineries and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, less than a month after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Producers including BP Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. evacuated staff and shut off-shore operations in the Gulf. Rita may reach the coast of Texas, the producer of a quarter of the nation's refined fuel, by Friday. The storm is expected to grow as strong as Katrina, which shut down nearly 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity when it hit last month.
``Rita is more
Hurricane Rita - Cuba/Gulf of Mexico: OCHA Situation Report No. 1
This report is based on information provided by the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Cuba and several media report.
1. The Hurricane RITA, classified already category IV event according to the Saffir-Simpson scale, has been affecting the territory of Cuba during the last days. RITA continues advancing in the Gulf of Mexico due west, leaving behind in Cuba torrential rains.
2. Torrential rains and thunderstorms, accompanied by strong wind squalls, some of them up to 100 km an hour, pounded many areas of Cuba for several days.
Chevron evacuating Gulf of Mexico workers before Rita
Chevron Corp. said Monday it is evacuating oil rig workers in the Gulf of Mexico before Tropical Storm Rita hits, a move which could reduce oil production in the region.
based Chevron (NYSE:CVX) told Reuters that its evacuations were a normal procedure, similar to what it did before Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf.
Chevron didn't say how the evacuation will affect its oil or natural gas production.
Tropical Storm Rita was heading toward the Florida Keys and several weather models projected it would enter the Gulf and become a category one hurricane.
Reuters
Rita strengthens to Category 3 over Gulf of Mexico
KEY WEST, Fla. Hurricane Rita's top sustained winds are up to 120 miles per hour, and forecasters say the storm is expected to reach Category Four strength sometime today.
Category Four hurricanes pack sustained winds of at least 131 miles per hour.Rita, the fifth major hurricane of the season, largely spared the Florida Keys. But it's aimed for the Gulf Coast, where people are worried.Rita's raging eye did not hit land in the Florida Keys.Thousands of relieved residents who evacuated are expected to begin returning today. Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
All Gulf of Mexico crude prod halted
Essentially all Gulf of Mexico crude oil production and 30 percent of U.S. oil refinery production was shut as Hurricane Rita approached the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
Oil prices dropped Friday afternoon as Rita was downgraded to a Category 3 at maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.
About 72 percent of natural gas production was shut in by Friday, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said.
The MMS said 99.1 percent of crude production was shut.
The storm has forced shut 15 big U.S. refineries, adding to the four that had remained shut after Hurricane Katrina
Wilma may become hurricane, heads for Gulf of Mexico
Four of seven major weather models predict Tropical Storm Wilma, which could become a hurricane by Tuesday, will head for the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Earlier Monday morning, most of the models forecast the storm would crash into the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico or Belize later this week.
By late morning, most of the forecasts showed the storm would turn north toward western Cuba and Florida's Gulf Coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center still forecast the storm would graze the northeastern tip of the Yucatan and enter the Gulf of Mexico where it could
Shell, BP evacuate Gulf of Mexico workers due to Hurricane Katrina
Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC have evacuated workers from their platforms in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Katrina heads towards the area.
Shell, in a statement, said it will evacuate around 120 non-essential staff from the eastern part of its Gulf operations as a 'precaution'.
A BP spokesman said it will also evacuate a still undetermined number of workers.
Both companies said the move will not affect their Gulf production.
Katrina came ashore in Florida on Thursday, killing at least three people and leaving about 1.5 mln
Gulf of Mexico oil ops in 'relatively good shape' after Rita - Texas governor
Oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and the hub of refineries along the southern coast of the US appear to have survived Hurricane Rita without major damage, the governor of Texas said on Sunday.
'The refineries appear to be in relatively good shape,' Governor Rick Perry told Fox News Sunday.
One pipeline was ruptured 'but it's being repaired as we speak,' Perry said.
While oil companies said it would take some time to figure out the full effect of the storm, Perry expressed cautious optimism
