Texas residents flee Rita to Mexico crime city
Thousands of jittery Texas residents piled into cars, trucks and buses and fled south of the Rio Grande on Friday, risking refuge in Mexico’s most violent city rather than face Hurricane Rita’s wrath.
Texans and Mexican migrant workers piled across bridges to Nuevo Laredo, from Laredo Texas, throughout the morning, some hauling cherished family valuables in pickup trucks, others escaping with little more than their passports.
“We didn’t expect to get to Mexico. … We just brought our clothes and some food and left everything else at home,” Maria Leblanc of Houston said as she crossed the border with her son after a 13-hour drive.
Nuevo Laredo is the Mexican city worst hit by a brutal feud between rival drug cartels. More than 1,000 people have been killed nationwide so far this year, more than 130 of them in the border city.
Authorities in Nuevo Laredo said they expected to host up to 10,000 refugees this weekend as hotels across the border in Laredo filled up with Texas residents fleeing from Houston and Gulf coast cities in Rita’s path.
More: alertnet.org
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
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
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
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
Rita shuts down oil production in Gulf of Mexico
The impending strike of Hurricane Rita on the Texas coast poses as much of a risk to chemical output as it does to oil production and refining, analysts say, threatening shortages of key chemicals in coming days and weeks.
An estimated 72 percent of all U.S. production capacity for ethylene was in the strike area of Rita.
"About 72 percent of U.S. ethylene capacity is in the risk area, while 26 percent of U.S. refinery capacity is there," said an analyst .
The devastating effects of Katrina on the Gulf of Mexico also pushed natural
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
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.
Wilma slams Mexico resorts, tourists flee
Lashing wind and rain pounded Mexican beach resorts on Friday and thousands of tourists hunkered down in shelters to escape Hurricane Wilma, which was hammering Caribbean resorts on its way to densely populated southern Florida. Heavy rain was coming down in diagonal sheets and howling winds were buckling sturdy trees.
Tourists were evacuated from luxury beachfront hotels all along Mexico’s “Maya Riviera†coast and the normally calm, turquoise Caribbean seas heaved and Wilma dumped rain on streets patrolled by soldiers ordering people to take cover.
Described by forecasters as extremely dangerous and at its height later
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.
BP, Shell say Gulf of Mexico ops still suspended
BP PLC and the Royal Dutch Shell said their operations at the Gulf of Mexico remained suspended even as initial inspection showed the offshore facilities sustained little damage from Hurricane Rita.
'The (US Gulf) facilities as of Monday are still completely shut. The situation is still the same,' said a BP spokeswoman.
BP continues to check the facilities and will not allow operations to resume until it is completely certain that it is safe to do so.
'Initial assessment on Sunday via aerial overflights and small crews placed on several BP-operated deepwater
