Hurricane Rita is now a category five storm, and still has until Saturday to strengthen. Can we assume that Texas is in for an even worse fate than areas affected by Katrina?

I hope for the sake of humanity that a miracle happens between now and Saturday, because it is not looking good for Texas.

By far the creepiest thing is that it's headed straight for Houston, were most of the Katrina evacuees are at. It's like the hurricanes are following them.

All I know is it won't be a cat. 5 when it hits Texas. A hurricane cannot maintain this much power for a long period of time.

^^ Who told you that? It's over 90 degree water, it can and unfortunetly probably will hit as a category 5.

165mph winds. r.i.p. texas

^^ Who told you that? It's over 90 degree water, it can and unfortunetly probably will hit as a category 5.

Land fall normally brings a drop in power, I believe Katrina dropped to cat 4 on landfall. But still, it's not looking good.

However, Texas will not be as badly hit as New Orleans as it is not so low lying, most damage will be wind and coastal storm surges....It'll be bad, but not like what we've seen in NO.
One big concern though is the 'rebuilt' NO leeves. If this thing swings north at all it could bring those leeves down with only a relavtivly small amount of rain water compared to what hurricanes can carry. Putting NO back to where it was 2 weeks ago.

I hope it weakens and will not be too devastating at landfall, but I'd certainly suggest getting ready to leave if you live in that corner of Texas.

^^ However Galveston sits right at sea level. Some models show that if the eye will hits anywhere near Galveston. It will put the entire city under water. That's assuming if the storm is still a cat 4 or even 5.

BTW there are bouies in the western gulf that is reported over 90s degrees.

All I know is it won't be a cat. 5 when it hits Texas. A hurricane cannot maintain this much power for a long period of time.

he is correct,conditions have to be near perfect for a hurricane to maintain cat5

Anybody have the map of Rita's movings?

sucks for texas... their home owners insurance is the highest in the nation...

165mph winds. r.i.p. texas
lol r.i.p!?

Good luck Texans...may God have mercy on your souls.
I hope it weakens and just spits on the coast insted of destroying it.

^^ However Galveston sits right at sea level. Some models show that if the eye will hits anywhere near Galveston. It will put the entire city under water. That's assuming if the storm is still a cat 4 or even 5.

BTW there are bouies in the western gulf that is reported over 90s degrees.

I thought Galveston was mostly slightly above sea level? So you wont get the bowl effect of NO, meaning clear up can begin straight away. Isn't it strange that when Katrina hit they were saying it was the worst since Galveston was hit in 19xx ( don't remember when - long time ago 20's perhaps?). Then here we are a few weeks later and something bad could be about to happen there.

However, Landfall is not predicted untill saturday morning. And although the conditions should maintain cat 5 for 24 hours it'd be quite incredible for it to keep that kind of power for 3 days. I'll probably be a cat 2-3 at land fall. Still, I'd advise anyone near the coast to be ready to get out of there if the worst does happen.

Map - http://www.quehubo.com/eng/rita/hurricane_rita.php

Right now it look like it will hit 50 miles south of Galveston, but it's way to early to tell. It will either make landfall as a Cat 5 or a strong Cat 4. A direct it on the Houston area would be catastrophic.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT18/refresh/AL1805W_sm2+gif/205648W_sm.gif

^^Read this article, crazy.
Click Here (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3344353)

Exactly how far is Houston from Galveston?

Galveston is about what? 30-40 miles from D/T Houston.
Oh, and TexasBoi, that article is very worrisome.

Rita has just become the third most intense storm ever in the Gulf of Mexico! 902MB and falling!

Yeah it is. I believe Galveston is 50 miles away from DT Houston.

http://maps.wunderground.com/data/images/at200518_model.gif

Wow, talk about intensity.

At the lowest Houston is Highest, 120 ft. above sea level

Without reading this thread, I thought Rita was a small tropical storm near Key West or Cuba.

Once she moved into the warmer waters of the Gulf she quickly dropped her tropical storm strength and picked up hurricane strength. Hurricanes are fueled by warm water and the Gulf of Mexico is just the place for such a storm to develop. Water temperatures there are in the upper 80s and low 90s.

Rita is now stronger than Katrina. Maximum sustained winds 176mph!

It took my family 7 hrs to leave Houston today and get to the weekend house and my house in northeast TX. My aunt and uncle are on a cruise in Canada and in NYC, they just told my cousins just get the valuable antiques,paintings and family photos. Thankfully, they do have flood and wind insurance. This storm is very scary, even for people living well inland in Houston. This will cause oil to skyrocket

for those saying this won't be an NO, don't forget the devastation from the category 4 storm surge and winds on the coastal areas of Lousiana, Mississippi and Alabama, which was absolutely devastating, though we tend to concentrate on NO. This is the kind of thing I worry about for whatever area is hit. Plus places like Houston and Dallas can flood big time with less rain than this thing will dump. Please don't downplay even if this thing hits at cat. 3

Lubbock will probably get alot of rain from this and it is practically a desert out here, the city doesn't have a gutter system so rain water just kinda sits around.

I work at a hotel in Lubbock(currently at work) almost every hotel in town is soldout. The phone rings about every 2 minutes with someone looking for a room. Houston is roughly an 8-9 drive from here... 3 phone calls while I am typing this

What most people think of as the devestation of Katrina in New Orleans was from the levees failing and the lake draining out onto the city, not from the power of Katrina.

Even with that.. New Orleans got off very lightly compared to what happened to Galveston in 1900... it's usually called The Storm (http://www.1900storm.com/). It wreaked devestation and left a trail of death throughout the US and even caused flooding and death in Canada.

There were a lot of insanely bad storms in the late 1800's too, several Texas cities were completely wiped out in the 1800's and were never rebuilt cuz everyone died and nothing was left.

Most of Houston sits at an altitude of 'sea level'. The highest point is in the Heights, 83 ft. The mark has recently changed to 120+ ft.. I have no idea where that is.

Southeast Houston is right along Galveston Bay and the Ship Channel.

most of eastern Galveston is approx. 17 ft above sea level. that part of the island was dug up and literally raised 17 ft after the storm of 1900 in order to create what is known as the sea wall. the western part of the island is unprotected and sits at sea level. This part of the Galveston is expected to be completely leveled with little or no structures standing after Rita passes through.

Seriously, if Galveston takes a direct hit again it will be another catastrophe. Less people may die this time round, but if anything the city's structures will suffer more damage than NO.

That's horrible, especially with Houston housing so many of the evacuees from NO.

anyone watching the news traffic on 59, 45, 290, and 10 is awful going out of town. The graphic says 100 miles of congestion. The freeways are enormus they are letting people drive on the shoulders, 7+ lanes going 10 miles an hour....

Any live news reports? Like the one in New Orleans a month ago.

CNN or Fox is live

It's a category 4... wheres the fun in that?

Good luck down there. Everybody is worried about you guys. Take care.

Fortunately it's down to a category 3 now; bad but not nearly as fearsome as the 5 that it was. Wind force exerted against buildings approximately doubles with each 10 MPH increase so the diffence in wind force between the 175 that it was the the 120 that it is now could mean the difference between a house that is damaged and one that is entirely gone. It's also veered somewhat to the right so the eye wall will be east of the most populated areas aound Houston and Galveston. Probably real bad but not as catastophic as it could have been.

yeah, thank god that it did pass us all up in Houston, but bad for New Orleans and Beaumont. Though I am worried that if something did come along again that could be potentially dangerous that people wouldn't leave because this one bypassed us and they wouldnt want to wait in all that traffic for nothing.

And man, that traffic was crazy. I went on I-10 and they had contra flow, people were driving on the shoulder, the access road and in the grass. People had broken down cars and cars without gas all along the freeways, there was no gas anywhere, and I personally had to sit in traffic for 13 hours going to San Antonio, which usually takes only about 2 to 3 hours.

I drove 20 hours from Houston to Dallas. I-45 was the longest parking lot from Galveston to Conroe. NEVER have I experienced so much traffic in my life. It took me 12 hours from Houston to Conroe and an hour from Conroe to Huntsville. By the time I got to Huntsville, they did the contra-flow and opened up the southbound side of I-45 coming into Houston for traffic to travel north to Buffalo, Texas where traffic had to get back on the northbound side which was another hour I was sittin still. And by the time I got to Dallas, I was in 5 o clock traffic on 75. Good thing Rita did not threaten us besides the fact Houston loss power and a few blown out windows downtown. Beaumont was damaged severly, which is where I go to school. Lamar Univ. is damaged pretty bad and we wont have school maybe at a going rate of a month or so from the way things look there. Dallas had sunshine the whole time I was there no rain or anything. Cant believe its been a week already since I evacuated.

keep in mind, a category 5 (155 mph+ winds or more) hurricane making a landfall will rip a house off the foundation and nothing is left standing. A hurricane with 120 mph winds will damage house, breaking roofs, comestic damage to it, and things like that.