September 23, 2005
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Hurricane Rita: Locations at risk
Hurricane Rita is expected to hit the Texas coast late on Friday or early Saturday local time. The BBC News website looks at the locations most vulnerable to the heavy rains, high winds and storm surges the hurricane is expected to bring.
HURRICANE PATH
Hurricane Rita was initially headed for Texas’s biggest city, Houston, and the town of Galveston. The storm has veered slightly eastwards towards Beaumont and Port Arthur, but it remains unclear where it will hit land.
Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for a swathe of land south of Houston, including Galveston. Texas emergency officials warn that the entire city of Port Arthur could be flooded by a 6-7m (18-22ft) storm surge.
HOUSTON
Mobile-home dwellers and residents of low-lying areas have been urged to leave. A mass exodus from Houston, a city of two million, has caused vast traffic jams on routes inland.
Houston is a flat city built on clay just 12m (40ft) above sea level. Several flood-prone marshy channels drain into the Houston Ship Channel. Officials fear a storm surge could sweep across Galveston Bay and up the channel, flooding parts of the city.
GALVESTON
Situated on a barrier island, Galveston is vulnerable to storms and was hit disastrously in 1900 by a Category Four hurricane which left 8,000 dead.
When the town was rebuilt, sand from the bay was used to build the island up to a higher level and a 5.2m (17ft) sea wall was constructed. But with forecasters warning that storm surge flooding could push water levels up to 6m (20ft) higher than normal, there are fears the town will be inundated. Galveston is only about 6m (20ft) above sea level.
At least 90% of the town’s 57,000 residents are thought to have fled.
NEW ORLEANS
New Orleans suffered widespread damage and 80% of the city was flooded when Hurricane Katrina hit on 29 August. Much of the city lies below sea level and the system of canals and levees designed to keep water out was quickly overwhelmed.
Makeshift repairs have been carried out, but with rainfall from the outer edge of Hurricane Rita adding to the pressure on the system, water has begun pouring over the top of the patched-up levee on the Industrial Canal.
REFINERIES
Texas processes a quarter of US oil and at least 16 of the state’s 26 refineries are potentially in the hurricane’s path, stretching along the Gulf of Mexico coastline.
Many were shut down as the hurricane approached. Two communities which may be hit hard by the storm are Beaumont and Port Arthur, home to petrochemical and oil industrial plants respectively.
