Rita heads for Texas as Category 5 hurricane

Galveston,Texas--Hurricane Rita grew into a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm on Wednesday and took aim at Texas as officials began evacuating more than a million people from most of the coast and parts of Houston.

The storm had grown into the third most intense Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by internal pressure, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

A hurricane watch was issued for the U.S. Gulf Coast from Fort Mansfield Texas, to Cameron, Louisiana. Rita was expected to come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday as a "major hurricane … at (Category 3) or higher," hurricane center forecaster Robbie Berg said.

President George W. Bush declared emergencies for Texas and Louisiana.

"Federal, state and local governments are coordinating their efforts to get ready," said Bush, who was heavily criticized for an ill-prepared federal response to Hurricane Katrina last month that killed more than 1,000 people.

"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst," Bush said.

The hurricane center said Rita had become "an extremely dangerous" Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 165 mph (265 kph) and higher gusts as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Rita lashed the Florida Keys on Tuesday but did little damage to the vulnerable Florida islands.

Rita's path included the Texas coast southwest of Galveston, where in 1900 at least 8,000 people died in the deadliest recorded U.S. hurricane.

Just last month, Hurricane Katrina devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and killed at least 1,037 people.

Financial markets reacted immediately to news the storm had gained strength, with the prospect of more destruction and oil-supply interruptions affecting everything from stocks and the dollar to oil prices.

Galveston, a city of about 58,000 people located on a barrier island, began evacuating residents on Tuesday. More than 50 miles inland, Houston Mayor Bill White ordered an evacuation of residents in areas prone to storm surges or major floods.

Officials said as many as 1.2 million people were expected to start leaving Houston, America's fourth most populous city with about 2 million residents, and an international center for the oil industry. The city was the most popular destination for evacuees from Katrina, which displaced about 1 million people, including nearly all of New Orleans's 450,000 residents.

Stores in Houston quickly ran out of emergency supplies, plywood and food. The last major hurricane to hit Houston was Alicia in 1983, a Category 3 storm that killed 22 people. Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 caused extensive flooding in the city and killed more than 40 people across the United States.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged Texans along a 300-mile stretch comprising most of the state's coastline, to leave. He said nursing home residents already were being evacuated.

The Mexican government issued a tropical storm watch for the country's northeast coast from Rio San Fernando northward.

"Everyone's scared, that's why we're all leaving," Galveston Island resident Maria Stephens said, citing television images of Katrina's devastation. "I saw the people at the shelters and the bodies floating in the water. I don't want that to be my family."

NASA prepared to evacuate its Johnson Space Center in Houston and turn over control of the International Space Station to its Russian partners.

About 1,100 Katrina evacuees still in Houston's two mass shelters were being sent to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. Some Houston hospitals were evacuated.

New Orleans, flooded by Katrina, was taking no chances. Mayor Ray Nagin said two busloads of people had been evacuated already and 500 other buses were ready.

State officials said an estimated 9,700 residents of Cameron Parish on the Louisiana-Texas border were told to leave. They added that 2,662 people housed in shelters after Katrina were relocated to facilities farther north in the state, and 5,054 more were expected to be moved.

A FEMA spokesman said Rita was not expected to re-flood New Orleans if the storm stayed on its current westward course.