GALVESTON, Texas (Reuters) - Hurricane Rita grew into a monster Category 5 storm and took aim at Texas on Wednesday as authorities began to evacuate more than a million people from most of the coast and parts of Houston.
"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst," said U.S. President George W. Bush, who was heavily criticised Advertisement
for an ill-prepared federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
The U.S. National Hurricane Centre said Rita's winds increased to 165 mph (265 kph) as it moved over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico after lashing the Florida Keys on Tuesday. The storm did little damage to the vulnerable Florida islands, but had intensified to a Category 4 storm by morning.
The latest upgrade made Rita stronger than Hurricane Katrina was when it hit land as a Category 4 storm with 145-mph (233-kph) winds. At its peak over water, Katrina was a Category 5 storm with 175-mph (281-kph) winds. The storm devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama last month and killed at least 1,037 people.
Markets reacted immediately as the storm gained strength, with the prospect of more destruction and oil-supply interruptions affecting everything from stocks and the dollar to oil prices.
Rita was expected to strengthen over the central Gulf but may weaken slightly as it continues west, the National Hurricane Centre said earlier on Wednesday. The storm was expected to make landfall by Saturday "as a major hurricane ... at least Category 3," the centre said. A Category 3 storm can cause extensive damage.
Rita would most likely hit the Texas coast southwest of Galveston, where in 1900 at least 8,000 people died in the deadliest U.S. hurricane.
Galveston, on a barrier island, began evacuating residents on Tuesday. About 50 miles (80 km) inland, Houston Mayor Bill White ordered an evacuation of residents in areas prone to storm surges or major floods.
As many as 1.2 million people were expected to begin leaving Houston by evening, officials said. Katrina displaced about 1 million people, including nearly all of New Orleans's 450,000 residents.
Stores in Houston, America's fourth most populous city, quickly ran out of emergency supplies, plywood and food.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged Texans along a 300-mile (483 km) stretch comprising most of the state's coastline, to leave.
"If you're on the coast between Beaumont and Corpus Christi, now's the time to leave," Perry said. He said nursing home residents already were being evacuated.
'CHASING US EVERYWHERE'
Maria Stephens helped fellow residents of Galveston Island board evacuation buses and then prepared to drive inland with her husband and their three children.
"Everyone's scared, that's why we're all leaving," she 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."
Stephen Travis was driven out of Biloxi, Mississippi, by Katrina and on Wednesday was leaving a waterfront Galveston hotel. "It definitely feels like they're chasing us everywhere," he said of the hurricanes.
NASA prepared to evacuate its Johnson Space Centre in Houston and turn over control of the International Space Station to its Russian partners.
Taking lessons from problems after Katrina hit, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said authorities had positioned supplies and were checking on communications systems. The government sent Coast Guard Rear Adm. Larry Hereth to Texas to coordinate the response.
"I hope that by doing what the state officials and mayors are doing now ... getting people who are invalids out of the way, encouraging people to leave early, that when the storm hits, there will be property damage but hopefully there won't be a lot of people to rescue," Chertoff told MSNBC.
White, the Houston mayor, urged people with their own transportation to use it because there were not enough government vehicles to get everyone out.
Louisiana declared a state of emergency. New Orleans, flooded by Katrina and considered vulnerable to Rita, was taking no chances. Mayor Ray Nagin said two busloads of people had been evacuated already and 500 other buses were ready.
"We're a lot smarter this time around," he said. "We've learnt a lot of hard lessons."
About 1,100 Katrina evacuees still in Houston's two mass shelters were being sent to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
LIKE KATRINA
Rita's centre was about 755 miles east-southeast (1,215 kph) of Corpus Christi, Texas, at 11 a.m. EDT (4 p.m. British time). The hurricane was moving at about 13 mph (21 kph), the hurricane centre said.
A major hurricane could send a 20-foot (6-metre) storm surge over the Texas coast.
Oil companies that were just starting to recover from Katrina evacuated Gulf oil rigs as Rita moved closer. Rita's projected path puts it south of some of the major-oil producing areas, and the storm could threaten up to 18 Texas refineries, which account for 23 percent of U.S. refining capacity, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
The agency's head said the risk of flooding at the Texas refineries was less than what Katrina posed in Louisiana, because they were on higher ground.
U.S. light crude oil rose $1.15 per barrel to $67.35. The dollar weakened 0.71 percent against the euro, amid concerns that Rita's damage on the heels of Katrina could deal a greater blow to the U.S. economy.
U.S. stock prices also fell, on renewed concerns over the potential effect of high energy costs on profits and consumer spending. The chief executive of major refiner Valero Energy Corp. said retail gasoline prices could rebound past $3 per gallon, after a retreat from post-Katrina record highs.
