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Click here for the latest bulletin from the National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Rita is about 12 hours away from making landfall along the coast of Texas and Louisiana. It’s turned slightly to the north, away from Galveston, and now it’s taking aim at Beaumont and Port Arthur, a fairly low-lying, marshy area of Texas. Beaumont, in fact (and I’m watching Anderson Cooper reporting live from there right now), is just a few feet above sea level at its highest point. Much of it, like New Orleans, is below sea level.
As CNN’s tracker shows, a hurricane warning extends from the area between Corpus Christi and Galveston, through Beaumont and Port Arthur, and along the Louisiana coast to the area just south of Lafayette. As well, a tropical storm warning extends all the way to Corpus Christi in the west and to New Orleans in the east. Plus, New Orleans lies on the strong side of the storm, with the counter-clockwise rotation of the storm pounding it with rain and wind.
The latest developments, from CNN:
Winds began to pick up Friday afternoon in southeast Texas as the outer bands of Hurricane Rita, a massive Category 3 storm, reached coastal communities.
With the hurricane generating winds of tropical storm force extending 205 miles (335 kilometers) from the center, cities like Galveston were reporting winds of 39 mph (63 kph).
“We’re seeing our first real rains, some of those bands coming in and affecting us,” CNN’s David Mattingly reported from Galveston. “It’s not a lot of rain, but in typical Gulf storm fashion it’s coming in sideways — getting blown at us rather hard.”
The 7 p.m. ET advisory from the National Hurricane Center placed Rita’s center in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southeast of Sabine Pass, between Texas and Louisiana. It was moving to the northwest at about 13 mph (21 kph).
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were 125 mph (201 kph), making it a Category 3 storm.
The latest projections showed Rita making landfall early Saturday near Port Arthur, Texas. The city of about 58,000 is home to a port and several oil refineries and chemical plants, according to the chamber of commerce’s Web site.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Sargent, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana, meaning hurricane conditions such as sustained winds of at least 74 mph (118 kph) are possible within 24 hours.
More to follow.