Louisiana prepares for Hurricane Rita

The National Hurricane Centre in the U.S. says Hurricane Rita, now a Category 4 hurricane, “could reach Category 5 intensity in the central Gulf of Mexico” and is tracking to reach landfall on the south coast of Texas and the southwestern-most part of Louisiana by Sept 23 or 24. “Rita remains an extremely dangerous hurricane,” the weather center reported in the morning of Sept. 21. “Winds now estimated [at] 140 mph.”The Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, has asked U.S. President George Bush to declare a state of emergency in her state, which is still badly damaged and flooded from Hurricane Katrina.A Category 4 hurricane, Katrina hit the state in late August, causing flooding in New Orleans that resulted in projected insured losses of $15 billion to $20 billion. Insurers are still trying to ascertain insured losses as a result of Katrina.”I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments due to the continuing impact of Hurricane Katrina,” Blanco wrote of Hurricane Rita in a Sept. 20 letter to Bush. “Supplementary federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster. “The affected areas are all the coastal parishes including the Lake Charles, Lafayette and New Orleans metropolitan areas, and the mid-state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor. [These areas] are accepting the thousands of citizens evacuating from the areas expecte