Tracking Rita
3:30 p.m. EDT: DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff declares Rita an "incident of national significance," a designation that puts into action the Federal Response Plan, a 426-page disaster manual that places Chertoff and DHS in charge of the federal response. Chertoff did not make such a designation for Hurricane Katrina until late in the evening on Tuesday, August 30, more than 24 hours after Katrina made landfall and almost a full day after the levees broke in New Orleans. "We're making no assumptions," says Russ Knocke, press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, "and we're not wasting a second."
By 3:15 p.m. EDT: After a half day of struggles with unprecedented traffic congestion, local authorities succeed in converting most southbound lanes on major evacuation routes from Houston to northbound lanes.
2:40 p.m. EDT: Acting FEMA Director David Paulison says relief supplies, including more than a hundred trucks of water, ice, and food, are moving into place on the outskirts of the expected storm. Addressing the 14-hour delays on major evacuation routes out of the Houston area, Paulison says, "We still feel we have plenty of time to get people out of harm's way." He advises families to pack a laundry list of supplies, including a three-day supply of water and food, as well as flashlights, batteries, and medicine. Small children should wear identification bracelets so that they can be quickly returned to their parents if they are separated. Paulison cautions frustrated drivers not to return to their homes, as some are doing. Those drivers left on the roads when Rita makes landfall will be ushered to emergency shelters by local officials.
By 2 p.m. EDT: Galveston has evacuated 90 percent of its residents. About 3,200, including many elderly and ill, have taken public transportation to shelters while Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas and key personnel are hunkering down in the San Luis Resort, located on the foundation of the former Fort Crockett, built in 1897. The resort boasts 18-foot seawalls.
Across the region, oil refineries and chemical plants continue to shut down. NASA's Johnson Space Center has already been closed for 24 hours and will not reopen until the storm has passed. Primary control of the International Space Center was transferred to Russian Mission Control. A skeleton crew will ride out the storm at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, already affected by Katrina.
On Wall Street the mood lightens as Hurricane Rita loses intensity. Oil futures fall as the Dow Jones industrial average picks up 40 points. Some analysts still predict prices at the pump could reach $4 to $5 a gallon.
1:45 p.m. EDT: The National Hurricane Center downgrades Hurricane Rita to Category 4, with sustained winds of about 150 mph. While further weakening is expected over the next 24 hours, the center warns that Rita "remains an extremely dangerous hurricane." The storm is 435 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, moving west-northwest at 9 mph.
1:30 p.m. EDT: The Texas Department of Transportation announces the contra-flow plan for Houston's Interstate 45, converting southbound lanes to northbound, has been implemented. The span of one-way traffic is 80 miles long. Early evacuees reported a 13-hour trek from Houston to Dallas–usually a four-hour jaunt. By midafternoon Thursday, the evacuation had come to a near standstill, with vehicles on I-45 moving about 10 miles over the course of half a day.
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