Tracking Rita
10:05 a.m. EDT: Houston Mayor Bill White repeats his advisory from yesterday that Houston residents should stay off the roads, where a chaotic scene of gas shortages, automobile breakdowns, and impassable gridlock continues to unfold. Faced with the mounting confusion yesterday, White suggested that those who hadn't yet evacuated should find places of refuge in Houston, which now seems to be out of the direct path of the storm. This morning, White reminded people that the storm remains dangerous and said that his advice to hunker down is not a guarantee of their safety.
9:30 a.m. EDT: The Wall Street Journal reports that "Rita has now forced 16 refineries to shut down, deepening worries about supply disruptions and further tightening stretched fuel markets. Those refineries have total capacity of 3.9 million barrels a day, or 23 percent of the U.S. total."
8:05 a.m. EDT: A bus from a Houston area nursing home explodes on traffic-choked Interstate 45, killing at least 20 of the 45 elderly persons on board. Many of them were on oxygen, contained in highly combustible tanks.
8 a.m. EDT: The National Hurricane Center update continues to characterize Rita as an "extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane." A hurricane warning is in effect from Port O'Connor, Texas, to Morgan City, La., where "preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion."
5:36 a.m. EDT: The Houston Chronicle reports hundreds of families are stranded without gas in a Wal-Mart parking lot off Interstate 10 in Sealy, a town 35 miles west of Houston.
Midnight EDT: The San Antonio Express-News reports that the city is being inundated with Houston evacuees, with at least 4,000 appearing by nightfall. While the city prepares shelters, officials are still occupied with caring for 13,000 displaced persons from Hurricane Katrina.
More Rita coverage: Thursday, Septemeber 22
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