"Rita appears to have reached its peak intensity during the past 12 hours. ... Neverthereless...Rita is expected to make landfall as a dangerous hurricane of at least a category three intensity." National Hurricane Center at 11am EDT this morning.

"The system reached category 5 strength on the afternoon of September 21, 2005, and is currently expected to make landfall with estimated winds of 145 mph sometime on September 24, to the east of Galveston. Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of the Texas coast, and storm-ravaged New Orleans." Wikipedia

"Hundreds of thousands of residents scrambled to get out of the Houston metro area Thursday as Hurricane Rita, slightly weaker - but still a monster storm with 240 km/h winds, was forecast to hit their city on the weekend." CBC News

"Residents of the US Gulf Coast region have emailed the BBC News website describing the situation in their area amid mass evacuations ahead of Hurricane Rita." BBC News

Latest Hurricane Rita Public Advisory

Animation of Rita.

Infrared animation of Rita.

NASA Rita Imagery

Ivo Janssen has taken NOAA pictures of Rita and combined them with Google Earth overlays to create 3D views of the hurricane path.

Related:

Federal Government Readies for Tropical Storm Rita, FEMA Urges Preparedness
KW