New Orleans – Hurricane Rita brushed past Key West on Tuesday and was forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane later in the week, prompting residents and rescuers to begin evacuating already beaten-down New Orleans, as well as parts of Louisiana and Texas.
From the tip of the Florida peninsula to Galveston, Texas, thousands left their homes or made plans to, including many who had already fled once, from Hurricane Katrina, and were living in shelters and temporary housing.
Forecasters said Rita could intensify in the Gulf of Mexico into a Category 4 storm with winds of at least 131 mph. The most likely destination by week’s end was Texas, although Louisiana and northern Mexico were possibilities, according to the National Hurricane Center.
In Louisiana, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco asked President Bush on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency for her battered state as it prepares for Hurricane Rita. She requested $10 million in assistance.
Churning undiminished toward the warm and wide Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Rita could strengthen to Category 4 as it approaches Texas, said Colin McAdie, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Hurricane Katrina was a Category 4 storm when it devastated parts of the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Aug. 29.
The threat of a new storm aligned federal and local authorities in Louisiana, at least publicly, after weeks of tension over the response to Katrina.
Bush, who visited Mississippi earlier in the day, met in Louisiana with Blanco, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Vice Adm. Thad Allen of the Coast Guard, who is in charge of the federal recovery effort for the first storm.
Later in the day, Bush signed legislation to increase the borrowing authority of the government’s flood insurance program to $3.5 billion from $1.5 billion to pay claims from Hurricane Katrina.
He said Allen would remain in charge of the federal effort in Louisiana and Mississippi, and “we’ve got another admiral who is now being stationed in Texas, to coordinate the relief response.”
Bush also praised the mayor for his decision Monday to suspend a staggered reopening of parts of the city. “He made a wise decision to say to people, Be cautious about returning here, because a rain of any amount could cause these levees to break again.”
The death toll from Hurricane Katrina approached 1,000 on Tuesday. A 72-year-old man, John Lyons, was found alive in his home in New Orleans. Lyons’ wife, Leola, also 72, was found dead.
In the city, mostly empty of residents but with its physical core still vulnerable, the possibility of heavy rain and a storm surge prompted officials to make emergency efforts to bolster its weakened levee system, station 500 buses on its outskirts to evacuate remaining residents and establish a military hospital at the convention center, which just weeks ago was the scene of violence and desperation for thousands of trapped evacuees.
In Florida, Hurricane Rita lashed Key West as it passed about 50 miles south of the island Tuesday afternoon, flooding roads, yards and beaches through much of the Keys but not inflicting the severe damage many had feared. It reached Category 2 strength as it moved between Cuba and Key West, with sustained winds of 100 mph.
The Lower and Middle Keys were cut off from the rest of Florida for most of the day after U.S. 1 was closed because of flooding. By late afternoon, about 24,000 homes and businesses in Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties had no electricity.
The mayor of New Orleans said officials will be more aggressive in pushing for evacuation today if the storm turns toward the city, but he said they would not force people from their homes.
The city’s weakened levee system could be breached by a storm surge as low as 5 feet, said Brig. Gen. Robert Crear of the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps, which has used sandbags, stones and concrete to seal breaches in several levees, does not expect the levees to be fully repaired until June 1, the start of the 2006 hurricane season.
David Paulison, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in Washington on Tuesday that 45 truckloads of water, 45 truckloads of ice and eight truckloads of ready-to-eat meals are being staged in Texas in advance of the storm. Nine urban search-and-rescue teams and nine disaster medical assistance teams also are to arrive.
The agency, still facing criticism for its response to Katrina, has more search-and-rescue teams available in Texas than it did along the Gulf Coast in advance of Katrina.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.