Hurricane Safety Zone

Rita

When Hurricane Rita made landfall in the Florida Keys yesterday, she was a Category 1. Now, one day later, she's a Category 5 and headed to Texas.

Is Rita Another Katrina?

Over all, the 2005 hurricanes were not destructive until Katrina hit. Two of the hurricanes were a Category 4, one was a Category 1, one was an unnamed tropical depression and the rest were tropical storms. Katrina was a Category 5, and now Hurricane Rita is, as we mentioned, a Category 5 storm and she's headed to the Texas Gulf Coast. Hurricane warnings and evacuations are being put into place, and the governor of Texas is urging people to help anyone who doesn't have a way to evacuate find a way out of the path of Hurricane Rita. The last thing anyone wants is a repeat of Hurricane Katrina. If we've learned anything from Katrina, it's that we should heed hurricane evacuation warnings and practice hurricane safety--particularly when a storm of this magnitude is headed your way.

Right now, Rita is still two days away from Texas, giving Texans more time to plan and evacuate than Floridians had to plan for her arrival on Tuesday. With hurricane watches posted from Port Mansifeld, TX to Cameron, LA, these people have time on their side. Galveston, TX is under a mandatory hurricane evacuation warning. The elderly are being taken out of the area in busses to avoid nursing home disasters like those in New Orleans.

We here at Hurricane Safety Zone hope that all of you in the path of Hurricane Ritawill be safely out of harm's way when and if she hits. We also hope our site has given you adequate tips to keep you and your home and family safe.

We hope that storms like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita ever make landfall again. But, Hurricane Wilma has the potential to also do a fair amount of damage when she touches land. She has already set a record as being the strongest, most intense storm in the Atlantic region and although she is expected to slow a bit before she hits Florida, we know better than to think that a hurricane cannot change dramatically in a short period of time and that we best be prepared for anything.