Below The Beltway

Hurricane Rita slammed ashore near Lake Charles, Lousiana early this morning. The good news in this, if there is any, is that Houston and Galveston seem to have dodged a bullet in that the storm veered further east than feared. That doesn’t mean things are over, though; several hours after making landfall, Rita is still [...]

Its at least 12-18 hours before Rita makes landfall and things are already going from bad to worse
The evacuation of the U.S. Gulf Coast took a tragic turn Friday when a bus carrying elderly people fleeing Hurricane Rita caught fire on a gridlocked Texas highway, killing as many as 24 evacuees, authorities said.
The bus exploded [...]

Austin is about 4 hours away from Galveston, where Rita is expected to make landfall by the end of the week, and my buddy Raymond is getting ready.

Even before she hits, Hurricane Rita already looks to have a bigger economic impact than even Katrina did.
Hurricane Rita was on track yesterday to slam into a region of the Texas coast later this week that is home to a heavy concentration of refineries that turn oil into gasoline.
Although Rita could shift course before making [...]

Didn’t we already go through this?
Hurricane Rita quickly intensified into a monster Category 5 storm Wednesday, churning in the Gulf of Mexico with winds of up to 165 mph toward the Texas coast after slapping the Florida Keys.
In an update to an earlier advisory, the National Hurricane Center said this afternoon that reconnaissance aircraft showed [...]