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Hurricane Rita Pummels East Texas, Louisiana
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(http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=F1E125:3919ACA

Storm's maximum sustained winds have weakened to under 160 kilometers
per hour, but flooding is feared





Galveston Police officer puts up a barracade around the rubble from a
fallen wall of Greenleve Block & Co. building in the aftermath of
Hurricane RitaHurricane Rita has been downgraded to a still dangerous
Category 2 hurricane on a one-to-five scale, after making landfall
along the Texas-Louisiana border on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Rita's
maximum sustained winds have weakened to under 160 kilometers per
hour, but flooding is feared.

Rita's eye came ashore early Saturday along the easternmost section of
Texas' Gulf Coast with top winds at about 190 kilometers an hour. It
downed trees and power lines, ripped roofs from homes, and spun off
tornadoes.

Meteorologist Mark McInerney of the National Hurricane Center [in
Miami] says, on the positive side, Rita is losing strength, but the
entire storm system's movement is also slowing.

"The movement is going to stall, or slow, as some acting forces above
Hurricane Rita keep it from moving to the north, as hurricanes
typically like to do," he said. "So, this is going to be more of a
rain event, and all the water that is in Rita is going to squeeze
out."







Enhanced satellite image of Hurricane Rita's location at 6:50 a.m.,
SaturdayMr. McInerney says, the slower a hurricane creeps along, the
greater the potential for flooding.

"When it stalls, it remains over the same area, and that is what
causes the great amounts of rain," he explained.

Rita's outer rain bands cover a huge swath of territory, extending
from east Texas, across Louisiana, and into Mississippi. In addition
to high winds, some areas are expected to receive rain totals of 60
centimeters or more.

More than two million people fled the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast
region in advance of the storm. Despite horrendous traffic jams and
several tragic motor accidents, local authorities say the
mass-evacuation doubtlessly saved lives.

Federal, state and local officials say damage assessment operations
have begun and will continue as weather conditions permit. It will
likely be days before the full scope of the damage, as well as the
extent of any human casualties, are known.

"We will be working closely with the city and state to support the
damage assessments in the Houston area to see what, if any, unmet
needs there are," said Tom Costello, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency's top official in Houston.

President Bush is expected to visit Texas, his home state, later in
the day.

Rita is striking less than a month after Hurricane Katrina devastated
the Louisiana-Mississippi coastal region, including the low-lying city
of New Orleans. Friday, storm surges from Rita overwhelmed sections of
already-damaged levees, flooding parts of the city once again.


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