Galveston hospital, nursing home patients evacuated as Rita plows across Gulf

GALVESTON, Texas — Hospital and nursing home patients were evacuated and as many as 1 million other people were ordered to clear out along the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as Hurricane Rita intensified into a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds that could batter Texas and bring more misery to New Orleans by week's end.

Galveston, vulnerable parts of Houston and a mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders, one day after Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys as a Category 2 storm and caused minor damage.

Having seen what Hurricane Katrina did just three weeks ago, many people were not taking chances.

"After this killer in New Orleans, Katrina, I just cannot fathom staying," 59-year-old Ldyyan Jean Jocque said before sunrise as she waited for an evacuation bus outside the Galveston Community Center. She had packed her Bible, some music and clothes into plastic bags and loaded her dog into a pet carrier.

The federal government was eager to show it, too, had learned its lesson after being criticized for its sluggish response to Katrina. It rushed hundreds of truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals to the Gulf Coast and put rescue and medical teams on standby.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged residents in the threatened areas to get out.

"You can't play around with this storm," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America." He added: "The lesson is that when the storm hits, the best place to be is to be out of the path of the storm."

At 9 a.m. MDT, Rita was centered about 260 miles west of Key West, Fla., and 775 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, moving west at near 13 mph. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore Saturday somewhere along the central Texas Gulf Coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi. But even a slight turn and a glancing blow could prove devastating to New Orleans.

Meteorologist Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Rita could strengthen into a terrifying Category 5 with wind over 155 mph as it moves over the warm waters of the gulf, or it could ease to a Category 3, with wind of less than 130 mph.

Galveston County, population 267,000, was ordered evacuated, along with low-lying, flood-prone areas of Houston, which at its lowest point is 6 feet above sea level. As many as 1 million people in the Houston-Galveston area were under orders to get out by daybreak Thursday, said Frank Michel, spokesman for Houston Mayor Bill White. Houston, Texas' biggest city, is about 50 miles northwest of Galveston.