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Hurricane Rita expected to grow
Published September 21, 2005
ANGLETON — Conditions are ripe for Hurricane Rita to blossom into a Category 4 or Category 5 storm, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service said.
Rita started Tuesday as a large tropical storm, but quickly grew to a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of almost 100 mph at 5 p.m. As of Tuesday afternoon, forecasters predicted the hurricane’s eye would make landfall from the mid- to upper-Texas coast, with a direct hit on Brazoria County being a strong possibility. But this forecast is still three days out, and could change.
As the storm enters the Gulf of Mexico it will cross extremely warm water and face little wind
shear, said Gene Hafele, a weather service meteorologist.
“It looks like there is nothing to keep it from being a Category 4 and even a Category 5,” Hafele said. “It’s looking more impressive on satellite as we speak. All the ingredients are there.”
The storm should continue to track west across the Gulf until Thursday, when a high pressure system sitting over Southeast Texas begins to slide east and a low pressure system moves in from the Rocky Mountains.
“This happens about the time it’s due south of New Orleans,” Hafele said. “It’s going to begin kind of a west-northwest, then a northwest and north turn.”
A Category 4 hurricane would bring winds between 130 and 155 mph and storm surges of 13 to 18 feet at the coast and 19 to 24 feet in the bays. A Category 5 would create a surge of 18 to 20 feet on the coast and 24 to 30 feet on the bays along with winds higher than 155 mph.
Both scenarios could have water standing as far inland as Danbury and downtown Angleton, according to storm models, and could threaten to spill over the Freeport levees.
The current evacuation plans assume Rita is a Category 3 or lower, but officials haven’t discounted the possibility of a bigger storm.
“We’re still hoping that mother nature will be kind to us and move that high pressure to where the storm will veer from this area,” Brazoria County Judge John Willy said. “We’re prepared and we’ll do what we have to do.”
If the storm becomes a Category 4, the entire county will be evacuated, Willy said.
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