Latest #s on Rita: 11am

[GreenPartyVoter]

Latest numbers on Hurricane Rita

(CNN) -- Here are the latest numbers from the National Hurricane Center's 11 a.m. advisory:

Top wind speed: 165 mph, down from 170 mph

Saffir-Simpson scale: Category 5

Location of storm center: 460 miles southeast of Galveston and about 445 miles southeast of Port Arthur

Movement: west-northwest at near 9 mph

New Watches and Warnings: --Hurricane warning from Port O'Connor, Texas, to Morgan City, La.; Tropical storm warning from south of Port O'Connor to Port Mansfield, Texas River; Tropical storm watch from north of the mouth of the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Pearl River, including metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain

Size of storm: Hurricane-force winds extend up to 85 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extend up to 185 miles. (Posted 11:07 a.m.)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/22/news.update.thurs/

[Silverhair]

1. That puts Galveston/Houston on the less dangerous side. NT

[Ian David]

2. And Crawford is 260 miles inland. n/t

[Geoff R. Casavant]

3. Amen!

We can't evacuate right now, we doubt our tank of gas will get us far unless they open the contraflow lanes for outbound traffic.

The latest consensus from weatherunderground seems to be landfall north of Galveston, and a downgrade to Cat 3 by landfall.

Pray.

[Silverhair]

6. Contraflow lanes help very little.

Somewhere you have to revert the contraflow to normal flow. Everybody has to get off the contra lanes. You get a MASSIVE bottleneck there that backs traffic up for huge distances. And all those folks that got off the contra lanes still need to go somewhere.

[dogday]

4. Houston Traffic is unbelievable

You think evacuation in NO was something, try that times 4 and see what a cluster f**k it is. I don't know how you can prepare for 4 million people all trying to leave the city at one time.....

We are staying and hunkering down here in Houston. We are on the west side and should be ok. Light some candles for us and keep us in your thoughts....

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. We will pray hard for ya *hugs*