Rita weakened to a Category 3 hurricane, with winds at 125 miles an hour, down from a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm Wednesday. But it was still bringing destruction. The hurricane forced a chaotic exodus of more than 2 million residents from the Gulf Coast this week. Cities in southeast Texas braced for the storm to hit late Friday or early today.
Meteorologists said Rita had veered slightly to the east, setting it up potentially to strike land east of Houston and Galveston and closer to Port Arthur and Beaumont, two Texas cities with large oil and chemical complexes. The possibility of damage to pipelines and refineries in Texas added to concern over the depletion of gasoline supplies in parts of the state.
''Say a prayer for Texas,'' said Gov. Rick Perry, who described the storm as a ''great test.''
The mass evacuations in Texas resulted in tragedy in parts of the state. A bus carrying 38 nursing home residents and six employees from Houston caught fire and exploded Friday morning on a highway near Dallas. The fire killed at least 24 passengers in the bus, said Don Peritz, a spokesman for the Dallas County sheriff's department.
Energy markets, frantic with the possibility that Rita might wreak havoc on refineries and petrochemical plants, were relieved somewhat at the close of trading Friday afternoon when it appeared the storm might veer away from the largest complexes along the Gulf Coast. Oil prices fell sharply, by $2.31, to $64.19 a barrel.
In Washington, where the Bush administration had been criticized over its response to Hurricane Katrina, the president visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters on Friday. But he canceled a planned trip to his home state, Texas, to avoid interfering with emergency preparations there. Instead, he planned to track the storm late Friday at the U.S. Northern Command headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.
''We're now facing another big storm,'' Bush said while at FEMA. ''Our job is to prepare for and assist state and local people to save lives and help these people get back on their feet.''
Federal officials declared a public health emergency for Texas and Louisiana.
By evening it was the cities along the border of Texas and Louisiana that seemed to be in the storm's direct path. ''The core of Hurricane Rita will make landfall along the southwest Louisiana and upper Texas coasts near daybreak,'' the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Communities in the region evacuated and residents huddled in shelters. Port Arthur, a town of 60,000 protected by a seawall built to sustain a 16-foot storm surge, was vacant but for a scant few who refused to leave.
Lake Charles, a city of about 72,000 just east of the Texas line, was also effectively empty, from the casino boats floating at the docks downtown to the rooms at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, which evacuated 132 patients on Friday, most on planes flown from Chennault Air Force Base in Lake Charles.
And in San Augustine Park, 90 miles north of Beaumont, hundreds of people from southeast Texas set up camp in RVs and tents in the densely forested park run by the Army Corps of Engineers despite warnings of tornadoes, falling trees and rising lake waters. ''There aren't any hotels, and we couldn't get gas to go any further north,'' said one, Dennis Cargill of Orangefield.
In Texas, fuel shortages and the closing of airports in Houston added to problems for residents attempting to flee from the storm.
The Texas National Guard sent 5,000 trucks with gasoline to supply stranded vehicles along the highways leading out of Houston, Beaumont, Port Arthur and Galveston.
Coast Guard helicopters also transported fuel to 11 branch offices of the Texas Department of Transportation to assist in refueling the gasoline trucks.
As the skies darkened over Houston on Friday afternoon, the city grew eerily still, with the normally congested streets and highways empty of traffic.
Although the hurricane looked as if it would spare the city a direct hit, Mayor Bill White said at a news briefing, ''Winds of 50, 60 miles per hour may be better news than 120 miles per hour, but a lot of glass can be broken.''
He warned residents against going close to windows to observe the hurricane because the windows could blow out. ''There'll be plenty of time to watch on TV rather than get close to the window,'' he said.
In the face of angry recriminations over the traffic jams that clogged escape routes for hundreds of miles into Friday, the mayor said he took pride in the effort that had spirited about 2.5 million people out of harm's way.
''I hate traffic more than anybody I've ever met,'' said White, but he defended the turmoil as worthwhile in the end. The ghostly streets were a welcome sight on Friday, he said: ''That is exactly what we wanted to see at this time.''
