If anyone knows anyone within 100 miles of the anticipated landfall prediction area, tell them to leave now! If Rita hangs on to this intensity or gets worse, the destruction and devestation will be far worse than Katrina. This one is another monster of a system.

Between 2 a.m. and 4 p.m., it went from a 115-mph Category 2 to a 165-mph Category 5.

Forecasters said Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and easily one of the most powerful ever to plow into the U.S. mainland. Category 5 is the highest on the scale, and only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland — most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.

Looking at the projected path it looks like New Orleans will miss a direct hit. But, it also looks like it will dump a lot of rain on the Mississippi River watershed most of which will wind up at New Orleans. It isn't over for them yet.

I've heard that if NOLA just gets an additonal 3 inches of rain, there might be more water to breach the patched up levees. They have alread pulled out the temporary pumps to higher ground as they don't work under water.
Will it never end?
With the breadth and intensity of this one, even Cameron, La is under the gun.