Weather forecasters have not ruled the possibility that the area around New Orleans could again be hit by the latest hurricane heading towards the US mainland.
Patients from a medical center in Key West wait on litters in a plane to be evacuated in advance of Tropical Storm Rita
Residents of Florida and other US states along the Gulf of Mexico are bracing themselves for another battering as tropical storm Rita gathers pace.
All 80,000 residents were ordered out of the Florida Keys yesterday but many remained behind in boarded-up homes to await the arrival of Rita. The storm was expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it enters the Gulf of Mexico where Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc three weeks ago.
A Louisiana official warned that levees in New Orleans, where hundreds died in Katrina's floods, would fail again if the city were hit by a new storm surge. Major Ray Nagin suspended plans for some residents to return to the flooded city.
Oil companies only starting to recover from Katrina evacuated Gulf oil rigs. Private forecasters said there was a 40 per cent chance that damaging hurricane-force winds would directly affect major Gulf energy production areas.
Rita is expected to become a major hurricane with sustained winds of at least 178 kilometres per hour as it drew strength from warm Gulf waters after passing by the Florida Keys today, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
Rita is the 17th tropical storm of an exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season has already sustained winds of 110 kilomteres, just short of hurricane status.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st to November 30th and produces an average of about 11 tropical storms or hurricanes. Forecasters had predicted an unusual 2005 season with up to 21 storms due to warm sea temperatures and other conditions favorable to hurricanes.