Hurricane Rita has made Landfall at 2:30 AM

As Jim Cantore said, “It was not a Katrina, but it was a good storm. They were two different storms. The biggest issue will be getting 2.5 million people back into the city.

From the Weather Channel

Hurricane Rita’s eyewall, containing wind gusts of at least 90 to 115 mph, has absolutely punished coastal and interior areas of southwest Louisiana along with portions of Jefferson and Orange counties across the border in Texas. Hurricane Rita made landfall at 2:30 am CDT just east of the Texas/Louisiana border in western Cameron Parish between Sabine Pass and Johnson’s Bayou. With the likelihood of a tremendous surge along with the torrential rain, there were immediate reports of flooding in Cameron and Lake Charles, Louisiana. In fact, there is almost no doubt that a powerful surge has overcome a good portion of Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Along with the surge, mighty waves of 20 to 30 feet battered the upper Texas coast and coastal Louisiana. Winds have gusted to 112 mph at Cameron, Louisiana while Beaumont, Texas has gusted 105 mph and Port Arthur has gusted to 116 mph. There is also now a report of terminal collapse at the Lake Charles Regional Airport. Rainfall has obviously been torrential across parts of east Texas and the southern half of Louisiana. Around 8 inches of rain has already fallen over Beaumont, Texas while Baton Rouge, Louisiana has picked up well over 7 inches.

UPDATE: Hurricane Rita stormed into Texas and Louisiana at 3:30 a.m. EDT, Saturday with relentless winds and sheets of rain.

Towns hit most heavily, according to first accounts, included Beaumont, Lumberton and Port Arthur in Texas and the area around Lake Charles and Abbeville in Louisiana, which President Bush singled out in a morning appearance from a government command center in Colorado Springs as “hard hit.”

The densely populated Houston-Galveston area was in relatively good shape, with some blown out windows and widespread power outages.

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