Rita is no longer a hurricane but is expected to produce ”torrential rains during the next few days,” the National Hurricane Centre said on Saturday.
At 6pm GMT Rita’s wind strength had slackened to about 105km per hour, making her a tropical storm.
”Rita’s slow movement is expected to generate very heavy rains over the next few days,” the centre said, warning of rainfalls of 25 to 38cm across eastern Texas, western Louisiana and southern Arkansas.
The United States Energy Department said it expects ”minimal disruption” to oil supplies.
Pump prices for gasoline and diesel fuel could rise if pipelines and oil refineries are slow to resume operations, and analysts said they were paying close attention to facilities in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas.
”There will be some modest disruption of supplies of gasoline and other products,” said William Veno, an analyst at Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
”But I don’t think it’s going to be as severe a situation as Hurricane Katrina.”
Power outages were reported across wide swaths of Texas and Louisiana, leaving more than a million customers without electricity and one utility spokesperson said it could be weeks before service is fully restored.
Before Rita hit, 16 refineries in Texas accounting for 4,7-million barrels per day of capacity shut down and evacuated crews.
Four refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi whose output had been more than 800 000 barrels per day remain closed almost a month after Hurricane Katrina, and a significant amount of oil and natural gas output has not returned.
‘They have cars’
The hurricane smashed into a region that is wealthier, more mobile and much less densely populated than the one devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
Most of Rita’s victims are by no means wealthy. But they are less likely to live in poverty and more likely to own a car than were Katrina’s victims, according to an Associated Press analysis of census data. They were also less likely to be a member of a racial minority group than Katrina’s victims.
Experts said the wealth and mobility of people in Rita’s path — combined with a new sense of urgency following Katrina — led to a more thorough evacuation.
”They have cars,” said Carnot Nelson, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida. ”They have a way to leave. It’s as simple as that.”
Money and transportation were in short supply for many affected by Katrina.
In densely populated New Orleans, more than 27% of the households had no access to a vehicle, according to 2000 census data. The family median income, at $32 300, was nearly $20 000 (â,¬16,500) below the national average.
Fred Medway, a psychology professor at the University of South Carolina, said Katrina’s destruction provided incentive for people to flee Rita.
”They have seen what a hurricane can do,” Medway said. ”That’s a very powerful motivator.”
Rita made landfall along the Texas-Louisiana line, and worked its way north, bringing flood waters inland.
On the Texas side is Jefferson County, home to Port Arthur and Beaumont, two oil refining towns. To the north are Orange, Jasper and Newton counties. On the Louisiana side is Calcasieu Parish, home to Lake Charles, and Beauregard Parish to the north.
The AP analysis of 2000 census data showed:
- A majority of residents in all six counties and parishes at the centre of Rita’s wrath are white. Jefferson County, where about 34% of the residents are black, has the largest minority population. New Orleans, by comparison, was 67% black.
- Rita’s eye tracked over mostly rural areas. The most densely populated county hit by Rita was Jefferson, with 279 residents per square mile (2,5km). Jasper, Newton and Beauregard all had fewer than 50 people per square mile. Orleans Parish in Louisiana, home to New Orleans, had 2 684 residents per square mile.
- None of the counties had median family incomes above the national median of $50 000, but all had incomes above the median in New Orleans, which was $32 300.
- All six counties and parishes had higher poverty rates than the national average of 9,2%. But none came close the 24% of families in New Orleans living below the poverty level.
- Relatively few people in the six counties and parishes did not have access to a vehicle. About 10% of the households in tiny Newton County did not have a vehicle, the highest percentage among the counties. In New Orleans, 27% of the households did not have a car or truck.