Category Four Rita whipped up winds of 145 miles per hour (241 kilometres per hour) in the Gulf of Mexico, portending huge flood tides and new turmoil for politicians still struggling with the fallout from Hurriance Katrina's deadly landfall on August 29.

"This is a big dangerous storm, it is a massive storm, it covers half of the Gulf of Mexico," said David Paulison, acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"I don't think anyone on the Gulf Coast is out of harm's way."

Tens of thousands of people jammed roads out of Galveston, Texas, a coastal city visited by disaster in 1900, when between 8,000 and 10,000 people were killed by a hurricane. Computer projections this time suggested the whole city could be swallowed up by a flood tide.

"I have been here all my life," said Morgan Selby, 49, at the wheel of a pickup truck crammed with belongings as he left his home.

Like Selby, most of Galveston's 60,000 residents had decided to outrun Rita, as ambulances sirens blaring, rushed patients from hospitals, and school buses ferried people out.

"I would say that we probably have 90 percent of our residents have left the island. It feels like a ghost town to me, and that's a good thing," said Steven Leblanc, Galveston city manager.

In Houston, 50 miles (80 kilometres) to the north, drivers jammed the I-45 highway out of the city, with reports of 14 hour delays, 20-mile tailbacks and severe gas shortages.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center, after downgrading Rita from a maximum Category Five storm earlier, projected that the core of the hurricane would hit southwest Louisiana and the Texas coast, just east of Galveston, late on Friday.

"Maximum sustained winds are near 145 miles per hour (230 kilometres per hour) ... with higher gusts. Rita is an extremely dangerous category four hurricane ... some fluctuations in intensity are likely during the next 24 hours," the center said in its bulletin issued at 2100 GMT.

Rita was 405 miles (660 kilometres) southeast of Galveston, Texas and moving west, northwest, towards land at a menacing nine miles per hour (15 kilometers per hour).

President George W. Bush, yet to shake off criticisms of his leadership during the Katrina crisis warned: "officials at every level of government are preparing for the worst."

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, grappling with the second monster hurricane in less than a month, pleaded with people to get away from the coast and to head north.

In New Orleans, there was concern that even a passing blow from any Rita floodtide, and sustained rains forecast at up to five inches (12.7 centimetres) could overwhelm patched up levees breached by Katrina.

"We think that there is still possibility of flooding," said Blanco, adding that people in eastern parishes of the city, worst hit by Katrina, were most at risk.

Hurricane force winds extended 85 miles (140 kilometres) from the center on each side of the storm's eye - making it a massive 180 miles (300 kilometres) wide monster, with tropical storm winds reaching even further out.

The hurricane center said there could be up to 38 centimetres (15 inches) of rainfall when the storm hits.

"Coastal storm surge flooding of 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels .. along with large and dangerous battering waves ... can be expected near and to the right of where the center makes landfall," the center's latest bulletin said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry asked President Bush to deploy 10,000 federal troops to the state to assist in search and rescue efforts after Hurricane Rita strikes.

The USS Iwo Jima, used as a command center in New Orleans after Katrina, put to sea again, and planned to follow Rita into Texas, bringing marines and choppers for rescue missions.

Alarm mounted in the oil industry, cursed by Katrina with surging prices and disabled production.

A quarter of US oil operations are based in the Gulf of Mexico area. BP, Shell and other oil companies evacuated more than 600 oil platforms and rigs. 70 percent of oil production in the Gulf has been shut down.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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