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Rita sparks fires, flooding in Texas but spares New Orleans

Hurricane weakens while fears of severe flooding persist; Louisiana too battered

BEAUMONT (TEXAS): Hurricane Rita slammed into Texas and Louisiana early on Saturday, smashing windows, sparking fires and knocking power out to more than 1 million customers, but largely sparing vulnerable Houston and already reeling New Orleans.

Rita made landfall at 0730 GMT as a Category 3 storm just east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana line, bringing top winds of 193 kph and warnings of up to 64 cm of rain, the National Hurricane Center said.

By late morning, it had weakened to barely above hurricane status, with its sustained winds at 121 kph as it moved north near Jasper.

No fatalities reported

Fears of severe flooding persisted; parts of the east Texas counties of Jasper and Tyler had received 25 to 30 cm of rain, officials said.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities, or any detailed word on damage to the area's vast oil refinery industry, though rescuers and search teams in many areas had to wait for winds to subside before venturing out.

About 3 million people had fled a 800-km stretch of the Texas-Louisiana coast ahead of the storm, motivated in part by the devastating toll that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast barely three weeks ago.

The storm spun off tornadoes as it churned northwest, causing transformers to explode. In Jasper County, a house with seven people inside floated in floodwaters after it came off its foundation, said an official.

But the flood-prone cities of Houston and Galveston — largely evacuated over the past four days — escaped a direct hit.

In New Orleans, rain drenched parts of the abandoned city early on Saturday, straining the levee system damaged by Katrina and causing more flooding in already ruined and abandoned poor neighbourhoods.

But the forecast of up to 8 cm throughout the day was less than had been previously predicted.

In the days before the storm's arrival, hundreds of thousands of residents of Texas and Louisiana fled their homes in a mass exodus that produced gridlock and heartbreak.

Bill White, Houston Mayor, expressed frustration: ``It is just totally unacceptable that there was not adequate fuel supplies stashed around the state,'' he said.

President George W. Bush planned to visit his home state of Texas on Saturday. — AP

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