Hi,

I followed Rita all the way on CNBC Europe and boy, was it tense. I was up 'til 4or 5 in the morning every night.
When Rita got into the Gulf as a cat 1 I thought 'here we go again'. And what a ride it was. I couldn't believe how fast she intensified - cat 1 to cat 5 in 26 hours.

I could see it heading for Texas/Louisiana and the oilfields and I thought there was going to be a total catastrope. Coming such a short time after Katrina I was praying that such a long trip across the gulf would take the steam out of her but, for what seemed an eternity, she continued to barrel on. Then 24 hours later she wobbled a bit, dropped to cat 4 and looked like she might be taking a turn to the north.

By Friday at 4am it seemed like Galveston and Huston might be spared and I breathed a sigh of relief. As she approached the coast she further decreased and looked like she might just take the ideal route (if you can call it that) between Galveston and New Orleans. And the rest is history.

I tracked the whole event on Google Earth from Rita entering the Gulf until she made landfall and gained Tropical Storm status.

Take a look at my website for the Google Earth enabling project files and the NHA maps.

http://www.ascn92.dsl.pipex.com/index.htm