The Gulf Coast still struggled to recover from Hurricane Katrina as another power-ful storm tore towards Texas. Hurricane Rita was on track to hit the coast early Saturday.
More than 1.8 million people were ordered to evacuate Texas and Louisiana. Some evacuees had left their homes before Katrina as well. Many Katrina survivors who took shelter in Texas had to move again.
When Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast last month, it caused more than 1,000 deaths. The federal government is investi-gating what went wrong in the wake of Katrina. Federal aid took too long to reach hard- hit areas, and many people suffered as a result.
Lessons learned from Katrina helped officials pre-pare for Rita. Teams worked quickly to organize medical and rescue crews and to send supplies ahead of the storm. Texas Governor Rick Perry opened all lanes of a major highway to try to ease traffic flowing out of Houston, although roads were still jammed for hours. Police officers gave out gas along the highway after shortages were reported.
President George W. Bush promised support. "We hope and pray that Rita will not be a devas-tating storm, but we've got to be ready for the worst," he said.