Rita turning into a Monster

Well its pretty clear that in the wake of the damage caused by hurricane Katrina the fact that Rita is already a category 4 storm even though it only became a full fledged hurricane about this time yesterday is big news. This storm is shaping up to be a monster that could cause more grief to the people of New Orleans even though it won't hit land in Louisiana. Thankfully people seem to be taking more obvious precautions this time as they have the obvious warnings that this storm is going to be large and powerful.

As it stands I don't recall a storm gaining strenght quite this quickly, to go from being a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane in about 24 hours is quite remarkable. This storm is going to be truly a monster if it keeps gaining strength though the National Hurricane Center doesn't expect it to grow with the same intensity though it might reach category 5 before slowly weakening. Either way when this storm hits Texas it will cut a swath of damage wherever it hits. Hopefully it won't be in a densly populated area.

Links:
National Hurricane Center
Hurricane Rita gathers strength(BBC)
Rita now Category 4 hurricane(Yahoo!)