Hundreds of thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes on the US Gulf Coast as Hurricane Rita heads towards land, threatening to lay waste parts of Texas and to bring further ruin to New Orleans.
The storm, which has intensified into a category four hurricane, is expected to make land by the end of the week and Texas governor Rick Perry told residents in coastal areas to leave immediately.
"Begin proceeding to more secure areas in an orderly, safe manner. Homes and businesses can be rebuilt - lives cannot," he said.
Meteorologists have warned that as Rita passes over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it could strengthen into a category five storm, as powerful as Katrina.
Parts of Houston, where 150,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina have been sheltered for the past three weeks, are under a mandatory evacuation order, along with Galveston and New Orleans.
The preparations for the new storm came as the death toll from Katrina along the Gulf Coast passed 1,000, reaching a total of 1,036.
In a sign that it has learned its lesson from Katrina, the federal government has sent truckloads of water and food to the threatened region and put search and rescue teams and medical staff on standby.
Patients in hospitals and nursing homes throughout the threatened region were evacuated yesterday to ensure that none should be stranded as so many were in New Orleans. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said a Coast Guard admiral would co-ordinate the emergency response in Texas.
"I hope that by doing what the state officials and mayors are doing now, getting people who are invalids out of the way, encouraging people to leave early, that when the storm hits, there will be property damage but hopefully there won't be a lot of people to rescue," he said.
In New Orleans, the army corps of engineers worked yesterday to strengthen the city's levees, which could be overwhelmed by the new hurricane, causing the city to flood again. They reinforced the concrete walls of the levees and fortified them with 800 sandbags.
The US energy information administration warned yesterday that Hurricane Rita could threaten up to 18 oil refineries in Texas, which account for nearly a quarter of the country's refining capacity.
In Washington, a growing number of Republicans are questioning President Bush's decision to promise open-ended federal aid to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
Conservatives want the estimated $200 billion to be paid for by cutting other federal expenditure rather than borrowing.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which has deepened Mr Bush's unpopularity with voters, has also eroded support for the US military engagement in Iraq.
A Gallup poll this week showed that 66 per cent of Americans want some or all US troops to withdraw from Iraq immediately and another poll found that 75 per cent of respondents believe Mr Bush has no clear plan for bringing the troops home.