Hurricane Rita Evacuations and Preparations

Interstate 45 near downtown Houston was deserted Friday.  (Paul Sancya / AP)

Peter VanCamp pushes shopping carts into a grocery store in Houma, La. as Hurricane Rita moves closer to the Gulf Coast.  (Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images)

Kandy Huffman stands next to her car, which broke down, in Port Arthur, Texas. Huffman was planning ride out the storm in the city.  (Rick Bowmer / AP)

A pair of geese and a jungle fowl chicken, left, make themselves at home in a men’s restroom at the Houston Zoo Friday. The birds were moved into the windowless concrete room for shelter.  (Pat Sullivan / AP)

Bumper to bumper traffic streams out of the Port Arthur, Texas, area as evacuations were ordered for the approaching Hurricane Rita. The hurricane is expected to make landfall on Saturday morning.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

An evacuee from Hurricane Rita flashes a family photo out of his truck while struggling through bumper to bumper traffic heading away from Hurricane Rita.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Evacuees from the Beaumont, Texas, area board buses hoping to get out of the path of the approaching Hurricane Rita.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

John Arline, 68, keeps a towel over his head to keep cool in the 100-degree temperatures in Beaumont, Texas, as residents gather at an evacuation center.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Bumper to bumper traffic streams out of the Port Arthur, Texas, area as evacuations were ordered.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

An evacuee waits patiently for buses to arrive and move her and several hundred others to safety from a collection point at Willie Ray Smith Middle School in Beaumont, Texas.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Evacuees from the Beaumont, Texas, area prepare to file onto waiting buses to be transported out of the path of Hurricane Rita.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

An evacuee from the Beaumont, Texas, area waits to leave the Willie Ray Smith Middle School hoping to get out of the path of Hurricane Rita.  (Rick Loomis / LAT)

Derrick Evans, in front of his destroyed home in Turkey Creek, a Reconstruction-era black settlement in Gulfport, Miss. Evans salvaged the sign after Hurricane Katrina tossed it off the posts in front of his home. Most of the area’s 300-400 residents descend from the original homesteaders--emancipated black landowners.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)

Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina, Deloris Barnes still has a tree on top of her house in the Turkey Creek area of Gulfport, Miss. Many of the houses were badly damaged by Katrina, but others were not. The storm’s destruction may work in favor of a move to help preserve the historical neighborhood.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)

U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers Emergency Operations engineers inspect damage to one of the levees near the 9th Ward in New Orleans.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)

Emergency personnel wait in traffic to evacuate lower portions of New Orleans. The temporary patch to a levee was already leaking Thursday morning.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)

New Orleans French Quarter residents Brian Sivillo, with saw, Jill Sanders and Jim Dugan prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Rita by covering broken windows damaged by Hurricane Katrina.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)

New Orleans French Quarter resident Jill Sanders watches rain pour into her attic as she works to patch leaks with the help of neighbor Jim Dugan.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)

New Orleans French Quarter resident Margaret Collier watches rain arrive.  (Spencer Weiner / LAT)