Rita, Downgraded to Category 4, Still Threatens Gulf Coast

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day after being upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Rita was downgraded Thursday afternoon to a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest of the five hurricane levels, the National Hurricane Center said.

Crude oil prices fell 65 cents in intraday trading Thursday to $66.15 a barrel as Rita moved toward Gulf of Mexico oil platforms and coastal refineries in Texas and Louisiana, Blooomberg reported.

Oil hit a record $70.85 a barrel on Aug. 30 after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast near New Orleans, causing extensive damage.

Rita's track shifted to the east away from Galveston, Texas, and it was forecast to hit near the Texas-Louisiana border late Friday, news reports said. Its sustained winds fell under the 156-mph threshold required of a Category 5.

Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane before weakening slightly and making landfall as a Category 4 storm on Aug. 29. Like Katrina, Rita strengthened rapidly from a tropical storm to a hurricane after moving past Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.

Texas, the heart of U.S. crude production, accounts for 25% of the nation's total oil output. Rita is also thwarting recovery efforts as refineries gear up for winter, the peak season for production of distillate fuels that include heating oil, diesel and jet fuel, the Associated Press reported.

State, local and federal officials were preparing coastal evacuations in Texas in trying to avoid some of the chaos that followed Katrina’s landfall near New Orleans, AP reported.

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