Evacuees May Be Headed To Kansas

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2005

Texas highways are jam-packed. Coastal cities are emptying out. As Hurricane Rita churns toward Texas, people are getting out of its path and some of those evacuees are headed our way. The Red Cross has already received several calls from evacuees.

“We expect those calls to build,” says Sharon Powell-Quincy, with the American Red Cross. “We expect there to be some kind of confusion on the part of evacuees as to where to go. I expect there will be official movements and a lot of spontaneous people that just find their way here.”

The city is in a wait and see mode. The Red Cross has put its volunteers and shelters on standby to take evacuees from New Orleans who originally evacuated to Houston.

So far, the county hasn’t received any orders from the state and hotels haven’t started filling up yet. But, the next 24 hours will be pivotal.

Oil refineries in the affected area is shutting down oil production in preparation for the storm.

Koch Industries has a refinery in Corpus Christi and it’s watching the storm’s track closely to see if they need to stop production.

Depending on what Rita does, 21 oil refineries could lie in its path. That could send prices at the pump soaring.

Prices have already started rising since the beginning of the week and some are heading to the pump before they go any higher.