I meant to stay awake until landfall, but I fell asleep just after 1:00 AM. Sorry! Here’s the radar view from 2:37 AM CDT/EST, pretty much the precise moment of landfall:

The 12:52 AM radar images from Weather Underground and the National Weather Service show the eyewall coming ashore:

UPDATE: As of 1:10 AM, here’s the latest look at Rita’s wobbles:

KPLC in Lafayette/Lake Charles, Louisiana — ground zero for Hurricane Rita, whose eyewall is coming ashore as we speak — has a live video feed.

In the last hour, Hurricane Rita has started moving a bit faster, and it’s now wobbling due north:

Wobbles are quite common in hurricanes, of course… but this one is potentially significant, as it appears it will keep Port Arthur and Beaumont out of the right-front quadrant. Barring another major westward wobble, landfall will be in Louisiana, and the sparsely populated shoreline of Cameron Parish will be the hardest-hit area. Radar here.

Rita’s eye has barely moved in the last two hours, and to the extent that it has moved, it’s been making a bit of a leftward wobble.

I’m not sure how much to read into this, but I’m definitely watching the radar closely.

Information on the Galveston fire here, here and here. I’m afraid this may prove to be one of the major stories in this storm. Will the Strand burn down? How can firefighters hope to put out a fire in these circumstances, with the wind whipping the flames all around?

UPDATE: Fire “under control,” but “not completely out,” according to CNN.

Sites to watch for breaking news:
NWS Lake Charles office office blog
Houston Chronicle homepage | blog
Chronicle “citizen journalists”
KPRC 2 Houston live video feed | blog
KHOU Houston homepage | video feed | blog
ABC 13 Houston live video feed
NBC 2 Houston Rita updates
More streaming audio & video from Houston
NOLA blog
Beaumont Enterprise
Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Lake Charles American Press blog

From the New York Times yesterday, this graphic shows that there are a TON of offshore oil platforms right where Rita is tracking.

At least three buildings in the historic Strand district of Galveston are now on fire, according to the AP, as reported by Fox News.

Fox’s Geraldo Rivera has left the Port Arthur seawall, saying it became “untenable.” Gee, ya think? Now he’s desperately searching for a safe building to hunker down in, because it’s “too late” to drive to Beaumont.

From the 11:00 PM EDT advisory: Rita has 120 mph winds and a pressure of 931 mb. She’s moving northwest at 12 mph, starting from a position 55 miles southeast of Sabine Pass, LA … so that puts the eye 4 to 5 hours from landfall. The eyewall, which has the strongest winds, will come ashore in the next hour or two.

The Weather Channel says Port Arthur, TX which is just eight feet above sea level and is shaped like a bowl, could be submerged by the storm surge. Cameron, LA is also under the gun.

Meanwhile, there is a major house fire in the historic Strand area of Galveston, and the winds are fueling the flames like crazy. Firefighters are trying to put out the fire, but they’re having a hard time. This according to TWC’s Mike Seidel, who is in Galveston.

Also, 4 to 6 feet of storm surge flooding is expected on the north side of Galveston Island.

UPDATE: From the Lake Charles NWS office:

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
959 PM CDT FRI SEP 23 2005

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A WARNING FOR ONSET OF DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO FORCE WINDS FOR CAMERON PARISH IN SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA [AND] JEFFERSON COUNTY IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS UNTIL 1200 AM CDT.

AT 1000 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED THE LEADING EDGE OF THE HURRICANE EYEWALL APPROACHING THE WARNING AREA.

DESTRUCTIVE SUSTAINED WINDS OF 100 TO 120 MPH WILL SPREAD ACROSS CAMERON PARISH AND JEFFERSON COUNTY PRODUCING TORNADO-LIKE DAMAGE THROUGH MIDNIGHT.

TAKE COVER NOW! TREAT THESE IMMINENT EXTREME WINDS AS IF A TORNADO WAS APPROACHING. MOVE IMMEDIATELY TO THE SAFE ROOM IN YOUR SHELTER AND TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT YOUR LIFE.

THESE DESTRUCTIVE WINDS WILL PRODUCE WIND DAMAGE SIMILAR TO A TORNADO. SEEK SHELTER ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN AN INTERIOR HALLWAY OR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET. STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS AND REMAIN IN YOUR SAFE SHELTER UNTIL THE EYEWALL PASSES.

This notion of issuing “tornado warnings” for hurricane eyewalls is a new concept this year. (Yes, hurricanes can also spawn tornadoes, but that’s not what they’re talking about here; notice how they said “tornado force winds” and “damage similar to a tornado.”) I’m not sure I like it — it’s not exactly meteorologically correct, and might well cause some confusion — but I suppose it’s designed to get people to say, “Holy sh*t, I should take cover now!”

Map here. Also, the Lake Charles NWS office has a Rita blog.

P.S. From the 11:00 PM discussion:

RADAR IMAGERY FROM SLIDELL LOUISIANA…LAKE CHARLES LOUISIANA…AND HOUSTON TEXAS STILL DEPICT A WELL-DEFINED EYE THAT IS JUST A FEW HOURS FROM REACHING THE COASTLINE NEAR THE TEXAS/LOUISIANA BORDER. THE EYEWALL REMAINS INTACT AND INTENSE… ESPECIALLY IN THE NORTHERN SEMICIRCLE… WITH A RADIUS OF MAXIMUM WINDS OF ABOUT 20 N MI… SURROUNDED BY DENSE AND WELL-DEVELOPED SPIRAL BANDING. VELOCITIES FROM THE RADARS SUGGEST THAT THE SURFACE WINDS HAVE NOT FALLEN OFF MUCH AND SUPPORT THE ADVISORY INTENSITY OF 105 KT. RITA REMAINS A FORMIDABLE MAJOR HURRICANE… AND LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH IS EXPECTED DURING THE LAST FEW HOURS IT HAS OVER WATER… SO RITA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AT CATEGORY THREE INTENSITY.

From www.myweatherblog.com

I apologize about the less frequent updates, I have been busy with family obligations. I want to clarify my earlier post as I did not want to imply that the surge will not be bad, but I wanted to stress that it will not be the surge of a category five but rather a category three. This is surely still a major hurricane and the surge will be significant. Read NHC info more further details. Note this section…

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 15 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS…
LOCALLY UP TO 20 FEET AT HEAD OF BAYS AND NEARBY RIVERS…WITH
LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES…CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO
THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. TIDES ARE CURRENTLY
RUNNING ABOUT 2 FEET ABOVE NORMAL ALONG THE LOUISIANA…MISSISSIPPI
AND ALABAMA COASTS IN THE AREAS AFFECTED BY KATRINA. TIDES IN THOSE
AREAS WILL INCREASE TO 4 TO 6 FEET AND BE ACCOMPANIED BY LARGE
WAVES… AND RESIDENTS THERE COULD EXPERIENCE COASTAL FLOODING.
LARGE SWELLS GENERATED BY RITA WILL LIKELY AFFECT MOST PORTIONS OF
THE GULF COAST.

Click here to read more

My apologies for the lack of hurricane updates today. I’ve been at job interviews all day, and apparently the guestbloggers have been otherwise occupied. I’m having dinner shortly with one of the firms that I interviewed with, but then I’ll be back tonight and I’m free all day tomorrow, so I’ll be able to cover Rita’s landfall on the blog.

P.S. Apropos of this post, here’s an excellent story about me from CNET News, discussing the pressures of suddenly being the Internet’s #1 hurricane blogger. :)

Check out the view from the 27th floor balcony of the Renaissance Two tower in downtown Phoenix. Pretty sweet! I could deal with working here. :)

The Industrial Canal levee in New Orleans has already breached due to the rising water ahead of Hurricane Rita, so the 9th Ward is once again filling up with water.

Meanwhile, at least 24 elderly evacuees from Texas died in a bus explosion.

I’ll be incommunicado all day as I shuttle from one job interview to another and then to dinner with one of the firms. I’ll be back later tonight; in the mean time, any updates will come from the guestbloggers.

On satellite, Rita is wobbling all over the place. Where does she want to go? West, northwest or north? She seems to be having trouble making up her mind.

For the latest news on what’s happening in the Houston-Galveston area, go to the Houston Chronicle homepage and the Chronicle’s Rita blog.

Dr. Jeff Masters writes: “By landfall time on Saturday afternoon, I still expect that Rita will be a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, but still carry to the coast a storm surge characteristic of a much stronger hurricane. A Category 4 or 5 level storm surge is likely along a 40 - 60 miles stretch of coast to the right of where the storm makes landfall on Saturday.”