Thursday, Sept. 22

9:45 a.m.: Hundreds of thousands of people were frantically trying to escape Houston as Rita approached the upper Texas coast. But interstates were at a standstill for up to 100 miles and gas shortages were already being reported. Gov. Rick Perry early Thursday ordered southbound traffic on Interstate 45 shut down and all eight lanes redirected north out of the city for 125 miles. See Houston "Jam factor" reports on Traffic.com.

9:10 p.m.: New video posted. CNBC interviews Corpus Christi Mayor Henry Garrett about hurricane preparations. Plus, former FEMA Director Wallace Stickney discusses the government's response.

8:55 a.m.: Merrill Lynch's Richard Bernstein writes in a research note: "Retailers are notorious for taking credit for success, but blaming failure on the weather. … We find it somewhat ironic that a broad range of companies have started to blame Hurricane Katrina for their cyclicality. It will be interesting to see if these companies' misfortunes are indeed attributable to weather and temporary, or perhaps better attributable to the Fed and slowing economic growth."

8:31 a.m.: The Labor Department reports that the number of people thrown out of work by Hurricane Katrina has risen to 214,000, including 103,000 last week. See related article.

7:55 a.m.: Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas tells NBC's "Today'' show that her city is "fairly well emptied, but we're sending our police forces ... with their loudspeakers reminding people that today is the day to leave." Earlier, she'd warned that buses used to take people and their pets off the island were running in short supply and warned that stragglers could be left to fend for themselves. See bios of Thomas and other key storm figures.

7:05 a.m.: U.S. forecasters shift the projected track of Hurricane Rita, putting it over Houston. The latest update reads: "MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE ESTIMATED NEAR 170 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. THIS MAKES RITA A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE … . A SLOW WEAKENING TREND IS FORECAST BUT RITA IS EXPECTED TO REACH THE COAST LATE FRIDAY OR EARLY SATURDAY AS A MAJOR HURRICANE...AT LEAST CATEGORY THREE." See map of expected storm track.

6:35 a.m.: Crude-oil prices climbed toward $68 a barrel in electronic trading as Hurricane Rita closed in on Texas, amid fears that the storm would hit key production facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast that were largely untouched by Hurricane Katrina. Light sweet crude for November delivery rose 85 cents to $67.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On London's International Petroleum Exchange, November Brent futures gained 74 cents to $65.47 a barrel.

2:02 a.m.: Texas Gov. Rick Perry urges residents along the state's entire coast to begin evacuating. Galveston and low-lying parts of Corpus Christi and Houston were under mandatory evacuation orders as Rita began drawing energy with terrifying efficiency from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans, meanwhile, also was under a mandatory evacuation order, as the mostly emptied-out city braced for the possibility that Rita could swamp it all over again.