Hurricane Rita’s path of devastation along the Texas-Louisiana coast became shockingly clear as rescuers pulled stranded bayou residents out on skiffs and Army helicopters searched for thousands of cattle feared drowned.

Crude oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel yesterday, while the US oil industry assessed damage from Hurricane Rita.

RESCUERS pushed their way into once-inaccessible neighbourhoods as Hurricane Rita’s floodwaters receded along the Texas-Louisiana coast yesterday.

Concerned about Hurricane Rita’s damage to coastal oil refineries, US President George Bush turned his attention to the nation’s energy industry as early economic indicators offered reason for optimism and a speedy recovery.

Texans are returning home today after 120mph Hurricane Rita failed to cause the feared Katrina-sized destruction.

HURRICANE Rita smashed into a region that is wealthier, more mobile and much less densely populated than the one devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

US oil prices fell yesterday after Houston refineries escaped serious damage from Hurricane Rita, although plants further east in Port Arthur and Lake Charles were hit harder.

The damage inflicted by Hurricane Rita paled in comparison to Katrina, Texas Governor Rick Perry said today – but urged evacuees to stay where they are until local officials say it’s all right to return.

Residents along the Texas and Louisiana coasts began clearing away debris today as crews worked to restore electricity to more than one million customers in four states after Hurricane Rita tore through the US Gulf Coast, causing less damage than feared.

Hurricane Rita ploughed into the Gulf Coast early today, lashing Texas and Louisiana with driving rain, threatening to flood low-lying regions and knocking power out to half a million people as transformers exploded in the pre-dawn sky.

Hurricane Rita ploughed into the Gulf Coast early today, lashing Texas and Louisiana with driving rain, igniting the pre-dawn sky with exploding transformers and threatening to flood the low-lying region.

Hurricane Rita steamed toward refinery towns along the Texas-Louisiana coast with 120mph winds early today, creating havoc even before it arrived.

HURRICANE Rita is a storm of breathtaking size, chillingly described by experts as the “perfect storm.”

Hurricane Rita is expected to destroy almost 5,700 homes and affect more than five million Texans when it slams into the US coast overnight, officials said.

Hurricane Rita roared toward the Texas and Louisiana coasts early today, a major Category 4 storm that spurred a traffic-snarled exodus toward higher ground and fears it could cripple the heart of the US petrochemical industry.

Hurricane Rita closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast and the heart of the US oil-refining industry with howling 145 mph winds, but a sharper-than-expected turn to the right set it on a course that could spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit.

A policeman and a gunman were killed and students at four schools were temporarily locked in their classrooms today during a shoot-out near Brisbane.

WATER quality has taken a dip at Irish beaches with fewer bathing areas meeting standards of cleanliness.

Nearly a half-million people in the US were today urged to flee their homes as a a fearsome hurricane barrelled toward the Gulf Coast with 140 mph winds.