Rita closes in on Texas coast

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.

The storm’s march toward land yesterday sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the USA’s fourth-largest city in a frustratingly slow, bumper-to-bumper exodus.