[shield]

You've got lots of shrimpers, farmers, ranchers---on the Texas coast you've always got plants. Alcoa has a really big one right in the path of Rita, right on the gulf. OK..you've got a huge Dow Plant that's in Freeport. Also, in Bay City you've got a Nuclear Power Plant, just outside of West Columbia you've got a petrochemical plant on hwy 35. The only one that'd take a direct hit is the Alcoa Plant. The way the models are bunching up you've got Victoria in her path.

At least Houston wouldn't get a direct hit...Houston 125 miles from where Rita would go in. If the models hold...and it is 72 hours from landfall.

[umbagi]

...in Bay City you've got a Nuclear Power Plant..

The nuclear part of it (essentially, the containment building) shouldn't be endangered by even a direct hit by Rita.

I wonder about all the mess nearby, don't remember what it's called, that feeds that 2500MW onto the grid; if there's substantial damage there, it could affect much of Texas until it's substantially repaired. IIRC, everything went through a single large and somewhat complicated station a distance outside the plant itself.

Do you know, shield, if both units are online?