Batten down the hatches

Here we go. The waters in the Gulf can't have cooled much since Katrina went through.

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - Residents boarded up windows Monday and evacuated the low-lying Florida Keys as Tropical Storm Rita gathered strength in the Bahamas, threatening to grow into a hurricane with a potential 8-foot storm surge.
In New Orleans, the mayor suspended his plan to start bringing residents back to the city Monday after forecasters warned that Rita could charge through the Gulf of Mexico and affect the city's already weakened levees. Oil prices surged on the possibility that oil and gas production would be interrupted once again.
The storm's top sustained wind speed was 70 mph by midafternoon Monday and it was expected to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of at least 74 mph, by the time it approached the Keys early Tuesday.

Lots of people in the Keys will pretty much ignore a Category 1 storm.