With gusts and downpours, Hurricane Rita hit the US Gulf Coast pre-dawn Saturday,leaving at least three-quarter of a million residents here without power and causing new floodings.

Rita made landfall as a Category 3 storm with winds of 200 kph at 0330 a.m. local time (0730 GMT) Saturday on the extreme southwest coast of Louisiana near Sabine Pass, Texas, followed by damage reports along the region from Galveston, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana.

According to latest Internet posts of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC), Rita was downgraded to Category 2 with winds of 167 kph at 8 a.m. (1200 GMT), and was centered between Jasper and Beaumont, Texas.

NHC Director Max Mayfield said the storm, now moving northwest,could produce 25 to 38 cm of rain over the next day or two and it may stall and remain stationary.

He said people should not take it easy since the impact seems to be smaller than anticipated, because more floodings could come,especially on the east flank of the storm's eye.

Mayfield said the water will not subside until Rita's winds diedown, which is not expected before Saturday afternoon.

Loss of life could happen well after a storm's landfall, he cautioned.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, a city which had just be pumped dry in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, local people are facing new floodings again due to heavy rainfalls caused by Rita.

Military hurricane relief commander Russel Honore said Saturdaymorning that he will assess the flooding in New Orleans' 9th Ward,which was submerged again after a levee failed to hold back a storm surge from Rita Friday.

"At the deepest point -- and it's not all of the 9th Ward -- wehave up to 4 to 5 feet (1.2-1.5m) in the deepest points," Honore said.

"And we should have that assessment done in the next few hours."

In Lumberton, Texas, police had to rescue a family trapped in their home when a large tree fell on it. No injuries were reported.

Officials in Port Arthur, Texas, said they were concerned that Rita will push a large surge of water toward the city.

Nearly everyone in the city of roughly 57,000 has been evacuated.

In downtown Galveston, Texas, two historic residences and a commercial building were engulfed in flames.

Winds of up to 100 kph fanned the flames and caused a blizzard of blowing embers as firefighters fought the blaze.

Ninety percent of the city, where it was raining Friday night, was evacuated in anticipation of Rita.

In Houston, Texas, where more than 2 million people have been evacuated, the streets and highways were now largely empty.

The only vehicles on nearby Interstate 10 highway are 18-wheelers carrying aid into the city.

Houston's Astrodome, which had recently sheltered thousands of Katrina evacuees, now acts as a staging ground for first responders, with hundreds of ambulances, fire engines and other emergency vehicles poised to go.

Power supplier CenterPoint Energy said over 675,000 customers in Texas were left without electricity in a vast area stretching from Galveston into Houston north to Humble.

Source: Xinhua