Packing winds of 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph), the hurricane left more than 24,000 homes without power, sent street signs and coconuts flying and flooded parts of the only road that links the Florida Keys to the mainland.

But hurricane-weary south Florida was spared a direct hit as the center of the storm remained offshore between Cuba and the Keys as it headed into the Gulf of Mexico.

Wind and rain lashed the area as the eye of the storm swirled 80 kilometers (50 miles) off Key West, the southernmost island in the Florida Keys.

The keys' 80,000 residents had been ordered to leave, but many opted to ride out the hurricane, which forecasters warned might still spawn dangerous tornadoes.

Florida's Governor Jeb Bush urged residents to remain indoors for the rest of the day because of continuing winds and possible flooding.

"There is as much danger after the storm than during the storm," he said at a news conference.

Hospitals in the Florida Keys were closed Tuesday, while schools, government buildings and many businesses shut down in parts of south Florida.

Miami International Airport remained open, but numerous flights were either canceled or delayed. The Port of Miami was expected to reopen Tuesday evening.

Rita skirted the Bahamas islands at tropical storm strength before becoming a hurricane on Tuesday morning, churning past Cuba's Atlantic coast and virtually paralyzing Havana, where pounding wind and rain kept most residents indoors.

It ranked as a category two on the five-level Saffir-Simpson hurricane intensity scale Tuesday, and forecasters warned it could eventually strengthen by another notch as it draws fuel from the warm Gulf of Mexico waters.

While authorities had come under fire for failing to respond to the New Orleans disaster immediately, Florida's governor stressed that emergency personnel and supplies were pre-positioned and ready to move into any affected areas in his state.

He said military helicopters, national guardsmen, search-and-rescue teams, medical personnel and trucks loaded with emergency supplies had been mobilized.

The governor's brother, US President George W. Bush, declared Florida was in a state of emergency, which frees federal relief funds for the southeastern state.

In Louisiana, still recovering from Hurricane Katrina's August 29 hit, authorities were keeping a close eye on Rita, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin suspended the return of the city's residents because of the new threat.

The NHC predicted a track that would have Rita making landfall in Texas over the weekend, but a "cone of probability" in the forecast indicates the storm might slam ashore anywhere between northeastern Mexico and the swamplands of southern Louisiana, west of New Orleans.

Authorities in Texas on Tuesday urged residents to evacuate Galveston, a city on a Gulf Coast barrier island 65 kilometers (40 miles) southeast of Houston.

The storm's projected track over the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico caused crude prices to surge more than four dollars on Monday, but prices dropped Tuesday on profit-taking.

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