slowly over warm water temperatures, and throughout its duration it was embedded within warm, moist tropical air; Anita rapidly organized and attained hurricane status late on August 30; this is the latest date for the first hurricane since 1967. Initially it threatened to strike Texas, though building high pressures to the north of the hurricane turned Anita to the west-southwest. The hurricane developed a well-defined eye, and Anita began to rapidly intensify late on September 1 after attaining major hurricane status. During a two-day period up to its peak intensity, Anita deepened at a rate of 2 mbar per hour, and on September 2 the hurricane reached peak winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) while located just offshore northeastern Mexico, making Anita a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Hurricane Anita maintained its strength as it approached land, and at 1100 UTC on September 2 it made landfall on Soto la Marina, Tamaulipas, about 145 miles (235 km) south of Brownsville, Texas or 80 miles (130 km) north of Tampico, Mexico. Moving ashore with a pressure of 926 mbar, Anita was the third most intense tropical cyclone to strike the nation, and was the most intense hurricane to hit from the Gulf of Mexico. It rapidly weakened over the mountainous terrain of Mexico, and on September 3, about 25 hours after moving ashore, Anita emerged into the eastern Pacific Ocean as a tropical depression. Reclassified as Tropical Depression Eleven, the system continued to the west, and weakened further after encountering cooler water temperatures. The depression gradually lost its deep convection, and on September 4 it dissipated off of the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. Preparations Shortly after first developing, one oil company evacuated its oil rigs off of Texas and Louisiana by helicopter, with several other companies beginning to evacuate unneeded workers. Ultimately, 7,000 oil workers were removed from offshore oil platforms. The threat of the developing disturbance prompted officials to close a state park in southern Louisiana. The National Hurricane Center advised small craft along the northern Gulf Coast to remain at port. Initially, Anita was predicted to continue tracking west-northwestward and make landfall near the Texas/Louisiana border. As a result, schools in Cameron Parish, Louisiana were closed, and on August 30 a hurricane watch was issued for the southwestern Louisiana and northeastern Texas coastlines. After the track shifted further to the south, the watch was