It's said that lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will ring true for the citizens of New Orleans. Hurricane Rita, which has registered as a Category 5 storm as of now, may hit the Gulf Coast as soon as tomorrow, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

In addition to the few brave souls that had made the trek back to their homes in New Orleans; those residing in the Gulf regions of Texas - Galveston, Corpus Christi, and low-lying parts of Houston have all been evacuated as 170 mph winds swirl in the gulf waters.

The U.S. mainland has never been hit by both a Category 4 and a Category 5 in the same season - and only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have made landfall in U.S. history.

Rita, with winds surpassing those of Katrina, disrupted supplies of at rigs and refineries, sending the price of crude higher - to $67.95 a barrel for November delivery. Bloomberg reports, "Royal Dutch Shell Plc, ConocoPhillips and Valero Energy Corp. are closing four refineries near Houston and the nation's largest oil import terminal stopped unloading tankers."

So how much damage could this "potentially catastrophic" hurricane have on the markets?

"The potential consequences don't even bear thinking about," said Paul Horsnell, head of energy research at Barclays Capital in London. "There's such a concentration of refineries and chemical plants in a relatively small area that anything of that kind of intensity would be extremely nasty."

As we told you yesterday, dear reader, we'll keep you updated...

*** Yesterday, we managed to have some pretty interesting discussions. As the conversation turned to the high gas prices and how much it cost each person to fill up their tank that day, the always opinionated, and always well-spoken Carl Waynberg had this to say...

"Historically, any substantial increases in oil and gas prices have resulted in a curtailing of spending on the part of consumers," he said, leaning on the railing of The Clipper City.

"Low-income consumers started to feel the pinch at 2 bucks a gallon. Now, at 3, mid- and upper-income consumers are starting to cut back. That should worry everyone. Consumer spending was the only thing propping up the economy after 9/11, and its strength was considerable, even mitigating the effects of higher unemployment and corporate spending restraint. With consumers finally buckling under the weight of higher energy prices, how can the economy possibly continue revving?

This opening line from a recent story in Raleigh, North Carolina's The News & Observer is telling:

"Jeffrey Robinson stopped buying brand-name cereal for his 10-year-old son. Instead he buys the store brand equivalents. It saves maybe $2 a box, but that two bucks is increasingly important for Robinson's family as they struggle to make ends meet in the face of record gas prices."

"The consumer-spending crunch could have a prolonged rippling effect," he continued.

"If one father isn't going to buy brand-name cereal for his 10-year-old any more, then another won't hand his wallet off to his teenager to load up on t-shirts from Abercrombie & Fitch. And if consumers use their credit cards to pay for gas, the long-term effect could be very long-term."

"In terms of investing, I'd be staying away from copper, which is used in big-ticket items like cars and kitchen appliances - and plumbing (housing bubble, anyone?) - and away from anything consumer related. But I've never liked retail. As investors, we're already susceptible to the whims of other investors...Adding the whims of the consumer to the mix never made sense to me. And it certainly doesn't make sense now."

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing.  For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.