Jeff Master’s latest update of just a few minutes ago indicates that experts are increasingly forming a consensus that Houston and Galveston will avoid a direct hit from Hurricane Rita:

The latest computer models are tightly clustered around a landfall point just west of the Texas/Louisiana border. Confidence is high in this forecast. Houston and Galveston should escape major wind and storm surge damage, and only experience maximum sustained winds of 60 mph with gusts to 85 mph. It is still too early to tell what will happen after landfall, as the models all take Rita different ways. A major rainwater flooding problem will ensue after Rita’s landfall, with 10 – 30 inches of rain falling over a large area of Texas and Louisiana.

For the first time since Hurricane Rita entered the Gulf earlier in the week, the cone of uncertainty that shows the range where the hurricane force winds will hit does not include a substantial portion of the Houston area, essentially that part west of I-45.