Hurricane Rita was the
fourth-most intense Atlantic
hurricane ever recorded and the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the
Gulf of
Mexico
. Rita caused $11.3 billion in damage on
the
U.S. Gulf Coast in September
2005. Rita was the seventeenth named storm, tenth hurricane, fifth
major hurricane, and third Category 5 hurricane of the
historic
2005 Atlantic
hurricane season.
Rita made
landfall on September 23 between Sabine Pass, Texas
, and Johnsons Bayou, Louisiana
, as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane
Scale. It continued on through parts of southeast Texas.
The
storm surge caused extensive damage
along the Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas
coasts and
destroyed some coastal communities. The storm killed seven
people directly; many others died in evacuations and from indirect
effects.
Meteorological history
The storm system that became Rita formed at the tail of an old
frontal boundary, where convection and low-level circulation around
an upper-level
low developed
steadily for over two days. On September 17 the
National Hurricane Center
concluded that it had enough tropical disturbance had acquired
enough convective organization to be classified a tropical
depression, and so named it Tropical Depression 18.
Located 95 miles (155
km) east-northeast of Grand Turk Island
, the system was moving west-northwest, towards
Florida
.
Less than a day after forming, the depression became the 17th
tropical storm of the season on September 18 and was named Rita.
A
mandatory evacuation was ordered for the entire Florida Keys
.
Rita was slow to become a hurricane;
National Hurricane Center (NHC)
reports early on September 20 estimated the storm's sustained
surface winds at hurricane force (75 mph or 120 km/h).
However, Rita lacked a complete
eyewall;
forecasters identified Rita as a tropical storm with 70 mph
(110 km/h) winds overnight. Aircraft observations released at
9:45 a.m. EDT showed a closed eyewall and winds clearly at
hurricane strength. Four hours later, the NHC reported that Rita
had reached Category 2 hurricane strength, with 100 mph
(160 km/h) maximum sustained winds.
Warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, 1 °F (0.5 °C) above
average, favored storm intensification. As Rita entered the Gulf,
rapid intensification began. National Hurricane Center advisories
issued every three hours each showed strengthening from 5 p.m. EDT
on September 20 to 11 a.m. EDT on September 21, when Rita's maximum
sustained winds increased to 140 mph (225 km/h). Rita
continued to gain strength unabated. An update at 2:15 p.m. CDT
(1815 UTC) said maximum winds had increased to 150 mph
(240 km/h) and Rita's minimum pressure was 920 mbar
(
hPa). Less than two hours later, at
3:55 p.m. CDT, another update reported that Rita had strengthened
to a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum wind speeds of
165 mph (265 km/h). At 6:50 p.m. CDT, a
reconnaissance aircraft recorded pressure of
899 mbar (
hPa) away from the
storm's center; the actual central pressure was thought to be lower
still. At 10 p.m. CDT, Rita reached its maximum intensity, with
sustained winds of 180 mph (290 km/h) and an estimated
minimum pressure of 895 mbar (
hPa), (26.43 in Hg).
Hurricane Rita making its final
landfall
Hurricane Rita's rapid intensification may in part be attributed to
its passage over the
Gulf Loop Current
and Eddy Vortex.
(NASA animation showing the storm track before
landfall)
Lt. Col. Warren Madden, a
Hurricane
Hunter and
meteorologist for
The Weather
Channel, recorded a peak wind gust of 235 mph
(380 km/h) while flying in the eye of the storm, and called
Rita "the strongest storm that I've ever been in." Rita's intense
winds destroyed or disabled several
buoy-based
weather stations.
Rita made
landfall between Sabine Pass, Texas, and Johnson Bayou, Louisiana
, at 02:38 CDT (07:38 UTC) on September 24, 2005 as
a Category 3 Hurricane with winds at 115 mph. Rita
lost both hurricane and tropical storm status the day of landfall.
Rita's remnants — technically an extensive low pressure
area — moved quickly out of the lower
Mississippi Valley and were absorbed by a
cold front. The
Hydrometeorological
Prediction Center ceased monitoring Tropical Depression Rita
early on September 26.
Preparations
Louisiana
Before Rita, the mayor of New Orleans,
Ray
Nagin, had planned to begin reopening the city on September 19
after the damage caused by
Hurricane
Katrina. However, as Rita developed in the Gulf of Mexico, the
reopening was cancelled and a re-evacuation of the city was
initiated on September 21 as the storm was initially forecast to
make landfall much closer to the city.
Although Rita remained
well to the south and west of New Orleans, a pre-landfall storm surge overwhelmed a levee of the
Industrial Canal protecting the Lower Ninth Ward
, a part of a fragile and already compromised levee
system as
repairs continued. At landfall, more parts of the levee
wall were breached causing major reflooding in New Orleans. The
original breaches had occurred a month earlier as a result of
Hurricane Katrina.
In
addition, residents of Cameron Parish
, Calcasieu Parish
, and parts of Jefferson
Davis Parish
, Acadia
Parish, Iberia Parish, Beauregard Parish, and Vermillion Parish were told to evacuate
ahead of the storm. Cameron Parish was hit the hardest with
the towns of Creole, Cameron, Grand Chenier, Johnson's Bayou, and
Holly Beach being totally demolished. Records around the Hackberry
area show that wind gusts reach over 180 mph from a boat tied up to
a dock. The people were told to evacuate by Thursday, September 22,
2005 by 6:00 pm. Two days later, parish officials returned to the
Gibbstown Bridge that crosses the Intracoastal Canal into Lower
Cameron Parish. Nobody was known to be left in the parish as of
that time on Thursday, September 22, 2005. Almost 3 years later,
the parish is nowhere near its prior population.
Texas
Texas Governor Rick Perry recalled all emergency personnel,
including almost 1,200
Texas
National Guard and 1,100
Texas
State Guard members from
Katrina recovery efforts, and several
hundred Texas Game Wardens in anticipation of Hurricane Rita's
arrival. In addition, the Federal Government responded by deploying
11 Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) , mobile field
hospitals, to stage across eastern Texas. The teams treated 7500
patients during the response.
On September 22, Governor Perry and the Texas Department of Transportation implemented a contraflow lane reversal on Interstate 45 north towards Dallas
, on Interstate 10 west towards San Antonio
, U.S. Highway 290 northwest to Austin
.
Officials
in Galveston
County
(which includes the city of Galveston
), which was devastated by the Galveston
Hurricane of 1900
, ordered mandatory evacuations, effective September
21 at 6 p.m., in a staggered sequence setting different zones in
the area which were due to leave at different times over 24 hours,
well in advance of the storm's possible landfall later in the week
but not enough in advance to ensure that all residents could
evacuate safely in advance of the storm.
Nonetheless, many residents remained in the county because they
were either unaware of the danger of the storm or believed that it
was more important to protect their belongings, particularly in the
wake of looting following Hurricane Katrina.
The evacuation included transfer of all inpatients from the
University of Texas Medical Branch hospital to other regional
hospitals.
400 patients were prisoners under the ward of the Texas Department
of Corrections.
These patients were systematically transferred to the University of
Texas Health Center at Tyler.
Officials of Harris County hoped that the designation of zones A,
B, and C would be able to prevent bottlenecks leaving the area such
as those seen out of New Orleans prior to
Katrina and
Hurricane Dennis earlier that year.
Also, different zones were to be forced to go to certain cities in
Texas and were not allowed to exit their designated routes except
for food and gas — another feature of the evacuation plan
which hoped to keep traffic and flow orderly throughout this
timeframe.
These
evacuation-destination cities included Austin, College
Station
, San Antonio, Dallas, Huntsville
, and Lufkin
,
Texas. Evacuees were asked to try hotels in the
Midland
/Odessa
area when
hotels began to sell out in other areas.
On
Wednesday, Houston
mayor Bill White
urged residents to evacuate the city, telling residents, "Don't
wait; the time for waiting is over," reminding residents of the
disaster in New Orleans.
After heavy traffic snarled roads leading out of town and gas
shortages left numerous vehicles stranded, he backed off his
earlier statement with, "If you're not in the evacuation zone,
follow the news," advising people to use common sense. However by
3:00 p.m. that afternoon, the freeway system in Houston was at a
stand-still.
To the east of Houston, officials had set up evacuation routes in
response to the slow evacuation of residents prior to
Hurricane Lili.During the Rita evacuation
these preparations and their execution were overwhelmed by the
enormous and unprecedented number of people fleeing from the
Houston area prior to the local residents. By the time Jefferson
County began their mandatory evacuation, local roads were already
full of Houstonians.
Designated evacuation routes slowed to a pace far worse than with
any previous hurricane.
By late Thursday (22nd) morning, the
contraflow lanes had been ordered after it was
determined that the state's highway system had become
gridlocked.
The Texas Department of Transportation was unprepared to execute
such a large-scale evacuation.
Coordination and implementation of the contraflow plan took 8 to 10
hours as inbound traffic was forced to exit and police were
stationed to assist with traffic flow. Evacuees fought traffic
Wednesday afternoon through mid-day Friday, moving only a fraction
of the normal distance expected. Average travel times to Dallas
were 24-36 hours, travel times to Austin were 12-18 hours and
travel times to San Antonio were 10-16 hours, depending on the
point of departure in Houston.
Many motorists ran out of gas or experienced breakdowns in
temperatures that neared 100 °F (38 °C). Traffic volumes did not
ease for nearly 48 hours as more than three million residents
evacuated the area in advance of the storm. This was the largest
evacuation in U.S. history.
As part
of the evacuation, Johnson Space Center
in Houston handed off control of the International Space Station to
their Russian
counterparts.
Concerns had been raised over the state of the oil industry in
response to Rita. The storm threatened a large amount of oil
infrastructure that was left undamaged by
Katrina.
The Texas Gulf Coast
is home to 23% of the United States' refining
capacity, and numerous offshore production platforms were in Rita's
path. A direct strike on Houston could disable more than a
quarter of the United States' fuel-making capacity.
Valero Energy Corp, the nation's
largest refiner, stated on September 21 that Rita could have caused
gasoline prices to rise well above
$3 per US
gallon
($0.79/L), at a time when the U.S. average price was
$2.77/gal.
Impact
Hurricane Rita Rainfall
In some areas, the effects of Hurricane Rita were not nearly as
severe as anticipated. The
storm surge
feared in Galveston and Houston struck farther east as the storm's
center came ashore at the Louisiana border; winds blowing offshore
in Texas actually flattened the surge, which was only seven feet (2
m), well below the height of the Galveston
seawall. The five inches (130 mm) of rain
expected to fall overnight in New Orleans also did not happen, and
the pressure on the levee system was eased. Still, storm surge of
12 feet (3.6 m) struck southwestern Louisiana, and coastal
parishes experienced extensive damage.
In Cameron
Parish the communities of Holly
Beach
, Hackberry
, Cameron
, Creole and Grand Chenier were essentially
destroyed. In Calcasieu Parish the communities of Lake
Charles
, Moss Bluff
, Sulphur
, Westlake
, Vinton
and DeQuincy
also suffered heavy damage. In Beauregard
Parish
the communities of DeRidder
and Merryville
also suffered heavy damage.
It is estimated that two million people lost
electricity. Total damage is estimated at
approximately $10 billion, making Rita the ninth-costliest
storm in U.S. history.
Following Rita, gas prices fell in the U.S instead of rising as
feared.
Deaths
|Shelby
The reported death toll by Rita was 120. Only seven were direct
deaths. One was caused by a tornado spawned in the storm's outer
bands, one was due to storm surge flooding and three others were
caused by trees blown down in the storm. The two Florida deaths
both occurred in
rip currents caused by
Rita's distant waves.
Direct deaths indicate those caused by the direct effects of the
winds,
flooding,
tornadoes,
storm surge
or
oceanic effects of Rita. Indirect deaths
indicate those caused by hurricane-related accidents (including
car accidents,
crimes,
fires or other incidents),
cleanup and evacuation incidents and health issues (such as
poisoning,
illnesses, lack of emergency aid).
Arkansas
While
Rita weakened to a tropical depression, the outer bands continued
to spawn numerous tornadoes in Arkansas, including one in Lonoke
County
and another in Conway
County
, damaging many homes and businesses in several
communities. In addition, significant flooding was reported
in several areas.
The tornadoes were unusual in that they moved in a northwestern
direction due to the direction in which Rita was moving. Most
tornadoes move northeast.
No deaths caused by Rita were reported in Arkansas
South Florida and Cuba
More than
340,000 people were under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders
in Florida and Cuba
.
Storm
surge flooding was reported along the
low-lying Florida
Keys. The Overseas Highway
(U.S. 1) connecting the islands was flooded and impassable
in some sections. At 8 p.m.
EDT on Tuesday, September 20, about 25,000
customers in Broward
and Miami-Dade
and 2,100 in the Keys were without electricity.
A
state of emergency was declared
by
Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a federal emergency by
President George W. Bush in four
counties: Broward, Collier
, Miami-Dade and Monroe
. More than 2,000
National Guard troops and
dozens of
law enforcement
officers were brought in.
In 2006, during the 17th season of The Real World, entitled Key West the cast was shown evacuating out of
their Key
West
home to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
. This was the second hurricane that
seasons cast had to evacuated from. The other two hurricanes they
had to evacuate from was
Hurricane
Katrina and
Hurricane
Wilma.
No deaths
were reported in either Florida or Cuba from the
initial impact.
Florida Panhandle
While the
Florida Panhandle
escaped most of the land effects from Rita, two deaths were
reported on beaches. Both were due to high surf and rip currents
caused by Rita's distant waves.
Louisiana
Storm surge damage from Rita
New Orleans's
levee system had already
sustained heavy damage from
Hurricane
Katrina before Rita's outer bands of rain fell on the city.
On
Friday, September 23, the day before landfall, rising water due to
Hurricane Rita poured through breaches in the patched Industrial
Canal
levee in New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward, as reported by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Water entered the Ninth Ward over two 32-foot (10 m) wide patches
in the levee as of about 9 a.m. CDT on Friday, September 23. Water
in the Ninth Ward was reported to be waist-deep at 11 a.m. CDT on
Friday. By approximately 5 p.m. CDT, water had begun gushing
through another patch in the
London
Avenue Canal into the surrounding Gentilly neighborhood. Some
pumping stations were abandoned. By Saturday night, September 24,
water from a 150-foot gap in the Industrial Canal levee flooded
some areas of the Ninth Ward to eight feet deep.
Damage in southwestern Louisiana was extensive.
In Cameron Parish, the communities of Hackberry , Cameron, Creole,
Grand Chenier, Holly
Beach, and Johnson Bayou were heavily damaged or entirely destroyed.
A
casino boat and several barges were floating
loose in Lake
Charles and damaged a bridge spanning Interstate 10 across the Calcasieu River. Lake Charles
experienced severe
flooding, with reports of
water rising 6-8 feet in areas around Lake Calcasieu. At a
hotel on the
Contraband Bayou,
water was reportedly up to the second floor. There was also
extensive damage to its regional airport. Damage to the city's
electrical system was so severe that authorities warned that power
would not return for two weeks, if not longer.
In
Vinton, several fires burned, the roof was torn off the
town's recreation center and many homes were damaged by fallen
trees. Widespread
flooding was reported
in coastal
parishes.
In Terrebonne
Parish
, virtually every levee was breached. Some
people were stranded in
flooded communities
and had to be rescued by boat. At least 100 people were reported
rescued from rooftops, as at least 25 more remained stranded.
Louisiana Governor
Kathleen Blanco
reported that 700,000 homes lost power in 41 of the state's 64
parishes.
In
Vermilion Parish south of Abbeville
, rescue efforts were undertaken for up to 1,000
people stranded by local flooding. On Saturday, September
24, 250 people were rescued.
After
being reduced to a tropical storm, Rita entered DeSoto
and Caddo Parishes
, the eye passed just west of Downtown Shreveport
before crossing the Arkansas
border. At the height of the storm over
175,000 people had lost power in the
National Weather Service
Shreveport's forecast area, mainly across
Deep East Texas into northwest Louisiana.
Two fatalities occurred in the
Ark-La-Tex. A tree fell on a person and the other
fatality occurred when a teenager was electrocuted when picking up
a "hot" power line. Shreveport recorded its 2nd lowest pressure
ever recorded as the center of Rita moved through Shreveport around
6 pm Saturday evening. The pressure recorded was 29.05 inches
(983.7 mb) which was only .01 inch higher than the lowest
pressure on record of 29.04 inches back on February 27,
1902.
Mississippi
Several tornadoes from Rita's outer bands affected the state.
At least
40 homes and an industrial plant were damaged and one person killed
by a tornado in Humphreys County
in central Mississippi. Another tornado
(unconfirmed) was reported in Bolivar
County
.
One death
was reported in Wilkinson County
, although it has not been confirmed if it was
storm-related.
A tornado
touched down on Mississippi State University
's campus. MSU officials reported significant
damage to some buildings. There were also numerous mobile homes
damaged at the University Hills trailer park just off the campus.
There were several non-life threatening injuries.
Lauderdale County in east central Mississippi reported several
confirmed and unconfirmed tornado touch downs in and near the
cities of Marion and Meridian, an area recovering from damage from
Category 2 winds in Hurricane Katrina.
Texas
Two satellite images showing the
extent of flooding caused by Rita in Louisiana and Texas.
On the
morning of September 23, 23 people were killed when a bus carrying 45 nursing home evacuees from Brighton
Gardens in Bellaire,
Texas
erupted into flames and exploded on Interstate 45 in Wilmer
, southeast
of Dallas. The
fire started in the brake system, and the passengers' therapeutic
oxygen tanks may have caused the bus to
explode. Many of the passengers were mobility-impaired making
escape difficult or impossible.
In the
late evening, a fire broke out in the Strand District
of Galveston, Texas, gutting several homes. However, the
fire department was able to fight
the wind-whipped blaze and prevent it from spreading through the
city. No serious injuries were reported in the fire. Around
midnight, a vacant restaurant collapsed nearby, which was
reportedly as a result of the fire that weakened the walls.
Church in Beaumont with roof ripped
off by Hurricane Rita.
Communities in the "Golden Triangle" formed by
Beaumont
, Port Arthur
, and Orange
sustained
enormous wind damage. Texas Governor Rick Perry declared a
nine-county disaster area. In Beaumont an estimated 25% of the
trees in the heavily wooded neighborhoods were uprooted.
In
Groves
, the home
of Texas's Pecan Festival, an equal number of the pecan trees were
leveled. An enormous number of houses and businesses
suffered extensive damage from wind and falling trees.
The water treatment
plant in Port
Neches
was heavily damaged. Some areas did not have
power for more than six weeks.
A mandatory evacuation had been issued before Rita's landfall.
Those displaced by Rita were offered up to 60 days of hotel
rooms, generators, chainsaws, and monetary assistance by FEMA. The
"Golden Triangle" area was spared a more devastating storm surge by
Rita's slight eastward turn just before landfall, which placed most
of the coastal community to the left of the eye and in the storm's
least-damaging quadrant. Rita's surge was contained by Port
Arthur's extensive levee system.
Bolivar Peninsula between Galveston and Sabine Pass experienced only a small storm surge, in contrast
to areas east of Rita's center where a 20-foot surge struck
Louisiana's unprotected towns.
The county of Jasper, Texas was also greatly affected. It is
located near the Sabine River, near the Louisiana and Texas border.
Jasper, known as the "Jewel of the Forest" lost many of its pine
trees when Rita came through, leveling most of them down to the
stump. Jasper county residents were running out of gas and many
relied on the only news available at the time from Mike Lout, local
radio station owner, who stayed on the air during the entire time
of the storm. Many families lost their homes of many years,
returning to see that they were crushed by one or more trees.
For the
most part, Houston
escaped major damage, apart from extensive loss of
power. Some windows blew out of some
downtown skyscrapers, and some trees and
signals were down.
Thirty one deaths have been reported in
Harris
County
, of which all of them were indirect (mostly related
to the evacuation and cleanup).
North of
Houston, the 2.5-mile-wide Lake Livingston
dam sustained substantial damage
from powerful waves driven by 117 mph winds and officials
started an emergency release of water to lessen pressure on the
dam. A number of news outlets reported on Sunday, September
25, 2005, that the discharge put lives at risk downstream and
threatened a major bridge as well due to a sizable barge coming
adrift. Repairs to the dam were expected to take months to
complete. After water levels were lowered and an inspection was
conducted by national and local experts, the dam was declared
stable late on Monday, September 26, 2005.
Aftermath
Economic effects
From the Department of Energy, the
path of Hurricane Rita and the site of refineries in the Texas and
Louisiana area.
The heavy concentration of oil infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico
makes hurricanes of Rita's intensity very problematic. Currently,
very little spare crude oil capacity exists in the United States,
and the Gulf of Mexico produces some 2 million
barrels per day (300 ML) total, as well as
having some 30% of the total refining capacity of the United
States. Rita's path traveled through a dense area of offshore
pipelines and
oil platforms, and on
land to an area with large refineries. With over half of Gulf
production still shut down in the wake of Katrina, some economists
have stated that a worst case scenario is for gasoline prices to
briefly touch $5/US gallon ($1.30/L), which would be easily the
highest real price for gasoline paid in the United States during
the internal combustion era. However the oil industry escaped
essentially unscathed from the storm and post-storm predictions
estimated only minor price rises. With some 200,000
[[jobless claims]] attributed to Katrina, Rita
may have been a further drag on a weakened US economy.
The most pessimistic projections had
GDP growth
cut by 1% on an annualized basis in the United States in the second
half of 2005, with as many as 500,000 people made
unemployed. Some economists argued that
the rebuilding effort could buoy the economy in 2006, while others
argued that the energy spike could decrease consumer confidence by
enough to send the economy into a full-fledged
recession when combined with the Federal Reserve's
recent increases in interest rates. While the above did happen, it
did not
occur until 2008, over a
year after Rita's impact.
Due to the impending oil shortage and increasing gas prices,
Georgia Governor
Sonny Perdue declared
what he termed "snow days," closing all Georgia public primary and
secondary schools on September 26 and 27 to conserve fuel for
buses.
Military relief operations
On September 24, 2005, following the havoc caused by Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita, the
National Guard named Brig. Gen.
Douglas Pritt of the 41st Brigade Combat Team, Oregon
Army National Guard, head of Joint Task
Force Rita (formally called JTF Ponchartrain). The 1,400 Oregonian
soldiers and airmen, including the 1st Battalion of the 186th
Infantry which is designated a quick response unit, are joined by
engineers and military police from
Louisiana, a Stryker brigade from Pennsylvania
, and an engineering battalion from Missouri
. It is their mission to provide relief
support for all of the areas in Texas and Louisiana affected by the
two storms and to remove obstructions that might otherwise hinder
help to those affected.
Post-Rita Deaths
Due largely to what many have called the largest two day evacuation
in the country's history, many people died in the weeks following
Rita's passing. The stress brought on by 98 degree heat in cars
that were forced to turn off their air conditioners on the
gridlocked highways was intense and the elderly in particular
developed a large number of health problems in the weeks following
the storm. For weeks funeral homes in the Beaumont area were unable
to respond to the large number of requests by family members to
retrieve the bodies of their loved ones to the north. These deaths
are not currently counted as officially caused by the
hurricane.
American Red Cross operations
The American Red Cross continued to provide disaster relief to
Hurricane Katrina affected areas, but as a result of Hurricane
Rita, had to open additional shelters in other
gulf states. The Red Cross
also expanded their Hurricane Katrina internet "Safe List" for use
by those affected by Hurricane Rita.
AmeriCorps relief operations
AmeriCorps sent several crews to Texas,
Mississippi and Louisiana in response to
Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. The
crews originated from two main organizations, the
National Civilian Community
Corps (NCCC) and the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC), as
well as from smaller Americorps organizations such as Americorps
St. Louis' Emergency Response Team (ERT). The crews performed a
number of relief tasks for hurricane survivors, including support
on the
Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)/
Carnival Cruise Lines shelter ship,
tarping damaged roofs, and debris removal. As of the beginning of
2006, AmeriCorps teams have been involved in the rebuilding efforts
in Louisiana and Mississippi. Teams have also operated volunteer
camps like Camp Premier as well as assisted with the Made with Love
cafe. As of May 2006, AmeriCorps reported that it would continue to
send relief to affected areas.
Retirement
Resulting from heavy destruction on the Gulf Coast, the name
Rita was retired in the spring of 2006, and will never
again be used for an
Atlantic
hurricane. It was replaced by Rina for the 2011 Atlantic
hurricane season's list.
Records
The use of the name "Rita" reflects the record-breaking activity of
the 2005 hurricane season: only once before had a name starting
with "
R" (the seventeenth name in the list each
season) been used for an Atlantic storm, in
1995 for
Hurricane Roxanne. The formation of Rita
actually marked the third time that seventeen storms had formed in
a season since tropical storm naming began in 1950. However, in the
1969 season, under
less-sophisticated forecasting systems, many tropical storms were
not named; the seventeenth storm of 1969 was named
Hurricane
Martha.
Other records set by Rita:
- Earliest 17th named storm in Atlantic hurricane season
- Fourth most-intense storm in Atlantic basin
- Greatest one-hour pressure drop in Atlantic basin
- Most intense hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico (breaking record
set by Hurricane Katrina only
three weeks earlier)
- When Rita reached Category 5 strength on the 21st of September,
it was the 3rd Category 5 hurricane that year, making 2005 the only
year with more than two Category 5 hurricanes
See also
References
-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050923/ap_on_re_us/rita_bus_explosion_hk1
-
http://www.wjtv.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WJTV/MGArticle/JTV_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785260428&path=
- Our Apologies
-
http://www.ktbs.com/news-detail.html?cityid=1&hid=27050
- TOP STORIES | KHOU.com | News for Houston,
Texas
- Rita death toll keeps rising | Chron.com - Houston
Chronicle
-
http://www.kfdm.com/engine.pl?station=kfdm&id=12094&template=breakout_local.shtml
-
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=F15F01A3-B512-4882-9C0C-BACA8AC5A579
-
http://www.wpmi.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=E601A5C1-B61B-46D1-8068-579FDCE076AB
- ABC News: ABC News
-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050922/ap_on_re_us/rita;_ylt=Au1rtNlWxs7m1F0I9e2eanvqbr8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-
- Shreveport weather stormtracker KSLA News 12
ArkLaTex Ark-La-Tex Doppler Texarkana Bossier MarshallThis Hour:
Latest Arkansas news, sports, business and entertainment:
- WKRN | Our Apologies
- Rita Strengthens Into Category 4 Hurricane -
Weather News Story - WTVJ | Miami
- WKRN | Our Apologies
- CNN.com - Rita's impact, city by city - Sep 24,
2005
-
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/hackberrypopulationzero
- Our Apologies
- Our Apologies
- CNN.com - The latest on Rita and Katrina - Sep 24,
2005
- WFO SHV - Hurricane Rita Archived Page
- STATE NEWS | KHOU.com | News for Houston,
Texas
- cantonrep.com
- 24 nursing home evacuees die in bus fire | Chron.com -
Houston Chronicle
- USATODAY.com - Three buildings in historic
Galveston district catch fire
- TOP STORIES | KHOU.com | News for Houston,
Texas
-
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/kprc/20050927/lo_kprc/2963330
-
http://www.trinityra.org/Press%20Releases/about_press_09_26_05.htm
- BBC NEWS | Americas | Town faces up to Rita
challenges
- Trinity River Authority of Texas: Hurricane Rita
Damages Lake Livingston Dam
- AP Wire - Oregon | kgw.com | News for Oregon and SW
Washington
- [1]
- " Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan, and Wilma "Retired"
from List of Storm Names." NOAA. March 25, 2006.
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