Storm Recap
Rita skirted the Florida Keys as it entered the Gulf of Mexico and set its sights on Texas and Louisiana. The storm hit as a Category 3 with 120 mph winds on Sept. 24 just east of the Texas-Louisiana border between Savine Pass and Johnson's Bayou.
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The storm sideswiped Key West on Sept. 2o, 2005 causing minimal damage, some flooding and high surf.
Rita is the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, making this the fourth-busiest season since record-keeping started in 1851. The record is 21 tropical storms in 1933.
Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and one of the most powerful ever to slam into the U.S. mainland.
Only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland - the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane, Camille in 1969 and Andrew in 1992. Also, the mainland has never been hit by two Category 4 storms in the same year, according to government forecasters. Rita is now a Category 5 hurricane but may weaken before hitting mainland.
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