page_title: Hurricane Rita
section_title: Louisiana
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Rita / Impact / Louisiana
caption_attribution_description: English: Holly Beach, La., October 3, 2005 - Ten miles west of Cameron, La., this Gulfside community once called home by 300 residents now lies in shambles. Hurricane Rita destroyed numerous structures and severely damaged power and utility systems along a long stretch of Highway 27 in lower Cameron Parish. Win Henderson / FEMA
context_page_description: Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico and the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the top ten most intense Atlantic hurricanes ever recorded, Rita was the seventeenth named storm, tenth hurricane, and fifth major hurricane of the 2005 season. Rita formed near The Bahamas from a tropical wave on September 18, 2005 that originally developed off the coast of West Africa. It moved westward, and after passing through the Florida Straits, Rita entered an environment of abnormally warm waters. Moving west-northwest, it rapidly intensified to reach peak winds of 180 mph, achieving Category 5 status on September 21st. However, it weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall in Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana, between Sabine Pass, Texas and Holly Beach, Louisiana, with winds of 115 mph. Rapidly weakening over land, Rita degenerated into a large low-pressure area over the lower Mississippi Valley by September 26th.
context_section_description: With an estimated cost of $8 billion in damages, Hurricane Rita's impact across Louisiana varied. One person is known to have drowned during the event.  Due to the hurricane's storm surge, which topped levees and inundated low-lying coastal communities, the greatest amount of damage extended across most of southern Louisiana, from the Mississippi River delta to the Sabine River. Widespread power outages affected roughly 1 million customers, with Entergy Louisiana reporting the largest outage of 601,183 customers losing power.
  In southeast Louisiana's Terrebonne Parish, storm surge reached 7 ft (2.1 m) flooding an estimated 10,000 homes. 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. Already devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the Industrial Canal in New Orleans was again flooded by Hurricane Rita as the recently-and-hurriedly-repaired levees were breached once more.
  In south-central Vermilion Parish, storm surge reached all the way up to the communities of Abbeville, Gueydan, and Lake Arthur. The 10 ft (3.0 m) surge completely flooded Pecan Island, Intracoastal City, and Delcambre. Nearly all of the structures on Pecan Island were destroyed.  Rescue efforts were undertaken for up to 1,000 people stranded by local flooding. On Saturday, September 24 alone, 250 people were rescued.
  However, the southwestern region of the state near where Rita made landfall was undeniably the worst impacted region in Louisiana.
  In Cameron Parish, the damage was catastrophic, particularly along the coastline and north to the Intracoastal Waterway. Coastal storm surge was estimated around 18 ft (5.5 m), with lower levels farther inland from the coast, yet much of north-western and north-central Cameron Parish experienced significant flooding. The southern Cameron Parish communities of Cameron, Creole, Grand Chenier, Holly Beach, Johnson Bayou, Little Chenier and Oak Grove were either heavily devastated or entirely wiped out by the storm surge, with nearly 95 percent of homes, businesses, and infrastructure completely destroyed. Closer to the Intracoastal Waterway, communities shared a similar fate; Big Lake, Deatonville, Gibbstown and Hackberry were all devastated or heavily damaged. In Hackberry, an unofficial wind gust of 180 mph was recorded on a boat tied up to a local dock. Above the Intracoastal Waterway in northern Cameron Parish, damage was devastating, with the communities of Grand Lake, Hebert's Camp, Lowry, Pelican Point, and Sweetlake suffering from extensive flooding and wind damage. Over a decade later, many communities south of the Intracoastal Waterway are still recovering, with their populations significantly lower than pre-Rita levels.
  To the north in Calcasieu Parish, the cities and communities of Iowa, Lake Charles, Moss Bluff, Sulphur, and Westlake suffered severe wind damage, and some areas also received flooding due to both storm surge and heavy rain. In Lake Charles, the storm surge that traveled up the Calcasieu Ship Channel from the coast was estimated to be up to 8 ft (2.4 m). A casino boat secured at the north end of the lake, and several barges secured at the Port of Lake Charles, broke free from their moorings, floating loose until running into the Interstate 10 bridge over the Calcasieu River, causing minor damage. Other areas of Lake Charles also experienced severe flooding, with reports of water rising 6–8 feet, at one point inundating the lower floors of the Lake Charles Civic Center. At a hotel on a section of the Contraband Bayou near Interstate 210 and Prien Lake Road, water reportedly rose as high as the second floor. There was extensive minor-to-major structural wind damage across the entire area, including the near-devastation of the Lake Charles Regional Airport south of the city. Damage to the entire region's electrical and communications infrastructure was severe, and authorities warned returning residents that restoration of services to some areas would take weeks to months.
  In 
caption: Holly Beach, a town along the Gulf Coast completely destroyed by Rita
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Holly Beach, La., October 3, 2005 - Ten miles west of Cameron, La., this Gulfside community that was once home to 300 residents now lies in shambles.  Hurricane Rita destroyed numerous structures and severely damaged power and utility systems along this stretch of Highway 27 in lower Cameron Parish.  Win Henderson / FEMA", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:10:04 08:31:35", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "596", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1358", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5737", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:10:03 17:45:40", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:10:03 17:45:40", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2883", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1869", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1232", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}