Remembering Hurricane Rita...SW Louisiana's Storm: 5 Years Later.
This entry is a special blog entry looking back at the most devastating and costliest natural disaster ever to strike SW Louisiana, Hurricane Rita. The actual anniversary is tomorrow, but all week I have been looking back on the storm. 5 years ago tonight Rita was approaching the coast of Cameron Parish. The massive category 3 storm was once a category 5, and became the third most intense hurricane ever in the Atlantic Basin at that time with respect to pressure. Look for more information on Rita through tomorrow. Extensive blog posts will be forthcoming on Friday as we mark the 5 year anniversary of the forgotten storm. Rita may be forgotten by the national media, but it is not forgotten among all of us here in SW Louisiana.
Rita made landfall on Saturday, September 24, 2005 at 2:38 a.m. at Johnson Bayou, LA. Rita, once a category 5 over the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, made landfall as a category 3 with 120 mph winds. The storm surge from Rita was equivalent to that of a category 4 storm. The storm surge was as high as 20' across portions of Cameron Parish and greater than 10' across the entire SW Louisiana coastline. Coastal communities such as Cameron, Holly Beach, Creole, and Johnson Bayou were completely destroyed by Rita from the extreme storm surge. Major structural damage from hurricane force winds over 100 mph occurred across a large area, and extended well inland. Major damage occurred in Lake Charles, Sulphur, Orange, Beaumont, and Port Arthur and all points in between.The Lake Area experienced sustained hurricane force winds for 6-8 hours from late on the 23rd through around sunrise on Saturday the 24th. Tropical storm force conditions began during the afternoon on Friday the 23rd and continued through the afternoon hours on the 24th. The storm surge penetrated as far inland as Lake Charles with water from the Gulf backing up the Calcasieu River. The surge reached levels never before seen in Lake Charles with 6-8' of water in downtown, these levels were exceeded during Hurricane Ike.
Rita formed from a tropical wave that became better organized near the Turks and Caicos Islands on the evening of September 17th. Rita steadily strengthened and first effected the Florida Keys and South Florida as a category 1 hurricane on Tuesday, September 20. Rita passed through the Florida Straits later on the 20th, and entered the Gulf of Mexico. A strengthening trend continued and Rita was a category 2 upon entrance into the Gulf. Initially, Rita was forecast to make landfall along the middle Texas coast near Corpus Christi, but many meteorologists were becoming increasingly concerned that landfall would be further up the coast. What happened next was amazing! Three weeks removed from Category 5 Hurricane Katrina, Rita underwent rapid intensification processes, and attained Category 5 status with 175 mph sustained winds in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Conditions were absolutely perfect for strengthening with a strong ridge of high pressure over the top of Rita creating no shear in the Gulf, and a very high oceanic heating content. Rita continued on a W to WNW course into the 21st, and on the evening of Wednesday September 21, Rita reached peak intensity with winds of 175 mph and a pressure of 897 mb. or 26.49". At the time, that was the 3rd lowest pressure ever recorded anywhere in the Atlantic Basin, surpassing even Katrina. At the time of its peak intensity Rita's hurricane force wind field extended outward 70 miles from the center, while the tropical storm force wind field extended out to 185 miles from the center. The wind field would later expand as the storm weakened. A continued bend in the forecast models, and expansion of the wind field continued to raise concerns for our area, and a direct hit from a major hurricane was becoming more and more likely. The National Hurricane Center issued a Hurricane Watch for the Louisiana and Texas coastline from Port Mansfield, TX to Cameron on Wednesday afternoon.
On Thursday, September 22, the threat from Rita was realized even more so, as a mandatory evacuation was ordered for Calcasieu Parish for the first time in history. Rita maintained its category 5 strength through the night of the 21st into the 22nd, and the forecast models were now all clustered on landfall occurring near the Sabine River, which is a worst case scenario for our area. Hurricane Warnings were put into effect along the Texas and Louisiana coast from Port O'Connor to Morgan City at 10a.m. on the 22nd. Hurricanes like Rita rarely maintain category 5 intensity for very long periods of time, and Rita was a category 5 for less than 24 hours. A slow weakening began during the afternoon of the 22nd, as Rita encountered a bit of SW shear, and went through the typical eyewall replacement cycles that hurricanes go through. Rita remained a very dangerous category 4 hurricane into the night on the 22nd, while everyone continued to heed the warnings and evacuate the area. Millions of Gulf Coast residents evacuated, and this created havoc and chaos on the interstate highway systems especially across the Houston Metro area.
Rita continued on its collision course with SW Louisiana, and by Friday September 23 a direct hit was inevitable. Rita had continued to weaken, and was now at category 3, still a very formidable, and serious hurricane with 130 mph winds. Conditions would deteriorate rapidly during the day on the 23rd, and the outer rain bands from Rita began moving across the area by lunch time. The wind field with Rita by 10a.m. on the 23rd has reached 85 miles for hurricane force winds and 205 miles for tropical storm force. The tropical storm force winds moved into coastal areas of SW Louisiana during the early afternoon hours, and overspread the entire area by Friday night. Rita weakened only slightly more before landfall, and weakened to a 120 mph category 3 storm at landfall. Landfall occurred at Johnson Bayou at 2:38a.m. on Saturday, September 24. Sustained hurricane force winds reached the coastline between 6 and 8p.m. on the 23rd, and the first hurricane force gusts occurred in Lake Charles shortly after 9p.m. Sustained winds of over 100 mph, and as high as 130 mph in some areas occurred across SW Louisiana between midnight and 6a.m. on Saturday the 24th. After landfall, the eye of Rita moved Northward through Western Cameron and Calcasieu Parish and Eastern Jefferson and Orange County. The path of the eye was through communities such as Johnson Bayou, Port Arthur, Vinton, Orange, and Deweyville.While the eye of Rita didn't track right over the city of Lake Charles, the position of the eye placed the city in the NE eye wall, which is where the worst of the weather always is with hurricanes. Many spin off tornadoes, the incredible storm surge, and the highest winds occurred during this time. There were likely so many spin off tornadoes with Rita, that to this date 4 years later, an accurate count has not been given. Major damage occurred to many homes and businesses in the area including the Capital One Tower downtown and major damage to the terminal at the Lake Charles Regional Airport. There likely wasn't a home or business in the area that didn't at least have some damage, and many homes and businesses were severely damaged or destroyed by fallen trees or storm surge. The surge in Cameron Parish was so severe, that in many locations only a slab was left.
Our lives were turned upside down on September 24, 2005 by the very worst of Mother Nature. As bad as the damage was from Rita, thankfully the loss of life was minimal. A lot of this is likely attributed to Katrina, because I feel that many wouldn't have evacuated if Katrina had not occurred 3 weeks prior. Most of the fatalities with Rita were in SE Texas and occurred during the evacuation from Houston. A bus accident on I-45 between Houston and Dallas took the lives of 55 evacuees. 7 direct fatalities occurred with Rita, 3 of which were here in the Lake Charles-Beaumont area. The total damage amount from Rita across the area was $10 billion, making Rita one of the top 5 costliest natural disasters on record. Rita was the first major hurricane to strike our area directly in 48 years. Hurricane Audrey in 1957 was the last, and hopefully it will be a very long time before this occurs again. Rita changed SW Louisiana forever, and changed the way of life for a lot of people, and our coastline will never be same. We have learned a lot of lessons from Rita. There's so much more to say about Rita, and part two will come tomorrow night. Here's a few images of Rita.
This is an image of Rita over the Gulf at peak intensity on 9/21/05
A radar image of Rita near landfall...Just before the worst of the storm moved into the Lake Charles area:
The site includes pictures of damage from around the area, and links to
satellite and radar images, and also features a comparison of Rita and
Audrey.
More to come tomorrow on Rita, including my own documentation of the storm and evacuation. I was at ULM at the time.
The forecast discussion is forthcoming. My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to all affected by Hurricane Rita. May God bless y'all always, and may God protect our lives and property during hurricane season always. In closing, I will post the Hurricane Prayer as I did back when we marked the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina last month.
O God, Master of this passing world hear the humble voices of your children. The Sea of Galilee obeyed Your order and returned to its former quietide. You are still the Master of land and sea. We live in the shadow of a danger over which we have no control; the Gulf like a provoked and angry giant, can awaken from its seeming lethargy, overstep its conventional boundaries, invade our land and spread chaos and disaster. During this hurricane season we turn to You, O loving Father. Spare us from past tragedies whose memories are still so vivid and whose wounds seem to refuse to heal with passing of time. O Virgin, Star of the Sea, Our Beloved Mother, we ask you to please with your Son in our behalf, so that spared from the calamities common to this area and animated with a true spirit of gratitude, we will walk in the footsteps of your Divine Son to reach the heavenly Jerusalem where a stormless eternity awaits us. In the name of the Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit...Amen!
-DM-
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