In 2005, Hurricane Rita made landfall devastating Beaumont, Texas and portions of southwestern Louisiana. Rita was the fourth–most intense Atlantic ever recorded and the most intense hurricane ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico.  Although it began to rapidly weaken after making landfall, nine counties in the Texas were declared disaster areas after the storm.

Rita was almost as famous for what preceded it as for the destruction it caused.  Coming just three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the northern Gulf Coast, the prospect of another major hurricane prompted mass mandatory and voluntary evacuations in Southeast Texas. Somewhere between 2.5 – 3.7 million people evacuated the Gulf Coast region prior to Rita’s landfall.  This was the largest evacuation in US history and exposed major flaws in the system for evacuating mass numbers of people from the region.  The evacuation was rife with tales of 15-20 hours spent in cars traveling only 5-10 miles, many people simply giving up and returning home or running out of gas.  The debacle prompted new measures to ensure quicker evacuations.