A resolution observing the 5th anniversary of the date on which Hurricane Rita devastated the coasts of Louisiana and Texas.

Whereas on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane just east of the Texas-Louisiana border, between Sabine Pass and Johnson's Bayou, with wind speeds of 120 miles per hour, and further devastated the Gulf Coast, which had already been hit by Hurricane Katrina;

Whereas Hurricane Rita caused 7 deaths, forced 3,000,000 residents to evacuate their homes, caused flooding and tornadoes in the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama, and, according to the National Climatic Data Center, left 1,000,000 people without electricity;

Whereas damages from Hurricane Rita are estimated at $11,300,000,000;

Whereas in 2005, Hurricane Rita was the second hurricane to reach Category 5 status in the Gulf of Mexico, which, according to the National Climatic Data Center, is only the third time that more than one Category 5 storm has formed in the Atlantic in the same year;

Whereas the storm surge from Hurricane Rita was as high as 15 feet near the landfall site and, according to the United States Geological Survey, traveled as far as 50 miles inland, causing disastrous flooding and massive loss of property;

Whereas tens of thousands of homes and businesses in the States of Louisiana and Texas were destroyed by the flooding; and

Whereas the National Wetlands Center of the United States Geological Survey indicates that 217 square miles of the coastal land of the State of Louisiana were transformed to water after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Now, therefore, be it