Hurricane Rita Chronology

Sunday, Sept. 18

Less than a month after Hurricane Katrina passed through South Florida, weather forecasters begin keeping a close eye on tropical depression number 18 located southeast of the Bahamas.

By late morning, with the depression expected to quickly strengthen, tropical storm warnings are issued for the southeast and central Bahamas and a hurricane watch is issued for the Florida Keys.

During the afternoon, depression 18 becomes Tropical Storm Rita – the 17 th named storm of the season.

At 11 p.m., a hurricane watch is issued for southeast Florida, including all of Broward and Miami-Dade counties, meaning that winds of at least 74 miles per hour are possible within 36 hours.

At the same time, a hurricane warning is issued for the Keys, with hurricane conditions possible within 24 hours.

Monday, Sept. 19

Forecasters expect Rita to strengthen into a hurricane soon and place Key West and the Florida Keys in the storm’s projected path.

As Rita continues to gain strength, thousands of visitors and residents of the Lower Keys are told to evacuate.

Because the storm’s exact track remains somewhat unpredictable, hurricane warnings are extended to include the extreme southeast Florida peninsula, including Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

All FPL employees are told to monitor the storm closely, and non-essential employees in Miami-Dade County are released from work to prepare their homes and families.

Tropical storm warnings are issued along the Florida east coast as far north as Jupiter in Palm Beach County.

Tuesday, Sept. 20

FPL’s storm central command and storm logistics centers open with full staffs at 7 a.m.

Although the eye of the storm is still expected to pass south of FPL’s service area, Rita’s outer bands quickly begin to impact FPL customers.

By 11 a.m. the tropical storm turns into Hurricane Rita – the ninth hurricane of the season – with winds of approximately 75 miles per hour.

By mid-day, FPL begins restoring power outages caused by Hurricane Rita in Miami-Dade and Broward counties; more than 3,700 FPL employees are being supported by 1,600 non-FPL personnel.

During the afternoon, Hurricane Rita continues on its westward course, with the center of the storm passing just south of Key West.

Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, the Keys are hit by heavy winds and flooding, but there appears to be no significant damage and no injuries or deaths are reported.

Working in between feeder bands of heavy rains and squalls, FPL crews restore service to nearly 123,000 South Florida customers affected by Hurricane Rita; by 8 p.m., only about 2,400 customers in Miami-Dade County and 1,000 in Broward County are without power.

As Rita speeds past the Lower Keys at approximately 13 miles per hour, the storm continues to gain strength entering the Gulf of Mexico; by 11 p.m. it is a strong Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 110 miles per hour.

Wednesday, Sept. 21

By early morning, only 1,300 FPL customers are without power because of Katrina; 1,100 in Miami-Dade County and 200 in Broward County.

With Katrina now headed toward a projected landfall in Texas, FPL work crews expect to complete restoration to all customers before the end of the day.

The company has already received requests to send repair crews to assist utilities in Texas and plans on doing so following completion of the restoration in South Florida.

As Katrina enters the open Gulf, the storm is in warm, shallow waters and continues to strengthen; before the day is done it becomes a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 175 miles per hour.

Thursday, Sept. 22

Rita’s projected path is still somewhere on the Texas coast as the hurricane’s intensity makes it the third most intense storm in recorded history.

As the day progresses, the storm takes a slightly more northerly path than forecast and this places the projected landfall further east and closer to the Texas-Louisiana border.

By afternoon, Rita appears to have reached her peak intensity and is now in cooler water and experiencing some wind shear; projections are for a gradual weakening during the next few hours.

Although the storm’s intensity falls to a category 4, the National Hurricane Center warms that Rita will still be a major hurricane and at least a category 3 when it makes landfall sometime Saturday morning.

Friday, Sept. 23

As the day begins, Hurricane Rita remains a category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour.

The storm is still centered more than 250 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, but its effects are already being felt in extreme eastern Texas and western Louisiana.

National hurricane specialists place the likely landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border sometime Saturday morning; the intensity of the storm at landfall appears less certain and could be anywhere from a category 3 to a category 5.

Saturday, Sept. 24

Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the early morning hours as a category 3 storm with 120 mile per hour winds; because of a last-minute slant to the east, the brunt of the storm spares Galveston and Houston.

The official landfall comes at Sabine Pass, Texas, a tiny shrimping village surrounded by marsh and a wildlife refuge.

Although not taking a direct hit, 700,000 customers in the Houston area lose power due to the storm.

Most of the damage is done in the low-lying coastal areas of Louisiana, where Rita’s heavy rains and storm-surge flooding leaves thousands of homes partially under water; the storm’s strongest winds also destroy countless numbers of homes and businesses.

Only a brief bump in oil prices is expected after less-than-expected damages to the area’s oil platforms, pipelines and refineries.