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Hurricane Rita
Science and the Storms: the USGS Response to the Hurricanes of 2005
This report is designed to give a view of the immediate response of the USGS to four major hurricanes of 2005: Dennis, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Topics vary from flooding and water quality to landscape and ecosystem impacts, from geotechnical reconnaissance to analyzing the collapse of bridges and estimating the volume of debris.
Read the report: USGS Circular 1306
Hurricane Rita made landfall as a category 3 storm near Sabine Pass, Texas on September 24, 2005. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the University of New Orleans, Louisiana State University, and the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology are cooperating in a research project investigating coastal change that has resulted from Hurricane Rita.
Aerial video, still photography, and laser altimetry surveys of post-storm beach conditions will be collected for comparison with earlier data as soon as weather allows. The comparisons will show the nature, magnitude, and spatial variability of coastal changes such as beach erosion, overwash deposition, and island breaching. These data will also be used to further refine predictive models of coastal impacts from severe storms. The data will be made available to local, state, and federal agencies for purposes of disaster recovery and erosion mitigation.
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