Hurricane Rita pushed between Cuba and Florida before making landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border. Although the hurricane started out as a Category 5 in the Gulf of Mexico, its winds died when it reached land, so the damage to coastal cities from wind, storm surge and flooding was not as extreme as expected. It tracked through Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and blew out in Illinois. It was linked to seven fatalities.
Melanie Stetson Freeman / The Christian Science Monitor / File