Hurricane Rita was a powerful category 5 hurricane that started east of the Bahamas on September 26. It moved south of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico. Rita became a category 5 hurricane very fast, then made landfall. Hurricane Rita made landfall as a category 3 hurricane in Texas, on September 24. By September 26, Rita had died over the U.S. The hurricane killed about 120 people and caused $10 billion in damage. This was only the second time that an "R" name was used in the Atlantic, the other was Roxanne.