Northbound traffic on Interstate 45 heading outbound from Galveston, Texas, on September 21, 2005
The approach of Hurricane Rita towards the United States Gulf Coast in September 2005 triggered one of the largest mass evacuations in U.S. history. Between 2.5 and 3.7 million people evacuated from the Gulf coast, mostly from the Greater Houston area of Texas, with forecasts from the National Hurricane Center projecting Rita to strike the Texas Gulf Coast. Seeking to avoid a repeat of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi less than a month prior, local officials began issuing evacuation orders on September 21 before the issuance of hurricane watches and warnings. Although evacuation orders anticipated smaller numbers of evacuees, uncertainties in projections of Rita's path and the fresh memory of Katrina's aftermath led many to evacuate, including from otherwise safe areas outside the scope of evacuation orders; approximately two-thirds of evacuees were not required to evacuate. The unexpectedly large scale of the evacuation overwhelmed Texas highways, producing widespread gridlock that was exacerbated by the implementation of previously unplanned contraflow on Interstates 10 and 45 while the evacuation was ongoing. Most traffic associated with the evacuation was clear of the threatened coastal areas by the early morning of September 23.
Evacuees fleeing by road did not anticipate the 12–36 hour travel times and faced shortages of fuel, water, food, and medical attention, as well as temperatures reaching 100 °F (38 °C) accompanied by high humidity. The mass evacuation was unusually deadly; 107 evacuees died during the mass evacuation, much more than the number of people directly killed by Rita's forces and accounting for a majority of the deaths associated with the hurricane. Many died as a result of factors related to heat exhaustion exacerbated by traffic congestion, and 23 nursing home residents died in a bus fire near Dallas.
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