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Hurricane Rita's effects on the economy have yet to be fully reckoned. The worst consequences were local: between August and September, the unemployment rate doubled from 6 to 12 percent in the most affected areas of Louisiana and Mississippi. In Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, salaries and wages fell by an estimated $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2005.32 But short-term, economic ripples reached the entire country through the rising cost of gasoline. The approach of the storm forced the temporary shutdown of most crude oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. In the immediate wake of Hurricane Rita, gasoline prices rose sharply nationwide.33 The combined effects of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which made landfall on the border between Texas and Louisiana early on September 24, 2005, were such that, between August 26, 2005, and January 11, 2006, 114 million barrels of oil production capacity were left unused, equivalent to over one-fifth of yearly output in the Gulf of Mexico.
Source - www.whitehouse.gov
For more detailed information on oil rigs ownership, location, water depth, and other facts, please visit this site.
Map copyright CCCarto 2006
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