Millions were today able to breathe a sigh of relief as the latest hurricane to hit the southern US failed to wreak the level of destruction that had been feared.
Hurricane Rita dwindled from a Category 4 storm to barely hurricane status and spared the flood-prone Texas cities of Houston and Galveston.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities or significant damage to the area's vast oil refinery industry.
However rescue and search teams in many areas had to wait for winds to subside before venturing out to assess the situation.
Around three million people had fled a 500-mile stretch of the Texas-Louisiana coast ahead of the storm.
Many feared there would be a repeat of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina just weeks before.
Despite never reaching that level of intensity, today's powerful storm did bring driving rain which flooded low-lying regions.
It also knocked out power to more than a million customers and sparked fires across the region.
Rita hit the coast in the small hours as a Category 3 storm, bringing a 20ft storm surge and warning of up to 25in of rain. But by late morning, winds had weakened to 75mph, barely above hurricane status.
Fears of severe flooding persisted, with parts of the east Texas counties of Jasper and Tyler receiving 10in to 12in of rain.
In Jasper, a house with seven people inside floated in floodwaters after it came off its foundations.
In Houston, Mayor Bill White said the city was so far "weathering the storm".
New Orleans was facing three inches of rainfall throughout the day, straining the levee system previously breached by Katrina, but the scale of the downpour was lower than had been expected.
As the sun rose on Beaumont, the few people who had stayed behind emerged to find blown-out windows, damaged roofs, twisted signs and felled trees, but no significant flooding.
In his weekly radio address President George Bush said: "The past three weeks have tested our nation and revealed the strength and resilience of our people.
"The courageous spirit of America will carry us through any storm, and the compassionate soul of our nation will help us rebuild."
But it seemed yesterday's deadly blaze on a bus carrying 45 elderly evacuees from Houston to Dallas would come to prove the worst part of the latest episode. The explosion aboard the vehicle killed at least 24 people.
Despite the apparent let-off, industry analysts today warned that the closure of refineries and production plants ahead of the storm could push up oil prices.
Meanwhile, Jan Egeland, the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, warned that Rita and Katrina must serve as a "wake-up call" to the world on global warming.