Deaths feared as bus catches fire

A bus carrying elderly evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire early this morning on gridlocked Interstate 45, killing or injuring an unknown number of passengers.

The bus was engulfed with flames, causing a 27km backup on a highway that was already congested with some of the up to 1.5 million Gulf Coast evacuees. A Dallas TV station, WFAA, reported 20 persons were killed early today.

"There were 45 souls on the bus ... at this point we believe we have about half accounted for," Dallas County sheriff's spokesman Sergeant Don Peritz said.

Meanwhile the first heavy rain from Hurricane Rita began falling in New Orleans where officials in the city, already ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, feared more flooding.

"It looks as though ... there's a 50 to 60 per cent chance that New Orleans will receive tropical force winds which is probably our biggest concern," Mayor Ray Nagin said.

Rita, downgraded to a category 4 hurricane but still packing winds of 220 km/h, was heading northwest last night across the Gulf. Where it will make landfall remained unclear, but the storm is expected to reach the shore sometime tonight (NZT), with Texas bearing the brunt.

Rita could bring a storm surge of 6m and up to 38cm of rain.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco pleaded with people to get away from the coast. "Hurricane Rita is heading your way," she said in an automated telephone message sent to more than 400,000 households.

But many of those who took her advice found themselves trapped as traffic backed up for at least 160km.

Tempers flared in the 36C heat at the few petrol stations that still had fuel, fights were reported, cars overheated and trips that normally take 15 minutes stretched into hours.

People trying to escape Houston, America's fourth-largest city with a population of more than 2 million, crowded highways heading inland.

Cars moved so slowly on the main road to Dallas, 384km north, that people had time to get out of their cars, walk to nearby stores, wait in long lines at restrooms and return to vehicles that had not moved.

John Griffin, 37, his wife and two young daughters turned back to Houston after hours on the road.

"I'm worried about the storm, but you have to pick your poison - stay and deal with wind and rain or get out on the road and deal with what are already catastrophic conditions on the highway."

A hurricane warning was in effect along a 724km stretch of coast from Texas to Louisana.

- AGENCIES