Deadly Evacuee Bus Blaze

(CBS/AP)  As Hurricane Rita roared toward the Texas and Louisiana coasts early Friday, a bus carrying 43 elderly evacuees — and their oxygen tanks — from the Houston area caught fire on Interstate 45 near Dallas. As many as 24 people are feared dead.

"Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus," Dallas County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Don Peritz told CBS radio station KRLD. "This is a tragic, tragic accident," Peritz added.

Meanwhile, Rita weakened slightly and was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, but was still considered dangerous.

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CBS News has planned expanded coverage of Hurricane Rita this weekend. For details, click here.

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The bus was carrying 38 residents and six employees of the Brighton Gardens nursing home in Bellaire, Texas, according to Sunrise Senior Living, the McLean, Va., company that owns the center.

Authorities took the unusual step of moving the wreckage and continuing investigating at a remote location so the interstate could reopen for evacuees, Peritz said.

"We got in contact with Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. They are very concerned" about the highway backing up, Peritz said.

Friday morning Rita was a major Category 4 storm that spurred a traffic-snarled exodus toward higher ground and fears it could cripple the heart of the nation's petrochemical industry.

At 1 p.m. EDT, Rita was centered about 190 miles southeast of Galveston and 175 miles southeast of Port Arthur, and was moving to the northwest at nearly 10 mph. Its winds were near 125 mph. Forecasters expect landfall early Saturday morning near the southwest Louisiana and upper Texas coasts.

"I think I'm correct in saying it is the largest evacuation in Texas history," said Gov. Rick Perry.

The unprecedented flight from the flood-prone Houston area left clogged highways at a near standstill, frustrating hundreds of thousands of people whose cars and tempers were overheating.

Houston's airport looked like the days before Thanksgiving and Christmas, reports CBS News correspondent Peter King. Thousands without reservations waited for hours to learn they were out of luck.

And Friday morning, Houston officials urged those still in the city to stay put and ride out the storm.

The first rain bands were expected before nightfall Friday with the full fury of Rita expected into Saturday.

"We're going to see a storm surge of 15 to 20 feet and winds of over 100 mph," said CBS News meteorologist George Cullen. "This is a huge storm, so hurricane-force winds extend out almost 80 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extend out 200 miles from the center, so we're going to have major impacts all along that Texas Louisiana coastline."

Two communities that may bear the brunt of the storm are Beaumont, which is a petrochemical, shipbuilding and port city of about 114,000; and Port Arthur, a city of about 58,000 that's home to industries including oil, shrimping and crawfishing.

Texas officials scrambled to reroute several inbound highways to accommodate outbound traffic, but many people were waiting so long they ran out of gas and were forced to park.

"We know you're out there," Houston Mayor Bill White said of the congestion that extended well into Louisiana. "We understand there's been fuel shortages."

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