Via Breitbart.com:

Hurricane Rita plowed into the Gulf Coast early Saturday, lashing Texas and Louisiana with driving rain, flooding low-lying regions, knocking power out to more than 675,000 people and sparking fires across the region.

Rita made landfall at 3:30 a.m. EDT as a Category 3 storm just east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana line, bringing a 20-foot storm surge and up to 25 inches of rain, the National Hurricane Center said. Within four hours it had weakened to a Category 2 storm, with top winds of 100 mph, as it moved further inland between Beaumont and Jasper, Texas.

Residents in hard-hit western Louisiana called police early Saturday to report roofs being ripped off and downed trees. Rescuers were forced to wait until the winds outside died down to safe levels.

"We can't even get out to check yet," said Sgt. Wendell Carroll of Louisiana's Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office. "All we can hear is the wind a' howling."

The storm spun off tornadoes as it churned northwest at 12 mph with winds that topped 120 mph, causing transformers to explode in the pre- dawn darkness. Four counties in southeast Texas were under a tornado warning early Saturday.

Other hurricane related news

The tragedy before the storm: Atleast 24 killed after bus.

A fire in a chartered bus filled with elderly Hurricane Rita evacuees, including some who used oxygen, killed 24 people and injured several others near Dallas Friday.

Authorities said the bus apparently caught fire due to a mechanical problem, and that oxygen tanks then started exploding on gridlocked Interstate 45. Dallas County Sheriff's Sgt. Don Peritz said the brakes may have been on fire, leading to the explosion.

Peritz said deputies couldn't get everyone off the flaming bus. The bus was carrying 38 residents and six employees of the Brighton Gardens nursing home in Bellaire to Plano, according to Sunrise Senior Living, the McLean, Va., company that owns the center.
carrying elderly explodes

Fires in Galveston Historic District.

Wind from Hurricane Rita whipped up dramatic fires in this city's historic Strand District and parts of Houston, sending out swirls of sparkling embers even as rain poured down in sheets.

One building was nearly destroyed in Galveston; two others appeared heavily damaged. A burning electric pole was lying on one of the buildings.

"It was like a war zone, shooting fire across the street," Fire Chief Michael Varela said early Saturday.

No injuries were immediately reported in either city, which were virtual ghost towns because most residents had heeded calls to evacuate. Rita made landfall more than 100 miles away early Saturday along the Texas-Louisiana line.

One of the buildings that caught fire in Galveston was built in 1905, five years after the hurricane that destroyed most of this island city and killed at least 6,000 people. The damaged buildings were a bail bonds company, a Victorian-era home, and Eagle Lodge, a former fraternal club that's now an art gallery.

Fresh flood waters in New Orleans.

Sheets of rain from Hurricane Rita drenched parts of New Orleans on Saturday, straining an already damaged levee system and threatening to spread flooding throughout the devastated but largely abandoned city.

The rain was periodic but heavy, coming down in waves that lasted a few minutes before letting up. The National Weather Service said New Orleans was expected to get bands of rain dropping 3 to 4 inches per hour.

The rain threatened to increase flooding after parts of the city were submerged again Friday as hurricane-driven storm surges topped one levee, and another levee began to leak.