BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) - Hurricane Rita slammed into Texas and Louisiana early yesterday, smashing windows, sparking fires and knocking power out to more than one million customers, but largely sparing vulnerable Houston and already reeling New Orleans and the region's vital oil refining industry.

Rita made landfall at 3:30 am as a Category 3 storm just east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana line, bringing top winds of 120 mph (193 kph) and warnings of up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain, the National Hurricane Centre said.

Lake Charles, Lousiana - Robert L Johnson (right) and Raymond Fondel assess the damage to Fondel's Allstate Insurance office in downtown Lake Charles, after the arrival of Hurricane Rita yesterday.

By late morning, it had weakened, and finally dropped to tropical storm status with winds of 50 mph.

Thousands of residents of Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, began heading home, despite the urgings of officials.
And Federal investigators immediately began seeking clues into the burned-out remnants of a bus that exploded in a traffic jam and killed 24 elderly evacuees fleeing Hurricane Rita Friday.

Fears of severe flooding persisted. Parts of the east Texas counties of Jasper and Tyler had received 10 inches to 12 inches (25 to 30 centimetres) of rain, the National Weather Service said.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities, though rescuers and search teams in many areas had to wait for winds to subside before venturing out. The Energy Department said it appeared the oil industry, especially the concentration of refineries in the Houston-Texas City area, had escaped major damage.

About three million people had fled a 500-mile (800-kilometre) stretch of the Texas-Louisiana coast ahead of the storm, motivated in part by the devastating toll that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast barely three weeks ago.

Texas Gov Rick Perry urged those who evacuated Houston and other areas not to return until officials declare their communities safe.
"Be patient, stay put," he said. "If you are in a safe place with food, water, bedding, you are better remaining there for the time being."
The flood-prone cities of Houston and Galveston - largely evacuated over the past four days - escaped a direct hit.

"So far, Houston is weathering the storm," Mayor Bill White said Saturday. His police department received 28 burglary calls overnight and made 16 arrests - less than a typical Friday night, White said.

In New Orleans, rain drenched parts of the abandoned city early Saturday, straining the levee system damaged by Katrina and causing more flooding in already ruined and abandoned poor neighbourhoods. But the forecast of up to three inches (eight centimetres) throughout the day was less than previously predicted.
"Overall, it looks like New Orleans has lucked out," National Weather Service Meteorologist Phil Grigsby said.

Heavy rain fell south of New Orleans in low-lying Jefferson Parish, where a tidal surge of six to seven feet swamped some neighborhoods. Residents of Lafitte, a town of 1,600 south of New Orleans, were being evacuated by bus.

Fires were reported in and around Houston, including one in a two-story apartment building in southeast Houston that left at least eight units damaged, authorities said. Nobody was hurt, according to District Chief Jack Williams.

Several buildings were damaged or destroyed by fire in Galveston, and a blaze broke out before dawn at a shopping complex in Pasadena. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
As the storm raged, the torches of oil refineries could be seen burning in the distance from downtown Beaumont. Officials worried about the storm's threat to those facilities and chemical plants strung along the Texas and Louisiana coast.

The facilities represent a quarter of the nation's oil refining capacity and business analysts said damage from Rita could send gas prices as high as $4 a gallon (87 euro cents a litre). Environmentalists warned of the risk of a toxic spill.

In the days before the storm's arrival, hundreds of thousands of residents of Texas and Louisiana fled their homes in a mass exodus that produced gridlock and heartbreak.

"The past three weeks have tested our nation and revealed the strength and resilience of our people," said US president George W Bush in his weekly radio address. "The courageous spirit of America will carry us through any storm, and the compassionate soul of our nation will help us rebuild."

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