Bus explosion kills elderly Katrina survivors

Friday, September 23, 2005

A bus transporting elderly evacuees from Houston, in the eve of Hurricane Rita's expected landfall, has exploded on I-45 early Friday morning, killing at least 20 of the 45 passengers on board. Oxygen tanks on board are believed to be responsible for the bus explosion.

Many of the elderly passengers on the bus, were Hurricane Katrina survivors who were evacuated from New Orleans less than one month ago.

The early morning bus explosion created a 17 mile tailback of traffic, as Houston residents fleed Hurricane Rita.

Hurricane Rita, a strong category 4 hurricane, packing winds of 140 mile per hour, is due to make landfall sometime early Saturday morning somewhere between Galveston, Texas, and the Texas-Louisiana border.

New Orleans and much of south Louisiana are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, a powerful category 4 hurricane that devistated most of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi on August 29th, leaving most of New Orleans flooded to the rooftops, and severely damaging the floodwalls and levees that protect the city.

This will be the first time in US history that 2 major storms have hit land within the same hurricane season.