Storms 411

Burned Bus had Illegal Tags, Gaps in its History

The South Texas operator of the charter bus that burst into flames a week ago, killing 23 Bellaire nursing-home residents, was using an illegal license plate, taken from another company vehicle whose registration had expired, records released Thursday show.

Within hours of the Sept. 23 fire just south of Dallas, the Texas Department of Transportation told reporters that the bus transferring Brighton Gardens residents and staff was a 1991 vehicle with registration that had lapsed in July.

On Thursday, Dallas County Sheriff's Department officials, who traced the burned vehicle's identification number, said the bus was actually a 1998 model and was registered to an Oklahoma couple — Robert John and Joanne Jaquueline McMynn — and should have been bearing an Oklahoma plate.

It was not immediately clear why a bus registered to Oklahoma owners was bearing a tag for an older Texas bus owned by Global. However, a vehicle with an illegal license plate can make it more difficult for officials to track.

The Department of Public Safety has not produced a safety-inspection history of the bus. [Read more - Houston Chronicle]

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In Receding Floodwaters, More Damage Found

Ten fatalities reported; rescue missions for people and cattle continue

CREOLE, La. - Hurricane Rita's path of devastation along the Texas-Louisiana coast became shockingly clear Monday, as rescuers pulled stranded bayou residents out on skiffs and Army helicopters searched for thousands of cattle feared drowned.

Crews struggled to clean up the tangle of smashed homes and downed trees. The hurricane slammed low-lying fishing villages, shrimping ports and ranches with water up to 9 feet deep. Seawater pushed as far as 20 miles inland, drowning acres of rice, sugarcane fields and pasture.

In coastal Terrebonne Parish, the count of severely damaged or destroyed homes stood at nearly 9,900. An estimated 80 percent of the buildings in the town of Cameron, population 1,900, were leveled. Farther inland, half of Creole, population 1,500, was left in splinters. [Read more - MSNBC]

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24 Evacuees Die in Bus Fire

WILMER - A bus carrying elderly Bellaire evacuees from Hurricane Rita caught fire this morning on a gridlocked highway near Dallas, killing 24 people, authorities said.

"Deputies were unable to get everyone off the bus," spokesman Don Peritz said.

The bus, carrying about 45 people from a Bellaire assisted living center who had been traveling since Thursday, was engulfed in flames, causing a 17-mile backup on Interstate 45 that was already congested with evacuees from the Gulf Coast. The bus was reduced to a blackened, burned-out shell, surrounded by numerous police cars and ambulances.

There were indications that oxygen used by elderly evacuees could have had a role in the fire, Peritz said. There were a series of explosions, apparently from the oxygen equipment, he said.

"The early indications are this is a mechanical issue. The driver did survive the accident," Peritz said. "It's my understanding he went back on the bus several times to try to evacuate people."

Interstate 45 stretches more than 250 miles from Galveston through Houston to Dallas. The crash site is roughly 17 miles southeast of downtown Dallas near Ennis.

Gov. Rick Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said traffic on I-45 would be diverted at Ennis, about 30 miles southeast of Dallas. Drivers could take State Highway 287 west to Interstate 35E, or State Highway 34 east to Interstate 20. She said it was unclear how far the gridlock extended.