As many as 2.7 million Texans moved inland within the last 48 hours, Gov. Rick Perry said Friday, although thousands of them are still stuck in traffic along designated hurricane evacuation routes including Interstate 45, which was further snarled early Friday by a deadly bus fire.

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The bus, carrying 45 elderly evacuees from Bellaire, burst into flames Friday morning just south of Dallas, killing 24 of the passengers. The flames caused oxygen tanks used by some of the evacuees to explode.

Perry says four thousand people are being airlifted inland from the Beaumont area aboard 15 flights Thursday yesterday and six more Friday.

Another 400 people -- many of them with special needs – are being airlifted from Ellington Field near Houston.

Perry says 54 Red Cross shelters are on standby statewide as of Friday morning.

"We're going to get through this. We're going to get through this,” Perry said.

Hundreds of evacuees have sought refuge in shelters throughout Central Texas.

Waco officials opened five shelters, which began to fill up quickly Thursday.

Bell County set up a staging area at the Bell Expo Center, from which evacuees are being directed to shelters in area communities.

Bell County officials appealed Friday for volunteers and donations of cots, mattresses, pillows and blankets.

Those who would like to donate items should call the Central Texas Council of Governments office at (254) 933-7075.

Those willing to volunteer to help arriving evacuees at the Expo Center should call Susan Congress at (254) 721-4482.

Houston residents who haven’t left the city were advised Friday to stay put and some who remain in the city say they have no way to leave and nowhere to go.

Wilma Skinner says everyone warns people to leave the city ahead of Hurricane Rita, but she's "got no way of getting out."

She was among a crowd of people waiting around a check-cashing tore that had run out of money. A man in the crowd asks,

"How are you supposed to evacuate a hurricane if you don't have money?” she asked.

Another woman who tried to flee the storm says she covered just 45 miles in 12 hours on the road.

She calls the evacuation "the worst planning" she's ever seen.

Mayor Bill White is telling people who didn't get out of Houston yet to stay put.

"Now is not the time to begin your evacuation,” White said Friday.

He says emergency officials are patrolling to help people stranded by running out of gas or car trouble.

Hurricane Rita has weakened some more. It's now a Category Three storm, with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles-an-hour.

Forecasters say it could weaken gradually before making landfall early Saturday, but that it's still expected to come ashore as a dangerous hurricane.

The storm is now about 190 miles southeast of Galveston and is moving to the northwest at nearly ten miles an hour.

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