State Beginning Airlifts From Houston, Beaumont
Houston

-- Texas officials will begin airlifting at least 9,000 people from Beaumont and Houston Thursday.

Those include nursing home residents, those without transportation and the homeless. They'll be taken to inland Texas cities as part of the massive coastal evacuations ahead of Hurricane Rita.

Steve McCraw is the state's director of homeland security. He says at least some of the flights will take off from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

The evacuees will be taken to San Antonio, Amarillo, El Paso, Dallas, Fort Worth and Lubbock.

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