HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Taillights and headlights illuminated rain-slicked roads of Gulf Coast Texas in the pre-dawn hours Sunday as residents jammed the roads to return after evacuating for Hurricane Rita.
Authorities had urged evacuees not to return, warning that conditions might not be safe at home, emergency crews needed to move quickly on the highways and fuel trucks still needed to re-supply gas stations.
Still, early Sunday, traffic tie-ups snarled Interstate 10 into Houston and Interstate 45 into Houston and beyond to Galveston. (Watch authorities warn Texas evacuees to delay return -- 1:37)
So far, the return of 2.5 million people into the area has not caused the 15- to 20-hour delays caused on the way out. Lines at gas pumps, however, grew as the morning progressed.
In Houston -- where 350,000 power customers remained without electricity -- officials divided the city into quadrants and asked residents to return to each section one at a time. There was no penalty for ignoring that request.
"This traffic thing is a big problem," said Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, at a Saturday afternoon news conference in Austin on relief efforts following Rita. He said he saw trucks from the Texas Department of Transportation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other agencies stuck on the clogged streets.
He called on residents to heed the warnings "out of good citizenship."
At an earlier news conference Saturday in Austin, Gov. Rick Perry expressed relief that Houston and Galveston -- cities that were largely evacuated in advance of Rita's arrival -- "were spared the worst of the storm."
But, he said, "I can't say in strong enough terms to those who evacuated the coastal region that they should not begin to return for the time being."
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