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The Situation Room

A New Hurricanes Threaten the Already Devastated Gulf Coast.

Aired September 19, 2005 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I agree with you, Jack. thank you very much. We're going to get back to you very, very soon. It's 5:00 p.m. here in Washington and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where news and information from around the world arrive in one place simultaneously.
Happening now at 4:00 p.m. Central. In New Orleans, where fears over Rita are now prompting Mayor Ray Nagin, we just heard ti here live, to tell returning residents, not so quickly. This is not a good time, necessarily, to come home. Others hoping to come back, but not right now. We'll have details.

And it's 5:00 p.m. in the Florida Keys where a weather system named Rita is menacing, threatening, and strengthening with, apparently, hurricane ambitions.

Also in New Orleans, we have tapes of phone calls just as Katrina hit. We'll share them with you. I'm Wolf Blitzer and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

More now on our breaking news out of New Orleans. The mayor there, Ray Nagin, telling residents coming home for the first time, stay away. Some reports suggesting Tropical Storm Rita, which will likely become a hurricane very, very soon, could head toward New Orleans.

Meanwhile, only moments ago the Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, said all shelters and hospitals are shut in the Keys and the Key West International Airport will close in about an hour.

Also in the Florida keys, businesses are boarding up, residents are packing up, all trying to get out as quickly as they can. We're tracking Rita's whereabouts from our CNN Weather Center and on the ground in Florida, our John Zarella is standing by live in Key West. Our Mary Sow is live in Louisiana.

First, though, CNN Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras gives us the latest forecast. Only minutes ago, what's the latest with Rita, Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. The advisory just came in, Wolf, and it's still a tropical storm. So it's holding steady right now with 70 miles-per-hour winds. Probably going to become a hurricane, though, we think, later on tonight. Getting a little bit closer as it's making its way through the Bahamas right now. It's about 345 miles away from Key West.

The intensity forecast, also, is bumped up just a little bit now. And take note, as this continues to move over these very warm waters, thorough the Florida Strait, expecting it now to be a good Category 2 hurricane with 100 mile-per-hour winds as it approaches Key West. After that it's going to be moving back over the open water, continuing to intensify. Category 3 it looks like, at least. This is the position on Thursday, and then late week into the early part of the weekend, it has its eye set on the Western Gulf.

It's still really too soon to pin-point exactly where, Wolf, and we've been talking a lot about New Orleans. Could they possibly get another hit? Well they're on the very edge of this outer cone, so we can't rule them out just yet. However, we talked about the different computer models, and what the models are saying. And look at how well they agree down here towards the Florida Keys, but as we head through the Gulf they start to diverge just a little bit. But at this time none of them are moving it over New Orleans, so that is some good news. Of course, we may see some changes between now and then as that is still five days away.

First and foremost we still have to deal with what's going to be happening in the Keys. Here's some key headlines. Six to nine-foot storm surges going to be expected here. That's going to be in the Keys, but as you head a little farther up to the North into Miami-Dade County, could see storm surge around three to five feet.

What kind of damage? Roof damage, moderate structural damage, expect quite a bit of power outages across the Keys and into parts of South Florida. Rainfall six to ten inches possibly a little bit higher than that. Locally heavy amounts as that continues to push in. We're starting to get some of that rain already across the extreme Southern Keys right now, but looking pretty good across South Florida -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We just heard the mayor say, Jacqui, I don't know if you were listening, but he said even a -- some rain, five inches and a small surge, three feet, even if they just get a lot of rain in New Orleans on the outer side of this hurricane, that could be a real threat to the levees that have been rebuilt, the flood walls that have been rebuilt and that's why he's telling everyone right now, hold off. Don't necessarily rush back to get a peak at your homes. I guess that's pretty sound advice.

JERAS: Yes. I mean, if you don't have to, right. Better be safe than sorry. It's certainly something, though, that they're gong to watch very closely over the next couple days.

BLITZER: And significant rain potential -- even if the hurricane hits Galveston or Texas, in Louisiana and New Orleans, they could get some significant rain as a result of this storm.

JERAS: That's right. They would be in some of those outer feeder bands, so they could see some heavier rain amounts, and that would also be the part of the storm where they could see tornadoes.

BLITZER: All right. Let's continue to watch it. Thank you very much, Jacqui. We'll get back to you. The threat of Tropical Storm Rita has prompted a major turn of events in New Orleans within the past few moments. You saw it live here in THE SITUATION ROOM. CNN's Mary Snow is joining us now live with more details -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, just moments ago New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin suspended the reentry plan into New Orleans saying that the threat from Rita is too severe, so that is why he does not want people to return to New Orleans. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: We're suspending all reentry into the city of New Orleans as of this moment. I'm also asking everyone in Algiers to prepare to evacuate as early as Wednesday. I'm also asking anyone who is on the east bank of Orleans Parish to also start to prepare yourself to evacuate on Wednesday, or even earlier. The reason why we --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: This comes after days of concerns voiced by federal officials saying that it was too soon for people to come back to New Orleans. Algiers is the first place where people started to come back to their homes. It started today. That is where we are. We just spoke with a councilwoman here, Jackie Clarkson, who is saying to residents that they should stay put, and not come back here, because then they have to once again leave because of Rita -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Mary, thank you very much. Let's go back to New Orleans. The mayor, Ray Nagin, is answering reporters' questions. Let's listen in.

NAGIN: ... fully believe that once the private sector gets in here, the pace of change and the cleanup and restoration is going to accelerate. I mean, government is sluggish, it's lethargic, it's phlegmatic, it's just -- it's government. So we have to get the business people in so that they can do something about it.

QUESTION: Does the storm threat, does it make it seem that the city cannot effectively reopen? This reentry plan that you've had, let's say this storm passes and it's Saturday morning and Louisiana is just fine. But hurricane season doesn't end for months.

NAGIN: Right.

QUESTION: You're comfortable starting this weekend to restart the whole process all over again, knowing you could be standing there one more time...

(CROSSTALK)

NAGIN: No. Am I comfortable? Absolutely not. Am I...

QUESTION: Can the city effectively allow residents to reenter at a time when it could be hit by a hurricane any week? NAGIN: I think we can as long as those are mobile residents that come back, and as long as we're not encouraging children to come back and elderly. I think we can do it.

We need a very flexible citizen that comes back. And I think our citizens are smart enough to understand the difference.

QUESTION: Do you have any estimate as to how many residents currently are in New Orleans overall?

NAGIN: No, I don't. You know, all I know of is a big cluster of a couple of hundreds residents that are still here, and then there's people that are scattered about. And then you have I guess the St. Charles Avenue people that I was asked about earlier.

QUESTION: We've been hearing lots of speculation that larger corporations are very interested in buying up land around here. How would you respond to residents' concerns that this could be a final step in the gentrification of New Orleans (OFF-MIKE)

NAGIN: Well, you know, I think New Orleans is going to be different going forward.

NAGIN: I don't think it's going to change materially as far as the racial mix of this city. If you go in -- and this where people -- you know, I throw things out there and I try and be as comprehensive as I can and then I expect folks to go do a little research after that. But I guess I shouldn't expect that.

If you look at the ZIP codes that we stated were our core areas that hadn't flooded, if you go in and look at the census data associated with those ZIP codes, and you add it up and you divide African American and Caucasian and Hispanic, you're going to find that there's still 54 percent to 55 percent African American in those ZIP codes, 42 percent to 43 percent Caucasian and about 3 percent to 4 percent Hispanic. Those are relatively in the same ranges that the entire city of New Orleans is.

So all this talk about gentrification, you know, the jury's still out. But that's not my intentions. I intend to have a city that is culturally diverse, very unique and very similar to what we had before but better.

QUESTION: Mr. Mayor, you're encouraging people to leave once again and the biggest reason most folks want to get back is to protect what property they have left. Do they have any guarantee from you or anyone else in the city or in the United States that their property won't be looted this time around if it made it through last time?

NAGIN: Well, you know, this is a different event. We don't have a significant amount of people still in the city. Everywhere you move in the city, you get stopped for the most part. I had one of my staff members who come from Baton Rouge and got stopped seven times coming down to the Hyatt.

So we're going to continue to protect the city, we're going to continue to protect the assets. But more importantly, we're going to stay focused on people. And we're going to protect people first and then the assets second. And that's just the way we're going to do it.

QUESTION: Mr. Mayor, there are some people along Magazine Street, who listened to your news conferences last week, business people. They came back to town. They've been there now for two days, no electricity, no air conditioning, nothing like that. And they said, "How can the mayor invite us back into the city as business people to get up to speed, when we don't have any power?"

NAGIN: Look, all I can do is tell you we just got hit with a Category 5 storm. This is not an instant fix.

And the reality of coming back to the city, part of it, is to understand the challenge. So if folk are coming back here expecting full power, full sewage, you know, good running water -- that's just not reality after three weeks of this storm.

QUESTION: You mentioned the EPA report that you got, and had no airborne disease. When did you get that report? And what did it say about the residue that was in the flooded areas?

The Coast Guard officials yesterday said that you got the report and then you ignored that information.

NAGIN: Well, I mean, I don't know who's saying what. All I can do is tell you what we got. We received the report that said there was no significant airborne threats.

We also looked at the report as it relates to the flooded areas. And it was a very clever attorney who wrote the report. So it basically bounced on both sides of the issue and didn't really tell you much. And that's what the report said.

So if there's another report out there that we haven't seen, we would love to take a look at it and understand the threat better.

Thank you.

BLITZER: All right. The mayor of New Orleans announcing that he's reconsidered, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Rita, his earlier call for people to start coming back to their homes and to start coming back to their businesses given the fear that Rita, potentially a hurricane -- expected to become a hurricane very, very soon, could endanger New Orleans, at least, with heavy rains. He's saying stay away, at least for the time being.

It's certainly a worst case scenario. Rita following Hurricane Katrina's path right past New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers still working very, very hard to repair the levees, the flood walls. Dan Hitchings is with the Army Corps of Engineers. He's joining us now live from Baton Rouge.

Mr. Hitchings, thanks very much for joining us. How worried should those rescue workers, emergency personnel, military personnel, those who are in New Orleans right now, be worried about Rita and its affect on the levees and the flood walls.

DAN HITCHINGS, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Wolf, thanks for having me here and giving me a chance to talk about the situation.

We -- worried is a word -- I'd use concerned and watchful, is probably the best thing for everybody that's in town now. We're going to continue operations in that area, it's just so we can see what goes on. So we can also increase the minimum level of protection that exists now.

BLITZER: Those flood walls and those levees that have been repaired, and we've all seen the sandbags that have come in there, what can they realistically sustain without flooding returning?

HITCHINGS: Well, Wolf, the levees that we have repaired at this point are rally just repaired to the point to withstand the normal tidal surges. If we get a storm surge on top of that of a couple feet or beyond, you can expect that they will be overtopped. We're working very hard and as fast as we get material placed to increase that level, but we're not going to be to get a whole lot done to give any substantial protection before this forecast storm of Thursday or so.

BLITZER: So what's the bottom line? What are you doing to make New Orleans safe again, if it ever really was safe?

HITCHINGS: Well our first priorities are closing up the breaches at 17th Street and London Canal. Those areas, as you know, are blocked off temporarily now, but we're trying to increase the level there. That's the first place it would reenter the city. We have sheet piling driven across the ends of each of those canals that will help hold back a little bit of this tidal surge. But, as I said earlier, if it comes back with anything more than of couple feet, it's going to over top that as well.

BLITZER: So it doesn't even have to be a tropical storm or a tropical depression. Just a bad thunderstorm could cause New Orleans an enormous amount of problems right now, is that fair to say?

HITCHINGS: Well the -- you got two different problems that are facing you. One would be the storm surge, you know, from the wind driven waters that increase the heights there. The other is the rainfall. You now, as you know, the pump stations are operating at only partial capacity. And if we get more than a three-inch rain, we will have localized flooding in the low areas in New Orleans. Three to six will produce areas where you have water up to four feet deep.

BLITZER: That explains why the mayor had had a change of heart, a change of mind in deciding don't come back right now. Good explanation, Dan Hitchings with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Thanks for joining us. Good luck to you and all the men and women who work with you.

HITCHINGS: Thank you. My pleasure.

BLITZER: And Rita is coming. People are getting out of the Florida Keys right now. Coming up, we'll speak live to the mayor of Key West about the threat on the horizon.

Plus, the desperate cries of people trapped by Katrina. We're going to listen to some of those dramatic 911 calls even as the Gulf Coast braces for yet another storm. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're following Tropical Storm Rita heading toward the Florida Straits right now, then on, presumably to the Gulf of Mexico. Within the last hour, you saw it live here on CNN. The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, announcing he's suspending the repopulation of the city. Asking residents not to return, at least for now. I'm encouraging, he said, everyone to leave. Let's get some more on the evacuation of the Florida Keys Rita. Jimmy Weekley is the Mayor of Key West. He's joining us live.

Mayor, thanks very much for joining us. How are you doing with your evacuation.

MAYOR JIMMY WEEKLEY, KEY WEST, FLORIDA: Wolf, the latest word that we've got from along the Keys is that there's about twice as much traffic on the road as there normally is this time of year. So it seems that people are in fact following the evacuation notice and are evacuating.

BLITZER: What's the expectation for Key West? What are you bracing for?

WEEKLEY: We're looking right now at a Category 2 or maybe a 3. We're of course planning for a worst case scenario here, where we think there will be six to -- six- to nine-foot storm surge. And one thing is that, you know, being an island, we have the Gulf of Mexico on one (AUDIO GAP).

BLITZER: Unfortunately, we've lost connection with Jimmy Weekley, the mayor of Key West. We are going to try -- we are going to try to reconnect with him. If we don't, we wish him and everyone in the Keys the best of luck during this evacuation.

Let's bring in CNN's Jack Cafferty. He's in New York. He's watching all of this, together with all of us -- Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Just a nightmare. When does this hurricane situation wind down? When does the season end?

BLITZER: I think we have another month or so.

CAFFERTY: Wow. Just living with the anxiety in that part of the country, of, you know, is it going to be us next time? Are we going to get hit next time?

NASA -- this is a whole different story. NASA says they want to spend $104 billion to put Americans back on the moon by 2018. Remember last year, President Bush said it will cost $1 billion, $1 billion to put a -- make a return trip to the moon by 2008. The U.S. is facing some astronomical bills. Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war, the deficits. Let's look at a couple of numbers, real quick. The current budget deficit in this country is $352 billion. The current debt is $7.9 trillion. The trade deficit this year is expected to approach $700 billion. Katrina spending could total $300 billion. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost $300 billion and will continue to cost $6.5 billion a month.

So here's the question: As we approach maxing out our national credit card, is this the time to be going back to the moon? CaffertyFile@cnn.com.

2018, that seems like a long way away. I remember back when Kennedy said, we're going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and it only took nine years. And here it is 2005, and we're talking about 13 years from now. I don't quite get that.

BLITZER: Maybe our viewers have some insight. We'll be anxious to get their thoughts. Jack, thanks very much.

Coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM, the stranded of Katrina in their own words. You will hear some of those 911 calls that flooded New Orleans police at the height of the hurricane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the war in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina, concerns over America's fuel economy have been felt nationwide. Rising costs and shrinking resources have many looking to a future with hydrogen gas.

DAVID BERRY, PH.D., HARVARD-MIT HST PROGRAM: There's several ways that hydrogen gas is produced today. What we're trying to do is develop a cleaner method so we're not -- which is also independent at the same time from fossil fuels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Berry is researching new and cheaper ways to produce hydrogen gas biologically. One method helps improve a current hydrogen producing process by using a reaction found in human biology.

BERRY: We've looked into human biology and found proteins that actually naturally bind oxygen, but also more effectively bind carbon monoxide. We've been able to incorporate this pathway and actually get more efficient hydrogen output.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Berry is also studying the way algae uses photosynthesis to convert light energy into hydrogen gas. He says if he can increase the efficiency of this natural process by tenfold, these engineered algae could provide a cheap source of energy for the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Welcome back. A major concern of those lobbying for a delay of residents' returning to New Orleans is the shutdown of the city's 911 emergency system. Before it collapsed, that system and its 120 operators were utterly overwhelmed by calls during the worst of Hurricane Katrina and the massive flooding that followed. CNN's Zain Verjee joining us now. She has more -- Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, many operators couldn't take it for more than 15 minutes before completely breaking down. They wept and they hugged each other in hallways. And they were composed enough, they went back to relieve those who had just taken over from them. One operator described it as a doomsday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): In the end, their hands were tied. All 911 operators could do was to listen and offer advice.

CALLER: This is the third time you're asking me, I'm so sorry.

911: So you're on the roof?

CALLER: I'm about to go to the roof.

911: OK, we ask that you go to higher ground, sir. We're trying our best to get out to everybody.

VERJEE: People trapped in their homes.

CALLER: I have a handicapped girl and I have a baby, and we're on the bed, and the water is coming up.

VERJEE: The dispatcher in all these calls, operator 16, was a calm voice in a sea of chaos, even when gas lines began to break.

CALLER: I just want to know if there is a gas leak if we let fresh air if we'll be all right.

911: I think if you let fresh air in, everybody's going to be all right, but right now we cannot send fire out because we cannot come in this kind of weather.

VERJEE: And the final straw as the rush of water fails to stop destruction by fire.

911: Police operator 16.

CALLER: I'm calling to report a fire at 5131 Bundy Road.

911: What type of fire, ma'am?

CALLER: A whole apartment complex across from me is on fire. At 5131 Bundy Road.

911: OK, ma'am, we got the call. What is your name?

CALLER: Andrea. Do you know how long it will be?

911: No, ma'am. We're doing our best to, you know, get people out to where they need to go, OK?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: Wolf, that was just some of what was on an eight-minute tape. 911 operators really worked around the clock during the height of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. All but 15 of them have left town now, mostly to join their evacuated families in other states -- Wolf.

BLITZER: That's one reason why the federal government didn't want people coming back to New Orleans right now. They simply don't have a 911 emergency system in place. But now Rita, another major reason why the mayor's just announced, and we saw it live here on CNN, a decision to hold back. Don't come back to New Orleans right now. Stay where you are. This is not a good time to come back. Later this week, there could be severe weather there that could endanger everyone in New Orleans once again.

Still ahead, tracking Rita. The storm swirling west. First, the Florida Keys, but where will it go next? We'll go live to the National Hurricane Center in Miami for an update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Still a tropical storm, Rita, that is, expecting to become a hurricane very, very soon. We're watching that. We are going to go to the National Hurricane Center in Miami momentarily to get the latest information. First, though, let's bring in our Tom Foreman. He's here in THE SITUATION ROOM with us.

You're watching very closely in the Keys, what is going on, what are you picking up?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, to talk about this evacuation down there, and if you've ever visited the Keys, you'll notice that a lot is very similar to New Orleans. It has some of the same heritage, some of the Spanish heritage. It goes way back, very ancient -- or very old area by American standards. Looks similar in a lot of ways, but some very, very important differences.

Let's bring out the map here and take a look at what we're talking about. When you look at Key West, which is a place we're really talking about here, if you go all the way into it, by comparison, New Orleans is almost a fortress. It has got a number of roads leading into it. Quite isolated. Key West has got one, it's right over here, and that's it. And when you head that way, that's really all you get. Plus, this entire area down here, when you talk about evacuating it, you're talking about 25,000 people. Well, that's, you know, compared to like a million and a half for the area around New Orleans and all of that area. So evacuating an area like this is a much smaller endeavor, but again, you're doing it over a much smaller area. So there's one difference.

BLITZER: And you got one road to get out, basically.

FOREMAN: That's exactly right.

BLITZER: But still, 25,000 people is 25,000 people. That's a lot of people.

FOREMAN: That's a huge amount of people to get out of an area in a short period of time, especially when you have this one little road -- I am trying to zoom this shot out a little bit and show you a little bit more of what we're talking about. See all of these little islands up in here? All of this is one tiny little road that leads out through here.

That has to take a whole lot of traffic to get all the way back up to the mainland of Florida here. We zoom out and we take a look at where the storm is coming in now.

Why is New Orleans so concerned now? After talking about it earlier. Well, it's really easy to see. A storm like this hitting Key West in an area like this is going to lose very little power. It's passing over a tiny little bit of land. But when it moves over this way, look what happens. It's going directly toward New Orleans, which is up here, via the projected possible paths for this storm. If you look at those paths, all of them go somewhere near New Orleans, and one goes in directly over Lake Pontchartrain, which is what we've talked about, with the storm that came in before. Katrina came in a little right of that position, and hooking up this way. So it came in a little bit off-center. But this is coming right in over the same area. That's why I think the people in New Orleans -- they have been looking at these same tracks, and over the last few hours in particular, they've started saying, you know what, this is something we cannot play around with.

In the past, you know, when I lived in New Orleans, many times we saw storms come in and people said, oh, it's headed right for New Orleans, and many, many, many, many times it didn't wind up there. And it convinced people, ah, we don't have to worry about it so much. Now, the people in Florida -- you had the mayor on here from Key West, taking it very seriously -- and the people in Louisiana are, too.

BLITZER: It's a nightmare when you think about it, given what's already happened. Stand by for a moment. Ali Velshi is watching this story as well. He's joining us from New York. What are you picking up, Ali?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, one of the places that's very concerned right now about the hurricane is the city of Galveston, the island of Galveston. Part of the problem here is Galveston was hit in 900 by a massive, massive hurricane, really destroyed most of the city. Now, the mayor of Galveston has decided that if the storm track which indicates Texas doesn't change before tomorrow afternoon, a voluntary evacuation will begin. He has asked those who can evacuate on their own to get going, leave Galveston, go about 100 miles up north to Huntsville, and those who cannot evacuate on their own, the city is providing 80 buses to put them -- to get them out of the city. They are also saying that if you have pets -- as you know, this was a major, major issue in New Orleans -- if you have pets, put them in a cage, they will take them on the buses and get them out.

Galveston, after being hit in 1900, built a storm wall, and you can see there that, you know, one of the tracks projected suggests Galveston might be in the way of this storm. They're preparing everybody to get out early. They have got a 17-foot seawall and they have got a fairly sophisticated evacuation plan in place in Galveston. But right now, evacuation plans are being prepared and ready to be implemented in Galveston, Texas, Wolf.

BLITZER: It's going to have a huge impact potentially on oil as well. Stand by, Ali, very much. Ed Rappaport is with the National Hurricane Center. He's joining us now live.

What is the latest information you're getting, Ed, on Tropical Storm Rita?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: The latest information is that at least a temporary period of good news in that Rita has not strengthened in the last several hours. So it remains a tropical storm, but just below the threshold of 75 miles per hour that it would need to become a hurricane. We think that will occur overnight, with the center passing near or over the Florida Keys tomorrow, likely as a Category 1 hurricane, possibly as Category 2, and then further strengthening in the central and western Gulf of Mexico.

BLITZER: So you think that this Rita could turn out to be a Category 3 at some point if it continues to move through the Gulf of Mexico?

RAPPAPORT: That's right. Both the ocean and atmospheric conditions are favorable for strengthening, and our forecast is for Rita to become a Category 3 hurricane by the time that it makes its way into the central and western Gulf. Here is our forecast now, it will turn more to the northwest, towards the end of the forecast period, which is late in the week, threatening Texas and Louisiana.

BLITZER: So if you're sitting in New Orleans right now, how worried should you be?

RAPPAPORT: At this point, this is the time to be monitoring what's going on. It's too soon to know whether there is going to be a direct impact on the New Orleans area. The forecast, at this stage, given four or five days out, is for the center to pass to the west through this area. But because we don't have perfect forecasts, we try to warn people on other side of that. And on average, our errors can come all the way up into this area, which is southeastern Louisiana. So there is some possibility, some risk for impact on southeastern Louisiana, though it looks like the greatest risk, at least at this stage, is farther to the west.

BLITZER: And so, Galveston, is that an area that potentially is in danger?

RAPPAPORT: Yes. Well, the entire Louisiana coast, over to the Texas coast, especially the upper Texas coast, is at risk from Rita, and we are forecasting it to be a major category, at least Category 3 intensity. In this area, late in the week, Thursday to Friday, landfall possibly by Saturday. And this entire area is vulnerable. The low-lying coasts, as we've seen further to the east, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

BLITZER: One final question, Ed, before I let you go. Is there something crazy going on right now? Is this hurricane season normal or is this extraordinary?

RAPPAPORT: Very unusual in the sense of how many storms we've had and how intense the landfalls have been so far. We're way ahead of a normal for an average year. But we know that we're in a period of heightened activity. NOAA makes seasonal forecasts, and predicted above-normal activity this year, and that's what we're seeing.

BLITZER: Ed Rappaport. We'll stay in close touch with you. Thank you very much for your good work.

It's one of the hardest hit areas in Louisiana, and heavy rain or worse may be on the way as we just heard from Ed Rappaport. St. Bernard Parish, where dozens died in a nursing home, and up to 75 percent of the homes may be unsalvageable. Our Mary Snow is there. She'll show you what she saw. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here's a look at some of the "Hot Shots" coming in from our friends over at the Associated Press. Pictures likely to be in your newspapers tomorrow.

In Indonesia, workers at a zoo carry a cage of chickens believed to be infected with the bird flu virus.

In Kuala Lampur, rescue teams springs into action during an earthquake disaster drill.

In the Netherlands, a horse makes his way through smoke grenades during a practice session of the Dutch Calvary.

And in South Korea, Venus Williams after she beat Number 1 ranked Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4.

Hotshots coming in from the Associated Press.

While parts of New Orleans were actually reopening today, it's a very, very different scene in some outlying areas. CNN's Mary Snow visited hard hit St. Bernard Parish. She's joining us now live with more on what she discovered -- Mary.

SNOW: Well, Wolf, to give you an idea of the stark contrast, we've been here in Algiers today, this is one of areas that had the least amount of damage. St. Bernard is wedged between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. It was hit by the storm surge and the levee break. It was one of the worst hit areas, and it is pretty much decimated. Yesterday, residents were allowed in to just try and salvage what they could.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice over): Jackson said she wanted to spare her aunt from having to see what was left of her home. Her life-long possessions reduced to a plastic bin. She lived in St. Bernard Parish where it's expected most homes are beyond repair. Jackson said she feels St. Bernard has been forgotten in the shadows of New Orleans.

LINDA JACKSON, EVACUEE: This was ground zero. This is where it happened. Ground zero came in right here, guys.

SNOW: Jackson considers herself lucky. Her aunt evacuated. Her future father-in-law was not so fortunate. Eighty-one year old Richard Ray Sacks Sr. (ph) refused to leave St. Bernard. Jackson and her fiancee found his body in his home a week ago. A week later, they returned and waded through contaminated sludge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You notice the clock, where it stopped? That's the time that the waters came in.

JACKSON: We just came today -- my family members -- today, to get anything that we could..

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Salvage what we could.

SNOW: When the stench becomes too much they have to leave.

JACKSON: An 81-year-old's man's life is down to two garbage bags full of water-logged photos.

SNOW: Linda and Richard have secured the one thing they wanted to retrieve. The ashes of Richard's mother who died last year.

JACKSON: She died in November, and that's the reason we couldn't get him to leave. This is what we came back for. If we found nothing else, we were going to find Jean (ph). He lived with this woman. They were together 54 years.

SNOW: They pack up a life's worth of possessions into the back of a car. They expect one day to come back to St. Bernard, just not any time soon, and they take with them a lesson.

JACKSON: Leave. Just leave. You can rebuild. This is just material objects.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (on camera): And Linda Jackson says she's confident that people will some day return to St. Bernard, but she said it may take years.

Now just to reiterate one more time the latest news coming out of New Orleans. Mayor Ray Nagin is suspending the reentry program into New Orleans saying that, because of the threat of Tropical Storm Rita, he is telling people to leave. He is saying prepare to be evacuated, or prepare to evacuate that is, by Wednesday, perhaps sooner.

This came after federal officials, including President Bush, questioned the reentry plan. Mayor Ray Nagin said that things had changed. That the levee system is still too weak, and the pumping station still too weak, and he's telling people to leave now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much. Mary Snow reporting for us.

We're getting some new video, by the way, of those pumping stations. Check this out. It looks like water still coming out from the flooded areas. It doesn't look like it's as robust as it was only a few days ago. We'll watch these new pictures. We'll watch what's happening. It's clearly a very, very dangerous situation potentially emerging along the Gulf Coast once again. A storm-weary Gulf Coast watching right as Rita is threatening.

Coming up, how you can track the storm right at home. We'll have details here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Here in THE SITUATION ROOM, we're tracking the storm named Rita. You can do the same thing, by the way, by logging on to your computer. Our internet reporters, Abbi Tatton and Jacki Schechner, are checking the situation online for us. They're joining us now live -- Abbi.

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Yes. Well people at home can see where Rita is going to be headed by looking at various websites. Lots and lots of online resources here. We've been hearing all day from the National Hurricane Center. Their website has many, many images on their Rita page. This is the strike probability zone, here. Also the five day cone, the projected path of this storm, as it heads right now, it looks like possible landfall Texas and Louisiana, there. This, again, from the National Hurricane Center.

Another site to watch here comes from Rutgers University. That is the sea surface temperature in the Gulf. Obviously hurricanes pick up strength over warm water. And maps here will show you how warm it is in the Gulf. Right now you can see about 85 degrees there. Zooming on the coast of Florida, how much warmer you can see that it is on the Gulf side than the Atlantic side.

JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: A couple of sites we've seen before. SquitoBiteWeather.com (ph) and Wunderground.com, but we found this blog and thought it was kind of cool. It's called the StormTrack.com (ph). And it's a guy named Brian Woods (ph) who has his undergraduate degree in meteorology studying for his PhD at Yale i Geophysics. He said he had an internship in meteorology. He said he wasn't cut out for the broadcast side, so what he's doing is sharing his expertise with you via blog. You can find that StormTrack.com. He's got an ask Brian section, and he is following Tropical Storm Rita. And like many of us, he says the recent models make him very nervous for New Orleans -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Useful information. Thanks very much, guys. Appreciate it.

By the way, on the left side of your screen, you've been seeing it for hours for the past several days. Children still missing from Hurricane Katrina. CNN has teamed up with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Our Brian Todd is over at their headquarters outside Washington. He is joining us now live -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, they've had a lot of success due to the collaboration between CNN and this center. As you've been seeing on your screen those names those faces being plastered up there for hours on end each day. They just had a shift change in this room. They're working very hard, these volunteers have come from all over the country have come here. They're going to be here well into the evening.

Now the numbers we're talking about, right now they have 2,393 children still listed as missing. Important to make a distinction here. Many of those are children who are under the care of an adult, but whose parents cannot be located. Others are children who are out right missing. So there's a lot of work yet to do. Eight-hundred- and-eighty-three cases have been resolved.

How long are they going to be here? Well I spoke to the director of this center not long ago. He told me it is indefinite. You look over here, they've got volunteers that are going to be here well into the night tonight. He says that they will be -- this hotline will be set up and be working, either until every case is resolved, or unless they otherwise know the fate of all these children. So this is going to be a period of weeks in not months, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank all those volunteers for us. Brian, thank you very much.

Still ahead, is NASA reaching too high and wanting to spend too much to send an astronaut back to the moon. Jack Cafferty's been going through your -mail. He's standing by to join us live next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?

SHOSHANA JOHNSON, FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN POW: Shana.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shana? Where are do you come from?

JOHNSON: Texas.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): She's the first African-American woman to become a prisoner of war. Shoshana Johnson was a cook for the 507th maintenance company when it was ambushed in Iraq in March of 2003.

JOHNSON: I was terrified. I didn't know what was going to happen to me and I was in a lot of pain.

BROWN: The 35-year-old single mother was shot in both ankles, captured with five other soldiers.

JOHNSON: I feared for my life the whole captivity.

BROWN: She was rescued three weeks later and came home to instant celebrity. Johnson-Wilson retired from the Army. She's had to fight to keep her disability benefits. Because her injuries were less severe, she receives much less than her fellow soldier Jessica Lynch. But she says she doesn't begrudge her friend.

JOHNSON: Things don't bother me as much, you know. Quite frankly, I'm just very happy to be still on this earth.

BROWN: Johnson spends her time with her daughter. She does some speaking engagements. And she's still undergoing both physical and emotional therapy.

JOHNSON: Everything happens for a reason. I've had a lot of good fortune. I'm healthy. My family's healthy, my daughters, my nieces. I don't ask God for anything more than that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Jack Cafferty has been going through your e-mail. He's joining us live in New York. Jack, what have you got?

CAFFERTY: NASA wants $104 billion, Wolf, to put Americans back on the moon in 2018.

BLITZER: Is that billion, did you say?

CAFFERTY: Billion with a B, 104 billion. And with all the money we're spending in Iraq and Afghanistan and the deficits and we've got Katrina and the Gulf Coast. The question is, is this the time to be going back to the moon?

Jon in Odessa writes, timing's everything. Who in their right mind would suggest hundreds of billions of dollars for a moon mission when we're spending money we don't have already in Iraq and on our Gulf Coast.

H. Reynolds writes, it's absolutely ridiculous to spend that kind of money to go back to the moon, when we have already been there. NASA's spending should be cut to zero until we get back to a balanced budget.

Thomas in Tucson, Arizona. In our countries grand tradition of disaster preparedness, the moon will be out new shelter of last resort.

Michael in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. I would much rather see out country spend money on a mission to the moon than on a fruitless war in a foreign land. Historically the space program has spurred on the development of many technologies which make out lives better today.

And Ross in Paradise, California. It's time for us to go to the moon, and take the following people: Ray Nagin, Kathleen Blanco, Michael Brown, Michael Chertoff, Dick Cheney, George Bush. Leave them there to do studies on organizational skills for one year.

BLITZER: We've got a lot of really, really creative and intelligent viewers out there, don't we, Jack?

CAFFERTY: You know what it is? This late in the afternoon they're in the wine. You know, the guy's not home from work yet, the dinner, the kids are doing their homework, they have a couple of glasses of wine, and they go, I know the answer to that question. Then they rush off the to the computer and T us up with their stuff. Actually, some of the stuff's pretty good.

BLITZER: You know, I get a lot of e-mail, Jack, and I don't want to embarrass you, but our viewers love you.

CAFFERTY: Well you're embarrassing me.

BLITZER: I am embarrassing you. I just want you to know that.

CAFFERTY: Well that's nice to hear.

BLITZER: They do.

CAFFERTY: All right.

BLITZER: We're in THE SITUATION ROOM every weekday 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you tomorrow. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starting right now. Christine Romans filling in for Lou -- Christine.

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