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The Situation Room
Huricane Rita Upgraded To Category 5
Aired September 21, 2005 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: It's 4:00 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, an all too familiar and dangerous threat. Hurricane Rita. Now nearing a Category 5 storm and barreling through the Gulf of Mexico.
It's 3:00 p.m. Central along the Texas coast where anxious residents are getting out of harm's way. A critical question this hour, are federal officials ready for Rita? The president and his team are trying to show they're on top of the situation this time.
And Hurricane Katrina's toll on America's finances. Where should the budget be trimmed? There's a new surge of proposals up on Capitol Hill and online. We want to know how you would make the cut. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
This hour a frightening and very frustrating reality for thousands of people in Texas and Louisiana. They know Hurricane Rita is coming. Packing the kind of devastating power Katrina had when it slammed into the Gulf Coast three and a half weeks ago, and Rita could grow even worse before crashing on to land in the coming days. Let's go to the CNN Weather Center, our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras standing by with the latest forecast for us.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Wolf, Rita is pushing Category 5 status. It's a very powerful 4 with 150 mile per hour winds at this time. It's also a very large storm, and wall-to-wall, side-to-side, this storm packs winds of at least 39-74 miles per hour for 300 miles wide. And unfortunately, it looks like this storm will not only continue to grow in intensity, but also in its size. And that is going to be affecting millions and millions of people as this storm gets closer towards the Texas coastline.
There is the official forecast track from the National Hurricane Center. Keeping it as a 4 throughout the forecast period, but we will likely see some fluctuations in intensity, it could go up to a 4, back down to a 4 and if you're we're lucky, get back down to 3.
There you can see projected landfall sometime on Saturday morning as a major hurricane, 3 or better. We do have some information that's going to help explain the path of the storm. You asked me about this last hour, Wolf. There's an area of high pressure that is sitting across the southern plains. That's going to be drifting off to the east. Right now, it is guiding Rita in a westerly direction. That high as it continues to push eastward will start to bring Rita on up into the northerly flow, and that's why we are expecting it to make landfall fall in Texas.
Should that high move farther east at a faster pace, that would make Louisiana more vulnerable. But I do have some new news to report also. The forecast models, the new ones are beginning to come in. And there is a lot of certainty here. The models in very good agreement in where this is going. And right now, none of them are bringing it over Galveston or Houston but it does bring it off to the west of there. There you can see right in the middle where most of them are moving, that's near Port Lavaca. And down here is Corpus Christi and, of course, New Orleans is way over here.
The 5:00 advisory is just around the corner. We usually get that in a little bit early. And as soon as we do, Wolf, we will bring that to you.
BLITZER: All right, very interesting. We'll check back with you very, very soon. Thank you very much, Jacqui. The governor of Texas is urging residents along a 250-mile stretch of the coast to leave for safer ground right now.
A mandatory evacuation order is in effect for Galveston and other areas that could take a direct hit from Rita. The Governor Rick Perry says other people who may wind up in Rita's path should not wait to be ordered to leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK PERRY, (TX): Coastal Texans should not wait till late Thursday or early Friday to leave. Traffic is most likely to be significantly heavier along the evacuation routes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: After learning lessons from Hurricane Katrina, emergency officials in Texas are putting a priority on evacuating the elderly and the other people with special needs. Like New Orleans, the Houston-Galveston region is one of the poorest metro areas in the nation. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is joining us now live from Galveston and she's got more on how people are now bracing for this storm. Deb, what's the latest?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, many of them, Wolf, are bracing simply by getting out of town. A lot of them listening to what the mayor has been saying. They're either taking a bus, they're driving themselves out of town. Still on track right now for 6:00 Central Time to be a mandatory evacuation which means everybody is going to have to pull out. Again, if the storm shifts, that could possibly change, but officials are really -- they're basically siding on the side of caution. They don't want what happened in New Orleans to happen here.
You can see that we're just here by the ocean. We're standing just along the sea wall here. You can make that out. The ocean pretty calm right now. But we're speaking to somebody who lives in this area. And they said that even the weather feels differently from what it normally does. It's very still. Very hot. Very humid. A little bit of a breeze, but just muggy, muggy, muggy, muggy, as if you're walking through sort of thick pea soup. They said whether this is the calm before the storm there is something in the air and it definitely feels different. Wolf?
BLITZER: The whole nature of Galveston being very, very just above sea level, unlike New Orleans which is mostly below, Galveston is what, six feet above sea level but it's surrounded by water. They know history there and they know they shouldn't take any chances.
FEYERICK: Yeah, absolutely. As a matter of fact, interestingly, when we were driving here to get to the sea wall, we were just over at city hall, even the streets almost look similar to New Orleans, but the difference as you say is that this is above sea level. New Orleans is below sea level. Even, for example, if water were to reach 20-30 feet high, the mayor says because of the way this island is shaped, it would drain very, very quickly. And that's why she's only made three days provision because she really feels along with all the officials that are around her who are counseling her, who are advising her, they feel that three days provision is enough. Even the worst flood you can imagine, it will drain off within that three-day period.
Wolf?
BLITZER: All right. Deborah Feyerick in Galveston for us, thank you. President Bush is warning today that the nation must be ready for the worst from Hurricane Rita. Many Americans are wondering if Mr. Bush and his administration are fully prepared. Our White House correspondent Dana Bash is joining us now live with more on what the president and his team are up to. Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf.
Well, the White House knows that with this second storm, perhaps, there could be a second chance for the president to show he can take control, he can lead a federal response. That could turn things around potentially for him when it comes to his plummeting approval on his leadership.
They know that blaming inadequate response on something that is unprecedented or unimaginable is not going to fly in this case. The president started his speech earlier today at the Republican Jewish Coalition warning Americans that they -- especially those in the path of Katrina -- excuse me, of Rita, that they need to get out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for New Orleans and Galveston. I urge the citizens to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities and follow them. We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm. But we've got to be ready for the worst.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, Wolf, the president issued a nearly identical warning the day before Katrina hit when he was still at his ranch in Texas. But the White House is hoping that there are a lot of lessons that they have learned and especially lessons that the local officials have learned, primarily when it comes to evacuation. That is really been the focus of the homeland security secretary and of the president's team here. Making sure that local officials are getting people out, forcing them to get out if they can't do it themselves, what Deborah was talking about earlier.
That is really the key at this point. But they also understand that there needs to be better communication early on between the president and his team and local officials. That is why you are seeing them send a Coast Guard admiral already to the State of Texas to try to help coordinate in a better way.
BLITZER: Dana Bash at the White House. Dana, thanks very much. These pictures we've been looking at, traffic leaving the Galveston area. People trying to get out of the area as quickly as possible with Hurricane Rita moving towards that community potentially. There's a lot happening meanwhile here in Washington in the struggle to try to repair damage from Hurricane Katrina and pay for it. The House of Representatives approved a $6.1 billion package of tax breaks to help Gulf Coast families and businesses recover.
Some Republicans, meantime, are butting heads with one another how to pay for the Katrina cleanup. Some conservatives are pushing today to slash federal spending with possible cuts in everything from new prescription drug benefits for the elderly to highway funding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JEB HENSARLING, (R) TX: We do not have to raise taxes. We do not have to pass the debt on to our children. If we will simply use some common sense reforms and ask our federal government to find a penny or two on the dollar. And if they can't find that, ladies and gentlemen, they're simply not looking.
DENNIS HASTERT, (R) DE: I don't think it would be prudent at this time to say we're going to stop our Medicare program. We need to have that. That's something that seniors across this country look forward to. And you know, some people say well, we ought to do away with the highway bill. It's exactly a highway bill that we need, especially in southern Mississippi and other ports to rebuild the infrastructure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So what do you think about how we should pay for Katrina? Who better to gauge your opinions than our own Jack Cafferty. He is joining us now live once again from New York. Hi, Jack.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, how you doing? We'll get to that in a minute. The question which we asked an hour or so ago had to do with the media's saturation coverage, you should pardon the pun of Katrina and now Hurricane Rita. Has the hurricane coverage taken too much media attention off the war in Iraq? Is what we wanted to know. Nine Americans have been killed in Iraq in the last couple of days. The death toll for American troops is now over 1900. And yet, you're not seeing much on TV news or in the newspapers about the war. Sue writes this -
"As the mother of a marine currently ..."
BLITZER: All right, Jack, hold on one second. Hold that thought for a second. We have breaking news here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
BLITZER: Hurricane Rita, which was Category 4, is now Category 5. Jacqui Jaeras at the CNN Weather Center joining us. This just coming in from the National Hurricane Center, Jacqui?
JERAS: Yes, that's right. In fact, I just got off the phone with one of the meteorologists there. They say it is a Cat 5 now with maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour. So that's well into the Category 5 range. You have to be greater than 155 to be a Category 5 and it's 165 now. So Category 5 hurricane. It's continuing to go stronger. We've been seeing these signs all day long, well defined eye. Rita now a 5. And holding very strong. Wolf?
BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about what this potentially means. A Category 5, it could weaken as it gets closer to shore and back down to a Category 5. But if it stayed as a Category 5, and this is a significant Category 5, how powerful, how much damage are we looking -- anything in its path.
JERAS: Pretty much everything in its path is going down, wolf. Well constructed buildings, they'd have to be pretty solid concrete to be able to sustain winds like that. If you remember, Katrina was up to 175 for a while, but it's hard for a storm to maintain strength like that for a long period of time. So we're up to a 5 now and we're holding strong. We may stay there for a while. It's very likely it will go back down to a 4, but it could just as likely go back up to a 5 because the distance that the storm is, it's about 700 miles or so away from Corpus Christi, Texas. And that's within that cone of uncertainty where it could be hitting.
And that gives it a lot of time to go through what we call eye wall cycles. You know the eye wall of the storm, Wolf, which is just right outside of the eye, where the strongest thunderstorms are, those storms build up. Then they weaken. They build back up and they weaken again. And we go through those cycles so the storm will intensify and go down again. We may see this stay at a 5 for a while, it could go back down to a 4, but it could go right back up to a five. There is time for number of cycles before landfall.
BLITZER: Category 5, wind speeds greater than 155 miles an hour. Right now 165 miles an hour. Storm surge generally greater than 18 feet above normal. There have only been three Category 5 hurricanes over the past century that have made landfall in the United States, in 1935 in the Florida Keys, 1969, Hurricane Camille, Mississippi, southeast Louisiana, Virginia, 1992, Andrew in Southeast Florida. And in Louisiana for that matter, as well. This is really, really rare.
JERAS: Yeah, it is rare. It's not often that you'll see a storm like this, but also, it's not a five making landfall just yet. We've got a lot of time before that could happen. So we'll have to hope we will be in one of those weakening cycles as it gets closer to the coastline. And one of the big things we worry about, Wolf, is that storm surge, that big wall of water that rises up and just inundates the coastline. That could go in more than ten miles from the coast, Wolf, and bring a wall of water greater than 18 feet like you mentioned, Camille, one of the Category 5s that did make landfall had record storm surge of over 25 feet and Katrina rivaled that at a Category 4.
BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about Jacqui, let's talk a little bit about the damage. You say everything basically in its path, if it were to remain above 155 miles an hour, which is a Category 5 hurricane, but get some specifics so that it has the meaning. Remember, Category 4 was Katrina. Katrina as it made landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama.
JERAS: Well, built homes will be destroyed. And Sean Morris (ph), my producer could get on my weather computer and put in a category five and we'll get the specs for you besides the winds and storm surge that we mentioned. But well-constructed homes, very well demolished through the storm system, not much can survive that. I know there are some homes that have been built now with windows and that are basically concrete homes that might be able to withstand that.
But even high rises, windows, numbers of stories up could be blown on out. There we go. Sean's got those numbers for you. Here you go, Wolf. Here's the specifics. That's a Category 4, Sean. Sorry, we'll get that for you in just a minute, Wolf.
BLITZER: Let me ask you about Galveston in particular. Right now it's not moving necessarily according to all the latest computer projections necessarily towards Galveston. But if it were to move to that island, it would have a similar situation as occurred 105 years ago?
JERAS: Yeah, that's possible. But the thing to keep in mind is that we've evacuated a lot of those people. Hopefully, they'll get out of there and we won't worry about those.
BLITZER: Stand by for a moment. The mayor of Houston, Bill White, is speaking to reporters right now. Let's listen in.
MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON: Will be at one hour intervals so we can free resources to get people to places where they can be assisted and get in on other vehicles out of this region further inland. And dealing with the transportation logistics of those most in need. The metro's current plans, Mr. Smally (ph) I think is here, if you could address it, is to don't count on the metro service being available. Your regular metro service being available on Friday.
Finally, metro has directed that the HOV lanes, the normal tolls be suspended tomorrow and the lanes be directed outbound in order to encourage and facilitate the flow of vehicles outside the city. George? Those are the announcements and -- yes.
One final and we'll bring metro up. We have had some questions about the San Jacinto River. In Lake Conroe there are no plans at this time to lower Lake Conroe now. That would mean increased flows into the San Jacinto River which would increase the risk of flooding for localized rains down stream from the lake. It is currently one and a half feet lower than it can accommodate eight to 10 inches of rain within the lake. With that, I will turn it over to the metro to talk a little bit about the mayor's discussions on metro ...
BLITZER: We're going to break away from that news conference in Houston. People there understandably jittery right now. Hurricane Rita is now a powerful Category 5 monster. Winds of about 165 miles an hour right now. If it's more than 155 miles an hour, that's a Category 5 hurricane. That's the highest. Only occurred three times, making landfall over the past century here in the United States.
We're going to continue our breaking news coverage. We're standing by to go to our reporters in the region. Much more here in THE SITUATION ROOM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. We're following breaking news. Hurricane Rita now officially a Category 5 monster. Winds of approximately 165 miles an hour as it goes through the Gulf of Mexico and communities all across the Texas Gulf Coast are bracing for the worst, including Galveston, Corpus Christi and Houston, the mayor now calling for a voluntary evacuation of the Houston area. That's about 4 million people in the Greater Houston Metropolitan Area. Mayor Bill White said this only moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITE: All people who are in the storm surge areas, all the regions, A, B and C, are encouraged to evacuate and make their evacuation plans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Let's bring in Tom Foreman. He's watching all of this on his map. You know this area quite well. Houston is about 60 miles inland away from the coast, away from Galveston. But it has unique problems of its own. Let's talk a little bit about surge, storm surge.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, storm surge is an issue even in Houston as far in as it is. Different in New Orleans in this. New Orleans is sort of a bowl ringed in by levees, below water level. You can't do much about it. Houston has one problem though, about four times the population, tremendous number of people to deal with there. They're benefited by a lot of roads leading out. Let's talk about the kind of storm moments ago we were looking at this graphic of this. But let's talk about the kind of storm - just moments ago we were looking at this graphic of this. I want to show it to you again. If we go into Galveston, which is what we're talking about now, and it's a barrier island, very close to the shore, if we look what would happen if you had the storm come in, look at the inlet right there, the level we're talking about was the highest level, this is as if we had a very low level of flooding in Galveston. You see Galveston there, the inlet. What we're talking about, if you went to this category of storm would be flooding that would make this picture change to that. That's the difference.
BLITZER: Basically the island would disappear underwater.
FOREMAN: Essentially it would all go completely underwater. I'm going to show you that one more time and then I want to show you something that happened with these islands and why it matters so much. This is again the Galveston area. If you look at it from area, if this storm gets there and hits there at this level, the storm surge will turn it into this view where it will all go essentially underwater like this.
BLITZER: And just to give viewers a perspective, Galveston County which is more than that barrier island has a population of about 260,000 people. That's more than a quarter of a million people.
FOREMAN: That's an awful lot of people to move out. Again, they benefit by having more roads. Not out here in the outer areas, they only have a few roads in and out there, but they have some more in other ways.
I want to go back and look at one other thing here.
BLITZER: This picture on the right, I want to show viewers this pier over here. This is Galveston. These are live pictures. You see the surf is just coming in, it's a nice little surf. We're still days away, early Saturday morning the projection for being Hurricane Rita to make landfall.
FOREMAN: If you want to have a sense of what can happen with a storm like this hitting a barrier island, which is what Galveston is, look at this. This is over at Dauphin Island off Alabama. See this strip here? This is Dauphin Island. And I want you to look at what happened at Dauphin Island when the storm came in.
This is -- If I can get the right here up here, we'll show you what we're talking about here. This is Dauphin Island before the storm came in. There had been damage from Ivan before. You see these specks, green and red specks here? Those were all houses before Katrina out on Dauphin Island. I want you to look at what happened when the storm came in.
BLITZER: Hurricane Katrina ...
FOREMAN: This is Katrina.
BLITZER: ... a Category 4 when it made landfall. It was a 5 in the Gulf of Mexico. When it made landfall, it was a 4.
FOREMAN: By the time it got to Dauphin Island, it was a 4. And Dauphin Island over in Alabama, it's not in the main part of tis.
Look at what happened. It got hit. And this was the result. The land itself moved completely off to the side. All these houses that were over here, let me show them to you again, all those houses that were there gone. The land shifts that way. And here's an actual photograph of what we're talking about. Look at that. All the land. These were waterfront homes. Now they're in the middle of what's left of the land. The waterfront homes over here are all completely gone. That's a Category 4 on a barrier island. Now, it's a narrower island, further out. That makes some difference, but nonetheless, this is what Galveston is looking at right now.
BLITZER: All right. Tom Foreman, we're going to check back with you. These are amazing pictures and it's certainly understandable why people on the Texas coast right now are as worried and taking precautions as they must.
I interrupted Jack Cafferty for that breaking news just a few moments ago. Category 5 monster, I think that's a fair word, Jack. But sorry for interrupting you, but you're in the news business. You understand the nature of this business.
CAFFERTY: Listen, it's THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER. I understand exactly. It's kind of ironic though because the question we were asking is whether the hurricane coverage has taken too much media attention off the war in Iraq, and just as I was starting to read the answers, we had to stop for the hurricane coverage.
Anyway, here's some of your letters on that subject. Sue writes "As a mother of a marine currently stationed in Iraq, it would be nice to hear something about what's going on over there instead of really having to search the Internet in order to get some information. These young men and women are in harm's way 24/7 and it seems the country has forgotten about them lately.
Corinne in Stockton writes "No matter how much the war is covered, the truth about the lies and ineptitude that got us there never seem to catch on with the attention of the people. The hurricane coverage has shown a bright light on the administration's failings that even they can't cover up."
Joe in Oceanside, California, "Katrina has been very good for Mr. Bush. Americans do not realize that Iraq has now become the training ground for world terrorism. Pigs will fly the Atlantic when Iraq becomes a demoracy."
Jeff writes, "The coverage of Katrina is more important right now. The war in Iraq has been ongoing for so long and the coverage has been constant the whole time but major events rarely occur. Katrina is a disaster and its events are having a direct impact on Americans here at home."
"The same crooks, writes Fred, that are making all the money in Iraq have already split the pie in the Gulf, so if you follow the money, your news coverage will cover both the hurricane and Iraq. - Follow the money, Jack." And then he adds this. "Wolf, THE SITUATION ROOM's picture on picture in picture is too many pictures."
The question for next hour has to do with how we're going to pay for all of this damage that these hurricanes are causing.
They're calling it Operation Offset. Republican congressmen apparently want to offset more than the actual cost of Hurricane Katrina. They're apparently also looking to offset president bush's dismal poll numbers. With the president's approval ratings at record lows and elections right around the corner, it looks like members of his own parties are trying now to distance themselves from Mr. Bush. Congressional Republicans met yesterday with the White House budget director about how to pay for Katrina. Afterwards, Senator John McCain said this, quote, "It was very entertaining but I haven't heard specifics from the administration."
Here's the question this hour. What should be cut from the federal budget in order to pay the tab for Katrina? You can email us at caffertyfile@cnn.com. Picture on picture in picture, this guy says, is too many pictures, Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, that's the nature of THE SITUATION ROOM. We show a lot of stuff. You know, it's good for the viewers out there.
CAFFERTY: Wall-to-wall pictures. That's what THE SITUATION ROOM is all about.
BLITZER: All right. The real situation room in the White House, Jack, I don't know if you've ever been in there.
CAFFERTY: I've never been there.
BLITZER: But they've got a lot of video cameras and they've got a lot of pictures on pictures, as well.
CAFFERTY: But they don't have the Wolfman.
BLITZER: No, they don't.
CAFFERTY: That's right.
BLITZER: Thanks, Jack. We'll get back to you. We're watching the breaking news we've been reporting now for the past several minutes. Hurricane Rita now upgraded, a Category 5 hurricane. You need winds of greater than 155 miles an hour to be at the highest level Category 5. Rita right now clocked at 165 miles an hour. We're going to have more on where this hurricane is heading. That's coming up. And what will be the impact on New Orleans? Even if there's significant rainfall there, what does that do to that city? Much more on that coming up, as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Hurricane Rita getting stronger as it heads west through the Gulf of Mexico. Only a few moments ago, Rita was upgraded to a powerful Category 5 storm with top winds right now -- get this -- 165 miles an hour. Let's go straight to our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras. She's at the CNN Weather Center. She's got the latest -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Wolf, just incredible wind speed on this storm right now. It has been steadily gaining strength all day long and will likely continue to gain some strength for tonight, 165 miles per hour as you mentioned. That makes it a Category 5 hurricane.
What does that mean specifically? Winds greater than 155 it has to be in order to get to the five status, storm surge greater than 18 feet. A number of Category 5 storms have produced storm surge on the range of 20 to 25 feet. Residences and industrial buildings destroyed. All shrubs, trees, signs blown down. Massive evacuations required on low ground within five to ten miles of the shoreline may be required.
And that's because that storm surge can go out at least ten miles. And some of these areas across the Texas coastline, we've got lots of little islands sticking out here that are at sea level or just slightly above. And those would be completely washed over with water should that eye get near. Just to the east of the eye is where the worst of the storm surge would be.
Forecast track continues moving it off to the west. We've been watching satellite imagery, by the way, and it looks like it might be pulling a little bit up to the north. It could be a wobble. It could be that high beginning to shift a little bit. We're going to be watching it very closely and let you know whether or not this is a significant change.
Right now, we don't think that it is, but the National Hurricane Center will be updating the forecast track at the five o'clock hour and when we get that, we will bring it to you. We don't expect a significant change. We still think it's going to be somewhere here along the Texas coastline.
But keep in mind, we still cannot rule out western Louisiana. We still can't rule out extreme northern parts of Mexico. Right now we're watching the central Texas coastline for a landfall early on Saturday morning -- Wolf.
BLITZER: I'm going to get back to you very, very soon, Jacqui. Thank you very much. Jacqui Jeras with the latest information on Hurricane Rita, now a strong Category 5 storm. That's the highest, Category 5, 165 mile per hour winds right now.
Even as we focus in, though, on Hurricane Rita, let's not forget the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A new measure today of the misery in the aftermath of that earlier Katrina, only three weeks ago. The death toll in the region has risen to above 1,000. Now New Orleans preparing for the effects from Hurricane Rita. Even if the brunt of the storm bypasses New Orleans, it could still bring some significant rain. Let's go to our Mary Snow. She's on the scene in New Orleans for us with more on that. First of all, Mary, where exactly are you?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we are at the Convention Center where we've been staying all day because this is where the mayor has told people to come. He has a staging area across the street from the Convention Center with buses available if people need a ride out of town. We really haven't been seeing many people heading for those buses, about a handful.
But also, we have been briefed throughout the day by various military personnel who are coming in and out of here, and we have the very latest on the conditions of the levees here in New Orleans. And that is the real concern because if there is rainfall, then these weakened levees could suffer even more damage, and that could trigger flooding.
And joining me now is General Bruce Berwick. General Bruce Berwick is a task force engineer for the Joint Task Force Katrina. Basically you are the man reporting to the General Honore. You have just seen the levees, taken a tour. Tell us how is it looking? What kind of condition are they in?
GEN. BRUCE BERWICK, JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA: Well, the first thing I'd say is I am encouraged, because what I saw was a city that's taken a pretty tough blow. But they're doing everything they possibly can to be ready for another. For example, I saw crews from our contractors, Corps of Engineers contractors, working very hard to raise the elevation of the levees at the breaches.
But equally importantly, I saw crews from the city of New Orleans out closing floodgates, doing their jobs to get ready for what may come to us from Hurricane Rita. So I am encouraged.
SNOW: But there is concern, though, that even a few inches of rain can trigger some flooding. What can these levees handle?
BERWICK: Well, there is no question that there's concern. But we have, what I would, call defense in depth. There's the first line of defense is the levees. And they've been raised to an elevation of at least five feet above where the water is currently. Now, that isn't to say that we can take that much water, but there is a substantial amount of free board that gives me some comfort.
SNOW: But bottom line is how much rain can these levees take?
BERWICK: Well, I think if we got two to four inches over a long period of time, we'd be OK. There would be some minor flooding in some locations, but we have on hand the pumps, which is kind of the second line of defense. Both portable pumps and the permanent pumps -- a number of those have been brought back online so we can get the water out of the city quickly. As long as we don't get too much rain too quickly, we should be OK. SNOW: The pumping stations -- where do they stand right now?
BERWICK: Well, here's what I would say about that. We've got about a little under half of the pumping stations online in Orleans Parish, for example with maybe 40, 45 percent of the pumping capacity available. In other parishes -- St. Bernard's Parish, for example, Plaquemines Parish -- we have closer to 80 plus percent of that capacity back online, as well as the portable pumps. So we have some things that we can use.
SNOW: General, thank you very much for joining us, so we're going to leave it there.
BERWICK: My pleasure. Thank you.
SNOW: Thank you very much. We'll hope for the best. Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: All right. Mary, good work. Thanks very much. We'll check back with you. Mary Snow is on the scene for us in New Orleans.
Another powerful hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico as we track Rita this time. We also ask this question. Has the government learned its lessons from Katrina? We'll find out what our guests think. That's coming up in the strategy session.
And later, how should the government pay for Katrina? It's open warfare up on the Web. We'll go inside the blogs, we'll take you to the Internet to find out what's going on there. Lots of views here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
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BLITZER: It's now official. It's an official category five monster. Hurricane Rita. 165 mile an hour winds.
Let's go right to the National Hurricane center in Miami. Chris Landsea is joining us. He's the science and operations officer. Give us the latest information, Chris, that you have.
CHRIS LANDSEA, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Yes. The Air Force reconnaissance have been flying Rita all afternoon and found that it's continued to intensify and it's reached category five on the Saffir- Simpson hurricane scale. And we're estimating surface winds peaking at 165 miles per hour.
BLITZER: Do you anticipate it's going to even get stronger before it eases somewhat? What's the assessment on that?
LANDSEA: Well, it's about as strong as a hurricane can get because there's some theoretical limits based on the warmth of the water and the cold air aloft. And it's about at that limit right now.
BLITZER: What's the expectation as it continues to move across the Gulf of Mexico? Will it ease up somewhat? LANDSEA: Well, probably not significantly. It's going to remain as around a category four or five over the next couple of days until landfall. There's some hope it could weaken a little bit before landfall, but in all expectations at this point are that it will be a major hurricane making landfall Friday night or Saturday morning.
BLITZER: And which specific parts of the Texas coast are you most worried about right now. And are you worried about Louisiana and specifically New Orleans?
LANDSEA: Well, we're not narrowing it down to specific cities at this point, but the area of greatest risk right now does stretch from the Texas-Mexico border to the western third of Louisiana.
You know, it would be nice to narrow it down more specifically, but we know that the forecast errors are such that even a two-day forecast has an average error of about 125 or 150 miles on either side.
BLITZER: So, it's still -- there's still plenty of room for this Hurricane Rita to make a shift and to do some significant damage in an area beyond where the projections are right now?
LANDSEA: Oh, certainly. That's right. And when hurricane watches are issued later, that means that, you know, anyone in that region needs to prepare for a hurricane within the next 36-48 hours.
BLITZER: Chris Landsea with the National Hurricane Center. Chris, thank you very much.
Ali Velshi is in New York. He's watching this story. There's a new and important development, Ali. Tell our viewer what's happening.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're moving pretty fast, actually, these developments. The big refineries in this country are starting to shout down. And I want to give you perspective on this, about 2 million barrels of oil that go through refineries were shut down by Katrina.
Right now, about -- maybe about 3/4 of a million barrels a day still remain shut down. Now we have Shell, Dear Park Refinery, responsible for 340,000 barrels a day shut down. BP's Texas City refinery, 446,000 barrels a shut down. Exxonmobile, the big one, Bay Town refinery just between Houston and Galveston, responsible for 560,000 barrels a day, this is oil that gets turned into gas, being evacuated, at least nonessential personnel being evacuated.
Those three refineries alone are worth 1 1/3 million barrels of oil a day that become gas. We are now looking at maybe 2 million barrels before the end of today. That's as much as Katrina shut down. And this hurricane is not near the coast yet. So Wolf, we're going to see a bigger effect on gasoline than we did with Katrina quite possibly.
BLITZER: Not good news. Ali, thank you very much, though. Time for our "Strategy Session." Joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM, CNN political analyst Paul Begala and Tory Clark. You're from Texas. You know this area quite well, Paul. Give us your thoughts.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I've got 15 relatives right in that Houston-Galveston area: my dad, my grandpa, my brothers and brother-in-law. Some are already leaving. I know my brother-in- law, his wife and kids are leaving going up to Austin.
But this is going to be a terrible situation. And the question is, how stressed out? I saw Mayor White, who is a friend of mine back from the Clinton administration talking, that city is already stressed caring for the evacuees from New Orleans. And now this is going to hit them. And God willing, it will lose a little steam before it hits, but it didn't sound like that from the hurricane center.
BLITZER: I think it's fair to say, Tory, that the -- on the federal level, that they've learned important lessons from Katrina.
VICTORIA CLARKE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, I don't think you can talk about one level -- it's state, local and it's federal. But it does seem everybody across the board has learned some lessons. Every official I've seen on in the last 24 hours is talking about the cooperation and coordination across the levels. And that's what's going to make the difference.
The thing I think about is not only the poor people from Texas, those poor people from Louisiana and other places who got away from Katrina are there and having to go through this again. I can't imagine the trauma they're going through right now.
BLITZER: It's an awful situation. And I don't think there's been a category five that has hit Texas. Galveston in 1900 was a category four, that leveled Galveston in 1900, eight or nine thousand people were dead.
CLARKE: The last few weeks have made you a hurricane expert.
BLITZER: I've learned a lot, all of us have.
BEGALA: The old timers where I grew up still would talk about that storm from 1900. And it was just horrific. And if this is bigger than that, this is -- there's you know, Katrina was awful but people in Texas only saw it from a distance. Camille in 1969 is probably the hurricane that long-time Texans remember best. And that was not anywhere near a category five. I think it was a three.
BLITZER: We saw David Paulus. And he's the acting FEMA director. We had his news conference on live. This is a man with a lot of experience in emergencies. And he's sending -- it seems to be sending an excellent message across right now.
CLARKE: Again, I think they all are. And they're doing things that didn't get done before. They are making those evacuations happen in a timely fashion. They're communicating again and again. You know, these people, their responsibilities are not only to get the jobs done to protect people and protect what they can in terms of resources but to communicate what they're doing. And I think they're hitting all those functions very, very well.
BEGALA: Here's the problem, though. There is no head of FEMA right now. There's an acting head. And we saw him on television a moment ago.
BLITZER: But to get a head, you have to get him confirmed and the whole nine yards. That takes awhile.
BEGALA: It's a question whether -- Yes, I guess it would be now confirmable.
CLARKE: He can do everything that the head of FEMA needs to do.
BEGALA: But here's the problem, five of the top eight officials at FEMA were political hacks, like me. Some of them were making ads for the president in his campaign.
I'm all for giving jobs to campaign hacks. That's how I got my job in the White House. But that's why God made the Department of Commerce. You know, you put them over there -- or the Embassy in Luxembourg or something. But this is a life and death agency. And you know what, my family in Houston does not need negative ads right now attacking Hurricane Katrina -- or Hurricane Rita, they need experienced professionals. And I still think frankly that there's been much testimony the last several weeks about how poorly FEMA has been degraded in the last few years.
CLARKE: Oh, I think over the long haul when they will have the investigations and the commissions which have already started, they will see failings across the system: at the state level, the local level and the federal level. It's incomplete to talk about one aspect of government now.
BLITZER: Let's talk about the president for a second. He spoke out once again earlier today. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: We've got another hurricane headed for Texas and Louisiana. I spoke to the Governor Perry, and I spoke to Governor Blanco yesterday about the preparations being made for this storm. Federal, state, and local governments are coordinating their efforts to get ready.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. Give us your reaction. He's obviously very, very hands-on right now.
BEGALA: He is engaged. And I don't think he'll make the same mistakes he made the last time. Max Mayfield, the head of the National Hurricane Center said he briefed the president by teleconference when he was in Crawford about Katrina and how bad it would be. And yet still the response was kind of sloppy. I don't think the response this time from the president will be as disengaged as it was the last time. And that's a very good thing.
BLITZER: Last word.
CLARKE: I think he is not going to count on staffers telling him everything is OK. He's going to make absolutely sure the job gets done.
BLITZER: Do enough of that.
Thanks very much, Tory, Paul. Good luck to all your relatives -- good luck to everyone in Texas for that matter, and Louisiana. Right now, Hurricane Rita -- remember, it's now officially a category five storm with winds of 165 miles an hour.
Paying for Katrina. What should be cut from the federal budget to do it if anything? It's our question of the hour. Jack Cafferty coming up with your answers.
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BLITZER: It's now officially a Category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Rita. It's moving across the Gulf of Mexico. We're watching it. We'll have much more on the forecast. That's coming up.
First though, let's go to CNN's Zain Verjee. She's joining us from the CNN Center in Atlanta with a quick look at some other important stories making news Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is in Washington. She's the mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, whose weeks long protest near President Bush's Crawford ranch made headlines last month. Today, she and her supporters were at the White House presenting a list of questions about the war, which they want the president to answer. Earlier, the group was on Capitol Hill.
Another sign today that Chief Justice nominee John Roberts is on track for confirmation. The Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrats says he'll support Roberts, when the panel votes tomorrow. Patrick Leahy's breaking with another veteran Democrat, Edward Kennedy, who's opposing Roberts' bid to succeed the late William Rehnquist.
In Iraq, new fallout from that British jail raid in Basra this week. Today, 500 protesters took to the street. Now they're upset over what the Iraqi prime minister, Ibre Aljafri, calls a regrettable incident. What happened was that on Monday British forces stormed a detention center in the city, and, later, they went to a house to rescue two undercover British troops apparently being held by Shia militia -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Always something else going on. Zain, thank you very much.
Let's immediately head over to New York. Jack Cafferty's back. He's got some responses to his question this hour. Jack, what are you picking up?
CAFFERTY: Congressional Republicans are suggesting ways for the government to save more than $500 billion over the next ten years to offset the cost of Hurricane Katrina. Cutting funding on programs from NASA to Medicare to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The question this hour is, what should be cut from the federal budget in order to pay for Katrina.
Andrea in Round Lake Beach, Illinois, writes, Bush's war in Iraq should be de-funded, and the soldiers should be brought home. Let the oil companies, Halliburton and others with an interest in the Iraqi oil fields finance their own enterprises, it should not be a public expense.
John in Rohnert Park, California. NASA should be cut. It's outrageous that NASA would publicly and strategically announce that they want billions more of the American dollar, so that a handful of geeks can go back to the moon and look at dust and rocks.
Sherrie in Camarillo, California. Oh, no question about it. Congressional salaries, their underlings' salaries, and the president's salary too, while we're at it.
Maggie writes from New Smyrna Beach, Florida. They should cut all perks to oil companies, that bridge in Alaska and all tax cuts to the rich folks, but knowing the way our government works, they'll end up cutting funding for the Army Corps of Engineers, the Centers for Disease Control, and to public services for lower income Americans.
Michael in Plymouth, Minnesota. The bulk of the funding for the restoration of the Gulf Coast should come from the recently passed transportation bill. Even a blind man can see there's enough pork in that bill to feed an army for several years over -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Tom DeLay says there's no pork, everything is essential. I don't know if you heard him say that.
CAFFERTY: Has he been indicted yet?
BLITZER: We'll leave that alone. Jack Cafferty, thank you very much. Coming up, very serious story we're following. We'll tell you how some bloggers are suggesting that they -- suggesting ways they want to fund Katrina relief.
Also ahead, we'll have the latest forecast just coming out about Hurricane Rita. Much more of our coverage, that's coming up.
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BLITZER: These are live pictures you're seeing coming in from Houston, Texas. You see all that traffic going basically in one direction. People are beginning to leave Houston. This city, the metropolitan area has a population of about 4 million people. A lot of them are getting out of town right now, because of Hurricane Rita.
And this is just coming into CNN from the White House. The President has just declared an emergency declaration, an emergency, he says, exists in the states of Texas and Louisiana. He's ordering federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the areas struck by -- that will be struck by Hurricane Rita. That is just coming into us. The president declaring an emergency in those portions of Texas and Louisiana that could be affected by Hurricane Rita.
On paying for the clean up after Hurricane Katrina, forget about Rita right now, who's going to pay for Katrina. Let's check in with our internet reporters Jacki Schechner and Abbi Tatton. What's going on, guys?
ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Well, Wolf, one blogger out there, Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit.com, has an answer for how to pay for this $200 billion price tag fro reconstruction for Katrina. It's called pork busters and lot's of people online are getting behind this. The idea from InstaPundit.com Glenn Reynolds is to identify wasteful government spending, or pork, compile it all in one place, and then lobby lawmakers to use that money instead of those pork projects instead for projects to fund the Katrina reconstruction. He's working with TheTruthLaidBear.com, and they have a huge section state by state of some of these projects, 34 billion identified some -- so far.
And bloggers all around the country like this one, Project Nothing, from Massachusetts sending in ideas like the Cape Cod Bike Trail for $3 million.
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