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The Situation Room
Hurricane Rita Heads Towards Texas Coast
Aired September 21, 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: 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.
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Some of the bloggers on the left, the liberal bloggers, are taking this on saying one man's pork is another man's entire meal. For example, Chris Nolan at "Chris Nolan Politics From Left to Right" talks specifically about the Golden Gate Bridge retrofit in San Francisco, saying that this actually a lifeline for people in the case of an earthquake, and what's going on now is indicative of a country that "uses hindsight in emergencies" instead of taken care of the infrastructure from the very beginning -- Wolf. BLITZER: All right, guys. Thanks very much. It's 5:00 p.m. here in Washington, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM where breaking news is occurring on Hurricane Rita. happening right now. It's 4:00 p.m. in the Central time zone and specifically in the Gulf of Mexico where within the past hour, Rita has become officially a Category 5 storm, the very top of the scale. We'll have a new forecast that's just being released by the National Hurricane Center That's coming up.
It's also 4:00 p.m. along the Texas coast, now the almost certain target of this massive storm. A massive evacuation effort is underway right now. And Galveston, Texas, directly in Rita's path, potentially at least, possibly facing a storm surge that could leave the island completely underwater. We'll take you there live. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
It's the top of the hurricane scale, Category 5, a storm capable of catastrophic damage. That's what Hurricane Rita has become. And with the Katrina disaster fresh in everyone's mind, few if any are ignoring this very, very serious threat. With the storm taking direct aim at the Texas coast, millions of people are being urged, and many if them are being ordered to leave.
The Texas governor, Rick Perry, warning -- and I'm quoting now -- "homes and businesses can be rebuilt. Lives cannot." A mandatory evacuation goes into effect in the coastal city of Galveston in two hours. Mandatory evacuations of the sick and the elderly started this morning. And buses are being provided for those with no way out.
Much of the reaction, a hard learned lesson from the Katrina disaster in New Orleans, that city too refusing to repeat past mistakes. Even a glancing blow from Rita could lead to some serious new floodings in New Orleans. Homecomings are on hold. New evacuations are underway. Let's go straight to our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras. She's in the CNN Hurricane Center. She has a new forecast that's come out from of the National Hurricane Center -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Wolf, the new forecast has got a little bit of a shift in the track, and it brings it closer, unfortunately, to Galveston. You can see that the little line still off to the west of there, but it has shifted just a little bit, and so that makes the likelihood a little bit greater for them serving some of this terrible storm surge and the damaging winds.
It is a Category 5 hurricane now, maximum sustained winds right now at 165 miles per hour. That puts it well within the Category 5 status. It is pushing off to the west still at about 15 miles per hour. And we have been noticing here in the CNN Weather Center, in the Hurricane Center here, that it looked like it was trying to take a little bobble on up to the north, but it very often will do these little curves in the forecast track.
And Katrina did a whole heck of a lot of them, but they obviously didn't change their forecast track a whole heck of a lot. It looks like just a little bit, smidge, on off to the left -- Wolf. BLITZER: That Galveston, as we know, Jacqui, is so vulnerable because it's just above sea level barely, but it's a barrier island. There's about a quarter of a million people who live in Galveston County, and I assume all of them have got to get out of there very, very quickly.
JERAS: Yes, a lot have already been told to evacuate, and a lot of them are doing so. I have some friends that live in the Parelin (ph), Texas, which is a suburb of Houston and they have decided to evacuate to San Antonio, so it's good to see that these people are taking this very seriously and are starting to evacuate.
And we also have a new hurricane watch that has been posted. And that includes much of the Texas coastline and goes on over to Cameron, Louisiana. We're working on a graphic for you but this five o'clock advisory just came in, but it's basically just north of Brownsville and extending right here toward Cameron, Louisiana.
That means hurricane conditions are possible and expected within this area in about 36 hours from now. So that means all of the preparations need to be rushed to completion. We need to get things taken care of so we can get out of there if you need to, as this is a very dangerous, powerful storm.
BLITZER: All right. Get out while you can. Good advice. Thanks very much, Jacqui, for that. We've got a live picture I'll show our viewers. This is a picture of the coast of Galveston, right now. And you can see the water is pretty calm right now, but it's only Wednesday.
By Thursday, Friday certainly Saturday, this is going to look, very, very different. Also on the edge right now, people in Corpus Christi, Texas. Our chief national correspondent, John King, is there in Corpus Christi right now. And, John, I understand you have some new information on what's going on with evacuations there.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the mandatory evacuation order is already in effect here in Corpus Christi and the surrounding area. We visited with the mayor, Henry Garrett, shortly after he signed the first round and we also are now told that there will be an additional round a bit later tonight.
Already in effect are emergency -- mandatory evacuation orders that affect about 15,000 people on Padre Island, Texas, Mustang Island, Texas and the lowest of the coastal areas of Corpus Christi. Those orders in effect already require these citizens to evacuate by 2:00 p.m. local time, 3:00 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow.
We are told in a few hours an additional mandatory evacuation order for the entire city -- about 250,000 people will be affect by that. And thee mayor says simply that this is a lesson of Hurricane Katrina, that under normal circumstances in the past, he would have waited maybe another day or so, but he doesn't want to get this storm wrong.
He does not want to act too late to get people out and he says -- so he's staggering these evacuation orders so that the evacuations can start, be done, he hopes, in as orderly a manner as possible. And again, Wolf, in our conversation with the mayor, he said, this is one of the big lessons learned. Act as soon as you can.
And the mayor said he thinks because of what has happened in Louisiana and Mississippi that more people will pay attention and respect and honor the evacuation orders. So he expects the roads to be more crowded and clogged as well, another reason he says he's not going to wait to find out what the updated tracking is in the morning. He's going to issue those orders tonight.
BLITZER: And in Corpus Christi, John, the mayor is saying that they are making special preparations, special work is being done to deal with the elderly, the infirm, those who don't have cars, the very, very poor. Are they working on that front?
KING: They already are. That has been the top priority for the day today, again, to get that work done before they get into the more heavy weather conditions. He says right now he's being told probably tropical storm conditions here in Corpus Christi, not an actual hurricane, as you were just talking about with Jacqui. As of now, they think it will head more toward Galveston, but the mayor says he's not taking any chances.
They have moved some people. We are right along the coast right now and there's a hospital less than a block or so away. Some patients were moved from that hospital earlier today. The mayor told us, he says they have been in touch with every nursing home in the county.
They are moving people as quickly as they can. They have brought in extra buses, extra ambulances and what they're trying to do is get those people that they have to move under special circumstances, with health care providers with them, out before the roads are more congested as the public at large begin to evacuate over the next several hours.
BLITZER: All right, John, be careful over there. John King is on the scene for us now in Corpus Christi, Texas. You may want to stick around and listen to Tom Foreman. He is in THE SITUATION ROOM, John, and you have looked at the situation involving Corpus Christi. Let's talk about that first.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Corpus Christi is, as John pointed out, not a huge population center. You're talking about over 300,000 people. If you get everybody, and you get the outlying areas, you start pushing 400,000. Again ...
BLITZER: It's approaching New Orleans.
FOREMAN: Well, yes. Again, a lot of roads in and out though, which can help in this situation. Let's take a look at Corpus Christi. If we fly and here, and we'll get a sense of what happens in the coastal area. Earlier we talked about Galveston, a barrier island. Category puts it under. If a Category 5 came in to Corpus Proper -- now, you see it's got a little bit of a barrier here, but nonetheless this is Corpus. If a Category 5 came into this actual area this is what you would get. That's the degree of flooding that would come through on the area. It would go from this sort of area to this view. You would have a complete sort of a inundation of the edges of the town, not so much back into the town.
Now, if they only get tropical storm, they won't get that kind of surge, they will be better off in Corpus. But again, we don't know for sure where this storm is going. We certainly didn't know with Katrina at this point. It kept moving around. Jacqui said it awhile ago. We don't know where it is going to show up. If it keeps heading toward Galveston, big, big problems for Galveston. People have to take this extremely seriously, and in a little while, we're going to come back and talk about Houston. If you've seen -- sure.
BLITZER: Let's talk about Houston right now while I have you, because Houston, is what, 60 miles inland, a metropolitan area of about four million people, one of the largest cities in the United States, certainly in the top five or top ten. And this is a city that has some unusual problems as well. Let's take a closer look.
FOREMAN: Well, they've had a lot of growth in Houston, as they've had in Corpus. Actually, Corpus is one of the fastest growing areas in the entire part of Texas there. Let's fly out and go back over to Houston here. We looked at the barrier islands and downtown Galveston. We can see how hard they would be hit, but look at Houston now.
If we click on Houston and show you downtown, this is a sense of what we could be dealing with here. If Houston got hit, you could have layers of flooding that would come in, first of all like this, a little bit on the edge. I'll move this up where you can see it a little better. As it comes in more and more, you see it moving into Houston until, if you have a Category 5 hit in this area, that's what would happen to Houston on the edges. And that's just the edges. You're also going to have localized flooding in town.
Look at this for a moment. I'm going to come off this, and go to our downtown view. It should show us just what downtown looks like, if I can get this to work properly. I'll take all these off. So now you have a sense of what this is. Now if we go to downtown Houston, this is what the view would be like there. This is an overhead view of the roads. As the flooding came in you would see the rivers start swelling up, reaching out of their banks and that would be flooding through some of the downtown areas of Houston.
So you're getting an idea that even though it is off the coast, you would have a lot of flooding. Again, not like New Orleans, because it's not a bowl, more along the waterfront and along the waterways, but still with 4 million people there, you are talking about an awful lot of people who would be affected that's why the Texas authorities are looking so seriously at New Orleans.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to come back to you. Tom, thank you very much. Tom Foreman always has an excellent perspective here in THE SITUATION ROOM on what's going on.
Hurricane Rita, that's what's going on. It's a monster storm, and it's prompting colossal concern. Let's turn to the -- our online resources now. Out internet Jacki Schechner is checking in with us on that.
SCHECHNER: Well, Wolf, we just wanted to show you now that Galveston is under a mandatory evacuation. One of the routes out of town is I-45 heading north, and there's a way that you can follow this online. This is HoustonTransStar.org, and you can find the traffic cameras that are along that route. We pulled up some of those so you can see them. This is I-45, the Gulf Freeway heading north. There are some other pictures. You can keep an eye on it.
It's a good thing, actually, for people in that area to take a look at where the routes are crowded, and where they might be able to go to get out safely. Again, Galveston under that mandatory evacuation. That is HoustonTransStar.org -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much, Jacki.
We're getting this picture in from New Orleans right now. Check this out. A fire going on. Unfortunately, it's an all too familiar situation that we've seen in New Orleans. The city may have been drained of water, but this is new video that we're getting in of a fire in the area. We'll show that to our viewers right now. Tom Foreman, as you look at this, we have gone through this drill several times. Fire is still erupting in New Orleans. It's a very, very dry place right now potentially setting the scene for, specifically, these kinds of fires.
FOREMAN: Yes. Well, as you know, Wolf, when you have homes that are vacant, there's just simply no one there to deal with even the small fire that may start, to call in the warning. SO one of the problems you're having here is when these fires start up, in whatever way, whether it's because somebody did occupy the place briefly, or some sort of accidental fire. Once that gets started, there's no one there to report it, and then they have to try to get in do something about it. I don't know where this is in New Orleans, though, now.
BLITZER: Well at least there are firefighters on the scene. We'll watch it, and we'll update our viewers on what's going on.
In the meantime, though, let's go up to New York. Jack Cafferty is standing by. He's watching all of this with us as he does every day here in THE SITUATION ROOM -- Jack.
CAFFERTY: thank, wolf. Once again the Gulf Coast awaits a hurricane, and this time Galveston, Texas, is likely to get hit. And just like New Orleans before it, Galveston is home to a disproportionate number of poor people. One research group says poverty in the central cities of Houston, Galveston, and Brazoria 27.4 percent in the year 2002, that was almost double the Texas average. Earlier this month, the Census Bureau said that poverty nationwide rose for the fourth straight year last year. And now prominent figures, like former Vice President Candidate John Edwards and First Lady Laura Bush, are calling for this country to respond to the poverty that Katrina brought into all of our living rooms for a period of a week or ten days there. Here's the question this hour, will these hurricanes ultimately improve the plight of the poor? You can e-mail us your thoughts on that at CaffertyFile, that's one word, CNN.com. We'll read some of the answer in about a half hour or so.
BLITZER: All right. Jack, thank you very much.
Texas bracing for Rita's wrath. Up next, coastal residents are getting out. We've got some live pictures that we want to show you. There it is. You see traffic moving in one direction. The National Guard, by the way, beginning to move in. How quickly can the U.S. military respond this time?
Also ahead, will history repeat itself in Galveston. We will look back at a hurricane that wiped out the island that now appears to be in Rita's path again.
And the massive cost of Hurricane Katrina, how will America pay for it? We'll have the story behind a new campaign to take back the pork. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: As we all know by now, the United States military will play a key role in responding to Hurricane Rita just as it did responding to Hurricane Katrina. Joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM is Ed Hecker. He's the homeland security chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And joining us from Austin, Texas, is Major General Charles Rodriguez, the adjutant general of Texas, and he oversees that states National Guard. Gentleman, thanks very much for joining us. General Rodriguez, I guess I'll -- the obvious question goes to you first, are you ready?
MAJ. GEN. CHARLES RODRIGUEZ, TEXAS ADJUTANT GENERAL: Yes, we're ready. We're ready. We've got more than 19,000 soldiers and airmen and state guardsman. We're ready.
BLITZER: How many of your troops, though, are in Iraq or Afghanistan right now might not be ready?
RODRIGUEZ: We have a little bit more than a third who are either over seas or in the pipeline to or from. Which leaves us still more than half available.
BLITZER: Are you asking for troops from other state to come in and help out?
RODRIGUEZ: We are first taking care of the situation with our own troops, but, certainly, we do have soldiers poised and ready at call from other states.
BLITZER: This is a big operation, in Houston alone 4 million people in metropolitan Houston, and Galveston, and Corpus Christi all up and down that Texas coast. Is that enough, the National Guard troops that you've mobilized?
RODRIGUEZ: We certainly believe that we have the sufficient resources, but as I indicated before there's a lot of help from our sister states and from selected federal forces as well.
BLITZER: Is there anything that you need right now that you're not getting?
RODRIGUEZ: We have just about everything that we need. It's being put into position. As you may have heard from other reports, many of our soldiers and airmen are deploying from Louisiana, Katrina response and moving into position to be our reserve in Texas.
BLITZER: General Rodriguez, in terms of where you deploy, where you preposition, you stage your equipment, you have to do it out of harm's way, otherwise it's not going to do anyone any good. So where do you do that?
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. We rely on geography, and on terrain elevation. We are relying a whole lot on the high ground between San Antonio and Austin to base the bulk of out response forces.
BLITZER: And then you move in on the ground as well as in the air.
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. First in the air for search and rescue, and then on the ground with transport to actually help people get out, some high profile vehicles.
BLITZER: Stand by, General. I want to bring Ed Hecker in of the Army Corps of Engineers. He's here in THE SITUATION ROOM with us.
You're watching Rita come very, very close, obviously to Texas, but potentially those levees around New Orleans that have been rebuilt to a certain degree, if we can call it that, they're in trouble. What's going through your mind?
ED HECKER, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Obviously, we've outlined the potential threat to the levee system in New Orleans from either a greater than a five-inch rainfall or a greater than four-foot storm surge. So, we're monitoring this storm very closely to determine if it might present either one of those effects, or both to that area.
As we do that, as we have announced, we're closing off the canals at 17th street and London Avenue to make sure that they can withstand at least some degree of storm surge to protect that area. We're also prepositioning the large sandbags that you saw that were used in the prior -- in the original Katrina event. We have 800 ready to go. We're prepositioning another 2,500 so that if we do experience any distress to the levee system, we have those ready to go. We have resources, contractors prepositioned to respond immediately if we have a situation there.
BLITZER: Well, there's a similar but different situation -- similar to a certain degree, different in other respects -- in Galveston which is this barrier island. Galveston County has about a quarter of a million people. If a category 4, certainly a category 5 storm moves in there, it's over.
HECKER: Well, essentially, the same situation as you had with Katrina in terms of the absolute essential factor of following the evacuation orders from the government entities in that area. That's the...
BLITZER: But is the Army Corps of Engineers doing something specific right now to deal with Galveston? Or is that too late?
HECKER: You know, actually, the Corps of Engineers has a district in Galveston. We are relocating those folks so that they're at safe havens.
BLITZER: Just getting them out of way, basically.
HECKER: And right. So they are prepared to assist with the response. And as we did in the response to the Katrina event, we also have other districts around the corner, particular Ft. Worth district, because Our southwestern division in Ft. Worth would be the lead division for this response. They've got their other districts ready to support Galveston in responding to the missions we would get from FEMA, to respond and provide ice and water, help with debris, temporary power and all those missions that we have under the national response plan.
BLITZER: All right. General Rodriguez, to our viewers who are watching along the Texas coast, even inland, what words of advice do you have for them?
RODRIGUEZ: Follow the advice and the counsel of the elected officials and your county judges and your mayors and do the evacuation plan. That's the safest course to take right now.
BLITZER: General Rodriguez, thanks very much for joining us. Good luck to all of men and women of the Texas National Guard. Ed Hecker of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, thanks for your good work as well.
It's gotten even bigger over the last hour alone, that would be Hurricane Rita, now a colossal is a category 5 storm. Coming up, we'll have the latest forecast.
And even if Rita doesn't directly hit New Orleans, its side effects could be disastrous to the already fragile city. We'll have a live report. You're in the SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're standing by to hear from Vice Admiral Thad Allen from the U.S. Coast Guard. He's getting ready to speak to reporters. We will go there live once that happens.
People are evacuating all along the Gulf Coast right now. That's because Hurricane Rita is officially at a category 5 storm. Winds right now 165 miles an hour. That's about as high a wind as it gets in these hurricanes. We're watching all of this. Potentially the cost of Hurricane Rita will be enormous. We know the cost of Hurricane Katrina, that's enormous already. CNN's Ali Velshi has the bottom line. He's joining us with more on this from New York -- Ali.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're still looking at the what the cost of Rita is going to be from an infrastructure perspective, but we saw the devastation that Katrina wreaked upon Louisiana and Mississippi and parts of Alabama. And the numbers are starting to come in. They are truly staggering numbers. Hard to make sense of. So I wanted to get a sense of how much money we're really talking about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI (voice-over): $200 billion. That's more money than most people can comprehend. I said most people.
Rebuilding a major city, dozens of towns, an oil and gas hub and one of the country's largest ports, you can't expect that to come cheap. But let's put $200 billion dollars in perspective. After World War II, rebuilding Europe cost the United States $13 billion back then, with inflation, that's $100 billion today.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost Americans $276 billion so far. Add the money pledged for reconstruction and security in those areas, it's going to be more than $300 billion, according to a Washington think tank.
$200 billion will buy you 91 B-2 stealth bombers. That doesn't include parking. How about 250 Queen Mary IIs.
Want to buy a country, if it were for sale, you might be able to buy Portugal for a year. The value of all goods and services produced annually in Portugal is about $190 billion. But that was a joke. It's not for sale.
What about an oil company? $200 billion will buy you almost half, that's right, just half of ExxonMobil, the most valuable company on the planet. I'm sure you can figure out why.
Oh, him again, he's definitely not for sale. But if he was, you could buy four of him. Bill Gates' net worth, about $48 billion.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: That's a lot of money. I think you get the picture. We're talking about an company, though, that is worth trillions of dollars. So, it's a small percentage. But a lot of work is going to have to go into rebuilding that area.
Now let's take a live picture of an oil platform off the coast of Galveston. That is going to be -- it's going to be feeling a lot of rain and wind pretty soon. We have heard from the CEO of Valero Energy, that's the largest refinery company in America, who says this could be a colossal national event. They're very worried about the cost of Rita. We don't even begin to know what the estimates of the damage to Rita will be. We are seeing refineries and rigs and platforms shutting down around the Gulf of Mexico -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Ali, thank you very much. Ali Velshi with some useful information for us. Coming up, in Galveston, Texas right now, we're watching that situation. But remember, another hurricane almost wiped out the city 100 years ago. It killed thousands of people. That was back in 1900. We will tell you how Galveston is now galvanized to face the current storm.
And we'll have some very important Internet resources for keeping an eye on this storm. We'll share those with you.
It's not a so novel idea, pay for Hurricane Katrina with pork. We'll tell you what that means. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're watching Hurricane Rita right now, a Category 5 storm, winds of about is 165 miles an hour. It's moving over those warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, moving directly toward Texas. Right now, expected landfall late Friday, early Saturday at some point, but that could easily change.
All of remember the drowning of New Orleans only about three weeks ago. What a terrible tragedy. It played out right before our eyes, but a century ago, another city was drowned when a hurricane struck the Texas port of Galveston. Thousands died. It remains this country's deadliest natural disaster. As Galveston today looks nervously ahead to the arrival of Hurricane Rita, CNN national correspondent Bruce Morton looks back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Katrina was so awful, a whole city underwater it seemed, that you had to wonder, have we ever had anything worse? The answer is yes. The hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas, 105 years ago this month. Galveston is an island, a big sandbar really, just under nine feet high.
The hurricane storm surge was 16-feet high and flooded everything. How many died? About 7,000, but there could have been more. Homes shattered, buildings down. This was the orphanage. Ten nuns latched themselves to 93 children. Three children escaped, everyone else drowned. They had to burn most of the bodies. Funeral pyres smoldered for two months.
But they came back and voted -- 3,119 in favor, 22 against -- to build the sea wall. And they raised the island, jacked up buildings -- 700 jacks to raise St. Patrick's Catholic church. They jacked up more than 2,000 buildings and raised the island by as much as 16 feet, all with the technology of 1900. No big power tools back then.
The work took 10 years, mostly finished by 1910. Galveston has stayed a small city. Houston replaced it as the big port in the area. And now, of course, the people of Galveston are evacuating again. And despite being higher up than they were in 1900, despite the sea wall they build for protection, the guessing is that if Rita hits, the island of Galveston, will be underwater again. Bruce Morton, CNN Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: It's essentially certain New Orleans right now would not be able to withstand a significant storm. We're watching that situation. And with the severe weather hitting and threatening so many poor areas, how might it refocus the light on the plight of the disadvantaged. We've been asking you that question. Jack Cafferty is standing by. He will have your e-mail on that.
On paying on the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, some are spelling relief with an I and a U. As in the cost to you, the taxpayer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We'll be speaking shortly with Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami on Hurricane Rita which is now moving across the Gulf of Mexico, taking direct aim at Texas and maybe Louisiana, as well in Mississippi, which has suffered enormously from Hurricane Katrina. The Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen briefing reporters right now.
VICE ADM. THAD ALLEN, HEADING KATRINA RELIEF OPS.: This is inspiring stuff and it encourages us at the state and the local and the federal level to come back even harder to try and get you the resources you need.
You're truly a remarkable community and you should be proud of what you have done here.
This doesn't start when an incident occurs; this is built in a culture of a community for many years leading up to an event.
And you have something here you should be very proud of, it's very special.
I'd be glad to take a couple of questions before we have to leave here.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
ALLEN: This is a very unusual community. Thank you very much, folks.
BLITZER: No questions for Thad Allen in Stennis, Mississippi, briefing reporters there, reporters apparently have all the answers they need, at least right now, at least those who were there at that news conference. We'll continue to monitor what's happening, not only in Mississippi, Louisiana, but in Texas as well. Some of the smallest towns by the way, along the Gulf coast suffered the worst damage from Katrina. And they're still suffering very much right now. Our Brian Todd is checking that situation. He's joining us now live -- Brian.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, most of the officials we spoke to are willing to cut FEMA and the Red Cross some slack, realizing how thinly stretched they are. But many of them are alarmed, because more than three weeks past Katrina, as one congressman put it, "in remote areas there's no help."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD(voice over): Dotting the landscape, but somehow off the map. Rural towns that took the worst Katrina had to give. towns like Waveland and Pearlington, Mississippi, 17 miles apart. Some residents feel they're worlds away from normalcy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Power will be nonexistent here for at least three months. The sub-stations were totally, 100 percent destroyed. And basically every pole in town is damaged and will have to be replaced.
TODD: According to one Mississippi congressman who visited earlier this week, Waveland, Pearlington, and many remote towns like them in the region still look like the hurricane just passed through.
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON, (D) MISSISSIPPI: They have very little public facilities available to them. Running water, lights is spotty in many areas. Most of the homes are leveled.
TODD: Not unlike some urban centers not far away. But the difference in rural areas, according to Representative Bennie Thompson, is that along with no power or running water, so many of these towns have no FEMA or Red Cross shelters anywhere nearby.
THOMPSON: We have areas where the shelters are not set up to accommodate rural people, so when they would hear about a shelter somewhere providing services, they just take off. And so they would go 60 or 70 miles to an area, and be told, say, we're not servicing that today.
TODD: An aide to a Louisiana congressman tells CNN, his rural district wasn't hit directly by Katrina, but has taken on many evacuees, and has struggled to get federal help to shelters. Contacted by CNN, a FEMA official in Mississippi said the agency is doing its best to reach everyone effected by Katrina, but says it's an ongoing challenge.
Red Cross officials tell CNN they know they're not servicing everyone in need right now, and realize they need to train and deploy volunteers to some areas more quickly. They say they're sending more people into these regions everyday, but they also say some areas are still not reachable or safe.
(END VIDEOTAPE) TODD (on camera): Officials from remote districts tell us the most effective agencies on the ground in those areas are local emergency responders, some from other states. Congressman Thompson tells us one group that has been particularly helpful in rural Mississippi, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Brian, thank you very much. Brian Todd reporting.
Coming up, tracking the storm and its impact. We'll go live to the National Hurricane Center for the latest information. We'll speak with Max Mayfield.
Plus, Rita has many posting their fears and photos online. Katrina hit the poor especially hard. Rita is likely to do the same. Will the response to the hurricanes ultimately help the poor? We'd like to hear what you think. Jack Cafferty standing by with your e- mail.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ever wish you could do a key word search through your memories to recall a phone number a part of a conversation? Sunil Vemuri discovered a way to make that dream a reality.
SUNIL VEMURI, PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST, MIT: What I have is a portable device, which I carry around with me at all times, and -- which allows me to record anything that happens in my life. After we've recorded all the conversation, and I have a database of my life that dates back two to three years, I can do similar to what we do when we search the internet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tool also convert an audio into text files, allowing for a quick search through hours of conversation. But don't expect this device to be on the market for a few more years. Vemuri says he's still working out privacy issues, and how to protect these memory recordings from being subpoenaed.
VEMURI: I'd want it to get to the point where you could record for the sake of memory, while at the same time not worrying about somebody stealing your recordings to use against you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We've come to rely on him for every step of the way, the best information possible when it comes to hurricanes. That would be from Max Mayfield. he's joining us now from the National Hurricane Center in Miami. What exactly, Mr. Mayfield, is the latest information that you're getting?
MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CTR.: Wolf, we just had an Air Force plane go through the eye one more time here just a few minutes ago. The pressure is down even more. We have another Category 5 on our hands.
BLITZER: So what are you telling -- I know you brief local, state and federal officials all the time. What are you telling them as far as Texas and Louisiana is concerned right now?
MAYFIELD: Well we put up the hurricane watch there at 5:00 that goes from Cameron, Louisiana, all the way down here to Port Mansfield. That's the most likely areas to experience hurricane conditions. That will likely be upgraded to a warning sometime tomorrow morning. And I hate to say it, I don't know how else to say it, but this could be very similar to Katrina here, if we don't see some weakening.
You know, It's a category 5 right now. That's at the very top of our scale. The storm surge will be the worst, in this case, near and to the right or to the northeast of where the center crosses the coast.
BLITZER: So, basically, I don't remember what the specific wind was when Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, but what you're saying, this could even be worse?
MAYFIELD: Well if it were to maintain this intensity, it could be worse. Yes, sir. I'm afraid it could be. I think the most grieveful thing is to plan on the possibility that a Category 4, possibly Category 5. We're going to have storm surge valleys, if it is that intensity, very similar to Katrina. This will also going to become a larger hurricane with time. The folks on the Texas coast that remember Hurricane Carla back in 1961, they had tremendous storm surge flooding on the Mid-Texas coast. They even had cows up in the trees in that hurricane, so that will jog some memories back there. This is a very, very dangerous hurricane, and my hats off to the folks in Texas. They're already calling for mandatory evacuations in some of the counties there. The folks living on the Texas coast really need to head the advice of their local officials.
BLITZER: What about Galveston, specifically, it's an island, it's a barrier island. We know what happened in 1900 there. If there were to hit near Galveston, what would it mean for the 60 or 70,000 people who are there, most of them hopefully are not going to be there, and for the 250,000 who live in Galveston County?
MAYFIELD: Wolf, Galveston and even the whole Galveston Bay area there is going to have an impact from this. Depending on how close the center gets to Galveston, if it comes in just to the southwest of Galveston, much, if not most of all of the island could be under water, I'm afraid.
BLITZER: What about Houston, which is about 60 miles inland?
MAYFIELD: That water will be pushed all the way up Galveston Bay. And in fact if you go back to 1983, Hurricane Alicia, a marginal Category 3 hurricane, we had these large barges that were pushed up even on to Interstate 10, the northern part of Galveston Bay. So this is going to have a big impact.
The track, at least right now, looks like to be somewhere between Port Mansfield and -- I'm sorry -- Port Lavaca and Galveston Bay there. Depending on exactly where that hits, the lighter (ph) the impact. But this is a large hurricane, and it's going to take much of the Texas coast and the southwestern portion of Louisiana.
BLITZER: What about New Orleans? How worried should people in Louisiana be?
MAYFIELD: Well right now, the tides are pretty much normal there, but there some are very, very large waves associated with this hurricane. And as those waves get closer and closer to the coastline, some of those breaking waves will indeed have an impact. And in our last advisory, we made reference to that in areas impacted by Katrina.
And southeastern Louisiana and even in Mississippi, you know, they could have some tide levels up, three and four feet above normal. You know, compared to what they have been through, that's not, you know, devastating but they're going to have some coastal impacts even in Louisiana and Mississippi.
BLITZER: And we know we're about two or three days away from landfall. The best estimate right now, what? Late Friday night, early Saturday.
MAYFIELD: Well, I think the landfall will likely be early Saturday morning. But it's important to know that the wind field is -- by the time it get there's, those tropical storm force winds will likely be expending out about 200 miles or so.
And that's going to be sometime Friday morning. So the message I think is that, you know, this entire hurricane watch area needs to pay very close attention to their local officials. Don't plan on having much time left on Friday. Go ahead and make all of your preparations tonight and tomorrow.
BLITZER: Good advice as always from Max Mayfield. Appreciate all the excellent work you do, Mr. Mayfield. Thank you very much.
MAYFIELD: Thank you, sir.
BLITZER: We'll check back with you often. How to cover Katrina's damage? Some suggest pay with pork. Coming up, CNN's Jeanne Moos explains her unique perspective on this. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Our Jack Cafferty has been going through your e-mail. He's joining us now live from New York. What are you picking up, Jack?
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, once again, the Gulf coast waiting for a hurricane, and this one sounds like just a monster storm. This time Galveston, Texas is likely to get hit. And just like New Orleans before it, Galveston is home to a disproportionate number of poor people. The question we're asking is will these hurricane ultimately improve the plight of the poor? Meaning, by all of the attention that's being focused on the folks who got left behind for example, in New Orleans. Pardon me.
C.C. writes, "there might be more attention paid to the poor for awhile, but unless the underlying causes of why they're poor are addressed, their plight will not improve. As long as health care, taxes, insurance, utilities, et cetera, continue to become more costly, there will probably be even more poor people in the future."
Dave in Menominee, Michigan writes "by election time, the Republicans will have everybody focused on gay marriage and abortion, and sadly the poor will be forgotten."
Dan in Washington, D.C., "yes, because it will show them they cannot rely on the government to do everything and be everywhere for everyone. Increased personal responsibility and the need to improve and rebuild their communities will improve the plight of the poor."
Tricia writes from San Diego, "how can the plight of the poor be alleviated when President Bush suspends minimum wage laws to rebuild after Katrina? Those who lost everything in New Orleans will now not even receive minimum wages for their jobs to rebuild."
And Bill writes from Dallas, Texas, "yes, not because it will bring out American generosity, which it will, but because the public will finally start to hold some of its elected officials accountable and actually fire them by electing new officials that are less jaded and more attentive to the overall needs of the country, rather than being so obsessed with their own re-election," which possibly, Bill, is the longest sentence I've read in a week or two. But I liked what it said.
BLITZER: All right, Jack. We'll see you tomorrow here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
CAFFERTY: I'll be here.
BLITZER: The mind-boggling cost of Hurricane Katrina has many wondering how the country can afford to undo the damage. CNN's Jeanne Moos looks at one option, pay with pork.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The cost of Katrina has left some folks squealing, yelling that one way to help pay for reconstruction is to cut the pork. Not that pork, this pork, almost $25 billion worth of projects earmarked by politicians in the latest highway bill, items ranging from $200,000 for a deer avoidance system along a stretch of interstate in New York State, to $4 million for a parking garage in Bozeman, Montana.
TRACY VELAZQUEZ: I guess I don't see this as pie in the sky. Someone who e-mailed me said it was a brilliant but hopeless idea. And I'm not that cynical. MOOS: Tracy Velazquez dreamed up the Pork for Relief swap. Vice chair of Montana's Democratic party, she wants to give up the future parking garage that would replace this parking lot and give the money to Katrina relief. Take back the pork has spawned a national petition drive, not to mention a favorable editorials in the "New York Times" and "The Wall Street Journal."
The $224 million project that gets squealed about most is in southern Alaska, the so-called bridge to nowhere that supporters call the bridge to somewhere. It would connect the Alaskan town Ketchikan, population 8,000 to an island with 50 inhabitants and an airport. Supporters insist the bridge is need for Ketchikan to expand.
Less controversial are items like this bike way in Hoboken, New Jersey, with its incredible view of New York. Hoboken was awarded $800,000 to finish the walkway.
(on camera): Would you be willing to give up the finishing of this bike path to pay for Katrina relief?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A small price to pay, a small sacrifice if it means helping somebody.
MOOS: But don't hold your breath. Fat chance the politicians who brought home the bacon are going to want to give it up. Officials didn't even want to talk to us about the subject on camera.
(voice-over): The mayor of Bozeman, Montana, called the idea of giving back the parking garage money unrealistic, but residents disagreed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't see why not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have been surviving this long without the parking garage. We can do it a little longer. They can't survive without our help.
MOOS: With war and natural disasters sucking the treasury dry, worried citizens seem to be saying
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PORKY PIG: That's all folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Thank you very much, Jeanne Moos for that piece. Just recapping, Hurricane Rita now a Category 5 storm, winds of about 165 miles an hour. It's moving over. It's moving across the Gulf of Mexico, taking direct aim on Texas. Stay with CNN throughout the night and the next several days as we watch Hurricane Rita. We're here in THE SITUATION ROOM every weekday afternoon, three to 6:00 p.m. Eastern. I'm Wolf Blitzer. LOU DOBBS TONIGHT starts right now. Lou is standing by in New York -- Lou.
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