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The Situation Room

Rita Bears Down on Texas; Houston Evacuations Cause Traffic Jams

Aired September 22, 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 ANCHOR: It's just after 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, Hurricane Rita. It's still huge, terribly dangerous, and moving closer to land. Just after 3:00 p.m. Central in the Rita strike zone along the Texas-Louisiana coast. We'll keep you up to the minute on where this super storm is heading and when it will hit.

An exodus from Texas. This hour, highways out of Houston jammed. Galveston right now a virtual ghost town and officials keep warning residents to get out before it's too late.

Louisiana's nightmare, a second hurricane, another flood threat. Can the battered levees and exhausted citizens take it?

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

This hour, hurricane experts warning residents in Rita's likely target area not to let their guard down just because the storm has been downgraded from a Category 5 to a Category 4. Rita's winds still fierce, clocked at 150 miles an hour.

Right now, the storm expected to strike land early Saturday between Galveston and the Texas-Louisiana border. Most of Galveston's nearly 58,000 residents have left the island city over the past few days under a mandatory evacuation order. And the mayor is warning anyone left to move on out today.

People also are fleeing the Houston area as Rita approaches. After some delays, all lanes of Interstate-45 have been ordered open to northbound traffic to try to ease the crush of vehicles.

To the east, in New Orleans, the city so hard hit by Katrina could now be drenched again, this time by Rita's rains. And that could simply overwhelm the city's levee system, newly repaired but still very, very, fragile.

We'll go to our David Mattingly in Galveston in just a moment. First, though, to the CNN Hurricane Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

BLITZER: The traffic, it's a huge problem in Houston right now in that whole area. People have been desperate to get out of town. They've been ordered to leave. Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States. The metropolitan area has four million people, and millions of them are trying desperately to simply get out of the Houston area.

Traffic patterns have been awful, as we see. They're trying to get all of these lanes moving in one direction, but it's been slow in getting that started. Nick Nichols is one of those people trying to get out of the Houston. He's joining us on the phone. You're on I- 10, is that right, Nick?

NICK NICHOLS, EVACUATING HOUSTON: That's correct.

BLITZER: How long have you been on the road?

NICHOLS: We left this morning around 6:00, and it's about 3:00 now. We've traveled approximately 20 miles in nine hours with two sheepdogs and my wife.

BLITZER: And you have your valuables and your most important possessions you managed to get in your car?

NICHOLS: Absolutely, except my children. We're on our way to see our son who lives in Austin.

BLITZER: So, you're trying to make it to Austin. So you've been in the car now for nine hours. You've gone about 20 miles. What about the gasoline situation?

NICHOLS: Well, we filled up. It took awhile to get filled up last night, and I waited in line for about 20, 30 minutes and I've got three-quarters of a tank left now. I guess you don't use much when you're not going very fast. But we hope we have enough to get to Austin.

BLITZER: How frustrated are you? I don't know if I-10 has opened up all those lanes in one direction, but certainly a lot of the other highways in and around Houston are still -- you know, you see all of these traffic patterns, all of these cars going in one direction, and then the other lanes are virtually empty, the ones going into Houston.

NICHOLS: Absolutely. It is a parking lot out here. We're driving by lanes that are vacant, free, anybody could drive on them, but they're not open. So we have three packed lanes over here, and to the left, there are three lanes completely open that could be used. And they're not open for traffic right now.

BLITZER: Are you listening to the radio? Because we spoke to the police chief, He said they're trying to get it open and they're working diligently, but clearly, at least from our perspective, seeing what's happening right now, they should have done this a while ago.

NICHOLS: Well, the orders were to evacuate from Houston, and they say evacuate, and we're out here in a parking lot, and those things should have been taken care of. BLITZER: We spoke to someone in the last hour, Nick, who was in a similar situation as you are, got out, started driving, managed to get about 20 miles. We're not even getting to anyplace, and then they simply went home because they thought it might be too dangerous to simply keep on driving and not know if you have a hotel room or you have gasoline.

NICHOLS: We've considered that option, about a total retreat and going back home, but we're down the road here, and they say it's worse to go back when the storm hits at a Category 4 or 5, so we'll get out of here. It will be a problem tomorrow if they don't straighten these roads out, with people who will be where we are and they'll be caught in the storm.

BLITZER: What about your pets? You said you have two dogs in the car with you?

NICHOLS: I have two old English sheepdogs, Lucy and Daisy and they're great dogs, they have a very good temperament, but one has already been sick in the car. And they're doing OK now.

BLITZER: Well, good luck, Nick. Good luck to you. We'll check back with you and see how you're doing. I suspect your story is very, very typical to the other people, millions of people who are simply trying to get out of Houston, and it's not easy, by any means.

Galveston is also a serious, serious problem, almost 60,000 people, under normal circumstances, live in Galveston, about a quarter of a million live in Galveston County. Our David Mattingly is there in Galveston right now. I take it it's like a ghost town, David?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what public officials are calling it. You don't see anybody on the road. You certainly don't see anybody down by the water, where I'm standing right now. If you look at all of those people stuck in their cars, a lot may have left this island early because of all the early warnings that came out from public officials.

They put the mandatory evacuation at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, and even by that time the streets were almost empty. Today public officials came out again, gave that estimate. They believe that 90 percent, nine out of 10 people on this island have heeded the evacuation warnings and gone on to safety. One of the reasons might have been the recent experience with Hurricane Katrina, and some of the dire predictions that were being put out by public officials here a couple of days ago. I want to show you why. This is a 17-foot sea wall. This has been here for a century protecting this city against hurricanes. With a category 5, officials were warning people that with the worst case scenario, they might see waves from that storm crashing over the top of this massive wall, some 15 feet high. That was enough to make anybody pay attention here and take advantage of getting out of here when they could.

The city has also been providing busses for the first time ever, a lesson they learned with Katrina, watching what happened in New Orleans. They identified people who would need rides, people who could not get out on their own. They made sure that city buses for the first time were available to take these people out -- 3,200 people have taken them up on that offer. And that service may have been closed down by now. We haven't confirmed that.

Some hours ago they said they might have one more bus they were willing to load up and send out. The concern is, because there's so much traffic on the main land outside, they didn't want to load a bus up here and send it to sit in that traffic and perhaps get stuck in the hurricane.

So right now they're going to slowly start ratcheting things back, public and all the safety officials are going to take their place in a hotel that's been built in an old bunker -- military bunker here and they're going to ride it out.

And they've also made plans to bring national guardsmen and search and rescue teams in here immediately after. So they're already, Wolf, thinking about the aftermath.

BLITZER: All right. David, we're going to check back with you. Thank you very much. David Mattingly is in Galveston for us.

Let's bring in a hurricane expert right now. Marshal Shepherd is a research meteorologist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight center in Greenbelt, Maryland. That's just outside the nation's Capitol. Marshal, thank you very much for joining us.

You've got some new images of this hurricane. Show us what you're picking up?

MARSHAL SHEPHERD, NASA: Well, we've been monitoring the sea surface temperatures using our aqua satellite which can measure the temperature of the ocean through clouds and in clear conditions. And you can see through the evolution of Rita that the waters are pretty warm. Those reds and orange represent warm water.

But what we've been seeing, is when the storm moves over those red patches, the storm really intensifies. I think we're seeing some weakening now because Rita is moving over some slightly, and I emphasize slightly, cooler water. So I wouldn't be surprised to see fluctuations even a slight decreases from here to there, but we are still dealing with a major storm.

BLITZER: Is it possible, this hurricane, which is now a category 4, could go back up to a category 5?

SHEPHERD: I think that's possible. It's too early to tell. Most of the trends in the models from our colleagues at NOAA suggest a weakening. But one the things we know is that intensity change forecasts, Wolf, are very difficult.

We've got some CAT scans. This is a CAT scan of Hurricane Rita from this morning from our tropical rainfall measuring mission satellite, this is new technology that we're flying a space-based radar. And it helps us to look for very intense thunderstorms in the rainfall structure, because we think those intense thunderstorms are clues of intensification processes.

BLITZER: What do you see for the people of southeast Louisiana, New Orleans, specifically?

SHEPHERD: Well, any time you're dealing with a major hurricane, inland freshwater flooding is always a concern. And this storm is a fairly large storm, so although we're talking about a landfall somewhere in the area of Texas, near the Galveston Bay, because of the extent of this storm, we certainly could see some fairly significant rainfall near the landfall. We're talking 8 to 12 inches of rainfall. And as you move out into the Louisiana region, now we still could be dealing with 3 to 6 inches of rain, or maybe more.

So, it is certainly of concern to an already stressed region.

BLITZER: Is it smart for all of those people in Houston, 4 million people who live in the metropolitan area, to be getting out of Houston as quickly as possible Or are they -- authorities there overreacting?

SHEPHERD: You know, I tend to always err on the side of authorities. They're trained to understand and assess these situations. So as scientists here at NASA, and more importantly for our colleagues at NOAA, they're issuing very good forecasts, and I believe these officials are taking the right precautions. They've seen what happened with Katrina and last year with the 2004 storms in Florida. So I'm certain that they are operating with the interest of their citizens in mind.

BLITZER: You spent your career studying these hurricanes. There are a lot of people out there who see a direct correlation between global warming and what we're seeing right now. Is that your assessment?

SHEPHERD: That is not my assessment, although I think there's some scientists coming out with some studies that we really need to look at. I think we have to pay attention to those. But generally, I believe it's a bit too early to try to make the link between a couple of hurricane seasons and global warming.

In fact, I mean, we know there's an active cycle of natural activity in hurricanes. And we think we entered an active phase, Wolf, in 1995. Now, these multi-decadal active periods, they can last for 10, 20, or even 30 years. So certainly, we have to be more diligent about separating out natural cycles in hurricane activity from any human-induced change. And that's where there will be a great deal of research over the coming decades.

BLITZER: Marshal Shepherd, thanks very much. We would like to check back with you. Thank you for your expertise.

SHEPHERD: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's immediately go to Houston. The mayor, Bill White is speaking to reporters. MAY. BILL WHITE, HOUSTON: Good condition compared to a lot of the country if our refineries are able to start up operations quickly. We're more blessed than a lot of areas of the country. But...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

WHITE: Well, there are not going to be trucks that are out there doing the gasoline if there's 140-mile-an-hour winds, for example. But after the storm passes, then it will be done as quickly as possible. And I think that you'll see that the industry can deliver a lot of fuel very quickly. And I hope to have some D.O.D. lift capabilities by then, too.

QUESTION: Was there any consideration (INAUDIBLE) to asking people who don't have to evacuate (INAUDIBLE)

WHITE: We're not forbidding evacuations, but you heard what the judge said and maybe you respond to that. The judge said it pretty clearly in a polite way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly what we're saying. That if you're not in an evacuation zone, follow the events and watch the news. We have a little bit less critical of a situation right now than we had four, five hours ago. But the storm has oscillated back and forth. It could very easily come back into the Houston area. We just don't know where the storm is going to go until a little later. We'll address that at 7:00.

But right now, those people in the storm surge area need to still be prepared and be moving out. If you're not in a storm surge area, you may be in a little better position, and I would advise that you, again, take the precautions, be able to shelter in place, have your water, have your food.

We've never -- we've never called for an evacuation of Houston. We've never called for an evacuation of Harris County. We've asked people always to use common sense to go through and evaluate their situation and their home.

Today, that situation is improving a little bit over where it was this morning. This afternoon it could go back the other way. But there's no point if you're not in a flood zone area of immediately jumping out there and getting caught in this traffic while you've got people trying to get out from the coastal flooding zones.

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; We will take every effort to make sure that is not going to happen, that you won't be there when the storm hits. And that's what the mayor addressed. And I'll let him come back talking about the ability to go out (INAUDIBLE). The first part of your question was, did this catch us by surprise? This was not in the plan.

WHITE: And on this particular issue, this is our planning. Look, the reason that we have been evacuating early as a community and taking extra precautions is that if the hurricane comes in at a particular angle and a particular location, being on the highway is a death trap. And we need to make these evacuation plans and get people moving before the very dangerous winds hit. And we will -- I'll ask -- we will be making an announcement this evening concerning the plans.

And I will say this, to conclude this conference, that I'm asking all you Houstonian that just as we responded in Katrina, and we responded to our citizens in need, here today, tonight, tomorrow morning, we'll be responding, too, to those citizens who don't have fuel that are on some of the highways.

Citizens will be an important part of that. I know we've seen some instances already on I-10, on I-45, where citizens were helping other citizens. That's going to be part of the effort. That's going to be part of the team, and we'll make some announcement. And we will have another press conference here at 7:00. OK

BLITZER: All right. The mayor, Bill White. The mayor of Houston, talking about his city, urging everyone to get out. There's still time. It's not as easy, though, as it would seem.

Houston, a huge, huge city, fourth largest city in the United States, 4 million people in the metropolitan area.

Also, other communities getting ready for Hurricane Rita. One was hit by Hurricane Katrina, and it's now threatened again by this second powerful storm, that would be Grand Isle, Louisiana. It is being called a ghost town right now. Our Ted Rowlands is there. And he's joining us via videophone.

Ted, set the scene for us.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you mentioned, it's mainly a ghost town. The evacuation started here at about 10:00 local time. Most people have left Grand Isle. This is going to be one of the communities that will be getting a one-two punch. It is in southern Louisiana, and it was pretty devastated after Katrina. Already you can see the winds of the next -- of Rita have already started to take effect here. The surf is up about 9 feet, and conditions are deteriorating.

They say that the high tide will be about midnight tonight. They want everyone out by then. They're going door to door, urging people to leave. A lot of these folks have spent the last three weeks cleaning up after Katrina. We talked to one man, and he said he's just plain tired, and the thought of losing what he has left to another hurricane, as you can imagine, psychologically it is devastating for these people.

BLITZER: How many people are there? Are any of the people who were devastated the first time around, they came back, they're trying to rebuild their lives, and now they're leaving again. Is that's what's going on, basically, right? ROWLANDS: Exactly. They came back to find their homes beaten and severely damaged. They've spent the last three weeks doing what they can to clean up, mainly, because there's debris scattered all over here, and now they're leaving, and this debris is going to be moving soon because the winds have picked up considerably, and they are expecting to get hit. It may not be hurricane force. They're not sure how bad the isle is going to get hit.

The main concern is water, the levees here, the natural levees were beaten down by Katrina, and the fear is what is left of this small community may be gone after Rita comes through.

BLITZER: Ted Rowlands -- be careful over there. He's in Grand Island, Louisiana. Thank you very much.

Remember, CNN is your hurricane headquarters and we're constantly monitoring where Hurricane Rita is heading.

Coming up, fresh forecasts of the storm and live reports from the areas that may be hit.

Plus, no one could ever forget what New Orleans looked like after Hurricane Katrina. Could the city flood again when Rita strikes?

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hurricane Rita on a collision course for the Texas- Louisiana coast with landfall expected early Saturday. Once again, a Category 4 storm -- Rita's top winds right now, 150 miles an hour. It's centered 150 miles southeast of Galveston, one of the cities bracing for a direct hit. Louisiana's governor says parts of her state are in danger from Rita right now. Kathleen Blanco is urging residents of coastal parishes in harm's way to heed the lessons of Hurricane Katrina and evacuate immediately.

KATHLEEN BLANCO, LOUISIANA GOVERNOR: I'm urging people to head north. You cannot go into Texas. Texas is preparing. The hurricane eye is still entering Texas, but on the east side of Texas. We are on the east side of the storm, just as Mississippi was. We can expect serious consequences from this hurricane.

BLITZER: Look for Rita to put a serious strain on New Orleans' weakened levees. The city is bracing for a possible storm surge and scrambling right now to avoid renewed flooding more than three weeks after Katrina.

Once again, our Mary Snow is in New Orleans right now. She's joining us live.

Where are you now, Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we're on the 17th Street Canal -- this is a bridge over that canal. You're talking about people scrambling -- we'll show you an example of it: these crews are literally racing to shore up the canal here. This is just about a quarter mile away from a failed levee. What happened here is, there is a wall being constructed here -- it has been constructed -- that wasn't here during Katrina. Do you see these steel pilings? They're 60 feet in length. What's happened here is crews have embedded them along the canal. This in order to protect the levee. And as one engineer explained it, is really a new barrier between Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans.

Now, earlier today we took an aerial tour of the devastation and what was left of the flooding from Katrina. We went with General Bruce Berwick and toured the levees, canals, and the devastation. You can clearly see that this is such a fragile area. And, really, everybody is watching the weather forecast because any forecast for rain could threaten these weakened systems.

Now, what is also happening is there is a forecast for what is going on here. The breach that was broken has been filled in with sandbags. And what the general is saying is that there are three conditions that he is looking at right now, and that is, a three-foot storm surge, 6 to 8 inches over two to three days, and these levees holding. He said, if that happens, he is looking at what he says minor flooding. He considers that between 2 and 4 feet. This in areas where the water can be quickly pumped out. He said, if any of those conditions vary, that could have more significant flooding. So really this is being assessed by the hour. And Rita, certainly keeping close tabs -- people are watching it very closely here.

And I do want to point out, these sandbags behind me, we've been seeing them for weeks now being placed here. They are 3,000 pounds each. These sandbags right now are being used to reinforce this new barrier, because there is a bit of a leak, not a big leak, just shoring up this steel barrier that was actually ordered -- these canals were ordered locked last night -- Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Mary Snow, we'll see you later in the program. Thanks very much. And I'm going to ask Mary later whether or not the wind is already picking up in New Orleans, because parts of that city already having some rain from the spread of this storm, as we know.

Let's once again check in with Jack Cafferty. He's in New York. Hi, Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. One of the stories attendant to these big storms is the loss of jobs. In addition to losing their homes, all their worldly possessions to Katrina, a lot of Americans -- tens of thousands of them -- have lost their jobs. The government is reporting now that 214,000 Americans are out of work because of Hurricane Katrina. And some economists are saying it's going to get worse, that a half a million people will ultimately have lost their jobs due to Katrina.

And then there's Rita. If she comes ashore as advertised, packing 150-mile-an-hour winds, the job losses along the Texas Gulf coast could be huge as well. There are people in Congress who are suggesting a modern-day Works Progress Administration -- the so-called WPA projects, created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt back during the Great Depression to provide jobs for Americans who couldn't get work any other way.

Here's the question this hour: What should be done to re-employ the hurricane victims? Your thoughts, caffertyfile -- one word -- CNN.com. We'll take a look. This is going to be a huge problem, and it's going to be a big dent in the national economy over time, Wolf.

BLITZER: I suspect you're right. I know you're right, Jack. Thank you very much.

Quickly, I want to go back to Mary Snow in New Orleans. Mary, I asked you about the weather. It looks pretty ominous, the skies above you.

SNOW: It is certainly looking that way. What want to show you is some of the clouds rolling in behind us. They're getting darker. And as you mentioned, the winds are picking up. And here in New Orleans, we're only expected to feel the outer bands of Rita, but we're already seeing the winds picking up throughout the day, and certainly the sky is getting darker.

BLITZER: Must be very scary there for all of those people who are still there. Mary, thank you very much.

Residents of Galveston, Texas, are under orders to get out. Some officials and emergency workers, including some police officers and firefighters, are staying behind. The Galveston police chief, Kenneth Mack, is joining us on the phone right now. Chief, thanks very much for joining us. How many people do you estimate are still in Galveston?

CHIEF KENNETH MACK, GALVESTON POLICE DEPT.: Sir, I don't really have a way to estimate how many people are left. Our base population is about 58,000, 59,000 people. I can tell you a significant portion of people have evacuated, but there's no way to get a true estimate of how many may be left.

BLITZER: If people are staying -- and I've heard various estimates that 75 to 90 percent of the residents of Galveston have left -- but even if there's a few thousand, where would they try to stay to protect themselves, given the nature of this hurricane?

MACK: Sir, they would have to find shelter as best they can, because the city does not have any shelters that it has been able to offer as places of refuge, because we can't guarantee the safety of any particular structure.

BLITZER: If people are still there right now, is it too late to get out, or are you telling people right now, you still have a few more hours, or at least -- how long do they have to get out?

MACK: Sir, actually everyone that wants to leave or decides to leave should have left by now. However, if they left within the next hour or so, they certainly can be out of the area prior to the expected landfall, but they might still be in some of the congested highways when we begin to feel tropical storm force winds tomorrow morning.

BLITZER: What about the very poor, those who don't have cars or the elderly or the sick, have you, have local authorities, state authorities made arrangements to get them out?

MACK: Sir, the city of Galveston made a tremendous effort to address that very problem and, in fact, yesterday evacuated, I believe, just a little in excess of about 3,000 people, who took advantage of a program the city very quickly put together in connection with a lot of other entities, and we got people out of here by, you know, public transportation. That was city buses, school buses, and everything else that we had available to us.

BLITZER: Chief, where are you going to ride out the storm?

MACK: Myself and my officers will be in the San Louis Hotel which is actually on the beachfront.

BLITZER: And that's the fortress that has withstood other storms in the past. Is that right?

MACK: It's a major hotel built on top of an old -- a former Army fortress.

BLITZER: Chief Kenneth Mack of the Galveston Police Department. Chief, good luck to you, all the men and women of the police force, everyone who's left behind in Galveston. Appreciate it.

Rita closing in, as we all know, right now in the Gulf coast. When specifically will the hurricane make landfall? We're tracking this dangerous storm. We'll have an update. That's coming up.

Plus it appears President Bush will beat Rita to Texas. We'll explain what that means when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hurricane Rita churning closer and closer and closer to the Texas-Louisiana coast. Once again, a Category 4 storm. Still a beast with winds up to 150 miles an hour. More than a million people are fleeing the storm, probably two million right now in what's being called the largest evacuation in Texas history.

In New Orleans, there's a lot of tension right now. Take a look at these pictures, live pictures coming in of the skies over New Orleans. Check out the clouds right now. And this is only just beginning. Ominous, very threatening clouds, as this Hurricane Rita moves across the Gulf of Mexico.

With his home state of Texas in Rita's line of fire, President Bush is planning to return there tomorrow to visit with first responders and to review preparations for the hurricane. While talking about the war on terror here in Washington earlier today, the president took some time out to warn about the coming storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This morning I met with Secretary Chertoff about Rita. I talked to Governor Perry again. I talked to him last night, I talked to him this morning. This is a big storm, and it's really important for our citizens there on the Texas coast to follow the instructions of the local authorities. Officials at every level of government are preparing for the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The president says the federal government has positioned troops and resources in the Southwest to try to ensure a quick and effective response to Hurricane Rita after acknowledging missteps after Hurricane Katrina.

Our Zain Verjee is joining us now from the CNN Center in Atlanta with a quick look at some other stories making news -- Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, Judge John Roberts is now just one step away from becoming the nation's next chief justice. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 in favor of his confirmation this afternoon. All ten Republicans and three of the eight Democrats voted in favor of Roberts. The full Senate is expected to vote on the nomination next week.

Investigators are hoping that the data recorders from this JetBlue plane will help explain what went wrong. The Airbus jet make a spectacular emergency landing in Los Angeles yesterday with its front wheels turned sideways. The dramatic incident was shown live on national TV with many passengers watching on board the plane's satellite TV. There was a lot of anxiety, but fortunately, no one was hurt.

A suspect in the botched London bombings of July 21st is back in Britain. Hamdi Isaak (ph) was extradited from Italy where he believe he fled via Paris on the 26th of July. He is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow. The failed attack came two weeks after a series of bombs killed 52 people in London on the transport system there -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Zain. We'll get back to you. Zain Verjee at the CNN Center.

We have all of our eyes right now on Hurricane Rita. So does Max Mayfield. He's the director of the National Hurricane Center. Why was he testifying though to the U.S. Congress today? That story, that's coming up next. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: While the Rita threat has been unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, there was a dust up over hurricane recovery that played out earlier today here in Washington. Let's immediately go to Capitol Hill, our Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry is standing by. What happened, Ed? ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Republicans have vowed they do not want this investigation about Katrina to distract key officials from doing their jobs. What they called as their first witness today, Max Mayfield, a pretty busy guy with Hurricane Rita bearing down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY (voice-over): Beamed into a committee room via satellite, Max Mayfield struggled to answer questions about Katrina as he was handed urgent updates on Rita.

MAX MAYFIELD, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: I'm getting a wealth of information here. The -- OK, I'm sorry, here, I'm getting a little distracted here. But the ...

HENRY: The hurricane maven kept getting interrupted.

MAYFIELD: I honestly can't remember the -- anything that ...

HENRY: More fodder for Democrats who are boycotting the Republican-led Katrina investigation.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: Having a hearing on them at a time when people are heading for the hills, literally, to me, doesn't seem like a good use of Congress' time.

REP. TOM DAVIS (R-VA), GOVERNMENT REFORM CHMN.: We have a number ...

HENRY: Reporter: The Republican chairman said Mayfield was given the chance to reschedule, but wanted to address both hurricanes.

DAVIS: We worked this with him. We told him if this was a distraction, that we couldn't call him at all. Obviously, we didn't make him fly up here, do that. These are important questions, and this was -- he did this on his own volition.

HENRY: But Mayfield's TV testimony, juggling two storms, added to an already surreal scene, with mostly no-shows on the Democratic side. Two Democrats from the Gulf region did attend, but even they want the probe taken over by an independent commission.

REP. CHARLIE MELANCON (D), LOUISIANA: One which takes this process out of the hands of politicians and let the experts and those who have directly felt Katrina's impact drive the investigation.

HENRY: Reporter: Democrats fear the Republican-led investigation will shift blame from President Bush to local officials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who in Louisiana is authorized to order an evacuation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my understanding that it's the local officials.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: Now, Chairman Tom Davis told me today that he will be asking tough questions as well of federal officials, including ousted FEMA Director Michael Brown, who will be the star witness next Tuesday. In fact, CNN has learned that even though Brown recently resigned, he is still technically on the federal payroll. Officials insist though that he's not making any decisions. This is just for transitional reasons. But you can bet next we'll he'll number the hot seat, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. We'll stand by and watch that with you, Ed. Thank you very much. Ed Henry, our man on Capitol Hill.

It's a massive storm and it's spinning toward the Gulf coast. But just where will Hurricane Rita make landfall? Our forecast, an updated forecast, that's coming up.

Plus, massive traffic as people are trying to leave Houston in huge numbers. We'll talk to the city's mayor. He's standing by. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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BLITZER: The governor of Texas is urging evacuees from the Houston area to stay calm and stay patient as they see navigate jammed highways and try to get out of the city. Let's get the latest now from the mayor of Houston.

He's joining us on the phone, Bill White. Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. It looks very chaotic, this struggle to get out of Houston right now, especially those highways that are jammed in one direction. What's going on?

MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON, TEXAS: Well, it's not chaos, but there's a lot of people trying to evacuate, and we've taken extraordinary measures including shutting down the flow of traffic on the inbound lanes. So we're monitoring by helicopter, and as we're doing that, which is what we had requested very early in the morning by the state officials, it's getting done, and the traffic is flowing.

BLITZER: I spoke -- Mr. Mayor, excuse me for interrupting. But I spoke a few moments ago with one individual, he's been stuck for about 15 hours, has gone maybe 20 miles out of Houston, and he sees the lanes next to him virtually empty. Why not make all of those lanes one way so people can get out of Houston?

WHITE: That's what I said. That's what we requested about 15 hours ago by the state Department of Transportation, and now they have implemented that. And the two major thoroughfares, it was implemented two hours ago on one major thoroughfare, an hour ago on the other. It was unacceptably late, but that's exactly what we're doing here.

BLITZER: Why did it take so long?

WHITE: There's no -- a lot of people evacuated in response -- that did voluntary evacuations as well as the millions -- the over a million in the mandatory evacuation. So Houston did note and evacuate early for this -- for this Katrina. But the state system in place should be in place, and it should be better for opening up all lanes of traffic outbound. It's never been done before because there's never been an evacuation of this size.

BLITZER: Was there a plan in the works, though? Had you planned for this kind of evacuation, almost 2 million people trying to get on the roads, trying to get to airports, to bus stations, and simply get out of town?

WHITE: Sure. On the local end, the communications network and the number of people we've had started with the nursing homes, you know, over 72 hours ago, but we did -- what we didn't plan is some of the fuel caches, places where feel was supposed to be stored along the highway were not in place outside of the Houston area, in points north. And with that stalled up traffic all the way coming back. We also -- there are a number of voluntary evacuations that are -- people saw Katrina and they got -- they were leaving that weren't in the mandatory areas, and that caused more traffic than anybody had planned.

BLITZER: We're looking at a live picture now, Mr. Mayor, of a gas station in the Houston area. Huge backups, no gas, apparently, at least not enough gas. What's the situation as far as gas is concerned? Because tempers are really raw at some of these gas stations. Simply can't get out of town, a lot of these people.

WHITE: Sure. I wouldn't blame people. If they're in the mandatory evacuation areas, then we do have bus services and numbers where people can call to be picked up. But the fact is that if everybody in the area evacuated and topped off their tank, then it's the logistic of getting fuel trucks back into those filling stations.

BLITZER: What about the poor people and the elderly, the infirmed, those who don't have cars, what have you done to help them?

WHITE: Some -- three days ago, we started publicizing the fact that they could dial 311 into our system. We cued those calls. And we are sending buses and metro left out. And we're clearing the backlog of people who in that category. And those who need assisted living, we've had over 10,000 leave. We're putting some on planes. So it's those people in nursing homes, elderly, people without transportation that we give a top priority to in our system.

BLITZER: Mr. Mayor, good luck to you. We'll check back with you. You have an enormous job on your hands. Bill White is the mayor of Houston. Thank you very much.

We're going to take a quick break. We're about to get an update on Hurricane Rita from the National Hurricane Center. There's a new track that's about to be released. We'll tell you where this hurricane is moving right after this short break.

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BLITZER: Jacqui Jeras is standing by with new information from the National Hurricane Center. Jacqui, what are are we learning?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well Wolf, the most important thing right now is that the tropical storm watch, which was in effect that included the New Orleans and lake Pontchartrain area has now been upgraded to a tropical storm warning. So that means tropical storm force conditions are expected in the New Orleans area in 24 hours or less. So that has been the big change.

The wind speeds have dropped down a little further. They're down to about 145 miles per hour. But that still keeps it in the category 4 strength range, and that's still a very healthy category 4.

Here is a look at the radar picture right now. And it's showing showers and thunderstorms all across southeastern parts of Louisiana. And the wind speeds are beginning to increase. There you can see Grand Isle already at 31 miles per hour, 17 at Matairie. And then we've 15 miles per hour at White Castle. And winds need to be 39 miles per hour or greater to be considered tropical storm strength. And that will be arriving, we think, overnight tonight -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Jacqui, we'll see you right at the top of the hour with a full report. Jacqui Jeras with the latest information.

We'll take another quick break. Jack Cafferty standing by right after this.

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BLITZER: All right, we've just been informed that tropical storm warning, warning, for New Orleans, the Mayor Ray Nagin speaking right now.

MAY. RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: We're searching and encouraging individuals to evacuate, but it looks as though we have most of the people out of the city on the east bank with the exception of some business workers that may be out and about. And there may be a few people that are held up throughout the city.

We've got some good news this morning from the standpoint, the 82nd is still going to be with us in force as we start the reentry as Rita has moved out of the way. That will be reinforces of about 3,000 soldiers that will be a part of our security force along with about 2,000 national guards that will be with us.

You link that up with about the 1,400 Nano PD officers that are still in place with some other law enforcement agencies, and we should be in pretty shape from a law enforcement standpoint as we move forward.

And finally, I will say to our neighbors, to our neighbors in other parts of Louisiana, to Texas, neighbors that may be impacted by the storm, our hearts go our to you, our prayers go out to you. We wish that storm decides to turn at the last minute and avoid you. But if it doesn't, we are here to provide whatever little support we can to hopefully get you through this incredible process. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com