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The Situation Room

Hurricane Rita Drops to Category 3; Ward 9 Levee Overflowing; President Bush Heads to Colorado

Aired September 23, 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 at one place simultaneously.
Happening now, the first waves of Hurricane Rita's assault on the Texas-Louisiana coast. It's 3:00 p.m. Central in Rita's strike zone, on the brink of what one official calls a catastrophic event. Frequent updates ahead from your hurricane headquarters.

A worst case scenario realized in New Orleans. A levee breached and water pouring out. Is that hard-hit city being swamped again?

And Rita's first casualties, an evacuation, then an explosion, and lives lost. This hour, the hurricane exodus and what went horribly wrong. I'm Wolf Blitzer, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

This hour, high anxiety along the Texas-Louisiana coast with Hurricane Rita pressing closer. Now a Category 3 storm with top winds near 125 miles an hour. Rita is weakening somewhat, but still, it's fierce and it's very dangerous.

The hurricane now, less than 200 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas. To the east, in New Orleans, a potentially devastating repeat of the Katrina flooding. Water spilled through a patched levee, pouring water into the Ninth Ward, one of the city's lowest lying neighborhood. It's a development officials feared, but it happened earlier than expected. The Mayor, Ray Nagin, urging journalists to leave these flooded areas because of safety concerns.

Authorities now are investigating this Rita related tragedy, a horrible tragedy, a bus carrying evacuees, many of them elderly, from a nursing home near Houston, burst into flames and exploded outside of Dallas. At least 24 people were killed. We'll have a report on that horrible story.

Let's go straight, though, to the CNN weather center, our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras, she has the latest information. Jacqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Wolf, we're about 12 to 16 hours away from landfall now, as Rita edges closer towards the Louisiana-Texas state line. It has been weakening some. And there are about three different things that are working against it. We have increased wind sheer on the western side of the storm. That's unfavorable winds in the upper atmosphere, helping to try to knock this thing down just a little bit. It's almost moving into some cooler waters, so that can also provide some weakening. And lastly, there's been some dry air that's been trying to entrain into the storm system, and dry air, of course, limits some of the lift in this storm system, and that can also break it down. But it's still a very serious situation. And we want to say, treat this as a major hurricane. We could drop down to a 2 before landfall, but right now we're going to stick with a 3 or better because this is such a huge storm and a very serious situation.

You've been talking about Port Arthur right there, at this time, the center line bringing it to the west of Port Arthur, which would bring the strongest storm surge, 10 to 20 feet as possible as it shoots up the bays and the rivers in this region, which would be extremely catastrophic with this storm. And it's then expected to weaken, and eventually stall out across northern parts of Texas, kind of the Arklatex region here and could bring as much as 12 to 24 inches of rain because it's been stalling out.

New Orleans itself could see anywhere between 3 and 5 inches of rain, and it's been coming down pretty steady throughout much of the day. There have been a number of tornado warnings, no reports of damage, but don't know that anybody is there to report any additional damage that could be possible.

So we have got an outer band that's just pushing through to Dauphin Island, extending over towards Gulfport and Biloxi, and this band has had a couple of warnings with it. No tornado warnings right now, however that feeder band could trigger any tornados at any given time. We also have a very strong easterly wind, but it looks like it's just starting to turn southeasterly a little bit more, and that will bring up the storm surge we think even higher as Rita gets a little bit closer. We're looking at 2 to 4 feet above normal tide across the Louisiana coast, and the winds are really gusting right now.

They're about 24 miles per hour over here in New Orleans, 21 in Baton Rouge, 20 in Thibodeaux. We'll take you down towards the coast and we're getting tropical storm force sustained winds right there along the coast, and there you can see the rain pushing over the state line now and affecting parts of eastern Texas.

Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Jacqui, thank you very much. We'll check back with you often.

The head of emergency management in Texas says he expects Hurricane Rita to affect more than 5 million people in the state, and leave 16,000 of them homeless. Let's check in with two coastal communities in the hurricane's bull's eye, or at least close to it.

CNN's David Mattingly is in Galveston, our meteorologist Rob Marciano is in Beaumont. Rob, let's star with you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOIST: Beaumont, Texas, as you mentioned, part of the southeast corner of the state, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, the Golden Triangle, the more populated area of the southeastern corner of Texas.

Actually, driving over between Houston and Beaumont, I forgot just how unpopulated that area is. You might think, well, if it takes this current track, it slides in there, maybe not affecting as many people. But this storm is so big, it's going to be similar to Katrina as far as seeing the miles, possibly hundreds of miles of coastline affected by this.

And different from Katrina, is the landscape of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, and how much that storm surge is going to run inland. There's a lot of marshlands and on top of that, there's been a lot of engineering in order to accommodate big ships that pipe oil up and down some of these rivers. Behind me is the Natchez River here in Beaumont, you see a drawbridge just beyond me and beyond that, actually some fishing vessels that are tied to their moorings.

Right now the river is flowing out, the way it normally should. Well, it is helped by a northeast wind, which has been picking up, by the way, and the clouds just now starting to spit. But as the winds begin to churn come tomorrow, and if the track is right, Jacqui is right and the track goes to the west of Port Arthur, we're going to see a strong south wind and a serious storm surge here.

And the latest discussion out of the local National Weather Service Offices do indicate that this spot right here will be under 20 feet of water as this river rises because of the storm surge. This is not the only river. You have got one that slices up just past Orange, it separates Louisiana and Texas. That's the Sabine River.

And then in Lake Charles you have got the Calcasieu River that dumps into Lake Charles there. That's going to be filling up. Word is, Wolf, that in Lake Charles, the lake there is already two feet on the rise and the storm isn't even close to us yet. So it's a bit of a different situation than Katrina in that the flooding is going to extend well inland on top of a very wide expansive coastline also.

BLITZER: All right. Rob, thanks very much. Rob Marciano is in Beaumont, Texas. Let's go over to Galveston, Texas. That's where our David Mattingly is standing by. The wind beginning to pick up there, David?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Picking up a little bit. We're seeing the first rain drops of the day, Wolf, after one of the most successful hurricane evacuations we've ever seen in the Gulf Coast area. Some residents of Galveston are being allowed to come back to their homes. These are people who evacuated, got stuck in traffic and had nowhere to go. So city officials say the best thing for them to do is come back, ride out the storm in their homes, here on the island instead of having to take their chances in the storm, sitting in their car somewhere on an expressway.

The storm not going to be as bad here as originally thought. They're now looking at 75 to 90-mile-an-hour winds that will hit later tonight, and a storm surge of just about 7 feet, something the massive seawall should be able to contain. Wolf?

BLITZER: Do they expect the whole area where you are to be totally flooded, is that right?

MATTINGLY: That was under the original forecast, when they were thinking they were going to get a Category 5 storm running over the top of them. Now the storm is taking off to the north, threatening communities up in that direction. Here they are on the less intense side of the storm now, and the further north it goes, the better off this island is going to be.

BLITZER: All right. Let's hope for the best for Galveston. Thank you very much, David. David Mattingly is in Galveston. Let's head back to New Orleans. Our Adaora Udoji is on the phone with us. She's north of New Orleans in a neighborhood that's been re-flooded due to the new levee breaches caused by Hurricane Rita. Give our viewers a sense, Adaora, of what's going on where you are.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on phone): You're exactly right, Wolf. We're northeast of the city in a neighborhood called Elysian Fields. And yesterday it was dry and today there's three, four feet of water that's seeping in pretty quickly, and it's getting very windy, which is why we were actually surprised that just a minute ago we were watching a Coast Guard helicopter flying around the city.

It's very spotty, though. As you move closer to downtown New Orleans, you see less flooding. Some streets getting some water. It's just moving in very, very quickly. We're north of the London Avenue Bridge, and the water is just whipping in there so quickly.

BLITZER: And it's only just beginning, I suspect, the winds and the rain, as the hurricane gets closer, presumably, Adaora, it's going to get worse.

UDOJI: I don't think there's any question, Wolf. In fact, it started raining yesterday around 3:00, and it has not stopped. We get these bands of rain, and of them some are quite ferocious. About 45 minutes ago it was like a torrential downpour, and it just keeps coming.

BLITZER: Adaora Udoji is watching the situation for us in New Orleans. Thank you very much.

Let's go back to New York. Our second chance to hear from Jack Cafferty. Jack?

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Wolf. The preparations and evacuations for Hurricane Rita have been massive and early, especially compared to those before Katrina made landfall last month.

Nevertheless, tens of thousands of motorists remain stranded on highways which look more like parking lots. There are those who ran out of gas. There are gas stations that don't have any gas. Texas Governor Rick Perry said today that crews are delivering fuel to people stuck on the highways. There's a good idea. But some motorists complain the state should have opened up traffic flow in the other direction much earlier than it did. That's probably another good idea. Here's the question this hour. Are there lessons that were not learned from Hurricane Katrina? Your thoughts, caffertyfile, on word, @cnn.com.

BLITZER: I can think of another one, make sure those TSA screeners show up for work at airports that people want to leave from.

CAFFERTY: But you know what? Somebody made the point -- somebody wrote to me yesterday and they said, wait a second, these people have families, too. And if they live in some of the low-lying areas, it's not unreasonable to expect they would want to focus on getting their families out of harm's way, rather than reporting to the airport for, you know, their regular work shift. And I suppose that's not an unreasonable argument.

BLITZER: Except TSA should bring screeners in from other parts of the country who don't have families necessarily to worry about and make sure those airports like Houston International Airport operate.

CAFFERTY: There you go, again, expecting the government to do its job, Wolf. Shame on you.

BLITZER: Just a thought. Jack, thank you very much.

CAFFERTY: See you later.

BLITZER: Tragedy on the highway, a horrible tragedy, a deadly ending for some of the oldest evacuees fleeing this hurricane. We'll have the story. That's coming up next.

Plus, we're tracking Rita. It's down to a Category 3, but it's still very dangerous. Stay with CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's the fourth largest city in the United States. Four and a half million people live in metropolitan Houston. Authorities there are briefing reporters on what's going on. Let's listen in.

JUDGE BOB ECKELS, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: ... and visited with some of the first responders there, from the Coast Guard to fire departments, ambulances, the state forces are coming in, the FEMA folks are represented there, the Reliant arena -- Reliant Hall that you had seen lined with thousands of people in cots is now lined with hundreds of ambulances, boats, fire trucks and first responding equipment. That equipment is there, it's ready. It will project it out into whatever area is needed for recovery, either here, but now we're thinking east towards Beaumont.

As soon as the storm has passed, additional equipment will be brought in. Again, FEMA and our federal partners have done a great job with this. That equipment will be brought in. We have will helicopters and other assets that could not be kept inside and will brought onto that pad for the relief effort. I believe mayor ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

ECKELS: Anything you want to add?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no. And with this we're going to ask the majority leader and members of Congress to make some statements for us. Mr. Leader?

REP. TOM DELAY, (R) TX: Thank you, mayor. All the plans have been made, all the plans are in place. The local, state, and federal governments are ready for this storm. And people should know how it works. Our experience with Katrina, people didn't quite understand that after the storm or during the storm, who can you reach out to?

The way that response systems are set up is the local governments are the first responders. When they're overwhelmed, they go to the state, asking for National Guard and so forth. And when the state is overwhelmed, FEMA is ready to fill in and provide those resources.

FEMA, as you all know, has pre-positioned water, food, al the supplies that are going to be needed after this storm is over. The military, both National Guard and active military, are ready to respond upon directions from the mayor and from county judge. I just to want say, and take this opportunity to thank the mayor of Houston, Bill White, for the incredible job he's done and the work that he has done not only just this few days, but the work that has been done over the last three weeks. Robert Eckels, county judge of Harris County has been just phenomenal in making things happen and showing the kind of leadership that we desperately need in this area to make things happen.

We shouldn't also forget that there's a lot of other mayors in this region. There are other county judges in this region that are doing their jobs. They don't get the television, but when people are in trouble, call your mayor, call the city government, call your local county government. If you live in Sugarland or if you live in Liberty County, call Liberty County. Don't call Mayor White.

The point here is, is if you're in trouble and you need help, call your local officials and your first responders in your area. We are prepared for this storm. The incredible leadership that has been shown on the local and state level, and the federal government, I've been in contact with the White House, with the Department of Homeland Security, with the FEMA operation, with the military, we feel very confident that everything is in place, ready for this storm.

And all I can offer at this time is, thank you to everybody that's been involved. A lot of people in this room, all the volunteers that have been pulled together. We are ready. And we're ready for Rita. And God bless everyone, our prayers are with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name's Gene Green (ph) and I represent the east side/north side of the county, from Baytown all the way back in. I'm glad ...

BLITZER: All right. We'll monitor this news conference in Houston, Texas. They're bracing for the worst there. We'll see what's going on. They're already getting some bad situations unfolding in New Orleans. Let's go to CNN's Jeff Koinange, he's joining us from St. Bernard's Parish. What's happening there, Jeff?

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on phone): Well, Wolf, it seems like we've been here before. This place had begun to dry out in the last few days. And I can tell you, the water's rising really, really fast. It's up to my knees right now. Officials were telling us that they were expecting the water to rise. But Wolf, I can tell you, it's rising pretty fast.

In fact, national guardsmen just pulled up to our car and said we cannot be in this area. We have to go back to Orleans Parish because they do not want to start conducting search and rescue missions. We've been advised to get out of this area, Wolf, because the water is rising too fast.

BLITZER: Is it a sustained area, a big area, based on what you can see, Jeff, or just a few blocks?

KOINANGE: It's a pretty large area, Wolf. In fact, the water is crossing over into Orleans Parish because we're literally on the border of St. Bernard and Orleans Parish. And the water is starting to rise pretty fast across the whole stretch, Wolf.

BLITZER: Is the water coming over those levees, over those walls, or did they simply break, those -- that temporary repair job that they did?

KOINANGR: It seems like a bit of both right now, Wolf. It did break in some parts and it is going over other parts and that's why it's rising so fast. Right now up to my knees, and it's still rising.

And you can hear the wind right now, it's howling as we speak. There's intermittent rain every now and then. It's pouring down, then it stops and starts and stops again. So the water, in a word, Wolf, is still rising.

BLITZER: Jeff Koinange, be careful over there in New Orleans, our man on the scene. Thank you very much.

The exodus from parts of Texas took a deadly turn earlier today. A bus carrying elderly evacuees from a nursing home caught fire and exploded. Our national correspondent, Bob Franken is on the scene for us. Bob, what happened?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they were a part of the evacuation. They had been taken from a Houston area nursing home. These were people who are very frail, many on oxygen. They had gotten close to Dallas in the evacuation in their bus, when apparently, officials say, there was a brake malfunction or something that caused the fire, and very sadly that caused some of the oxygen tanks to explode. It was a horrific scene when helpers tried to come in and save whom they could.

BLITZER: Bob, the whole nature of the oxygen tanks in there, are people looking at this situation and wondering, why did they let these people go in there with these highly flammable oxygen tanks?

FRANKEN: Well, apparently the officials are under the impression that they really didn't have any choice. Now, the National Traffic Safety Board is going to be investigating this, so there are going to be a lot of questions like the one you asked. There are has been this huge problem, of course, with getting people, evacuees, out of this area.

Now, what is so interesting is that this area might not be as hit as badly as people thought that it would be hit. Here's an interesting thing also, Wolf. As they prepare here, the City of Houston is going to have the expertise of a hometown company that's had huge, huge experience in war zones. Hometown Houston is of Kellogg, Brown and Root and Halliburton.

BLITZER: In our next hour here in THE SITUATION ROOM we're going to be speaking to the owner of that nursing home. Thanks very much. Bob Franken reporting for us from Houston.

We have our eye on the storm. Coming up, the latest on Hurricane Rita, will it gain or lose strength as it slams into the Gulf Coast? We're tracking this storm.

Plus, the president was expected to head back to Texas this afternoon, but his travel plans have changed. Rita being the reason. The word, he's getting ready to board Air Force One right now. There you see it at Andrews Air Force Base, the president getting ready to take off. He's not going to go to Texas. Instead, he's heading directly to the northern command in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

We'll tell you what's going on with the president right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's go right to Houston, the mayor, Bill White speaking to reporters.