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The Situation Room

Hurricane Rita Makes Turn Towards Louisiana Coast

Aired September 23, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

BLITZER: storm downgraded but still very dangerous, and almost certainly deadly. An extraordinary effort is underway right now to evacuate the sick and the elderly, but the mission is marred by tragedy -- a bus fire that killed two dozen nursing home evacuees.
And in New Orleans, re-living a nightmare. Right now, Rita's storm surge breaching a levee and re-flooding parts of the devastated city. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

The stage is set for severe damage if not outright disaster along the coast of Texas and Louisiana. Hurricane Rita closing in -- it's now a Category 3 storm. But with winds near 125 miles per hour and a possible 20 foot storm surge, that's little comfort.

Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center, he's standing by. He'll join us live in THE SITUATION ROOM. That's coming up this hour. He'll have an update.

From Galveston to New Orleans and beyond, conditions are deteriorating rapidly. Wind and rain are gaining in intensity. With landfall now just hours -- hours -- away.

Other developments we're following right now. Texas officials say more than two million people have evacuated ahead of the storm. The state's emergency management coordinator is predicting some 5700 homes will be destroyed and more than $8 billion in damage will occur.

In Louisiana, an eight foot storm surge ahead of Rita's arrival, higher than predicted and more than the already damaged levees in New Orleans can take. Water is already pouring over the Industrial Canal, re-flooding the damaged Ninth Ward and leaving as much as 40 square blocks under up to four feet of water.

In Georgia right now -- check this out -- they're preparing for the fallout from Rita. The governor of Georgia ordering schools around the state closed for two days, hoping to save half a million gallons of diesel fuel.

Let's go straight to our meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras. She's joining us now live with the new forecast that has just come out from the National Hurricane Center -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Wolf, no major changes in this forecast advisory. In fact, we think Rita has kind of leveled off now. We think the majority of the weakening has taken place and we think we can expect this as a Category 3 to sustain this strength now, as we get it within the 12 to 16 hour window of landfall. One hundred and twenty five mile per hour, the winds stay there. And the location now, getting close, 140 miles southeast of Port Arthur, Texas.

Here are the main things you need to know. The bottom line, landfall near the Texas/Louisiana border sometime overnight tonight, likely near dawn. Category 3 most likely with a storm surge of 10 to 20 feet near and just east of the center of the storm. Rainfall in the path, eight to 12-plus inches, but as the storm moves northward it will stall out around the ArkLaTex region and bring one to two feet of rain.

Here's the projected path, still coming in just to the west of Port Arthur, and that would be where the worst of the storm surge is. There's still time for a little bit of a bobble with this storm and that could affect significantly where that is going to be going. Showers and thunderstorms hitting much of lower Louisiana.

The winds are on the increase. We're concerned about the threat of tornadoes within this region, and there's a watch in effect. That rain has now pushed into Port Arthur and Beaumont, and the sustained tropical storm force winds have arrived in Louisiana and Texas. Forty miles per hour there in Cameron, Port Arthur 38 miles per hour. It's going to be actually 39. Beaumont has dropped a little to 21. And there you can see Galveston, 39 mile per hours. Thirty-nine to 74 for tropical storm force winds -- Wolf.

BLITZER: So that area, even north, pretty much inland, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas where they converge, they're going to get a ton of rain.

JERAS: Yes, definitely, Wolf. Unfortunately, the system is going to be basically stalling out. And we're expecting it to kind of sit there, at least for maybe two to three days unfortunately, right across kind of the region where northeast Texas meets along with Arkansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to get back to Jacqui very soon. Thank you, thank you very much. Officials in New Orleans are realizing one of their worst fears, new flooding in that already devastated city. It happened earlier today. CNN's Mary Snow is joining us now live from the scene -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what engineers were trying to avoid, Wolf. You can see the scene behind me, flooding in a number of parts of New Orleans. And what happened today is in the Industrial Canal levee two areas that had been damaged, there had been temporary shoring up of those damaged parts of the levee and we've seen water topping over them.

The most notable one, of course, happened in the Lower Ninth Ward, where water was gushing into that area. Now, engineers with the Army Corps of Engineers are saying that they are not surprised this happened, but they are disappointed, that they did not expect this to happen so early on. They expected flooding, but not so soon because, really, we've just been seeing the outer bands of Hurricane Rita affecting New Orleans today.

What they -- how they explain is, is that they were prepared for surge of seven feet and it went above that. And you can see that devastated area, once again, under water. Here, as well, this is a low-lying area that had been flooded and seen bad flooding after Katrina as well -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Mary, as you look at that situation, what are the people saying? Are there any residents who are still there?

SNOW: Well, we are being told by officials that the places that were damaged hardest today, or flooded hardest, do not have residents in them. We can tell you from the Lower Ninth Ward, that is the area we were in the other day, Wolf, when we were showing you those pictures from the back of a truck. And there were recovery teams in that area, going door to door and their primary mission was to recover body.

And we spoke with the commander of the 82nd Airborne division earlier today. He said that his members had also gone in there to absolutely make sure that nobody is there. But officials are saying that they do not believe that there were any residents there because it was so badly damaged.

BLITZER: Mary Snow on the scene for us, in New Orleans. Thank you very much.

Now to Houston. Last hour, we heard from the city's mayor on the situation there. Let's check in with Houston's police chief for what's going on. Chief Harold Hurtt is joining us on the phone. Chief, thanks very much for joining us. What's it like right now?

CHIEF HAROLD HURTT, HOUSTON POLICE DEPT.: Right now, there's a slight breeze, no serious raining. We're just getting prepared. We've got the quiet before the storm right now.

BLITZER: And people who evacuated, are they out of there or still people -- is it too late for people to leave now?

HURTT: Well, those who have not left at this time, we're asking them to stay in their home or someplace safe and stay there and ride the storm out. We're telling people to stay in place at least for the next 12 to 14 hours.

BLITZER: Have you moved people to shelters in Houston?

HURTT: Well, yes, we have moved people that was not able to get out or need assistance. We have temporary shelters throughout the city. They don't have a lot of food and water but we wanted to make sure that we got people away from the weather.

BLITZER: When you say they don't have a lot of food and water, that sounds alarming. What do you mean by that?

HURTT: They're not long-term shelters. They're just shelters to shelter them from the storm and then we'll be able to get the necessary food and water and other attention they need.

BLITZER: But do they have enough food and water for at least a day or two or three?

HURTT: We'll be able to get to them before then. We have -- FEMA here, they have stockpiled supplies, food, medicine. We have the National Guard. Everybody's well-positioned to any location that needs assistance.

BLITZER: Are you bracing for a lot of flooding in Houston?

HURTT: Yes, we are. We are bracing for flooding, as well as wind.

BLITZER: And what about loss of power?

HURTT: Same thing. We have our utility people waiting in queue. As soon as the storm is over, they're going to go into action.

BLITZER: Chief, good luck to you, good luck to everyone in Houston. Chief Harold Hurtt joining us, chief of the Houston Police Department.

I want to show our viewers a live picture we're getting in right now. This is from Clear Lake, Texas. You can see the surf beginning to pick up. It's still a Category 3, winds of about 125 miles per hour. It's going to get worse, though, over the next several hours.

Let's show you a live picture of what it looks like in Galveston, Texas. If you remember over these past couple of days, we've been showing relatively calm surf. It's dramatically picking up in Galveston.

It's only going to get worst there as well, not only in Galveston, but in Beaumont, Port Arthur, other communities along the Texas coast, moving closer to Louisiana. Jack Cafferty is with us in New York, watching all of this. Pretty ominous, I shall say, Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Just watching that camera on the Galveston shoreline, looks like it's up on some kind of an elevated position. Do you know where that camera's positioned at?

BLITZER: I don't know what it is but we've been showing that picture now -- I hope the camera is in a steady, secure location.

CAFFERTY: Well, you can see it's kind of shaking there. I believe if I was that camera person, I might be inclined to say, well, the camera can do this by itself. I'll be heading over the Holiday Inn here pretty soon.

The number of Category 4 and 5 storms over the Atlantic Ocean has doubled in the last 35 years. This according to the World Meteorological Organization. And there's a loud chorus of voices that claim that it's all because of global warming. These experts say that hurricanes are getting more violent, because of the burning of fossil fuels, which leads to warmer ocean temperatures that in turn allows these storms to intensify.

But there are other scientists who say that past hurricanes that point to a cyclical cooling and heating of ocean temperatures, and that it's premature to blame these storms on global warming. Nobody knows for sure at this point who's right in this debate. But the question for the hour is, are there things, do you think, that we could do to lessen the intensity of these hurricanes? CaffertyFile, one word, CNN.com. I wonder if that's a manned camera position. That's a courageous soul up there if it is.

BLITZER: I suspect it's a robotic camera on a tower of some sort.

CAFFERTY: Oh. Maybe so.

BLITZER: You see it shaking.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

BLITZER: You see the wind beginning to shake it. We'll double- check with our people and let you know, Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, sir.

BLITZER: Thanks very much.

Coming up, evacuating the most vulnerable people in Rita's path, the elderly in nursing homes. Are emergency officials avoiding the mistakes made in the Katrina disaster?

And we'll go live to the National Hurricane Center for an up to the minute forecast. We'll speak with Max Mayfield, the director.

Later, we'll show you firsthand how strong hurricane winds can be. Our Brian Todd, he's suited up, he's standing by, he's ready to be blown away. The wind speed will be kicked up to a Category 3 level. That would be about 110 miles per hour. Brian will show us what it feels like. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: An extraordinary effort is being made to evacuate the sick and the elderly from Hurricane Rita's path, but tragedy struck today when a bus full of evacuees caught fire and exploded, killing two dozen people. Our Zain Verjee is over at the CNN Center in Atlanta. She's joining us now live with more -- Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, they're among the most vulnerable of the millions of people at risk from Hurricane Rita, and right now, an urgent operation's under way to get the sick and the elderly out of harm's way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice over): It's an airlift unlike any other in recent memory. The Air Force moving some 2,000 sick and elderly people out of Texas and out of the hurricane zone. Baggage carts at the airport in Beaumont now carry precious human cargo instead of suitcases. Loaded on to military planes, these evacuees head off to designated cities across the country, including Albuquerque, Dallas, Louisville and Lexington in Kentucky, Birmingham, Atlanta, and Durham, North Carolina.

Hospitals in some of those, like Alabama, are still crowded with evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Atlanta received this flight on Friday afternoon, an AC-5 cargo plane with 117 patients on board. Some arrived on stretchers, others in wheelchairs, many carrying just a handful of belongings. It was an unusual mission for the veteran Air Force pilot.

LT. COL. DAN SHEA, U.S. AIR-FORCE: Instead of loading them up into airline-style seats, we were loading these people, patients and passengers, directly on to the flat cargo floor of the C-5. Those people in wheelchairs were in their wheelchair, and they had -- we had cargo straps for very long seat belts securing them to the floor. The other passengers were sitting basically on blankets, on the metal floor with cargo straps across their thighs. The first time we -- as far as I know, the first time we had done that since the Vietnam War was three weeks ago, Labor Day weekend, for Hurricane Katrina.

VERJEE: The unprecedented effort sparked in part by what happened during Hurricane Katrina, where dozens of patients drowned in this nursing home outside New Orleans. The owners are now facing negligent homicide charges for failing to evacuate them. Their attorney calls the allegations categorically false. But even the best intentions are no guarantee against tragedy.

This bus loaded with ill and elderly evacuees from a nursing home near Houston caught fire and exploded near Dallas. Apparently when a wheel caught fire and a spark ignited patient's oxygen tanks. At least two dozen people on board were killed.

SGT. DON PERITZ, DALLAS CO. SHERIFF'S SPOKESMAN: Deputies attempted to assist the rest of the people on the bus, off the bus, when a series of explosions occurred. The deputies were unable to get all of the people off the bus, before the bus became fully involved.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (on camera): More than a dozen people did get off that bus alive, but many of them are suffering injuries, including cuts and bruises, as well as burns and smoke inhalation. Nine were taken to hospital, and one is reported to be in critical condition -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Zain, thank you very much. Zain Verjee reporting for us. That tragic accident on Interstate 45 involved evacuees from a Brighton Gardens Nursing Home near Houston. The facility is owned by Sunrise Senior Living. Paul Klaassen is the founder, the chairman and the CEO. He's joining us now live on the phone. Paul, thank you very much for joining us. Given the information you're getting, what have you been told about the cause of this tragedy?

PAUL KLAASSEN, CEO SUNRISE SR. LIVING: Well, Wolf, this is -- the entire Sunrise Organization, it really is devastated by this tragedy, and our hearts and prayers will go out to all the residents, the family and friends of the residents that have been affected by this. I'm sure you can appreciate that our top concern is always the safety and the well-being of the residents. And that is why they were being evacuated.

And I'm actually calling you from an airport hotel, and I'm trying to make my way down to Dallas with my wife early tomorrow morning. And the reports I'm hearing are similar to what you've just reported. And -- so I don't want to speculate now. But it does appear that, you know, there was a terrible fire, and exactly what caused it, we're not sure, but it is clear, too, that the -- I think the heroic actions of some good samaritans and the compassion of the Sunrise team members that were on the bus -- we had six members of our staff on the bus with the residents.

BLITZER: How many people were on the bus that required oxygen, which potentially exacerbated, clearly, this problem?

KLAASSEN: I believe at least two residents, have been reported to me, required oxygen.

BLITZER: And were the bus -- the personnel on the bus trained, equipped, to deal with this kind of transport situation, where you have oxygen inside a bus?

KLAASSEN: Yes. We have very well thought-out evacuation plans, Wolf. We've hired -- we evacuated very successfully residents in Houston, the result of Katrina just a few weeks ago. In fact, I believe a couple of these residents were evacuated from New Orleans to Houston, and then again now from Houston to Dallas. And we had at least one or two RNs, maybe three, on the bus. And, again, they were involved in the very, I think, courageous and heroic actions of pulling people -- along with others that came to the aid and noticed it smoking. This charter bus, it appears that their actions may have saved really many lives.

BLITZER: Paul Klaassen is the founder and the chairman, CEO, of the Sunrise Senior Center. Thanks very much, Paul. Our hearts go out to all those families. What a tragedy.

In Galveston, Texas, the surf is already up. We're showing you some live pictures. Coming up, the city that could see either a direct hit or hurricane-force winds. Our David Mattingly will bring us a live report on the situation there.

And it's hard to describe without having actually felt it. That would be the strength of a hurricane-force wind. Our Brian Todd is in a wind tunnel. He'll show us what it feels like, what a category 3 hurricane really feels like. All that coming up this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's get a quick check of what the situation is like right now in Galveston, Texas. At most, Hurricane Rita could roar ashore early tomorrow with devestating damage. At least, the city could be hit with hurricane force winds. All of that very, very significant. David Mattingly is on the scene for us. Give us a sense of what's happening now, David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, the winds are picking up now. The gusts are get stronger as we go through the day. And you might be able to see the rain collecting on the lens of the camera right now. We're seeing our first real rain, some of those bands now coming in and affecting us here. It's not a lot of rain, but in typical Gulf storm fashion it's coming in at us sideways, getting blown at us rather hard right now.

But this city is actually going to catch something of a break from this storm as it tracks further to the north, it puts this city on a less intense side of the hurricane. Where at one time they thought they were going to be run over, ground zero, for a category 5 storm, they're now going to get hit tonight, according to the latest forecast with 75 to 90 mile an hour winds, coming in later tonight, and a storm surge of only about seven feet, over what they would normally have, which is something the 17 foot sea wall is more than capable of handling.

One thing we did not expect to see also -- this was a very successful evacuation with nine out of ten residents seeking shelter, going off on to the mainland for their safety. Some of those people are now coming back. These people who were stuck in their cars on the expressway, local officials said it's OK for them to come back and ride the storm out in their homes, much safer than being in their cars on the roadway -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, David. David Mattingly reporting from Galveston.

How much wind can a human being withstand? Coming up, our Brian Todd will try to help us better answer that question. He's standing by live in a wind tunnel where they'll crank up the wind so it will feel look a category 3 storm.

And what about those too weak or too sick to evacuate before the storm? Our senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at one of the only hospitals staying open. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Show you some live pictures of the surf that we're getting right now. These are live pictures coming in from Galveston, Texas, right now. That surf beginning to pick up. It's going to get worse in the coming hour. And here are live pictures we're getting from Clear Lake, Texas. You can see the surf beginning to pick up there as well.

Rita has weakened a little bit, but it's still a Category 3 storm. That's a major hurricane, still very capable of bringing major destruction to the Texas and Louisiana Gulf coast.

Joining us now is Ed Rappaport of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The latest information you're getting is that people still have to be very, very worried about this storm. ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER: That's right. It's a large storm. It's still very intense. In fact, I saw your images there from Galveston. We just got a report from Galveston Pier that the water level has already come up four feet there. So it's pushing a lot of water ahead of it, and the largest rise will be when the center comes to shore and just to the right. It could be on the order of 10 to 15 feet, locally higher.

BLITZER: When do we specifically think will be worst along that coast, the maximum sustained wind, the worst moments?

RAPPAPORT: At this point, it looks like landfall will come around dawn tomorrow, maybe an hour or two earlier. And that's when the strongest winds will be pushing on shore and also be pushing in the strongest or the highest surge, the largest waves.

Of course this is going to be a period that's going to last for six to 12 hours in terms of the very rough weather, maybe even longer right along the center portion of the hurricane. So conditions are deteriorating now. There are tropical storm force winds at least in gusts on Galveston Island. The winds are deteriorating all -- or increasing all along the coast now.

BLITZER: What about New Orleans specifically? What do we anticipate there?

RAPPAPORT: Now, for New Orleans, this is a zoomed in radar picture. You can still see the eye of the hurricane way off to the south and west. Here's the coast. Here's New Orleans and here's Lake Pontchartrain. You can see a lot of showers and thunderstorms still moving across the area, locally heavy rain, three to five inches of rain.

And these are coming ashore on these easterly winds, which are bringing the tide and the surge up here as well. Expect four to six feet at maximum probably near midnight tonight with the high tide cycle. Come down a little bit but we have another high tide cycle, of course, 12 hours later.

BLITZER: We're showing our viewers, Ed, some live pictures of the re-flooding of New Orleans. I'm sure you've seen that already. I assume those people in New Orleans, whoever's left, they should be bracing for more flooding?

RAPPAPORT: Yes, I'm not really sure what the status is of the levees there. We do know, of course, that the water has risen, and will probably come up a little bit more. As we said, reach its maximum probably around midnight tonight.

BLITZER: We saw the pictures of the devastation from Katrina, specifically in Mississippi, along the water, along the Gulf coast over there. The people, the homes in direct harm's way, are they -- are you expecting the scenes to be in Texas or Louisiana, along that border, to be similar to what we saw in Mississippi?

RAPPAPORT: Similar, but probably not quite as extreme. We have a simulation here of what kind of storm surge we're expecting. Remember we were talking about storm surges in excess of 20 feet, approaching 30 feet, along the Mississippi coast.

In this case, we're talking about a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet, locally 20. Still very large. Of course, we have the wave action on top which will create a lot of the damage along the coastline. But not as heavily populated here as it is over on the Mississippi coast.

BLITZER: Ed Rappaport, thank you very much. We'll be checking back with you and your colleagues all the time.

Do you want to know what it feels like to be in a major hurricane? Our Brian Todd is about to give us pretty good idea, at least the sense of what it feel like. Brian is live with some university researchers over at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia. You're strapped in. And explain to our viewers, Brian, what you're about to do.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I'm about to take you to a Category 3 hurricane force wind in this chamber. This is called the wind stability tunnel here at Virginia Tech University. It measures everything from -- it tests everything from plane landing gear to wind turbines, but it also measures how the human body can withstand hurricane force winds.

Now at some point, you're not going to be able to hear me speak. At that point, the Dr. William Davenport (ph), who runs the center is going to narrate for you and tell you what speed I'm up to. We're going to ask the operator, Bill Logins (ph), to crank it up right now.

We're now at about 20 miles an hour. Wind is intensifying. I have to hold this right up to my mouth or else nobody can hear me. That's why the microphone is where it is. Now to 40 miles an hour. Feels very intense and I'm starting to feel the pressure forces is against my face. Sixty miles an hour, 70 miles an hour at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're now at 74 miles per hour, Category 1, 80 miles per hour, 85, 90, 96, Category 2, 100 miles per hour, 105, 110, 111, Category 3.

TODD: Wind's coming down now, probably now at about 30, back down into the 20 range. I don't know how much of that you could hear me, versus how much the Dr. Davenport had to narrate there, Wolf, but it gave you some idea of the force of a Category 3 hurricane wind. That was up to 111 -- 111 miles an hour. That's the lowest wind speed for a Category 3. So it gives you some idea of what people will deal with, if they try to venture out in this type of force.

BLITZER: Don't try this at home. I'm sure that's good advice. But, Brian, what do you feel like? What was it like? I don't know how our viewers felt, but I'm sure a lot of them felt like I did, they were pretty scared what you were doing.

TODD: Well, they did a run-through with us before and gave us an idea of what to expect and we did a practice run so it wasn't that scary when you're actually doing it. But it feels like -- I don't know if you've seen that movie "The Right Stuff" when the astronauts are going through the G-force training for NASA and the Mercury space program.

It felt a little bit like those exercises. If you saw the video, the faces being peeled back. It is an incredible amount of force. That's just a Category 3. And you can imagine what a category 4 or 5 hurricane can do, Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, no one in their right mind would be out even in a Category 1 or 2, especially if they're not strapped in like you are, with the goggles and all of the protective gear you have because it's an amazing feeling. Have you ever experienced anything remotely like that, Brian?

TODD: Never, Wolf, never with a force like this. I've been through hurricanes before. But, of course, you know, if you have any sense, you're inside, so no. The people who try to venture out in this, this is what they're going to be dealing with.

I mean, I've literally -- they told me before we went in there don't try to walk because I could get blown all over the place, I could hit against the sides of this thing. Look how tightly I'm tethered in here. I'm really moored down, and it was still pretty frightening and very, very intense.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, thanks very much for helping us better understand the force of that wind. Brian Todd's at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia. To our viewers, once again, do not try this at home. There's a lot of safety precautions that Brian and the researchers at that university have taken.

Coming up, we'll show you how flooding could devastate one city in the path of Hurricane Rita.

And we've been asking you this hour this question. Is there anything we can do to lessen a hurricane's effect? Our Jack Cafferty has been reading your e-mail. He's standing by to join us. Much more of our special coverage as Hurricane Rita ...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We're just getting some new video in from the Department of Defense. I want to show it to our viewers right now. The effort to save people's lives, in effect. These are evacuation flights that the U.S. military Air Force's C-5s, continuing throughout the day, from Beaumont Airport yesterday, Beaumont in Texas, to the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. They're brining the elderly, the young, the infirm. They're try to get as many people out as possible.

This was happening yesterday, last night. There have been several of these flights aboard C-5s, as well as C-130 Hercules military transport planes. You see them on the floor of these giant aircraft. They're being saved, they're being sent from Beaumont, which potentially could be in the eye of this -- direct storm. Moving out of harm's way to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. As Hurricane Rita makes its way toward Texas, some cities are worried about the flooding it can cause. Joining us now, our Internet reporter Abbi Tatton. She's monitoring this part of the story. What are you learning, Abbi?

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, the storm path right now is heading just to the west of Port Arthur, Texas. And I wanted to show you on this computer model what this might look like in terms of the flooding there. Officials predicting extensive flooding around that area.

We just zoom in here. We're going to -- near to Sabine Lake right here, if we just zoom in. The white line there you're seeing is the border between Texas and Louisiana. And Port Arthur is where we're looking at right now. If we just take you in a little bit closer, you can see -- we're going south of Beaumont here. There's Port Arthur. This is a community with just a few less than 60,000 people.

And we're going to show you what the flooding might look like. It could be 10 or 20 feet. And we have a model here that we'll show you. This here is just 4 feet right now. This would just be 4 feet of water in this community. You can see already extensive around there.

If we double that to 8 feet here, already, a lot more flooding, almost extending all the way up to Beaumont there. 18 feet would completely submerge the area, as you can see right there.

And this wouldn't be the first time. In fact in 1961, Hurricane Carla brought in 18 feet of flooding right there. So this is Port Arthur, bracing for the worst with this storm, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Scary stuff, very scary stuff. Now we understand why that community is basically a ghost town right now, as it should be.

There are already preparations under way for fuel shortages after Hurricane Rita. Let's check in with our Ali Velshi. He's in New York. He has got the bottom line of that part of the story -- Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you know, one of the things I've been talking about is that we want to distinguish between shortages caused by immediate supply issues in a local area, like Houston and those around it, or after Katrina like we saw in Atlanta. Obviously, people in Atlanta are a little bit nervous about this whole operation because one of the pipelines that goes from the south through Atlanta and up to the northeast was affected by Hurricane Katrina. And we saw some price gouging, in effect, in Atlanta.

Now we've got -- you can see that there are still gas stations where people are lining up. And those are from Georgia actually. We saw a lot of this after the last hurricane. Now, Sonny Perdue, the governor of Georgia, has come up with an interesting suggestion. I haven't quite worked this one through yet to understand whether it makes a lot of sense. I think his heart is in the right place. But here's what he wants to do in Georgia to help out this fuel situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR SONNY PERDUE, (R) GEORGIA: I'm asking our school systems to take two early snow days on this Monday and Tuesday, that's September the 26th and the 27th. This will allow our schools to be closed down for four days. Which will also help with energy consumption within the building itself, as well as the travel associated with that. This saves -- this will save almost 500,000 gallons of diesel fuel in that act alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Now, it's an interesting point, because we are seeing some of these pipelines either shut down for safety reasons or because there's not enough diesel fuel or gasoline to go through them and distribute.

You know, as I say, Wolf, I think his heart's in the right place. I'm not sure that's necessarily going to be more helpful than it's harmful in terms of parents who now have to find something to do with their kids on Monday and Tuesday. But in Atlanta, public schools -- in Georgia, public schools on Monday and Tuesday are going to be closed to save half a million gallons of diesel fuel.

BLITZER: All right. Ali, thank you very much. Ali Velshi with the bottom line for us.

These are live pictures we're getting in from Clear Lake, Texas. The surf beginning to get a little bit more agitated. It's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. We're only hours away from Hurricane Rita, a category 3 storm with wind of 125 miles an hour. We're expecting early tomorrow morning, this hurricane to land along the Texas/Louisiana border.

Some people can't easily escape, our senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with hospital staffers and their patients. They're staying behind in Lake Charles, Louisiana. We're going to speak with him after a short break.

And storm after storm, do you have to sit there and simply take it? Is there anything that you can do, that all of us can do, to lessen the force of these hurricanes? We'll hear what you have to think.

We're also getting these new live picture coming in. Check this out. Take a look at this. New Orleans, the levees did not work today. At least in two locations. The rain coming down now. It's pounding in New Orleans. And the situation there, the re-flooding of that city, about to get worst.

These are pictures coming in from Galveston where the surf is clearly up. People getting ready for extremely bad weather there as well. We'll watch all of this. Much more coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's check in with our senior medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's joining us now live from Lake Charles, Louisiana. That's in southwestern Louisiana, very near the direct path of Hurricane Rita. He's at Christus Hospital, one of the few in the area that is staying open. What's it like now, Sanjay?

SR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it is just starting to take off out here. It's been interesting, we've been watching those images, the radar images of that the winds and some of these outer bands starting to hit. We're not seeing much in the (AUDIBLE) Lots of rain starting to come down.

We are right outside Christus Hospital, the only hospital in this area that is remaining open. We had a lot of conversations with the doctors. We asked staff about that. Earlier today, when the weather was still a little bit nicer, they were still getting patients who wanted to leave on to evacuations out of here. They actually took some of those patients out on military helicopters. The Hueys actually landed in a graveyard just next to the hospital. The helicopters ,managed to moved the patients out on stretchers and evacuated. But there's still about a half a dozen or so patients who (INAUDIBLE). The hospital is going to remain open as well, Wolf.

(INAUDIBLE) very different than the Charity Hospital where I was at during the New Orleans -- the generators, for example, are above sea level. They don't expect them to short out. They've got plenty of water. They've stocked out food for about eight days. Think they're going to be safe to take care of patients for the next several days, Wolf. (INAUDIBLE)

BLITZER: All right. Good luck over there, Sanjay, and good luck to all the people there as well in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The agonizing exodus ahead of the storm. My next guest knows about that very, very well. Two vehicles she'd hope to use to get away simply broke down. Now she and three others are stranded. They're hunkering down with food, water, and an ax, to break through the roof should waters flood the one-story house they're in right now. Linda Prudhomme is on the phone. She's joining us from Lake Charles, Louisiana, as well. How nervous are you, Linda?

LINDA PRUDHOMME, STRANDED RESIDENT: I'm OK so far.

BLITZER: What is it like where you are right now?

PRUDHOMME: Well we're getting -- the wind is really picking up now. We're not having a lot of torrential rain right now. I've seen a lot more rain in our area before, but it's steady. The wind is really starting to pound, and so we're getting, you know, we're getting a little bit anxious, I think.

BLITZER: How high are you, Linda, right now? Because if there's flooding, that obviously is going to cause a lot of problems. PRUDHOMME: Yes. I'm in -- close to the downtown area. I'm like maybe three or four to five miles away from the lake, Lake Charles, itself. They've been showing us pictures of the lake, and the water is starting to kick up, so I'm hoping that some of the buildings in the downtown area will help to break the wind and the water a little bit.

BLITZER: And you're there with an evacuee from Katrina, is that right?

BLITZER: Yes. I have a girl that I work with at the hospital from New Orleans that was in -- evacuated from New Orleans, to come down here and get away from Katrina, and she's staying with me right now. So she's kind of -- went from bad to worse here.

BLITZER: Well Linda, good luck to you and your friend and everyone who is stuck this. We'll check back with you to make sure you're OK. We wish you only the best.

It's not your imagination. We are seeing more and more powerful hurricanes, at least right now. But is there anything any of us can do about it? Your thoughts. That's coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We'll show you some pictures now. First of all, two days ago, the surf in Galveston, Texas, it was relatively very calm. In fact, check this out. You can see those pictures right there. That was then. And this is now. What a difference a couple days -- this was actually yesterday, 24 hours later. But take a look at the next picture, because these are live pictures, what's happening in Galveston, Texas, right now. And you know what, in the coming hour, it's going to get a whole lot worse in Galveston, up and down that Texas and Louisiana Gulf coast.

Let's check in for our final time with Jack Cafferty. He's standing by in New York.

CAFFERTY: A couple of dozen viewers write and tell us that the camera taking those pictures is atop the Flagship Hotel in Galveston Bay. It's a hotel that's built on a pier that goes right out into the bay. I hope it's still there tomorrow night.

The numbers of Category 4 and 5 storms over the Atlantic doubling in the last 35 years. The debate, is it a weather cycle, is it global warming? The question, are there things we could do to lessen the force of these hurricanes?

George writes, we can get barges to bring in chunks of ice to bring in ice from the Antarctic, put it in the Gulf, lowering the temperature of the water and the intensity of the hurricanes.

Brent in Irvine, California. Nothing we can do to weaken the hurricanes. The government has tried for decade and failed. What we can do is stop building so much along the Gulf Coast. There's no excuse having tens of millions of people and so much of our oil infrastructure that serves the other 200 million of us in such a vulnerable place.

John in Buffalo. Reducing fossil fuel consumption is imperative regardless of it's impact on out planet. Just look at the price of gas, et cetera, et cetera.

Arlene in Ft. Lauderdale. We live in Florida. We have both natural and manmade reefs off our beaches. Is it possible to drop some main-made reefs into the Gulf to break up the storm surges in the future?

Robin in Florida. Since there's so much political debate on global warming, let's line up every politicians in the country along Galveston Beach and have the start talking. Maybe all the hot air will turn the storm and blow it in the other direction.

And Amy in St. Mary's, Georgia. How to lessen the effects of these killer hurricanes. Drink heavily.

BLITZER: Amy in St. Mary's, Georgia, has got a sense of humor. All right. Jack, thanks very much. We'll see you here on Monday. We're in THE SITUATION ROOM every weekday afternoon 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Stay with CNN for continuing live coverage of Hurricane Rita throughout this night and into the weekend. One important programming note. We'll have a special early start time for "LATE EDITION." This Sunday 11:00 a.m. Eastern. We'll have a three hour "LATE EDITION" the State of Emergency, Hurricane Rita. Til then, thanks very much for joining us. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "LOU DOBBS TONIGHT" starting right now. Lou's standing by in New York.

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