Sen. Hutchison's Hometown Preps for Hurricane Rita

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," September 22, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: The coastal city of Galveston, Texas is a ghost town tonight as residents obey the mandatory order to evacuate as soon as possible. We're joined by a native of Galveston, Texas, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, is with us.

Senator, I want to reiterate and go back to the issue of evacuation. We're looking at the scene live, now. And we are getting reports, now, all night that it's taking people literally just move a few miles hours and hours. Are you confident everybody's going to have enough time still to get out and how long do you expect if somebody wanted to leave Galveston it would take them to get to place where they can secure themselves?

HUTCHINSON: Well, it has been taking 16 to 18 hours for trips that are usually three or four. That is not a good sign. But the good news is we have 24 more hours and that should be enough time, if they open those freeways, to allow people to get out. It should not be this clogged for this long. There's no question. But there are 24 hours left, we're still ahead of where we were at the Katrina evacuation and we hope that we can clear those (UNINTELLIGIBLE) by tomorrow night.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Senator, I want to go back to the question I was asking you in the last segment because we see these cars that had to pull over, many of them lost gas. You said the mayor and others are working on that. How soon can you get gas to those people that need it to continue their trips? Because I'm told by people, all day, that there is hardly a gas station in town that has anything.

HUTCHINSON: That is what I've heard, too. That was the big complaint that mayors have. And I know that they were trying to get gas portable into tanks. And I hope that that is happening right now.

COLMES: Senator, I'm just concerned that some of these pictures may discourage people from evacuating. We don't want that to happen. People are better off getting in their cars and getting out of town, aren't they? Even if they have to sit for a while? Than staying where they are.

HUTCHINSON: That is true. I think that the worst thing would be for people right on that coastline, particularly the low-lying areas that are prone to flooding, they really need to get out. We should have learned that lesson from Katrina. This is still a Category 4 storm. And I just hope that people will, maybe watch the traffic and maybe wait a little while, so that maybe it starts clearing, but staying if you're in a low-lying area would be very dangerous.

HANNITY: All right, Senator Hutchison. We send you all our best on all the people of Texas and wish everybody a safe evacuation here. Thank you for being with us tonight, Senator.

HUTCHINSON: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: We appreciate your time.

Watch "Hannity & Colmes" weeknights at 9 p.m. ET!

Content and Programming Copyright 2005 FOX News Network, L.L.C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2005 eMediaMillWorks, Inc. (f/k/a Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.), which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, L.L.C.'s and eMediaMillWorks, Inc.'s copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.