change the way you wifi. xfinity. the future of awesome. ♪ >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. good morning to you. so grateful to have you with us here. two breaking stories we're working on right now. as you were sleeping, hurricane harvey hilt texas head on. and the white house is making bhach headlines, after a wave of controversial decisions were announced late last night. >> let's begin with the hurricane. harvey has been downgraded to a category 2 storm. it is still dangerous, though, sustained wind it's at 110 miles per hour. the eye of the storm now whipping through the texas gulf

coast. millions of people we know were there. so many decided not to leave. a lot of them in the dark now. they've lost power. the winds have knocked down trees. power lines have been snapped down. >> and there is torrential rain that's destroying buildings, we're told. the flooding will become life-threatening, if it has not already. we should point out one driver, take a look at this, tried to get through storm surge. didn't make it. ran into really deep water there. forecasters warning some of these areas we're looking at, they'll be uninhabitable for weeks, possibly even months. there's one mayor telling his residents if you didn't evacuate, write your social security number on your arm. >> those who are going to stay. it's unfortunate that they should make some preparation to mark their arm with a sharpie pen. put their social security number on it, and their name.

>> wow. also some major news coming out of the white house last night. first, president trump, he pardoned former sheriff joe arpaio. now, arpaio could have faced jail time after he was convicted of criminal contempt related to targeting undocumented immigrants. then his controversial white house adviser sebastian gorka also resigned. and the president signed an order banning transgender military recruits. >> and "the wall street journal" reporting this morning that special counsel robert mueller is examining the role that flynn played in seeking and getting hillary clinton's e-mails from hackers. ♪ so, obviously, a lot to talk to you about this morning. but first, we want to share with you some of the most recent images that we're getting into cnn of what hurricane harvey has done to the texas gulf coast.

>> yeah. the rain is on track to create a disaster for that area. and our reporters are seeing the worst of it. >> reporter: it seems that every hour, i keep telling people that it couldn't get worse. and yet, every hour it does seem to get worse. and now, it's about the worst we've seen. >> reporter: when you're out here in the darkness, you can -- the wind is howling so loudly that it's really hard to hear anything beyond that. >> reporter: hurricane harvey is making landfall as we speak. >> reporter: they've been dealing strongly with this strong wind. it's been going for three or four hours now. >> reporter: look at that wind right there. not only is the water strong, but the wind is whipping it into

a froth. >> reporter: even though this storm has come ashore. it's not the end of anything. this is really the beginning of the second, or perhaps even more the more deadly or dangerous phase. >> reporter: our ears were popping when the eye was arriving. the pressure dropped really, really quickly like you're going up in an airplane. >> reporter: in this spin process, rain and heavy, heavy wind. >> reporter: this just fell a short while ago on our position here. you can imagine, and this is why you don't go out in a storm like this, when this stuff is in the air. >> reporter: it's interesting that this thing is turning into quite the marathon. >> all right. we have a team of reporters on the ground in south texas. 96 valencia is in corpus christi, paolo sandoval standig by in san antonio. >> let's stand by with allison chinchar in the cnn hurricane center. now, a hurricane 2, but that's

wind only? >> yes. i'd like to emphasize, the difference of where we were at category 4 to where we are now, we're talking just 20 miles per hour difference. 1-mile-per-hour off from being a category 3 so don't pretend that this storm is over, it's not a big deal right now, this is an incredibly strong storm even right now. the eye is well inland now, really starting to make that progress. but it's really going to start to slow down even more. not that it was moving very fast to begin with. here's a look at what we have with hurricane harvey. winds up to 110 miles per hour gusting up to 120. just so you have some frame of reference, at category 4 we were 130 miles per hour. category 2 is ranging from 106 to 110. we will drop back to category 1.

it is expected, the storm is going to continue to weaken as we go through the coming days, it's just not going to move very much. and that say big concern with flooding. here's a look the aobserved rainfall totals already. those red areas really being the focus. look at some of these numbers. oswald, texas, 9 1/2 inches, victoria, texas, 9 inches, mcfadden, almost 7 1/2. again, folks, keep in mind, we're still on the big end of this system. you can see the storm going through the day today. notice again, it just doesn't move very much. which is why the concern of so much rain, as that storm begins to slow down and stall, it's going to dump rain in the same places over and over again. so, because of that, looking at the expected rainfall. this is not taking into account how much has already fallen, this is from here on out, you

could be looking at least widespread 6 to 10 inches. but there will be some spots that can still pick up 10, 15, even 20 inches of additional rainfall. some of the models, we just showed you one. this is one of the others. some models showing even 30 more inches of rain is still potential to take place over the next several days. we're also concerned with winds. look at peak wind gusts that have come in. 130 miles per hour. 125. 110 around lamar texas. the winds are likely going to start to come back down. for folks inland who have yet to have their peak winds yet this is still a possibility for safe places like austin and san antonio. whereas on the coastline, you'll see your winds calm back down compared to where they have been, say, in the last 12 hours or so. now, we talk about the track. this is the movement. notice, it doesn't really do much. it just sits here and it's

likely going to stay in texas through at least wednesday. potentially even longer than that. the best case scenario is that it gets picked up and shifted up towards the northeast. making its way to other states, thankfully not dumping anywhere near the amount of rain and eventually back over water. the worst case scenario, it comes back out over the gulf, has enough time to reintensify and could potentially come back into texas. or 84 worse case scenario, it just stays put longer for five or ten days. victor and christi, you've got the best or worst case. even the best case isn't good enough. >> thank you very much. i remember listening to martin savidge saying the wind itself felt like a blast from a jet engi engine, and that was before the rain came in. he's finally relieved of his dutd

duties and able to get some sleep. nick valencia is taking over live. >> nick, how is it now, i see you have of the jacket off, it looks like at least the rain has slowed down at least? >> reporter: well, we are the cover of a parking lot here, victor. so, we have yet to go out in that rain. in fact, officials just tweeted a short time ago, warning residents not to go outside because of the potential for dangerous power lines. that's the story, hurricane harvey hit north texas and weakened. make no doubt about it, the rains were heavy and the winds were howling starting at 7:00 p.m. local time. but the power outages here are the main problem. 207,000 people without power. the majority of them right here in corpus christi. while we were expected to take a direct hit and suffer the major brunt of hurricane harvey's damage, it was about 20 miles away from here in rockport that suffered significant damage.

the eye of the storm hovering over that city. we heard stories of firefighters hunkered down in a fire station as that eye of the storm passed over. even though this hurricane has weakened, however, there is potential for major capacity. alison was emphasizing in her report a while ago, the concern for officials is the potential for major flooding, as this storm system stalls over texas and continues to dump rain in the days to come. victor, christi. >> nick valencia there. in corpus christi. let's go down to paolo sandoval is in san antonio, texas. >> paolo, i understand you're seeing the first effects of the bad weather there. and we need to point out, evacuees moved from some of those more coastal areas in san antonio to try to find a reprieve. try to find some protection. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: right, christkrist

we're finally starting to see the first ban, we're expecting more to come in the days to come. there is certain of flooding in inland cities like san antonio. and the other reason why we're here, this is a designated evacuation area. yesterday, we spent some time in one of the shelters that's set up in san antonio that's received hundreds of people from these coastal communities from corpus christi. at this point, san antonio now offering up to 6,000 shelter beds. these are people coming in from the coast. we saw something like this play out in 2005, with hurricane katrina, where their county, especially opened doors and offered refuge to some of the residents. i heard from the governor saying they are setting up the shelters indefinitely. as i spoke to one of the

evacuees, they're saying they have no idea when they're able to go back here. and lastly, victor, there are so many individuals because their homes are much older than others they feel like they may not have a home to go home to. this is where they're waking up today, about is 130 miles away from the coast. >> i think that's what's so hard for people to stomach, they have no idea what is left. paolo sandoval, thank you so much. we have our reporters stretched out not just over texas but across the state. and we watch harvey, a very strong category 2. again that downgrade does not mean that the danger is over. this is still a wind event and the rain event could go into the middle and maybe the end of the week. stay with us here on cnn to give you all of the information on the hurricane. and we also have to talk about the trump white house and the busy friday they had.

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and this storm came ashore as a pretty strong category 4. >> you had obviously the high winds as you can see there, the torrential rain. and right now, it has been downgraded to a category 2 storm. this is still very dangerous. the winds at 110 miles per hour. and the flooding officials are warning life-threatening. not just for today. but the next five to seven days that's what we have to watch for. here's the thing, thousands of people, they did evacuate the area. but there were many who refused. they wanted to ride out the storm. as you see this person who is trying to get through some water. didn't work very well. rockport, texas, as victor mentioned. officials there, officials there telling the people who stayed to write their names and social security number on their forearm to, quote, help first responders should they find a body. we'll continue to watch hurricane harvey. but we're also watching what's

coming out of the white house, beginning with president donald trump pardoning former arizona sheriff joe arpaio. staunch trump supporters, you know that, joe arpaio was recently convicted of criminal contempt for violating a judge's order in a racial profiling case that continued to target people in traffic stops. and sebastian gorka is now the latest white house departure. this isn't a move that was a complete surprise, we should point out. we're getting the latest on all of this from cnn's alexander mama marquar marquardt. >> it's not a coincidence that the white house decided to drop three major stories with hurricane harvey. the trump administration has become notorious for it in the past few weeks. now, first, a presidential

pardon for the highly controversial arizona sheriff joe arpaio, convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to stop racially profiling latinos. the president had hinted strongly that they would do it. and a source kelling cnn this is the president's pardon. arpaio thanked trump on twitter. trump called him a worthy candidate for a pardon after, quote, a life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. then another bombshell. senior white house counterterrorism agent sebastian gorka out. he was a vocal and high-profile spokesman for the president formerly in the camp of steve bannon in the white house. and with bannon out, it was just a matter of time before gorka was as well. spart of the house cleaning that chief of staff john kelly has undertaken since he took the job. and with no fanfare, a third piece of news, a signed

memorandum from president trump blocking transgenders from joining the military. president trump ordered a six-month study of transgenders in the military, to be carried out by secretary of defense james mattis. in the meantime, it is unclear what that means for transgender troops currently serving. much of it will be up to the department of defense and homeland security. so, while many questions still loom, it is little mystery, why these three stories broke tonight. >> certainly, after the presidential pardon, arpaio tweeted his thanks to the president. he also called his conviction a political witch hunt by holdovers in the obama justice department. >> former sheriff also spoke to fox news about what he's planning next. >> i love that president. he supports law enforcement. and very humble, if you recall, two years ago, i supported him. and i said publicly recently, pardon or no pardon, i will be

with him to the end. and i'm going to have a news conference early next week and get to the bottom of this. show the abuse of the judicial system. and politics. i'm not going down without trying to defend myself to all of those people that don't like what i've done. >> in the meantime, there's been a lot of reaction to this. arizona senator john mccain in fact says, the president has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of law -- respect of rule of law, as mr. arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions. >> sally yates, the former attorney general fired by president touch, with his pardon, potus reveals his own contest for our constitution, our courts and our founding principles of inequality and justice. >> and part of me is not

surprised, but at this point, i don't expect anything. i just don't expect anything positive out of donald trump. but part of me is shocked. shocked by an elite where there has been the backlash out of charlottesville, and now signing an order banning transgender. this guy, he has a 34% base. he's not the president of the united states of america. he's the president of the divided states of america. all he wants to do is pit american versus american. he has got to know what it means to most of us in the latino community to pardon joe arpaio. it is a slap in the face for most latinos. this man has built his career as being a racist, discriminatory. and attack on hispanics and immigrants in arizona. what he's done today, donald trump, is another slap in the face to the latino community.

>> we'll talk more about what came out of the white house overnight and the timing of those. but next, hurricane harvey hitting the gulf coast of texas and we'll go live to conferenk christi and speak to a storm chaser. ax. ♪taking care of business. beneful grain free is so healthy... oh! farm-raised chicken! that's good chicken. hm!? here come the accents. blueberries and pumpkin. wow. and spinach! that was my favorite bite so far. (avo) new beneful grain free. out with the grain, in with the farm-raised chicken. healthful. flavorful. beneful.

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with technology that can update itself. and advanced fiber network infrastructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. so glad to have you with us here during our live coverage of hurricane harvey. it is a monster storm. and it is barreling along texas' coast right now. it's got catastrophic rain attached to it. brutal winds we've been watching. it made landfall as a category 4 storm. it has been downgraded to a category 2 but do not think that

things were okay there. take a look at some of the picture it's coming in here. there are power lines down. there are roofs collapsed. there were upwards of 200,000 people who do not have power. >> so many people headed north, headed west to try to get to higher ground to get away from the storm. we know hundreds of thousands of people stayed. unfortunately, many of the rescuers cannot get to them when the winds are as strong as they have been. see that on your screen, someone trying to drive across a flooded road. never do that. you may think you know the roads, you have no idea if the road is still there. we know that first responders are staying where they are, waiting to assess the damage so they can get out to some of the people who need some help. >> well, being a firefighter, of course, right now, we're still bunkered down in our station. we still have hurricane-force winds outside. but we do know we have

significant damage throughout the area. we are inundated with calls, of people needing help. but we're waiting on the weather to allow us to do it. >> and here's what's so frightening about this storm, too. we're watching it unfold today. but this is an event that's going to last for five to seven days. and i want to go to allison chinchar, our meteorologist. alis alison, talk to us about the eye of the storm. when that eye starts to deteriorate, you know it's getting better. what does it look like? >> and, christi, that's the part that's surprising. the eye is relatively impact even though it's now inland. usually you see the storms deteriorate rapidly because they're no longer over land, what we call a favor asable environment. this is a category 2 hurricane. yes, it had been a 4, we are

starting to see things improve. i don't want you to let your guard down. folks, it's still a category 2 hurricane with winds up to 100 miles an hour. the gusts being even higher than that. we had reports of tornadoes yesterday. and that threat for tornados is going to exist for the next several days. and it's going to stay put in this same region for those next several days. damaging winds are also going to be a factor. again, but, yes. rain is certainly going to be the biggest concern we have. houston is already dealing with their ninth wettest august on record. they had a big flooding event not too long ago. just a couple weeks ago, earlier in the month. now, you're having to add this to it. ninth wettest, we're not likely going to end there. we're likely to see the number go up as the rain starts to go up. here's a look at the forecast radar. again, you can see that spin in a lot of those outer bands. the heaviest wind looks to be in

the northeast quadrant of a particular storm in harvey. however, the overall movement doesn't move very much. it stays relatively put. that's a concern for flooding as well. because it means rain is going to keep falling in the same spots over and over again. this is why, christi and victor, you hear us talk be about rain of 30, 40 inches over the next several days. >> allison chinchar, stay put. we're going to check with reporters out in texas right now. let's go to correspondent nick valencia, he is in corpus christi. nick, first to you. i just want to get add yp not only of the conditions now, but is there an idea of how many people stayed in corpse krifts -- corpus christi, despite the warnings? >> reporter: victor, you know,

there's always a group of people who ignore what local officials say, ignore what state officials say and decide not to evacuate. there was no mandatory evac by the city of corpus christi. it was an order for voluntary evacuations. i spoke to a city official who says we hope we don't regret that. we still don't have a true sense of the magnitude of impact here. but there were a lot of people, we don't have an impact exact number, but there were a lot of people who decided to stick it out. i'm joined by one of those local residents, dave birch, you evacuated to the omni hotel. how did you fare? what did you think of the storm? >> just had a lot of winds, a lot of rain. a little unnerving with things hitting the window. aside from that, we were able to get sleep and everybody is fine and good. >> reporter: talk to us about your evacuation. you said you were working late in the afternoon and you didn't have time to board up your

house. stake us through that. >> that is correct. i did have time to board up the house but just until enough time. i made reservations at the hotel about three days ago. my wife and i got off of work. and in a frantic pace, we boarded up our house. and got everything taken care of and headed over to the hotel. we're just ten miles away. >> reporter: we were talking all dayle yesterday reporting from that sea wall, we came across so many people who decided newt evacuate. our anchor victor blackwell was wondering how long time decided to stay the same thing. do you know how many people decided to stay as well? >> not a lot. we haven't didvy choice. >> reporter: you missed the windows. >> exactly. we missed the window. we didn't want to get stuck heading tomorrow on i-37 and get stranded out there in the storm. >> reporter: was this as bad of a storm as you thought it would be? >> well, it's really hard to

say, we've been in the dark our entire time in our hotel room. >> reporter: and it's not over yet? >> not over yet. we don't know where we're going home to. >> reporter: you can't see off camera here but he's got a cute little puppy that he's walking around. a lot of the residents doing laps in the parking lot. they've been hunkered down. you saw martin savidge's reporting throughout the morning. corpus christi was anticipated to and expected to get a direct hit. it seems from our vantage point we'll go out and look later, but it seems we dodged a major bullet here. >> good to know one of the concerns that a lot of people have when they decide whether or not to evacuate is what can they do with their pets. it's good it this gentleman was able to take him. nick, thank you so much. >> san antonio is going to feel

effects-this storm, though. we're going to take you there live. stay close. because we don't like surprises. yeah. like changing up the celebrity at the end to someone more handsome. and talented. really. and british. switch from cable to directv. get 4 rooms with hd, dvr, and every box included for $25 a month. call 1-800-directv. it's our back to school beeone cent evente. at office depot office max. 10 pack pens, one cent. composition notebooks,scissors, and plastic folders all one cent each! hurry to office depot office max. ♪taking care of business.

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and share it across all of your lines. no one else lets you do that. see how much you can save when you pay by the gig. xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. harvey has now been downgraded to a category 2 storm. but, listen, this is still dangerous. top sustained winds are 110 miles an hour. one mile faster, one mile more, it would be a major storm at category 3. so, category 2, don't discount that. the wind, you see in port aransas, thousands of people have lost power. we know the rain will continue for days and create life-threatening flooding. we've got our team of reporters

and we're watching the latest in texas throughout the morning. cnn's paolo sandoval is live in san antonio, texas this morning. >> and we need to point out that a lot of people evacuated went to san antonio, and san antonio itself closed schools and businesses in preparation for this. you're going to feel the effects of this at some point. >> reporter: absolutely, christi, it may have taken a while but we're now seeing the weather effects from harvey, mainly the precipitation has just started in the last hour or so, and it's just going to get worse here. that's why officials in san antonio are worried about who is flash flooding, not just here but other texas cities like austwell. many of those cities are serving as temporary homes. a 35-year-old corpus christi man i spoke to at a shelter yesterday who said he has no idea when he's going to be able to go back home.

and also no idea if he will still have a home to go home to. however, he's with his wife and 7-year-old julian. and they're keeping their hopes high. and that's really what we saw yesterday from hundreds of people who are, right now, really all of their belongings are limited to what they have here in san antonio. the city offering about 6,000 shelter beds, that's in addition to -- hundreds of other people who are potentially staying at area hotels. san antonio here established by the state and federal government as an evacuation zone. it's something that kicked into place in 2005 here during hurricane katrina, where we saw thousands of people from louisiana make their way here to the lone star state. again, these are people from only about 150, 200 miles away. but again, two residence why we' we're here. not only because of the flash flooding but also because this is home for now for hundreds if not thousands of people, victor

and christi. >> paolo, 6,000 shelter beds available. of course, there's no way to know how many people are in hotels. do we know how many people have taken advantage of those shelter spots. >> reporter: what i heard from the city mayor yesterday evening, he said there were about 700 evacuees that are staying in san antonio shelters. keep in mind, victor, as he was telling me this, there were buses unloading dozens of other people. that number likely to pass 2,000 and go even higher. this is a multiday event. we could see more rain and flooding that mean more displaced families will be looking for a safe and dry place to stay. >> that's what i wanted to ask you about. when they're talking about this being an event that will last five to seven days. we know fema has said the shelters are prepared to support 20,000 people. i think the question is for how long? did the government talk about that at all? and i'm just curious as to what these people are going to do for

that period of time. >> reporter: yeah, i posed that same question to officials yesterday at one of the shelters. the mayor of san antonio saying as long as it takes. they have the support from the federal government according to them. as a result, they are in it for the long haul. the reality is many parts of the texas coast as they heard from officials yesterday may be uninhabited for quite some time. for some of the inland cities like austin and san antonio preparing to offer shelter to some of these families for as long as it takes. that's when fema would have to kick in to offer long-term housing. >> paolo sand dougoval, thank y much. look, there are a lot of parts affected that do not have power right now. up to 200,000 people. there's an issue with running water. people don't have that.

>> and there are also structure issues reports of buildings falling apart. rooms collapsing. let's go to the storm chaser near the point of landfall, corpus christi. >> we have what we call storm surge, a lot of water coming out on highway 181 from the city of portland and corpus christi. this is going to be the main threat to zeal with the water over the weekend because of the rainfall indicated for the weekend. some modeling indicating over 30 inches of rain. obviously, that water could be coming into the region. >> driving around, talk to us just about what you had seen as far as, i guess, what would be the standard fare, when a storm like this comes in? downed power lines, any infrastructure that's been damaged. what is the sense of the situation right now, as far as

damage? >> the biggest inconvenience is the lack of normal necessities that people are used to, all of that infrastructure. power, running water and things that people take for granted these days when these significant storms or major hurricanes come in, a large percentage of the power is down. and it makes it very difficult for folks to go about daily routines. and that's why mandatory evacuations were issued for coastal areas to get people out. >> do you get a sense that a lot of people stayed there in corpus christi? and just, by the way, we're looking at another image to us right now coming to us from rockport, texas, you can see that the storm is still in effect throughout that part of south texas. but do you get a sense that many people decided to stick around with this storm, or did people heed warnings and get out of the way? >> the areas for mandatory evacuations, most of the folks heeded those and left. however, some stayed.

you mentioned rockport. that was a city that sustained significant structure damage. because the eye of hurricane harvey came on land right in that area. when you have 120, 130-mile-per-hour winds that's why the evacuation. roofs coming off of buildings, walls coming down. obviously, a situation that many here in texas hope to avoid. >> we're going to continue to watch this. you mentioned rockport, the city manager said there is extensive damage through the downtown area there. and the national weather service told him he can expect winds through tonight. we're going to continue to talk about what the storm is doing right now. north korea fires off missiles. next, we'll tell you where they were aimed and what u.s. officials said about those launches. flakes are finally here.ted sweet cinnamon and the frosted crunch you love. well? tastes like victory t. tastes like victory. they're great!

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megan's smile is getting a lot because she uses act® mouthwash. act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. all right. bottom left of your screen shows that hurricane harvey is over land. the eye now over land there. dumping feet of rain, we're expecting over the next several days. you see in the top left, the forecast showing it will be over land throughout the weekend. and as we're watching the storm, we're also watching what is coming out of the white house

overnight. let's start with president donald trump pardon former sheriff joe arpaio. arpaio was recently convicted of criminal contempt of violating a judge's order in a racial profiling case and continuing to target immigrants at traffic stops. he was awaiting sentence. when the pardon came down. joe arpaio has been controversial and a divisive figure in politics for decades cnn's sara sidner takes a closer look. >> reporter: the case against arpaio and the department's behavior began in 2007. a class action suit accused of implementing a history of racial profiling. and unlawful traffic stops of latinos. arpaio was sued accused of encouraging his deputies to detain people if for month other reason that they were suspected of being in the country illegal. known for his tough speech and his rage and the intense cities for inmates to be housed and pink underwear he made inmates

wear, arpaio argued his department was simply enforcing the law. >> i'm the elected sheriff. i represent directly to the people. i'm not going to be subservant to the federal government when they come up with month proof. >> reporter: but arpaio lost his argue in the civil lawsuit. in 2013, a federal judge put an injunction in place. ordering the department to halt unconstitutional policing practices. according to federal prosecutors and a federal judge, arpaio and his deputies defied the order. arpaio claimed that the order wasn't clear and he didn't mean to violate. but a federal judge showed that arpaio showed a flagrant disregard for the order. his critics cheered the decision. >> racism in any form is wrong. and joe or pie yo, again, has been the center of racist policies and racist attitudes. and he has been criminally convicted. >> reporter: from the start in 1999, when sheriff joe arpaio was elected to office he began a crusade against undocumented immigrants. his deputies' actions terrified

not only the undocumented but anyone who looked like they could be. >> donald trump will build the wall. >> reporter: arpaio's fiery speech and immigration policy gave him a kind of celebrity status in conservative circles and a kinship with the man who would become the president. cnn, sara sidner, los angeles. north korea launched three missiles overnight. this whatever secretary of state rex tillerson praised north korea for showing the strength for the weapons program. cnn's michelle kosinski walks us through what's happening. >> based on pacific command, these are three short-range missiles that failed. one exploded immediately at launch. to put this in perspective, it was just last month that north korea launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

you know, seen as a real provocation, one of them flew more than 500 miles. after that, the u.s. president threatened fire and fury on north korea, saying the u.s. was locked and loaded. after north korea also threatened to strike the u.s. territory of guam. and the u.s. believed that north korea has been steadily moving towards miniaturizing a newspapenuclear weapon. after all of that tough talk and threats, things quieted down. north korea hasn't launched anything for weeks, and now this. but you have to keep in mind, this comes right in the middle of a ten-day period when the u.s. and south korea are working together on military exercises. yes, as a counter for the north korea threat. but north korea always sees this collaboration as a threat. so, this may well be the reason why kim jong-un decided to launch this now. he wanted to do something, assert himself, express displeasure by launching short-range missiles, but not

wanting to fan the flames too much. michelle kosinski, cnn, the state department. >> since that report was filed we just want to make sheer the u.s. pacific commander david banden said the first and third missiles launched did fly approximately 250 kilometers in the northeast direction, now considered to be failures. well, this morning, the u.s. military is searching for a missing service member after a black hawk helicopter crashed during a training exercise. >> this happened off the coast of yemen. five service members were also investigatean investigation is getting under way. ahead, a man rides out the hurricane harvey at home with his family will tell us what it was like when it hit. ...or snack a day with glucerna... ...made with carbsteady... ...to help minimize blood sugar spikes... ...you can really feel it. now with 30% less carbs and sugars.

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rockport, texas, is catching the worst of the storm. but with reports of massive structural and building damage, firefighters there were kind of staying in place, at the fire station, as the eye of the storm was over them. the chief in rockport fire department spoke with cnn just a short while ago. >> we're still bunkered down in our station. we still have hurricane-force winds outside. but we do know, we have significant damage throughout the area. we inundated with calls of people needing help. but we're waiting on the weather to allow us to do it. >> and looking here at the image of the storm, and it seems that you're just to the south of the eye of this storm. but you are certainly within those bands, those strong bands

of rain. you mentioned there were people who decided to stay to stick around in the storm. do you have any indication of how people are managing the situation at hand right now? those who decided to stay. >> well, that, i really don't know, because like i say, we've not been able to get out and start doing any search and rescue or -- you know, seeing what we got. and how many homes we got that, you know, need our help. it's -- the eye wall actually came out over rockport. >> okay. >> and we had some severe winds on, you know, the homecoming of the eye wall. >> i want to let you know we're just getting word that hurricane harvey has now been downgraded to category 1. that would be 75 to 90 miles per hour. i don't know the miles per hour

specifically that it's been clocked at this point. but again, it has just been downgraded to a category 1. it hit a category 4. there are people who said, i'm going to sting around here. i'm not going to -- i'll wait it out. i'll take my chance. and because of that, they were the ones that got to witness what happened as it came ashore. >> and our producer victoria kennedy just told us that the winds are sustained at 90 miles per hour now. down from where they were, but still 90 miles an hour. enough still enough to cause damage. for those who stayed in their holes, cnn's george howell spoke with one of them and he was in corpus christi as the storm made landfall. >> he decided to bring in corpus christi to ride the storm out. nick is live on the phone with us at this hour. nick, i just want to ask you, first of all, what the experience is like. we're thankful to be chatting with you here to get your

assessment of what happened. how intense was the storm when it came through? >> caller: hi there, well, i'm glad to be talking with you, too. i have to agree with the gentleman who was just speaking a few seconds ago. it's interesting that this thing is turning into quite the marathon. you expect these things you expect these things to be a quicker flash and bang than they are. as the storm came in this evening, things were a little lighter than they are now. and you expect it to get intense and then let up, but things have not let up at all. it's lasting for hours and it's quite interesting. >> talk to us about the decision that you, your family, made to stay there. how did you reach that conclusion? you know that city, you know this area. and i'm sure you've seen your share of storms come through. how did you reach that decision?

>> well, yeah, it was a tough decision. a number -- probably the majority of my friends and family have left town. left town as early as thursday. my children actually were able to leave town with their mother. however, i happen to have a mother who had a surgery on her neck scheduled for a number of months on thursday. so she was into the hospital on thursday. interestingly enough, the hospital evacuated friday morning. she was due to be discharged, but she was not in shape to leave the city. so me and a few other of my family members were kind of o pl -- obliged to stay here and make sure she was taken care of. again, we have been through a number of storms here. we knew this was going to be a big one and the intensity and duration was going to be longer than before, but we had --