possessions. hundreds of thousands without power. the storm snapping utility poles like toothpicks. we have new reaction from the president tweeting, thank you to the great volunteers helping out with hurricane harvey relief in texas. our cnn reporters cover every angle of the disaster. rosa in houston, and meteorologist chad meyers in the cnn weather center. we start with our special coverage. first to rock port, the harpdest hit, 130 miles per hour winds from hurricane harvey. the only fatality from the storm so far is reported. harvey came ashore as a category 4 hurricane causing widespread destruction. the town's mayor called the storm a severe blow to the community. look at what people are encountering there, local and state officials are still assessing the damage caused by that initial hit. our martin savage joins us from rockport, and what a scene there behind with you.

i understand you ran into some of the public safety officials there, what are you hearing from them? >> reporter: a lot of the public safety here is they are still here, but the infrastructure for the police and fire and everything else has been absolutely devastated, and that's why they are getting help coming in from the outlying communities. getting here is difficult. we had a hard time. water is overflowing many of the roads, many of the main highways to get in here, power lines down all over, and then there's the trees on top of that, so devastation on the outskirts of town, especially for trailers, but absolute destruction on the inside of town here, and the problem is, they are only just now getting organized to try to come about the first responders. take a look. >> you can tell this is very much a town that is still caught up in the shock of the storm. they are still trying to organize their first response. you got emergency teams that are starting to arrive, a lot of them have come from outside the

area. they have been a lot of problems here. number one, no sign of electricity, no cell phone service, and it's clear looking down here, they have water problems, so that means sanitary issues, drinking water, basics of that. then you take a look at the issue of just plain law enforcement. this is the rockport police department's vehicles. at least a number of them. you can see what the wind and pressure did, blew out just about every one of the windows in their vehicles there. and there's one pulling out. so despite the damage, they are still on the job. let's walk you over. there's a lot of street flooding. in fact, as we try to come into this town, there's a lot of flooding, period. a lot of downed power lines, state troopers, and this is the sort of resources continuing to come in here. they are just now trying to organize. this is the public safety

center. took a devastating blow. there's water everywhere you look. there's downed power lines everywhere. so that makes the streets very difficult to pass. the only flag that's still up is apparently the city flag. look way the wind did to the flag poles here. snapped them. broke them. didn't bend them. snapped them. brought them down to the grown. they are trying to do inside here is basically organize life. what you realize is that it is going to be not just days, but it could be weeks and months before this town even starts to function once again. >> another view of the destruction here. you look at this, and reminds you what happens when a major tornado that goes through town. probably that kind of damage is here, but a lot of this happens

when a category 4 storm, a massive monster roars into your town of the that's what happened here. one fatality as we said. >> heart goes out to the community. thank you very much, martin savage. now, 8% of hurricane deaths are caused by wind, 90% are caused by water. that takes us to houston, already coping with flooding and more heavy rain is on the way, officials setting up a staging area right now for emergency vehicles and crews at the stadium, and that's where ro rorosa rosa flores is joining us. what are you hearing from the emergency officials in terms of preparations for all the rain that's yet to come? >> reporter: you know, they are preparing for the texas-sized parking lot to be turned into a staging area for all of the vehicles that first responders will need to respond to any emergency. you can take a look behind me. there's already a row of ambulances, but other ems

vehicles will be filling this parking lot, and as we swing around, you'll see this parking lot is very large. we're expecting all of the military-type vehicles to be parked on this side, and you can already see that some fuel tankers are to the right. the idea here is for a command center type of location where calls can come in very quickly and resources can be deployed very quickly. now, we've seen bans of rain here come and go. it just stopped rights now. we've seen gusts of winds. the harris county sheriff has been tweeting about potential tornado about 30 minutes north of where we are located. there's a lot of activity happening in houston right now. just because the rain stopped, doesn't mean that the danger has stopped. the concern in houston, of course, like you mentioned, is flooding. they are expecting a lot of rain and because the ground is already saturated, this is a

clay ground, once that clay is saturated, then flash flooding happens very quickly, rising water turns deadly of the that's the big concern. that's why they are expecting to stage here in this area in west houston hoping, of course, this is a safe area for the vehicles to then be deployed in the case of an emergency. >> all right, rosa in houston for us continuing to wait out the upcoming rain. let's check in now with our cnn me meteorologist with the forecast. the colors don't look good. talk about where the storm is headed, if anywhere. it's hovering, isn't it? >> sure. wa center is stopped, no longer an eye in the tropical storm really just stopped in the middle of texas, but the rotating bands will not stop. in fact, the next band for rosa may be there in one hour in her next live shot, that big red ban

headed towards houston right now. that's going to be over houston all evening, and all -- overnight long into the morning hours, and that's where the flooding problem there for houston will be. it's raining in san toep owe, austin, and it's making some tornados around the houston area as rosa said. this is a possibility as the next band, you can see, the colors right there, rotates over houston in the next, i would say, 30-45 minutes and last for five to six hours. there's your tornado watch. anywhere in the box, you could see tornados. the problem is, i think, shifting attention from the wind and shift attention to the flooding. there's already rain here. that purple area right there, that's 10 inches already on the ground. this thing has not even been on land for 24 hours, something like 18, and we already had almost two feet of rainfall potential here, and that's not hard to get to if you are already at 14. we're probably going to be piling up it even deeper than that. here is the forecast radar.

you think about what the radar looks like now. this is what it looks like by model standards over the next few hours. heavy rainfall tonight. houston in the middle of the heavy band. that's 4:00 in the morning coming up in the morning. if you wake up in the morning, going to church, whatever, before sunrise, i need you to realize how much water could be on the roadways in the ditches, and in the bay eous and over th roadways. could rain all night and by 10:00 in the morning, it's still raining. lake charles, you're back in it by then as well. rosa? >> oh, boy. chad, thank you for that update. and now that the storm has made land fall, the heart breaking search, rescue, and recovery efforts have begun. i spoke with the texas land governor, george p. push, the son of jeb bush, says it plays a role, and we talked about the challenges in the initial response. listen. >> because of downed power lines and dangerous situation, our

first responders are now trickling out throughout the coastal communities to assess what the final toll will be. this is going to be a long challenge. right now, it's about protecting life, making sure we get search and rescue teams out to respond to the crisis as it unfolds. >> the salvation army deployed throughout texas providing relief and supplies to those hardest hit. robert webb, commander for san tone owe, so, robert, describe what you've seen so far. >> caller: so far, we've seen rain moving through the area. we're concerned about the potential significant flooding in the area. we've worked to shelter as many people as possible to get them out of the storm, storm's way, to ensure they are safe and sound, and we've staged our resources, strategically

throughout the state. as soon as the storm settles, we are able to respond across the state of texas. >> what's that mean? how long do you have to wait since we're hearing the rain, which could be, perhaps, biggest threat for the area, could last for days. >> caller: we already have some of our local emts responding in corpus christi and the victoria area, responding now, we have 29 other units on standby in san antonio, texas county, dallas, galveston areas. >> when you say "respond," what's that look like exactly? >> caller: well, we'll provide food to those where there's no electricity, no ability to cook

for themselves. we'll help to provide food. we'll provide assistance in other areas, perhaps clothing or with shelter wherever possible. we'll work in connection with the local emc to ensure coordinated services throughout the areas that are in need. >> and what's the greatest need you're finding so far? >> caller: right now the greatest need is safe and secure sheltering. from there, it's providing for the needs of the people displaced by the storm. that means if they end up in longer temp longer term care, in an area which is no longer their home, it's going to take a combined effort of the salvation army and other agencies to help address those needs. >> all right, robert webb, we appreciate the time.

good luck as we know you'll be working hard the next few days. thank you. still ahead, cities prepare for the floods from harvey. president trump is keeping a close eye on the storm. up next, the white house, how it's responding as texas r residents brace for more damage. cameras. introducing the newly redesigned gla suv. at a price that'll make you feel like you've gotten away with something. the 2018 gla. lease the gla250 for $359 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. what's going on here? um...i'm babysitting. that'll be $50 bucks. you said 30 dollars. yeah, well it was $30 before my fees, like the dog-sitting fee... and the rummage through your closet fee. who is she, verizon? are those my heels? yeah! yeah, we're the same size...in shoes.

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breaking news, tropical storm harvey threatening to add insult to injury. already causing one fatality in texas, at least 12-14 people with injuries, and president trump says he's on top of this, monitoring the situation from camp david. a senior administration official tells cnn the president says he wants to travel to texas, quote, asap, but waiting for conditioning to be safe. tropical storm harvey is slowly churning inland, seemingly up sure of the next target. in the meantime, it dumped a tremendous amount of rain. a short time ago, president trump conducted a video teleconference on the disaster in texas, and participating on the call, vice president pence. white house chief of staff, john kelly, and fema chief long among others. president trump is tweeting his support for texas, quote, thank

you to all the great volunteers helping out with hurricane harvey relief in texas. the fema chief, of course, is brock long. this is from vice president pence. i quote, our thoughts and prayers with first responders and emergency crews working to keep the public safe. i want to turn now to a massive prisoner evacuation in texas. authorities moved 4,000 inmates from three prisons today. the prisoners were transported by bus to facilities in east texas. joining us now to talk about this, department of criminal justice public information officer or director, jason clark. jason, talk about this undertaking, the effort to move all of these prisoners. how did that work exactly? >> caller: it's really a massive undertaking. i can tell you it's still ongoing. we've moved a third of the 45 inmates to facilities in east texas, and so we'll continue that movement throughout tonight and likely wrapping up early in the morning hours.

>> where are you putting them? where are they going? >> caller: they are going to numerous for a minutes in east texas. the three facilities that are affected are near the river which is rising rapidly, and projections put it at 52.8 feet. if that's true, that puts water inside those facilities, and so the decision was made this morning to go ahead and evacuate those three facilities. >> now, have you done this before? >> caller: unfortunately, last year around may, there was historic flooding in texas which, again, caused the river to rise. a little bit different situation because we had more time. that was where it was flowing down, and we were able to prepare, and move them that way. i can tell you, this one is because of significant rainfall, because of hurricane harvey. again, we do have the ability to move inmates, and we do that

effectively so that's what's going on right now. a lot of moving parts, but i can tell you we have a lot of hard working men and women out in the storm right now protecting these men and women and protecting the public. >> yeah. when you talk about how many people, are any of these evacuated prisoners dangerous criminals, and do you have to put in place extra security precautions? >> caller: you know, the custody levels of the inmates vary from minimum to maximum. i can tell you we have security procedures in place to ensure we are able to move these offendives safely to get where they need to be. >> long term, what's the map? >> caller: so at this point, we're going to continue movement throughout the day and get them move the to facilities, and then we've got a 24-hour command center set up, and so we're continuing to monitor this storm, and them we'll make adjustments as needed. >> jason clark, thanks to you.

good luck. coming up, as harvey unleashes damaging wind and rain on the lone star state, one pregnant mom is in limbo. hear her amazing story next live in the cnn newsroom. mind if i sit here? not if you want your phone to work. let me guess, you can't livestream your lobster roll. and my mobile pay isn't connecting and i just got an unlimited plan. right plan, wrong network. you see verizon has america's largest most reliable 4g lte network and now unlimited plans start at $40 per line, you know what i am saying? (laughs.) oh this is your seat. definitely. yep. just tucking it in. nah, i wasn't going to pull it out. when it really, really matters you need the best network and the best unlimited. now plans start at $40 per line for four lines. it's the blowout event!ual save 10 to 70% off on all clothing and shoes. and up to 70% off on outdoor life for him and simply styled for her! plus hot deals on jeans for kids, starting at 8.99. hurry - sale ends september 4th.

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p. incredible winds today from victoria, texas. about 40 miles north of rockport where harvey made land fall as a category 4 hurricane last night. it is now a tropical storm, moving inland, and now one person we learned died in the storm. that victim was in a house that caught fire in rockport. more than 300,000 people are without power in the texas gulf coast, and the u.s. coast guard has 800 personnel in houston now ready to respond. the storm has left many in limbo, including an expected mother forced to evacuate.

she is scheduled for a c-section tuesday, but right now, she's trapped in a hotel room in corpus christi. i spoke with her last hour. >> what have the past 24 hours been like for you? >> caller: pretty stressful, just nerve racking, wondering if the hospital is going to be able to do the c-section tuesday, where we're going to go after we get out of the hospital, stuff like that. >> do you have a backup plan right now? >> well, after the c-section, we can always go back to where we lived in kings lake until we figure out the damages and how we're going to get everything fixed and sort everything out, but as of right now, we'll be in the hospital, be in this hotel until we can have the baby. >> do you know how your home is doing, how, if it survived

without damage? >> no, we do not know. we have seen pictures of the area and a lot of rvs and stuff which is what we live in are on their sides or tore apart, so we'll just wait until they give the okay to go back to assess the damages. >> we are continuing to keep an eye on all the latest. we have meetologists on the ground and in the weather center tracking th ining harvey for us. i want to start with you, derek, in the heart of where this storm continues to have an impact. how are the folks in victoria coping with the damage and ongoing weather conditions? >> reporter: well, ana, the storm continues to surprise me. every couple minutes, we get a strong one-two punch of this

vertical rain and winds gusting 45-50 miles per hour, and it gets pretty intense. i should say horizontal rain, but gets intense quickly. just coming into victoria, 10 miles outside of the coast, we saw minor structural damage. trees all over the streets here. you can see a couple of the branchs mind me, but i want to say that it's safe to say we're starting to transition into our flood threat, but we still have the strong winds that are whipping up some of the debris across the area, so i would say at least another couple hours of the tropical storm force wisconsin we've been measuring on at 50 miles per hour. going forward, we know the storm stalled out. the ground here is extremely moist. it's got a lot of rain. rainfall totals here are 8 inches since the storm started abo about -- harvey stalls over southeast texas is nope as the

brown ocean effect. it works just like as if the ocean -- the storm is over the ocean, drawing in moisture from the gulf of mexico, but this time, it's taking from the moisture in the soil. it's called the brown ocean effect that helps fuel rainfall and precipitation, making this storm so particularly dangerous. the flood threat going forward and the additional rainfall on top of what we've already seen, and not to mention the strong gusty winds peltingy face as we speak, it's tough out here. >> good luck. stay safe. obviously, we know that those folks are not out of the woods yet, helping us guide us through this. our meetologist teorologist is us, and, chad, you watched the movement of the hur caricane an now a tropical storming but it's hovering. any sense when it moves back out? >> no, i don't think it will. it be will stay over land.

models predict it -- if it goes over the gulf, it regenerates, but the center of the storm stopped east of san antonio. that's why we have so much rain back in san antonio and austin and the like. here is the warning for houston proper for tonight. that is your rain band. the storm is not moving. the bands move like a pin wheel. you are going to get a pin wheel tonight that will wake up -- or you'll wake up with 12-18 inches of new rainfall on the ground. if you live near a river and house floods with 3-5 inches of rainfall on any given day and happens in different parts of the city, if you live in that area, i need you to go someplace higher tonight. there's flash floods in the overnight hours, when you get outside, that's going to be water in the driveway. where do you go?

go now. it's that serious. here's why i say it's that serious. here's where the rein has been. not really over houston. okay, 3-5. you can handle 3-5, but what happens tonight? that pinwheel right there is -- that's right there right now, is going to -- here's the forecast radar. here comes the rain. showers and storm after storm after storm after storm. sugar land, 15 inches of rain in 18 hours. houston about 12. intercontinental, bush, around 10. now, there's not a city in america that can handle that kind of rainfall to get you to 1030 tomorrow morning, it begins to stop and move towards lake charles, but the damage will have been done. if i pile up all the rain i show you, this is what it looks like over houston and western suburbs, there's 5-10 in some spots, 12-15 by morning.

you have a few mour houhours tor stuff together and go to a friend's in a higher spot. it's that dangerous tonight. >> chad, you've been doing this a long time, and looking back at the hurricanes that have hit the u.s. in year's past, we know we have not seen one make land fall as a category 4 hurricane since 2004 so that is 12 years ago, but the last to hit texas was in 2008, hurricane ike, not as strong as this last storm, but what we saw in terms of damages and injuries and fatalities so far is about what you would expect with the storm like this at this point in the storm? i know each one is different so it's hard to make comparisons, but give us a sense in terms of your perspective? >> in 2004, anderson cooper and i were in florida in tampa waiting for charlie to arrive. charlie made a right hand turn and just slammed the coast.

the damage i see from rockport is exactly what we saw, so, yes, it's exactly what i would expect from a cat 4 land fall. no one could expect -- no one could think in their mind in a ph.d. paper what happens if a cat 4 stops over land for five days. it's so far out of the standard defuations of possibility, no one thinks about that, but it is. it is stopping. it is not moving. there's 24 hours worth of movement, 72 hours worth of movement. yes, some move it around. that's great. if it does not move at all, this is devastating. >> thank you very much for that insight, and derek as well. coming up, president trump has a storm after a late night announcement of pardoning sheriff arpaio. we discuss the controversial decision. you're live in the cnn newsroom. we're live. stay with us.

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breaks news from washington this hour. house speaker ryan criticizes president trump's decision to pardon arpaio. a spokesman for the salespeople spokesperson said the speaker does not agree with the decision, and law enforcement officers have a special responsibility to protect the rights of everyone in the united states. we should not let everyone believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon. we are joined now from outside the white house, and the trump administration got this news

late last night at the same time the category 4 hurricane was barrelling towards the gulf coast. they knew it was not going to be popular, did they know it would be this unpopular? >> reporter: that's right. the administration is facing a lot of criticism, even from fellow republicans like speaker ryan. i should note that sheriff arpaio's lawyer, not surprisingly, disagrees with the house speaker. the president criticized by two republican senators from the state of arizona, but this decision is not going to be unpopular with supporters of the sheriff or many of the president's own support ersuppo. we talked about him making decisions in the first seven months of the presidency appealing directly to the base, but do not do a lot to grow that base. many trump supporters are hard liners when it comes to immigration and would spoupport this move. the sheriff spoke to one of the

affiliates in arizona with this as a response. >> he's a big supporter of law enforcement. i know it came from his heart. i, two years ago, supported him first rally, and i always said, regardless of bar don, no pardon, with him until the end. i say that. i am happy with all the support received across the nation. arizona for this pardon, and i'll have more to speak out and let the true story come out about the abuse of the judicial system in politics. so there you heard sheriff arpaio speaking to one of our affiliates tweeting about the pardon and sent out a fund raising appeal to the supporters to raise money for his legal defense fund to pay the legal fees and used language that will be familiar to folks who are used to reading the president's

tweets saying, in part, on twitter and in the appeal, that this -- this is prosecution was a political witch hunt by holdovers from the obama justice department. he thanked the president for seeing his conviction for what it is. we heard that term "witch hunt" used by the president before, and it's one more sign of the men being like-minded when it comes to immigration. we know that the sheriff was one of the president's early supporters and that the sheriff was a part of the birther movement, people who questioned president obama's citizenship, and it's important to note, also, the state newspaper, the arizona republic, put out a pretty bluntly worded editorial saying this move to pardon the sheriff in a case that involved racial profiling is a slap to the latino community making it clear that the president believes in institutional race itch, not just okay with it, but it's a goal. ve very, very strong reactions there.

>> thank you. i want to bring in cnn legal analyst, a former federal prosecutor. michael, i had a chance to speak with the attorney last hour asking about the criticisms, specifically from speaker paul ryan and other republicans. let's listen to what he said. >> we could have had a hearing from day one. at this point, the appeal, and, in fact, the sheriff's an old man, 85 years old. this witness is money and time wasted all around. go to the jury, get the right verdict, but this is a wrongful verdict. >> what's your response? treated unfairly by the judicial system in some way? >> hardly. i think if you look at his case, he was profiling latino members of his community and arresting them without probably cause. a civil action was brought for contempt telling him to stop it.

he refused to stop it, denigrating, if you will, the authority of judiciary to check his behavior. he continued. he then was held in criminal contempt for failing to abide by the court order. all the while he was keeping these detainees in these tent city prisons wearing pink underwear and being chained. when he says that the president is a big supporter of law enforcement as is he, this is a complete absence of the responsibility. this is really just bad behavior that was properly sanctioned, and if he thought he had a better day in court. coming up, tell the president, don't pardon me, i want to go to court and be found not guilty of that of which i'm held responsible for. he had the option to put an end of the president's effort to pardon him if he wanted to. what's offensive to the notion that this is a supporter of the rule of law is that there's a

process in the justice department. doesn't office a pardon in the justice department that's supposed to handle these things and make recommendations and hear from victims and hear from the local u.s. attorney, none ever that followed in this case. it's really a slap in the face of law enforcement. >> and that's what i wanted to ask you about in terms of the typical procedures with pardons. the president has full power to do a pardon like this, but we do know that he did it without consulting the justice department while he's able to do that. how common is that? >> it's very uncommon. in fact, if you look at the office of pardon attorney website in the justice department, it'll say a couple things that are important as it remits to this case. first, it says, normal ly, you wait five years. they want to see what the behavior of the person was after the sentencing was issued or if he got to jail after the jail term was over. they want to see contrition and acceptance of responsibility.

they want to be able to ask the u.s. attorney who prosecuted the case, what's your opinion about this, how will this impact your community? they want to ask victims of the illegal behavior how this impacts them. then that's all put into the mix, e evaluated, make a recommendation that this is in the interest of justice to do or not to do. none of that process followed here. i think that's what is most defensive from a legal standpoint. i don't have a position on the politics of this, but from a legal process point, i think it is a slap in the face of law enforcement, of the u.s. attorney, and of the people in the police force who are trying to abide by the fourth amendment and other right they, individual citizens, of the county possess. >> now, the white house pointed to arpaio's age, and the lawyer backed that. let me read you the statement from the white house regarding the pardon saying, quote, sheriff arpaio is now 85 years

old, and after more than 50 years of honorable service to the nation, he's a worthy candidate for a presidential pardon. what's that mean? he's a worthy candidate for a presidential pardon. what makes somebody a worthy candidate? >> guidelines set forth in the justice department which is that he served his time, if he served time, or if he did not serve time, accepted responsibility for his illegal conduct, he's behaving himself in a way that recognizing assumption of responsibility, that the victims of his behavior are okay with it, and that the u.s. attorney who prosecutored the case is okay with it. none of that was followed herement the notion that he's 85 years old is undermined by the fact that at 83 years old, he was still doing the exact same behavior he's now being pardoned for, it's not like he did this 50 years ago, and he's now 85 and we want to sort of allow the man some, you know, peace before he meets his maker. that's not the case. he was doing this two years ago,

and there's been no contrition, and there's still in the press statements today, no contrition said he was railroaded in a witch hunt by legacy obama people, not further from the truth. >> claiming he's the victim here. american civil liberties union calls this pardon a presidential endorsement of racism. what message do you pick up from this pardon? >> well, so, i think in pure legal terms, it is sort of a denigration of the rule of law. that is, two judges found this fellow in contempt of the fourth amendment and rights of the individuals of that county, and when a president without going through the justice department in obtaining permissions or input of the justice department on that which the rules set forth, i think what it is is not a respect of law and not a respect of process, but rather a political act which is not what i think the pardon process

should be about. >> and bigger picture, could this pardon send a message to people at the center of the russian investigation that president trump is not afraid to use his pardoning powers even if they are unpopular? >> well, maybe. he has the right to pardon anyone probably except himself, and we saw that george w. bush pardoned casper wineberger in the midst of an investigation, and it's not without precedent, whether it's a good policy decision or not, we'll leave to political policymakers, but in this case, i think that the message is so bad, both as matter of the civil rights of people whose rights were abused and justice department in terms of the lack of following of the orderly process that it's just not really acceptable for anyone who sort of republics the rule of law and orderly processes. >> all right. michael, thank you for joining

us. >> my pleasure. north korea launched three short range ballistic missiles. u.s. officials say this move poses no threat to the u.s. or even guam, but will it reunite tensions from earlier this month between trump and kim jung un? you're live in the cnn newsroom. ♪ and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? ♪ ♪ well it's you girl, and you should know it. ♪ with each glance and every little movement you show it. ♪ you're gonna make it after all. ♪ it takes a long time to get to the top... you're gonna make it after all. ♪ but with america's best you're gonna make it after all. ♪ bumper-to-bumper limited you're gonna make it after all. ♪ warranty, the all-new volkswagen tiguan will be there every step ♪ ow! ♪ of the way.

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the u.s. mail tear says two of those missiles flew into the sea. this launch comes less than one

week after north korea was actually praised by secretary of state rex tillerson for showing restraint in its weapons program. the launch does nothing to calm tensions and the timing is likely not a coincidence as the u.s. troops are holding annual joint drills. the only western journalist inside north korea amid all these tensions. i understand you have had a chance to actually speak with government officials in north korea. what are they saying? >> they are saying that this is an extraordinarily tense time, even more tense than august normally would be because of the joint military drills and it all goes back to president trump's remarks, when he threatened to rain fire and furry on this country. the news cycle in the u.s. moved on from that a long time ago, but north korea does not work

that way. there is one narrative, a looming war with the united states. that's what north korea tells its citizens is coming and points to these military exercises that are happening regularly scheduled. they tell citizens this is a dress rehearsal for invasion. that may be why we are now seeing actual military action. three missiles putting within striking range all of seoul, south korea. but of course this is not the threatened launch that north korea was talking about earlier in the month after they successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. kim jong-un said he was going to continue to watch the behavior of the west and we have seen him emerge just within the last several hours on state media overseeing a special forces

operation with commandos simulating attacks. now we are seeing an uptick in military action and we need to watch what will happen as we enter week two of those joint exercises happening in south korea miles from where i am. >> all right. we look forward to hearing more of the reports as you continue to stay there in north korea, the only western journalist. how texas is coping and how some of the cities are still bracing for what is expected to be potentially massive rain fall in the coming days. more after a quick break. lleledy at the lexus golden opportunity sales event before it ends. choose from the is turbo, es 350 or nx turbo for $299 a month for 36 months if you lease now. experience amazing at your lexus dealer.

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top of the hour, you're live in the cnn news room. thank you for being with us. we began this hour with dire warnings of potentially historic flooding in texas. harvey is a tropical storm churning and now stalling on shore within range from the city of houston. harvey could jump up to three feet of rain in some areas before this is over. the monster storm ripped entire roofs off buildings and at least one person has died. i want to show you some dramatic new video. a pair of texans shot this footage from their home where they have been hunkering down. authorities closed all the roads leading into the town. and they