donald trump is not a republican. >> let me ask another question about this. >> he is a republican president. >> let me ask this question about the arpaio pardon. people are looking at it, democrats and republicans and saying there's more to this than an arpaio pardon. there's a guy on the internet and has a blog, a big trump supporter. he said that he sees this as a clear signal president trump will pardon people who might be prosecuted in the mueller probe. he wrote, the message of his pardon is donald trump has your back. no one will roll over on trump to avoid mueller's charges because people know trump can and will pardon them if they remain loyal. i heard democrats say that. but hearing a trump supporter say that seems even more significant. >> i disagree with that. i think this is -- arpaio is a publicity seeking birther who gets himself into trouble and blames other people. i can't imagine why he is standing behind him. it's a personal affinity.

it ticks off the right people. he has the power to pardon him. but there's a pile of ige know minutous -- i think manning goes on that pile. perhaps this does. particularly because he is an avatar of toughness and law enforcement to some. but he is an avatar for abuses of power in law enforcement and some of the worst excesses there. there's an argument that some of this was politically motivated, the timing going after him. >> by the obama administration. >> right. but this is a guy who i think has gone too far in many cases. by the way, was voted out in a trump county in arizona 56/44 which highlights some of the divisions we're seeing on this stage. that's what trump likes to do. that's what he is a natural at. >> to your question about whether this signals something -- first of all, anybody who thinks donald trump is loyal to anybody but himself, only needs to talk to steve bannon, rudy giuliani and chris christie. he will not be loyal. there are a slew of state attorneys general out there who would be only too happy to pick

up the thread if for some reason donald trump thinks it's a wise idea to pardon flynn or manafort. this will not be over. by the way, if he did pardon others like those guys, there's a congressional investigation that's happening where right now they have taken the fifth, those particular witnesses. if they are pardoned, they won't be able to take the fifth. you better believe congress will get them to testify. >> adam schiff, a ranking democrat, he tweeted a sim already analysis. arpaio action was appalling and political. it sends message to witnesses to keep quiet, stay loyal and get pardon. >> as somebody in that jackpot, if i had done something wrong, i wouldn't expect the president it pardon me. i don't expect him to pardon anybody else involved in this. representative schiff is on top of nothing. the russia investigation is going nowhere. now they're focusing on financial crimes that allegedly happened long before paul manafort ever worked for donald

trump. >> how do you know? >> i'm looking at the same leaks you are, illegal leaks that are breaking the law every time they come out. the fact the matter is, this arpaio pardon doesn't send a message to me. it doesn't send a message to paul manafort. this is all chatter. this is designed to distract people from the fact that the democrats have got a big problem here. you guys have to come together and sell your progressive doctrine to the middle, to the independents, the republicans. we have to expand our base, too. instead of doing that, we're talking about russia. which is absolutely nothing. he's not going to pardon anybody involved in russia because nothing happened. >> anna? >> bob mueller is sending out subpoenaed to paul manafort's pr. what is chatter -- >> which has nothing to do with trump. >> what is chatter is everything we're doing. what is happening is that robert mueller while we are talking about it is focusing a serious -- is expanding his

investigation. hired a professional team, specializing in things like financial crimes, like turning witnesses. all of this noise around it, you saying there's nothing, me saying there might be something, doesn't matter. the guy is focused. >> the truth is, we don't know. we know that there was at least willingness by don trump junior and manafort and kushner to attend a meeting billed as a russian government attorney with dirt on hillary clinton. that's not who she was. but there was willingness and we're told mueller is looking into that. the truth is, you know more than me because you've been interviewed. we don't know what he will find. >> we're also seeing leaks that come out that there was apparently a member of the campaign who was trying to make meetings with russia. >> rick dearborn. >> no. he was rebuffed every time. paul manafort said these are not the meetings we need to be having. we get the story this week on cnn that rick dearborn, the deputy chief of staff, said

somebody is looking to set up a meeting with russians. rick has been on the hill for 30 years. when everybody else was getting off the hill, he became a man of the senate, one of the leaders, one of the top experts on legislative process in the united states. if he is not safe in this investigation, if the leaks are coming out and embarrassing him and trying to smear him when he has done nothing -- nobody is safe in this situation. inside those e-mails that all the committees have and the fbi has right now are also e-mails that exonerate the trump campaign and people like paul manafort and others within the campaign on stories that came out last year that were completely false. >> let me ask you a question. are you concerned that your party, the democratic party, has invested so much in talking about the russia investigation that if actually it comes forward and let's say it's some minor financial crimes that happened long before the person involved was hooked up with president trump, that ultimately

your party is writing checks that the facts aren't going to cash? >> i think we cannot just focus on an anti-trump message. although it's tempting because every daypro vi provides huge a of material to work with. i think for us as a party, we have to unite and lift people's souls and tell people that we are better than this as a nation. that means that we have to focus on a lot of the things that they care about, yes. donald trump and the russia thing is one small slice. he also wants to do the wall. we don't want to do the wall because we want to unite. he wants to -- he says he wants to do infrastructure. he is attacking his own party. we want to do that because we want to create jobs. we have to be for something. we have to call people to something higher. we have to have them be proud of america but not be divisive. he is utterly divisive. that's an important contrast. >> there is danger in going just

exclusively down the russia path. one of trump's talents is when he says something about the statutes and where does this end, he can count on the other side popping up and liberal activists saying i will take a pass on columbus and washington. people feel like this is going too far. both parties are doing a magnificent of driving the middle away from both of them. to ignore the left's part in that i think it gives -- this is what gives trump power. people will run the other direction super hard. that's what i'm saying. >> i don't think donald trump does from the perspective of why is he trying to distract us? we have been in a steady stream of two weeks of distraction between charlottesville, which went on for days and days because of his ridiculous response. then the transgender ban. now arpaio. one thing after the other, which has been distracting us from russia. doesn't matter.

the guy not distracted is bob mueller. >> we have more to discussion. this conversation is going so well. our dear leader has allowed us to keep going and bleed into the next show. stick around. we have gone over. stick around. coming up, we will talk more about president trump including his escalating attacks against his fellow republicans. that story next. stay with us. utiful moments. switch to flonase allergy relief. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. when we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. flonase helps block 6. most allergy pills only block one and 6 is greater than 1. with more complete relief you can enjoy every beautiful moment to the fullest. flonase. 6 is greater than 1 changes everything. hi..and i know that we have phonaccident forgiveness.gent, so the incredibly minor accident that i had tonight- four weeks without the car. okay, yup. good night.

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welcome back to state of the union. i'm jack tapper. this morning at floodwaters were rising in southeast texas, this was president trump's first tweet of the day, plugging a book by david clark, the sheriff of walk, wisconsin. a great book by a great guy, highly recommended along with the amazon link. president trump has also addressed the storm. moments ago he tweeted, wow, experts are calling harvey a once in 500 year flood. we have an all out effort going and going well. president trump says he will travel to texas. this is a big test for -- obviously, the most important thing is the safety and security of people in the path of the storm. this is a big political test for the president. >> it is. the great thing is the president put in place strong emergency administrators. brock long from alabama, one of the strongest resumes for emergency response ever in the position. we have eric hyberger, his chief

of staff who in 2004 was at the terrible hurricane season in miami, he was on site. this has all the markings of something that can be a good showing for the president. all bets are off because storms are tough. the real problem here is, fema is a mess. what the people are facing today, they're going to look back and see it as the high point of the situation. they have years ahead of them trying to get their money back from their flood insurance. we have people from hurricane sandy who have been looking for their money for five years and fema is still screwing them today. not only do they have to respond strongly, the president can take strong steps to reform fema, this is a great test for administration. >> i think it's -- with all respect -- a little soon to say this is the high point or something when people are still on their roofs and unfound. i know this. the president in his budget put

over $300 million of cuts in there for fema. there's a lot of people -- a lot of republicans in congress who voted against helping communities like after hurricane sandy. i think we have to be really careful. when it comes to this issue of our nation being safe from natural disasters, this is an area we cannot skimp on. i hope that members of congress who are presented with this budget request will deny it and say, we have to fully fund it. >> as a floridian who lives with hurricane season every year, i think it's very important. it's a lesson we learned through katrina. we don't put political appointees to run emergency services, to run fema. we need the best of professionals. president obama, president bush after katrina named craig. i hope this new person is just as good. what's really important at this point is for state government, local government, federal government to be in complete

coordination. we need to be concentrated on this. the people of houston are hurting. it would help if the president of the united states instead of tweeting out about sheriff clark and pardoning arpaio in the midst of this would focus on this big state with big problems right now. >> to your point, it's important to be careful. one of the things that these bills when they ask for funding are not as careful, they're larded up with everything under the sun that efveryone wants because they know everyone has to vote for this thing. that's a failure of leadership to pick priorities when we have a certain number of -- certain amount of money here. the pool is not infinite. i breathed a sigh of relief when i was learning about broch long. there are good people in place. abbott has gone through ike in 2008 in an administration with rick perry. there's some signs that point to good. what we're seeing now with this flooding coming up a day or two after is how bad these can get

several days after the actual storm hitting. they're really on watch right now. >> another tweet that the president sent out this morning, with mexico being one of the highest crime nations in the world, we must have the wall, that's in all caps. mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other. >> he did that just for you. >> that's so ridiculous. >> he does this to communicate with the people. but also he enjoys seeing the reaction on television. i know he does. i would, too. the fact that it triggering the media so much. >> it's not just the media. >> others will pay for it. >> do you still have a fax in your office? do you not find it questionable if you had been standing there and he was saying, should i send this, when people are literally worried for their lives in houston and he is sending out tweets about the wall or even more egregiously about david

clark's book? that doesn't bother you? >> it doesn't bother me. we spent most of the show talking about things other than the storm. we're hopeful about it. we're relived there's only a couple of deaths. i think things are moving forward. the state and federal government and the low governments are working really well. the president is doing what he should do. he is standing by and getting involved when he needs to. if that means he can't talk or think about anything else, i'm sorry, you will be disappointed. >> our first piece in the show was an interview with a reporter with fema and with the governor abbott. >> well, i think the president actually -- it was a rare moment when the president tweeted something good about how -- whether he was going to travel there and he didn't want to disrupt anybody. i liked a donald trump tweet which doesn't happen very often. i will commend him for at times doing that. sheriff clark's book could wait. >> it's a new day.

>> this is trump being trump. this is the consistency. when he should be focused at the issue at hand, he throws out shiny objects. he chooses to divide. he chooses to hurt. we have seen him do it this week, the last two weeks with the jewish community, with the african-american community, with the transgender community, with the lahtino community. we don't know what's going to happen with the dream act kids. he is on a rampage now, arpaio, the wall, the dream act kids. god help those kids. i hope the people in congress pass legislation to help those kids. those children are the best of america, those young people are the best of america. they are americans in all ways but one. it's up to congress not to allow this to be at the whim of their very -- >> when he was a democrat, he was doing photo ops with dream kids. >> is that right? >> i want to change the subject,

which is about president trump's fighting with fellow republicans, with mitch mcconnell, with paul ryan, with jeff flake, with bob corker. is this strategy here do you think, if there is a strategy, to distance himself from an unpopular republican congress? or is it more just these people are not my friends so i'm going to attack them? >> it's a little bit of both. there are few -- the media regarded lower than the presidency, the congress is regarded lower than the presidency by the public. i sees that and understands that. there are a lot of republicans like myself. i've been in the party working in elections for 30 years. i think it's time for donald trump to take a senator out. i do. it's time -- he has corey lewandowski at the head of his pack. i've had run-ins with corey. if i were john mccain, i wouldn't want him on my back side. it's time for the president to make sure people -- senators understand that there's something -- there's a price to pay when you go against him.

>> you want him to take out jeff flake? >> john mccain has faced tougher foes than corey lewandowski. >> jeff flake is the one? >> i'm not sure who is it. corey and the pack are thinking about this. the white house is thinking about this. there is no price to pay if you are against the president. we expected him to get respect and command respect from congress. it hasn't happened. it's time to make someone pay a price. >> this is what roger stone has been calling for, have a scalp. >> i didn't expect it to blow you away. >> what does this mean? it means that if he doesn't get the wall, then he's going to blame someone else. if he doesn't get infrastructure, he will blame someone else. if he doesn't get tax reform, he will blame someone else. he can blame it on congress because of all things he can't be seen as a failure. he is going to shift the blame. what happens? if mueller does decide to recommend impeachment or some kind of charges to congress? what happens then? he will have alienated this entire body. it's a terrible strategy.

>> frankly, i hope he continues toi doing it. i hopes it gives the republicans to stand up for what they believe, not for what donald trump believes. you have spoken a lot. republicans need to figure out that this guy doesn't have their back. their duty is to this country, to the voters. it's not to this president who will throw them under a train, campaign against them, advertise against them, who will tweet against them, do everything he has to which is a heck of an attitude to have when you have a two seat majority in the senate. >> the governor has a good point. the president now has a unique opportunity that doesn't exist in the legal world. that is to work as jury. i believe he has to enforce his views and put somebody under the microscope who has been opposed to him over and over again. these people in house and the senate are his jury, if this moves toward some kind of crazy, ridiculous impeachment.

they need to go on a charm offensive. the president, if you know him, you understand that when he sits down with you in his office, he can be very charming. it's time for him to start looking at the people and talking to people in the congress just in case this thing gets too crazy. this is a unique opportunity. you can't work the jury in this world. >> that's interesting. >> it's self-defeating for the president and for the party that he is supposed to be part of. it illustrates a pattern of his, which is to not understand what the person on the other side of the table might need. he comes to the table -- he is supposed to be the great deal maker. this is what i need, so take a hike or give me what i want. there are republican senators who have different needs from their constituents and different things they're dealing with than his mere demands. >> that's not true. >> he doesn't care about them. >> i think you are right. >> he cares about one thing, himself. he doesn't care about the forgotten american. he cares about himself. >> every time you say something like that, every time you

ridicule the president or popular culture, you move supporters closer and closer. you are not doing yourself or the party any favors. >> trump supporters move closer to him, they would become him. >> he has not produced for them. he has not gotten congress to do nafta reform. he hasn't produced for them is what i'm saying. >> why did the senate not go out and sign so the president couldn't get through appointments to important positions? who was in charge? the republicans. why did that happen? they're not working with donald trump. why should he work with them? >> that didn't happen because they were afraid he was going to somehow if a natiget rid of bob. they knew they were going to have a disaster. here is the thing. you are either with trump or you are not a republican if you are in the -- >> that's not true. >> people think that john mccain is not fit to be a republican. the guy who was our nominee and a national hero.

you can go on and on. it would be nice if one day maybe he attacked putin instead of attacking a republican. >> earlier today, secretary of state tillerson was asked if president trump's behavior and comments make it tougher to sell american values around the world. tillerson's response was the president speaki ins for hmimse which is an interesting comment for a secretary of state to make about a u.s. president. >> he makes it tough to ally with him, if you are not a supporter. he does the charm offensive for his core supporters. he does not do it for the guys on the hill. i think it would help. i don't know he is willing to do that. >> great panel. thank you one and all. we appreciate it. a lot of heavy news this morning on a lighter note, do you want to live like a president? now you can. details in this week's state of the cartoonion coming up next. d. communication. that's why a cutting edge university counts on centurylink to keep their global campus connected.

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act® strengthens enamel, protects teeth from harmful acids, and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. a little breather for you. it might not be as prestigious as the white house or trump tower, but you can have the unique opportunity to live like president trump. it's a subject of this week's state of the cartoonion. >> looking for a summer getaway. >> i don't go too much with vacations because i'm bored. >> how about renting his childhood home in queens? >> i grew up in queens. >> for a cool $725 per night, you can stay in the house where the president was born. >> i hate to admit it. 1946, oh, wow. that's when i was born. >> according to the listing, the property has opulent furnishings to represent the style and affluence of the trumps. >> great taste.

>> they added a sign at the bedroom in which the president was, quote, likely conceived. the house fits 20 people and has a simple decor. pictures of the trump family throughout. >> by the way, i love the pictures. >> including a lifestyle cutout of the president in the living room which the listing says is, quote, a great companion for watching the news late into the night. >> the largest audience in the history of cable television. >> yes, of course, cable is included. thanks for spending sunday morning with us. i'm jake tapper in washington. cnn's coverage of the affects of harvey continues next. thanks for watching. this is cnn breaking news. >> grateful to have your company here. the coast guard is warning people stranded by this catastrophic flooding in houston we have been watching all morning, warning them to get to higher ground. >> look at how much water is in

this area, waist high, shoulder high. tropical storm harvey is drenching the city. the flooding just catastrophic. some people are standing at gas stations. the only way they can get to anyone trapped is if they climb to the rooftops, wave sheets and flags, anything to get their attention. they want them to stay put. >> do not get out onto the road. make a plan where you can elevate in your own home or find a place of safety. >> i want to let you know what we know right now. take a look at this. a dog being rescued. the fema administrator is warning his agency will be there for years. not weeks, not months, but for years helping the state recover. so far, 250,000 people don't have power across the state. more than 1,800 are in shelters. >> despite the governor's call

for people to stay put all morning people have been walking in the water. live from our affiliate, a woman carrying a box or bag there of her belongings. you see behind her just a steady stream of people walking through this water with rafts or boats, whatever they can find. it's wasist high in some areas. people up to their hips. people trying to get to higher ground. because this water is moving so quickly. some areas falling up to six inches per hour. it's expected to go on for days. to our affiliate ktrk, one family has two children who are in need of medication. watch this. >> her name is ashley. she has two kids and her family is there. they are on insulin pumps. they are 9 and 11. >> they are in the house? >> 9 and 11. >> how far did you walk to get

here for help? >> originally we came to get bulldogs. we got turned around. we saw this lady. she told us her situation. we tried to flag down help. >> we have come from -- >> they won't stop. >> we have been out here since 4:00. >> you have been walking from scarsdale. >> no boats or cars tried stopping or nothing. nobody stopped. we yelled. >> we have boats over here. as long as they can get to the lady. >> how far away is she? we can see how the water is. >> she's down there. >> she's on -- it's eight streets down. if you are coming from hughes, it's five yellow street lamps. >> have you talked to her? how is she doing? is she terrified? >> she seems calm, actually. she's got what i think is her husband and parents in there. the babies are asleep. they went to sleep around 3:00. >> the water is in their house? >> not all the way. to the doorstep.

>> president trump is responding via twitter. moments ago he says, i will be going to texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. the focus must be life and safety. the president is going to be briefed at camp david shortly. the mayor of houston is holding a news conference. >> we have video in from rockport. businessowners, a mattress and bed company, they come out and they proclaim that they will respond, they will recover. waving the texas flag here. in a moment, another person comes out with the american flag and hangs it there outside of that business. >> there is resilience, no doubt about it. that's what will get people through. i want to get back to rosa flores in houston. she has live pictures for us. we understand the coast guard is working. more than 300 search and rescue requests in the area right now?

>> you know, houston is getting pummelled by water right now. take a look behind me. this is the area where we were doing live shots with you guys earlier this morning. we were actually live at that intersection where you see that traffic light. now it is completely sub merged in water. that railing that you see next to the spaghetti warehouse building, that's where we were standing. that's where our vehicles were parked earlier this morning. here is the other concern right now. if we pan over to our right, you can see that the building appears to be buckling. we have been monitoring that crack as we have been here this morning. you can see that it is widening. we have been seeing that this morning. there appears to be a fish a few feet from where i'm at. this is the story right here. the fact that there is so much water accumulated in these bayous that meander through houston. they are overcome by water. it's testing the infrastructure.

it's testing everything around these bayous. yesterday we were doing live shots at the bottom of these trees. now all i'm able to show you are the treetops. that's how much water has accumulated in about 24 hours. you can see that what used to be a parging l ingparking lot is n river. what used to be a bayou, you can't see it anymore. all you see are treetops. ramps to the interstate are no longer there. just the signs. it has been overwhelming the amount of rain that has accumulated in 24 hours. you can see that it is still coming down at this hour. it has not stopped. a quick note about evacuations. >> hold on for a second. let me jump in for a second. we want to come back to you. we want to get to someone who is actually inside their home, jay

reese. he lives in houston. a former fe ma fema disaster re worker. let us know what's happening. >> caller: the water has receded a little. when i woke up this morning, there was two inches in the water. that has since receded back out. as rosa mentioned, the sky has opened up again. it's a matter of minutes before the water is back in the house. and flooding. right now, it's a bit ner nerve-wracki nerve-wracking. don't know what to do yet if we're -- i'm trying to make an escape here or try to hang tight. i'm trying to keep my spirits up and monitoring the weather and getting updates from friends. >> as a former fema operations manager, jay, how confident are you that you are going to get a response? do you need help right now? do you feel like you can manage

this? >> caller: i think for now i can manage it. my operations with fema, we did disaster recovery cleanup. after the president assesses what monies are going to be distributed into the cleanup, fema would hire subcontractors to clean up all the left behind vegetation or refrigerators and stuff. that's what i managed. as far as first responders, i'm confident we will be well taken care of. hoping this won't be a repeat of katrina or the like. i have my spirits up. >> since you were with cleanup, i want to ask you, we know that flooding and water are just evil to homes when we talk about the possibility of what's left over, of mold that can accumulate. do you anticipate that most of these homes will have to be levelled all together? >> i wouldn't know about levelled. in my area, i live just outside

the galeria. the sheetrock will need to be replaced here. as far as leveling, i couldn't say for sure. we will know the extent when this is all said and done. it's a possibility. i wouldn't rule it out. >> jay reese there, we appreciate your help. hope that you can indeed manage things where you are and that your home will be okay. >> we had to interrupt rosa flores. we can't go back to her because the water is moving so quickly and rising so quickly where she is, she has to relocate. we will take a quick break and get her back at least on the phone, hopefully in front of the camera. stay with us, more coverage of tropical storm harvey and the flooding in houston in a moment. is this a phone?

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coming into us from the area. looks like some people had been on rafts. they're trying to cover up as best they can. there are umbrellas. they have their raincoats on. but they finally it looks like got to dry enough land where they can put the feet down and hopefully get to someplace else. look at the sweet woman. someone will help her up. she's going to get help finally. you know what? these people are resilient and they're tough. that is not an easy trip to make. >> this coming from kprc. this man in the foreground is on a walker. you have to remember the most vulnerable among us need special help right now. we have talked this morning about wind speed and measured this in inches and hours. but this is about people. people who need help right now. we see that at least these people have gathered and it looks like they're starting to

get some of the help at least that's our hope. let's go 200 miles down the coast to rockport that suffered the worst of the wind. we saw this a few moments ago. our nick valencia now has the man who mounted that flag. nick, tell us what's happening there. >> reporter: wasn't that a beautiful moment to watch? the most tender moment that we have seen in the middle of all of this ugliness. we're watching it here. my cameraman and i, we started to tear up. take us through that. you are coming back to your girlfriend's business for the first time. >> well, it was quite disastrous to see your town in ruins. you gotta pick up the pieces. i thought the first thing i could do is put up the flag. >> reporter: a symbol of hope? >> hope. for everybody to see. >> reporter: we saw it. we felt it. thank you very much. >> it felt good to me. >> reporter: you also rode out the storm. did you ride it out together?

>> no. >> that's a lot of people. me and my buddy over here, we figured there would be a lot of damage. he wanted to come down here. we couldn't come down because of all the telephone poles were down across the highway. we couldn't get out. we went out there trying to get out of the way with a backhoe and all that. you can only do so much work. >> reporter: there's a lot of work to be done here. when you look at the main drag and you see that telephone pole bent, mattressed everywhere. >> i don't see it yet. i still see the beautiful town it was. >> reporter: the pain in your eyes. >> this was our beautiful town. it has been destroyed. all of it.

>> reporter: can you describe the place to us? a lot of people are learning about this community for the first time. >> i've always loved rockport. >> we're having some audio problems. i'm sure you heard the mike go in and out there. wind and water are not friends of technology, especially in situations like this. you got the gist there, a symbol of hope there in the town of rockport that will have a lot of rebuilding to do. >> stay close. we will be back in a moment. s'cuse me. 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.

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good morning. let me give you an update as to where we are. i don't think i need to tell anyone at this point that this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm. this is pretty much like the second day. we anticipate that there will be several of the days there may be a lull for a little bit sometime this morning, early noon -- afternoon. then we're expecting more rain later on. let me just say that up to this point, public works has indicated to me that there have

been 60 barricaded locations. there have been numerous reports of highway flooding. most major thoroughfares are unpassable. between hpd and the houston fire department, we have received more than 2,000 calls for rescue on 911. i know people are trying to reach 911. may not be getting a response. i understand that. the system, there are a lot of people calling. let me ask for -- let's give preference to the life-threatening calls. if you are stranded in your vehicle but you are in a safe place or a dry place, give preference to those who are in a situation at their home where water is rising very quickly and they need our assistance, a

life-threatening call. give preference to that. i understand people are calling 911. it's working. i would ask for you to continue to call, continue to call. and we are manning a 911, especially from this particular location. it has been a lot of calls have come in. as of 6:00 a.m. this morning, two apartment evacuations remain in progress in the greens point area, 802 seminar and 400 greens road. metro has taken them to the red cross shelter. right now, there are 197. it has capacity for 500. we will be opening the chinese community center. the one issue we had is that it was very difficult to access the chinese community center. we're working through those difficulties. we do intend to open the chinese community center today. that will hold about 200 individuals. i have directed my people, the

directors of general services, to open up several of the local multi-service centers. this is why we are doing it. the roads are impassable. some of the neighborhood multi-service center people may be able to walk to. okay? they may be able to drive to. we're going to -- i'm asking and i've authorized them for those that are not flooded to open up the local multi-service center and in some cases some of the local libraries. again, this is the intended to be like -- what do you call it? a lily pad as a safe haven for people who are in the neighborhoods, water is rising, abandon their homes. they are very much concerned and they just need a safe place to be. okay? it doesn't matter whether there is food or not. i want the facilities open. so people can walk to access them. especially sensitive to senior

citizens, people who are disabled, low income individuals. we will do that. i have authorized for the jar jar brown to be opened up as a shelter. it's opening up as of today. for example, people who -- their homes have taken in water, they need a place to be, can access or get there. some clayton homes and irvington, villain, thag village, they are taking on water. we are sending buses to them. we will have them transported. it will be open to anyone who needs shelter. the red cross is joining with us in that effort. with regard to fatalities, it appears at this time a woman drove into high water at warrentown and south gesner in

southwest houston and drowned trying to escape. she was discovered by residents about 9:15 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene. we are awaiting the official medical ruling on the cause of death. i talked to you about the shelters. there will be more shelters that will be opening as we go through this situation. we anticipate, again, this is just day two. we anticipate day three, day four. the number of shelters will dramatically increase. the bus service for metro has been suspended. metro is working with us to help transport people from either their homes or from the multi-service centers or from the libraries. either to the shelters at the chun he community center. center point is telling us in the -- in this area, 98% of the customers have power as of 2:00 a.m.

with regard to resources -- let me tell you, the flooding has occurred all over. so we have reached out. regards the city of houston, we're operating with 39 dump trucks, high water vehicles. this is from -- who is this from? four from -- 11 boats. then the texas task force one has already provided an additional 20 high water vehicles. those vehicles have already been deployed. for example, ten of them have been deployed at i-45 and edgebrook. five have been deployed at station 34, that's off -- in the lower copy northeast area. five have been deployed at station 21, which is off of

south main. that's 20 that have come, been deployed, high water rescue vehicles. we're expecting at least another -- five additional ones from the texas military force. we're expecting an additional 40 boats to be coming in today to assist and to help reach as many people as we can in an expeditious fashion. we're expecting another ten today to come in from tex-stop. we are augmenting. rescue, that's what we hear a lot of. we are increasing our assets. i appreciate the state and others for providing additional resources to us. let me just say this. if water is in your home, let me encourage you not to go up into the attic. let me encourage you not to do that. do not go into the attic unless you know there's an exit out.

that's just not -- that's not a recommended course of action. don't do that. what happened last night -- i was out there and saw quite a number of vehicles that were on the road. again, let me remind people between now until this storm has clearly passed, please, do not get on the road. do not get on the road. even if there's a lull today, don't assume the storm is over. the lesson we should have learned from yesterday, rain that morning, it stopped for several hours, it started again just before evening time. we had more rain last night from 7:30 all the way up than we had during first part of the day. it became very difficult to get out there to try to rescue people. so a lot of people were calling because they got stranded. the best way to keep from