we're lye in the cnn newsroom. thanks for being with us. it is a storm for the record books. harvey living up to all of the fears and the predictions by bringing catastrophic flooding to parts of texas, including the nation's fourth largest city. around 3,000 national guard members have been activated as water fills home and streets. some families desperate to get to higher ground for forced to use axes to chop their way out of their attics and on to the roofs of their homes. pets are being carried in coolers as people with forced to wade through waist high water trying to get to safety. the two major airports are closed, every single highway in the state is under water and it's only going to get worse saying that the breadth and intensity of the rainfall is beyond anything ever experienced before. cnn was there when an a dramatic

rescue took place in dickinson. we're live. ed, what is the latest that you're seeing? actually we're going to show you the video of the moment when it happened. >> try to get them in the boat so we can get them out of here. i'm going to put the mike phone down while we help them get into the boat. how are you doing sir? might be better to get in on that side there. let me see if i can get something for you to -- >> you want to give me your hand, sir and i can try to pull you up. how are your arms feeling? >> okay. >> jason, you want to come up here and help? >> i can help lift you if that's okay. you ready?

one, two, three. >> got it? >> yeah. get that foot in there. it's not too bad. >> just sit wherever you feel like, you know, is the most comfortable for you. >> just sit right there on the edge and we'll take care of you. >> are we taking on water? >> it's all of the rain we had earlier today and i never bailed it out. it's not a problem, though. >> you doing all right? >> yeah, i think so. >> long day? >> yeah. hey, we've got this gentleman's wife and their daughter that

still need to be pulled out of here, so austin and seth, the volunteer -- >> i want to bring in ed now live for us. ed, you're off of the boat. what is the latest? what has happened sense that moment that you brought us that rescue live here on cnn? >> reporter: well we're out here on interstate 45 now. pam jones and their mother being treated now. they're waiting for a vehicle that can drive them off and get them to safer ground. we're out of the neighborhood. she's finally being treated here. so everything is going to work out just fine. but to give you a sense, the rescues continue. it just isn't the boat that we were on. there are hundreds of volunteers fanning out in this one particular area of dickinson, texas, south of downtown houston. the city of houston. i think we're 25, 30 miles ousoh

of houston. this entertain has essentially become a boat launch fb volunteer rescuers taking flat boats out into the neighborhoods with f , fanning out into the neighborhoods and rescuing people. this is austin seth who was manning the boat. heck of a day for you? >> it was definitely an interesting one. wasn't what i was planning on doing when i woke up this morning. >> reporter: you pulled about 15 people probably total out of these neighborhoods today. >> i think that's what it ended. being, about 15. >> reporter: your emotions after finishing up a day like that? >> there's not words like this. seeing it is sad but i can't imagine living it. it's unreal. >> reporter: many people are grateful to people like austin seth who lives an hour away, came down here, brought his boat and pulled people out. this has been going on throughout most of the day. kind of a little bit of a race

against the clock because as you might remember from pam jones, the woman we were in her house, she was worried that many boats were passing by and she wasn't going to get on a boat before nightfall and having to spend the night in the house. oddly enough, that neighborhood actually had some power. they actually had some air conditioning. as devastated as that neighborhood looking, oddly somehow the power stayed on perhaps making it slightly more comfortable for them while they waited. the good news is pam jones, who you see standing there, her mother and father out of the neighborhood. they'll be loaded on to a bus or some other vehicle to take them -- i think they were trying to get so some relatives' homes tonight. the work continues to intensify here in houston. >> one part of their journey has a happy ending but really it's just beginning for a lot of the people there. thank you. moments ago, president trump tweeted about the storm recovery

saying quote, historic rainfall in houston, all over texas floods are unprecedented and more rain coming. spirit of the people. is incredible. thanks. brian todd is in houston. she's joining us now. you're with more rescues under way. >> reporter: that's right. we hitched a ride with two of the private rescuers. we've been pulling people out of the omni hotel. this is the entrance of the lobby. you're witnessing a rescue life. they're pulling people out of the omni hotel. look at how deep the water is. here's a group of people being pulled onto the boat right now. this is brian meadows, one of rescuers. his partner is here hole. ing people get onto the boat. maybe we can talk to them. we've been at the staging area where they've launched these boats for the last hour and a half, two hours. and there have been several people pulled out and taken to

those areas and shuttled to safety in other hotels. these people elected to come. we're tolds that some people are electing to stay at the omni hotel even though the water, as you can see, is past people's knees. and it's -- we're told that it's rising. you can see in the lobby, i can see a staircase with the water going up the staircase a little bit. the water is rising. we're getting a break in the rainfall right now. it has not rained for at least 45 minutes. and so but they continue to pull people out. we're told that between 60 and 80 people were stranded inside here. the hotel staff has kept everyone calm. they said the people can stay for as long as they want. ma'am, hi, can you tell us what your name is, please? >> marion washington. >> reporter: describe what the conditions are like. >> they're bad. the whole lobby is flooded. but we're associates. >> reporter: you work here?

>> yes. >> reporter: what's the hotel doing to, i guess, make people comfortable. and some people are actually staying, correct? >> i'm not sure. all i know is they're trying to make us comfortable. they're taking us to the hotel. >> reporter: good luck. seth roberts is here, one of the rescue rescuers. tell me some of the logistical problems you're running into. >> there's water in some places and there's not water in other places. it makes it a little tricky. we've got a lot of calls coming in on facebook right now. we're trying to get to people and trying to get everybody out of here safely so that we can get other people that are families and kids and elder folks that need to get out of the house. so we're just doing our best to get everybody safe right now. >> reporter: seth, thanks for talking to us. i know he's got to do his work and climb back into the boat. we're told about 60 to 80 people have been stranded in here. and seth told me a minute ago

that they want to get as many people out of here as they can because there are other people in residential areas behind this hotel who need rescuing from their homes. of course it's been a recurrent theme all day here in houston. people needing to be pulled out of their homes. officials telling them don't go to your attics. get to your roof top. if you have to go to the attic, bring an ax or another heavy piece of equipment to punch a hole through. that's how dramatic it is here. there are some other boats that have come to pull some others out of here. >> brian todd in houston during more rescues taking place at this hour. thank you. joining u now, the texas governor, greg abbott. thank you so much for taking a moment to be with us. seeing those rescues taking place, you must be proud of the citizens of your state right now. >> texans are the best. i am so proud of my fellow texans and the way they're

responding. thankful for the first responders and the terrific work they're doing. we're working to aid them by deploying 3,000 national guard members as well as providing about 200 or so boats and helicopters for emergency rescues. but it's these first responders who are making life and death decisions, who helping so many people live. i'm so proud of them and what they're doing. i want our fellow texans to know we'll continue to effort until we get to every single person. >> downtown houston is obviously under water. people are having to use axes to chop their way out of the attics onto their roofs. i'm not sure if you saw some of the people rescued live here on our air. i'm wondering why there wasn't a mandatory evacuation issued for the houston area. can you tell us about that? >> well, of course those decisions are made at the local level by law here in texas. but listen, now is not the tame

to do any second-guessing. now is the time for all of us to come together and work to save lives. this is a matter of moments and we need to use every moment we have to rescue innocent lives, to get them to a safe place and then to begin the rebuilding process. >> e with eve seen private citizens using boats to rescue people. do you think there were enough resources in place ahead of the storm? >> well, again, those are decisions made at the local level. we have a raid put together, about 250 boats, and sent them to houston, texas to make sure they will have all of the boats that they should be able to need. it's great when we see so many texans -- this is really typical of what we see of our fellow neighbors. they're going to come out and help others. so many people in texas, they're not going to wait for some government official to come by. they're going to take matters into their own hands and do what they can to help their neighbor. >> do you know how many people

have within rbeen rescued today within the last 24 hours? >> i have not seen a count but it is 0 ur canning by the minute. i want you to know and i want hugh stone i houstonians know we're going to continue this around the clock. >> do you know how many people have died? the last number we had were at least two people confirmed dead due to the storm. >> there are reports of people who have died but we don't know if it's as a result of the storm. we need to wait for confirmation of that. we want to safe all of those that need to be rescued. >> what do you say to somebody who may be trapped in their home right now watching the water level inside their home slowly kri croup creep up? >> they need to get higher in

the house, part of it could mean signaling outside so that rescuers will know that they're in there. there will be different types of rescuers constantly working, some by boat, some in the air, some trying any way they can to get to every home. and so if you're inside a home, try to make it visual on the outside to let someone know that you are in there. >> we're hearing from meteorologists there could be an additional 20, 25, 30 inches of rain that falls in this area that's already flooded out. what's happening right now in terms of coordinating with the emergency responders in your state to prepare for the additional rainfall that's still coming? >> right. we have the state emergency responders kooshd nating with the county and local emergency responders. and understand withe only part this involves houston. a lot of the rain is falling in more rural areas where there's still a whole lot of population

that we're involved in trying to protect and save. this is a really massive effort responding to a massive storm. >> and do you feel prepared? >> we have so many assets that we're able to provide to this. and because we've gotten the approval of the presidential declaration, we now have this work and aid of fema in this process. so we're going to be adding more personnel and assets on top of the 3,000 national guard there will be many more coming in to aid in this process. >> governor greg abbott, thank you again for spending time with us. best of luck to you and your state. >> thank you so much. >> i want to go now to a press conference being held by the mayor of houston. let's listen. >> let me talk about the assets that we're working with. there are 22 aircrafts that are

working with us in terms of identifying people who are stranded maybe on their roofs. 16 of the 22 are from the coast guard. they have been flying about. and in many cases actually taking people off of the root, taking them to some other location. certainly want to thank the coast guard for its work. the fema task team force is now on the ground as of today. fema has 16 assisting in search and rescue. four of the teams consist of 80 members and two of the teams consist of 60 members. so they are assisting. with regards to additional assets, we're operating with 35 boats, high water rescue boats and then 93 dump trucks, high water rescues. 49 of the 39 came in today. 20 from the texas military and

then another 29 later on today as well. so we recognize that we have a number of needs exist across the city, across the city, so i'm very grateful to that. and then i certainly want to acknowledge calls and support that we have received from mayors across the country. the dallas mayor, san antonio, columbus, new orleans, baton rouge, boston, los angeles. and i especially want to thank all of the mayors, new york, and then i just got off of the phone with mayor watch out of boston who will be sending, you know, clothes for adults as well as children. he just wants no know what ages are most in need. he's also sending some high

water rescue vehicles as well, as well as cots for those in our shelters. i want to thank all of the other mayors, san antonio, l.a., dallas, all of them have indicated that they will join in and asseist and i certainly appreciate their support on multiple levels. let me call on the chief for comments that he might have. >> thank you, mr. mayor. so again, i want to echo the mayor's sentiment. we really appreciate everybody that's stepping up to help us today and throughout this event that we're trying to manage here at the city. we have, as of right now, we have imagined to cut most of our calls for service holding in half. i think we're down to 400, last check through our cad system and verified 105 calls for water rescue. we're steadily working and whittling away at all of those people, all of you all who have

been calling for our assistance, we have more resources in the field now than we did earlier. as we get more partners join in to help us manage the situation. if you do not have to leave your home, if you do not have to get out on the roadway, please do not do so. call us. we'll be there. we have more boats in the water. we have more high water rescue vehicles now. we've almost doubled our ability to respond and we'll get to you. and again i want to also emphasize, please do not go up in your attics if you're trying to escape water because that could be a trap for you where you may not be able to get out. attics are not the place to retreat to if you're in your home and your home is taking on water. you need to get out where you can be seen and we can respond and find you. as far as our sister cities, we're leaning forward in terms of reaching out and developi ii

mous. our officers are leaning forward, doing a fantastic job. everybody is here, almost every officer is here and accessible and able to go out to do their job and protect the city, even in the face of their own families being home and some of them having the challenges that they're having to imagimanage. but we're out there. we will be leaning on our sister cities for additional help in managing and assuring that the public is safe. that no one is missed and that we are also sure that people's property is safe when they do leave their homes. we'll lean as far forward on that as we can. it's an ongoing project, challenge that we're going to face here. but we have the people committed to do it and we will continue to do so. so thank you. >> and i certainly would be remiss without acknowledging and thanking all of our first

responders, houston police officers, houston fire department who have been out on the front line and have just done a yeoman's job. they've demonstrated their commitment and love for the city. they've been out there in the water. i certainly want to thank them as well. chief with the fire department. >> thank you were mayor. i want to first thank certainly the office of emergency management for really the hospitality they provide us for the last three days here and will continue to host us for the foreseeable future here as we're still not out of the woods. we expect heavy downpours at certain times. so we want to encourage the public to please be mindful that standing water is extremely dangerous. it's extremely dangerous. you can't tell what you're stepping into. so please, if you don't have to be in the streets, don't be out in the streets.

and please, please don't drive. the houston fire department has been working tirelessly, as has the houston police department to try to effect rescues and keep the public straight. we're working to switch personnel, keep them fresh. keep their head in the same, so to speak, and keep their situational awareness where it should be. we're going to work with our partners. we do have state assets now in place. we are more efficiently being able to affect the rescues and the demand for service here in the city of houston and we're going to continue to really provide a presence out there and ensure that we're doing the right thing for this community. thank you. >> thank you, chief. dennis, the rescues of homeland security, we've been housed here for the next several days and we'll be housed here for several days to come.

dennis. >> thank you, mayor. so the city's emergency operation center is operating at a level 1 which essentially means that all city departments are represented here, along with our partners both at the state and federal level. we've got resources from all of these different agencies. it's unbelievable about the cooperation that's going on among the vary agencies. the bottom line is we're not out of the woods yet. we saw the weather deteriorate a little bit yesterday. and so i think we'll see us here for several more days probably as we continue to work with our partners and more assistance comes in from other departments. so a big thank you to all of our partner agencies both at the federal, state and local level. we'll continue to work with thing. thank you. >> thanks, dennis.

leadership to the mayor's homeless programs, homeless initiatives. >> working with the coalition for the homeless we have been coordinating with our agencies that have been working with the homeless outreach teams and shelters. the majority of the homeless are off of the streets and are in area shelters. we' we've worked closely with store hope as well as salvation army who have around 500 more homeless individuals than normal in their shelters. homeless individuals have been going to their regular shelters, including the george r. brown. four days ago the sheriff's department homeless outreach team and outreach teams from partner agencies have been working to get the home sbools she -- homeless into shelters. they've done a great job. the vast majority are off of the streets. our first responders are still

working with some to convince them to come off of the zreestr. our thoughts are with the entire houston community. >> we have a number of partners working with the city. i certainly want to thank all of them. i do want to highlight the red kos cross. they have been very supportive. three phases, the prepreparation to the storm, the second is what are we doing during the storm and the third will be the aftermalafte aftermath. i want to thank red cross for stepping in early, even in the prepreparation phase. we had identified two shelters, one that we can remember from the last major storm in april of last year, we know what happened when the waters came in and the apartment complexes were flooded and all of the panned modemoniu occurred.

we're able to caulk to them before the deluge of water came in and that was a pretty good transition. i want to thank the red cross for their participation. and second i want to thank the members of the sait-based community, prior to the rainfall. more than 25 churches for stepping up making their facilities, indicating that they would make their facilities available. i want to thank the members of the faith-based community. and people of the business community and other nonprofits for being supportive. this is not a one-two-three day deal. even when the storm is no longer a storm, we know that the aftermath is going to require a lot of attention, a lot of focus to get people back into a sense of normalcy. but i do want to thank everyone for just working with us and i want to thank his tooustonians doing their part helping us get through this.

having said that we'll take whatever questions you may have. >> reporter: you commenteds just then on the community and what all they've done. consider the likely event in advance -- [ inaudible ] >> absolutely not. you know, county judge emmett and i have talked and we both wholeheartedly agree. the best course of action for the people in the city of houston and for harris county were for people to stay in place. number one, in you can recall, there was a lot of conversation about the direction in which hurricane harvey was going to go. no one knew which direction it was going to go. it's difficult to send people away from danger when you don't know where the danger is. number two, to try to put forth some sort of evacuation in a couple of days was a little -- i mean the logistics would have been crazy. okay? because if we can remember the last time we evacuated, there was a great deal of confusion, a

great deal of chaos. people literally going to austin on the road 10 to 12 hours, if not longer. there were people that ran out gas on their way. it takes a lot of preparation. you have to have an evacuation plan. and then in the city of houston there are 2.3 million people. when you combine that with harris county you're talking about 6.5 million people. where are they going. and then once they're away from the city of houston, they're away from our assets and our ability to help them. and they're not looeflg teavingy and staying away. at some point in time they are coming back. and when they come back how do you handle that type of a traffic coming back into the city. and when you have many roads that are impassable as they are today, can you imagine the nightmare it would be with millions of people coming back

into the city where many of the communities are under water, streets are not passable. no. the decision that we made was a smart one, it was in the best interest of houstonians. it was the right decision in terms of their safety. and always we must put the interest of the city of houston and houstonians first. that's exactly what we did. absolutely no regrets. we did what was the right thing to do and we are acting according to the plan that we laid out. yes. [ inaudible question ].

>> last year, in april 2016 when we faced the flood, we had a number of people at the campbell center that went quite smoothly and we transitioned them from the shelter and put them into temporary housing and eventually into permanent housing. the reality is that because of the wide spread flooding that has taken place, the last day or so. there are a number of people that don't have a place to go. and many of the people, for example, that went to the george l. brown today, they came today in wet clothes. they don't have a place to go. the stress level for them is great. many people were in homes with water. okay. some of them were senior citizens. some of them have families. some of them have pets.

so this was -- this was part of the plan, to help provide stability and security in their lives, to put them in a better place, albeit temporarily as we transition them and get them back on their feet. and i think, i think in this city we know how to do it in such a way that is not chaotic. but it's respectful. it's dignified. you don't rob them further of what they have lost. but you recognize that at any point in time, when people are in crisis, you do your very best to provide them with some degree of normalcy. that's what's occurring here. and i want to thank all of the partners for being exceptional. these people are part of their family. and what happens when a family member is in need? we wrap our arms around our brothers and sisters and we give them the help that they need.

help put them back on their feet. [ inaudible question ]. >> absolutely. many of the 49 that we're talking about high water rescue vehicles are boats. we had a number that existed in our own inventory, fire has some already, police has some, public works had some, fbi in the area had assets. but the flooding that is taking place is unprecedented. historic. and was all over the city and all over the county, in fact all over the region. and it's not unlike what took place, they're saying 2016, when you may have had one or two areas that needed high water rescue vehicles.

in this particular instance high watt esh rescue vehicles have, needed all over the city and all over the county. and quite frankly we simply did not have enough assets within their existing inventory to meet those immediate demands. i am very thankful that we were able to obtain additional high water vehicles today, and boats today. and then just like mayor wash from boston indicated he's sending additional report as well as others that will be doing the same. [ inaudible question ]. >> look. we asked everybody, you know. if you got a high water vehicle or high water boat, look, we'll be very appreciative and we certainly will thank you. we want to get to those who are

in disstress. those who are on the roofs, those in the attics, in their homes, we want to get to them as quickly as possible. can you imagine the worst thing is to be out of your home on the roof, in the attic, in a house in water. i mean you want out of that situation as quickly as possible. so we want to get to people as quickly as possible. so in order to do that you can have the personnel but they also need to equipment. [ inaudible question ]. >> the goal is to stabilize their lives and to transition them out of the shelters as soon as possible. again, like last year we put them in shelters, for example, on, i want to say like a monday -- no, i think it was like on a friday, they went in

to the shelter on a friday and by that following week we were transitioning them out to either some other form of housing. you don't want to keep people in a shelter too long. many people have their families, they have their pets. so the goal is to provide them with the assistance that they need and to stabilize their situation and to transition them to a better, a better place in their lives as quickly as possible. [ inaudible question ]. >> we've been listening to the houston mayor addressing residents in houston as they face a catastrophic water event. it's now a tropical storm continuing to batter the area with a torrential amount of rain. they've received 24 inches in houston alone and meteorologists are forecasting at least double that before this event is over. he talked about some of the resources they have right now deployed to help make water rescues which have been going on

throughout the day. we know the galveston county alone they've made more than 1200 rescues. they have 22 aircraft, 39 boats and 93 high water rescue vehicles in houston continuing to work and they're urging people to need help to get in a place where rescuers can see them and find them and get to them as quickly as possible. i want to bring in now a tweet from the former president, barack obama who just sent out this message. thank you to all of the first responders and people helping each other out. that's what we do as americans. here's one way you can help now. and he retweeted a link to the american red cross. so many have lost to much already in this storm. for more information on how you can help the victims of harvey, just log on to cnn.com/impact. we'll be right back. knowing where you stand has never been easier.

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waters rise. we have paying churs from an permanent building in houston where the water is flooding the entire first floor right now. and louise walker is joining us, she took these pictures and is still at the apartment. how are you doing? >> caller: we're fine so far. we're out of the water that was in my apartment. we have managed to go upstairs to a neighbor's apartment. >> so what the is situation where you are now? >> caller: where i am now bottom level is waist deep in water. we have helicopters that are flying over us rescuing people. we have people that have -- who are living in these first floor apartments like i have, they have been breaking into empty second level apartments to have somewhere to go because we can't

get out -- we're completely surrounded by water. we can't get out of our apartment complex. no one can come in. we're just stuck here. >> that sounds quite scary. whap's goi what's going through your mind? >> caller: like when does it end. and another thing, it's going to keep pouring down rain until wednesday. what do we do until wednesday? how do we get out of here? and you know, the helicopter and any type of emergency assistance is not coming this way unless we are in immediate danger, like if we're stuck in our vehicle or if we have to climb to the roof. but other than that, then no one is coming. >> what is your plan at this point? >> caller: my only plan at this point is to stay out of the water. i've been keeping in contact with family and friends. but other than that, we can't do anything. it's just like we're literally

stuck here. >> you went up to your neighbor's house on the second floor. were you and that neighbor close before or did you just go up out of the moorj that it was and introduce yourself? walk me through how that happened. >> caller: fortunately for me i do speak with my neighbor and i called her and told her that the water was starting to come into the house and she invited us up there. but there are a lot of people that don't know their neighbors or interact with their neighbors and they're breaking into the empty second story apartments just to get to safety. >> oh my goodness. were you able to take any of your possessions with you when you went upstairs? >> caller: last night the water got to where it was just at the door but not come into the house and they gave me an opportunity then to pack some clothes. but just what i could fit in the

suitcase. just important paperwork. but things like the furniture and your equipment, things like that, you know, they don't, they don't come. you just grab what you can fit. >> i'm so sorry for what you're going through. i understand you recently moved to texas from louisiana and you lived through hurricane katrina. is this taking you back a little bit? >> we just moved here last august. moving from a 2016 flood in baton rouge. and here it is august 2017 and i'm in a whole different state and yet we experience this once again. >> unbelievable. you are so resilient. thank you so much for you time. best of luck to you. >> thank you. >> a massive search and reese cue operation is under way right now in rockport, texas and the surrounding county. we have some drone video to show

you some of the damage from hurricane harvey that took a direct hit in that area. about 400 people are now searching homes for any sign of life in a coastal community that took a devastating hit. to add insult to injury, rockport has also had tornado warnings, torrential downpours and flooding. martin savage is joining us now from rockport. i understand the water has receded from that area, martin, but what's left behind? >> reporter: what's left behind is a massive mess of devastation. we're just sort of walking along here as you look at one store front and you get a sense that this is going to be multiplied block after block and street after street. so the store fronts here completely caved in. the billing that makes up the entire strip mall is demolished. it's not going to be rebuilt. you'd have to start all over. store fronts, glass doors all

pushed in. the roof completely ripped off. all of this an indication of what a category 4 hurricane can and will do, especially with the incredibly strong winds. some say the winds got up to 130, maybe 140 miles an hour. we also got some pictures from in some of the residential areas. i don't know if you can show that. it is not just businesses that have been severely impacted here. it is also people's homes. and the amazing thing is, there again, street after treat and block after black the houses -- and these are brick and mortar houses have been pulverized. and then there are the apartment complexes. and after the apartment complexes you run into things like the hotels. so this is an entire town that has been just devastated by the result of this category 4 hurricane. so as they deal with the tremendous water that they're fighting with there in houston, here they've got a total different thing. there's no electricity, no water

that you can either drink for sewage. communications, cell phone, all of that is almost nonexistent. the infrastructure has been wiped out. and there's no place to go that you cannot see it. we struggled to give you the sense of scale to all of this. you just can't. it goes on and on and on and on. and they're trying to go through all of this debris to see if there are survivors or if there are any more fatalities but they're up against so much. this is such an ironic scene. you come into this bookstore and the books are all on the shelves here despite the mayhem and yet of course there's absolutely no roof left here of this place chb. >> wow. >> >> reporter: it's just one example. one more thing before we believe here, across the street. these are the first responders. they've been pouring in. you've got the state police here, the national guard that's here.

you've got the task one emergency search and rescue teams that are here. heavy earth moving equipment is in here to scleclear the street. you've got buses taking people away because essentially the mayor and everyone else has said this community is not livable at this point. so if you rode it out, you got to get out now because you can't exist without electricity and clean water. otherwise, if you are out of town, don't come back. we're weeks way way from electricity here. >> martin savage in rockport, texas. thank you. as we go to break real quick, i want to show you some pictures of a flooding rescue that just happened in houston. a helicopter at work in the flood zone. we're back in just a moment. it's ok that everybody ignores me when i drive. it's fine. because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months i'm accident free. because i don't use my cellphone when i'm driving. even though my family does, and leaves me all alone. here's something else... i don't share it with mom. i don't. right, mom?

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and helps prevent cavities. go beyond brushing with act®. it wasn't just water that swept into this texas home. a man was able to catch a fish in the middle of what appears to be his living room. and by the time this storm is done, parts of texas could see up to 50 inches of rain. i want to go to our tom sader monitoring tropical storm harvey in the cnn weather center, you have called this a one in a thousand year flooding event. what are your models telling you? >> let's explain that. i'm sure many people are like how do you know that? what happened 1,000 years ago. a one in 400 year event, we've had this in the past couple of years. it does not mean that the next time we'll be in 1,000 years. it's a percentage of the chance on any given day or days that this amount of rain could fall.

we've never seen a system really recent american history that has been so challenging, but yet when you look to the computer models, so accurate. it is something something. in fact, even tracking storms around the world and typhoons, we've never seen one without a steering current that has just been me yandering for days. this is still a tropical storm. it's feeding off the rainfall it's dropped on land. when you look at the bands of rain in houston, there was another band getting ready to move through in about an hour half, two hours, already the rain and severe weather with a few tornado warnings coming out of lake charles, louisiana. they've issued 12 warnings. the houston office issued 132

tornado warnings and that watch is still in effect. these feeder bands continue to feed the storm. really what's next is pretty important. because it's still a tropical storm as it moves over the water on monday afternoon, it's like a refueling stop. it's going to start to feed on this warm water. secondary land fall, good agreement, they all bring in offshore. by thunderstorm morning, it's going to be close to where it made land fall. they slide to the north, and we concur coming back over galveston and houston. this will double the amount of rain that has already fallen in this area. can you imagine? some areas just to the south, 30 inches now. could we double that? if it stays on the eastern track, it could strengthen even more longer time in the water than move up into louisiana. this is still most likely in the state of texas come late thursday into friday.

now the ten inch plus extends north and east. that means for emergency services and getting aid, they have now have got to expand their coverage and their calls for help have been still coming in. the other day, ana, i was on with jake tapper and we were talking about images of katrina and we were talking about the fears of getting thousands of 911 calls. now they have received 56,000911 calls for assistance. really quickly for you, we've got a tropical storm developing off the coast of jacksonville, warnings, and watches getting ready to go into effect on the coast. it's name will be every ma. let's concentrate on this one. >> unbelievable. thank you so much. our coverage of tropical storm harvey continues in just a moment.

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top of the hour, 7:00 in houston, texas. you are live in the cnn newsroom. we have breaking news coverage of the catastrophic floods in texas which continue at this hour. darkness is about to fall across the disaster zone and the sobering message, the worst is yet to come. residents in and around houston, the nation's fourth largest city are bracing for more rain tonight and throughout the week. we have been bringing you emotional rescues, people from the very young to the elderly being saved as deadly flood waters keep rising inside their homes forcing many to their roof. flood waters are swallowing entire neighborhoods, highways, even interstates. texas governor greg abbot has activated 3,000 military personnel. emergency crews being dispatched by land, water, and air, when asked how many have been rescued

since this emergency began, one official said it's impossible to know because they've been happening so fast. we know there were at least 1,000 overnight in galveston county reports up to 1,200 so far. authorities confirm at least two people have been killed in this storm. sylvester turner defending the decision not to order mandatory evacuations. >> the decision that we made was a smart one, it was in the best interest of houstonians. and it, it was the right decision in terms of their safety. and always in the city of houston and houstonians first. that's exactly what we did. it was the right thing to do. and we are going to act according to the plan that we have laid out. >> we have reporters covering every single of this fast-moving

story of houston dwikenson, to the cnn weather center, i want to go brian todd who is in houston where rescues continue. brian, i know you have been volunteers, you have been talking with those who are being rescued. what stories are you hearing and seeing? >> we're hearing stories of resilience, of bravery on both the people being rescued and doing the rescuing. incredible heroism and it's all being done on the corner of post oak lane about six miles west of downtown houston. take you down here with eddie gross. you can see over here it's about chest high over here, and all the way back to the hotel. what's been going on here, ana, they've staged boat rescues about 60 to 80 people who will stranded at the hotel. that's the white building there in the distance. here comes someone on a wave runner who may be getting rescued there. there's another boat coming in

here to stage. here are some boats over here. this has been going on for hours. they've been shuttling back and forth from the hotel. we went on one rescue just a short time ago right to the lobby of the omni hotel where the water was -- basically to people's thighs and pulling people out. here's a snippet of what we saw a short time ago tonight. take a look at this. this is the entrance to the lobby and you're witnessing a rescue live. we went over here by bolts. look at how deep the water is, it's to people's thighs and here is a group of people going on to the boat right now. this is brian meadows. his partner seth roberts is here in the green shirt. they're helping people on to the boat. we'll talk to them. we've been at the staging area where we've launched these boats for the last hour and a half and two hours.

these people elected to come. we are told that some people are electing and staying at the omni hotel. even though the water as you can see is to people's -- basically passed people's knees, and we're told it's rising. you can see in the lobby there, i can see a staircase where the water's going up the staircase a little bit where the water is rising. we are getting a bit of a break in the rainfall right now. it has not rained for i'd say at least 45 minutes. and so -- but they continue to pull people out. we're told that between 60 and 780 people were stranded inside here. the hotel staff has kept everyone calm. they said the people can stay for as long as they want. again, some people have elected to stay, some have not. ma'am, hi, what's your name. >> mary-ann washington. >> mary-ann, describe what the conditions are like in there. >> they're bad. they're bad. whole lobby is flooded.

but we're associated. >> reporter: you work here? >> yes. >> reporter: what's the hotel doing to make people comfortable and some people are actually staying, correct. >> i'm not sure. they're trying to make us comfortable. rescuing us and taking us and blocked. one of the rescuers, some of the problems you're running into, as many and not enough. it makes it tricky. we're going to get everybody out safely right now so we can get other people who are families and kids and elderly folks to get out of house. we just do our best to get everybody down. >> okay. >> reporter: thanks for talking to us. he has to climb back into the boat. all right. we are back with actually that same rescue team. and this is a gentleman whose joined them.

this is seth robertson and his partner brian. this is t.j. he's a kayaker who came by and wanted to help these guys with some of the rescues. t.j., i heard you're trying to guide them, what's going on back here? >> which is much further away, there's an elderly couple that's stuck down there. we think there's a few other people stuck the elderly and we can't find a way through, but right now, we're working on a solution for that. we think there may be a way further down 610. if we can get on 610 and then unload the boat, launch it there. even if it gets shallow, i can get them to the boat and we can get them to safety. >> you cannot get their water at that point. you have to go around someone. >> correct. >> difficult. >> so far, it's pretty difficult. the police don't know of an open route, but we're going to work on it. i mean, boats go in water, right? so, you know, if there's water blocking, we should be able to find a way. >> reporter: we saw you guys i leave with the police. you took them to their house --

you couldn't find the house. so where do the police go? they were in your boat. >> the police are still out there searching, there's people stuck in the hotels they're trying to convince them that it's safe to come down so that the staff can leave also. and you know, we're mostly looking for the people actually in their homes. >> reporter: thanks for talking to us. good to meet you. and great work helping out. guys, this is what's been going on here all day. these are local people coming out on their own. it is incredible to watch. just the spirit of wanting to help out. doing anything that people can to get to the people stranded. there are still a lot of people stranded back there atomny hotel. back from there behind me the only any hotel, these guys we're pushing out now. as you heard t.j. explain, they're going to try to go back over here and pan to your left, my right, where there are people watching. they're going to probably load these boats back on the trailers and try to find some way over land. that's a challenge too anna because roads are shut off. the highways are shut off. and again, this is, this is the

challenge of trying to get to some of these remote areas where people are just stranded and maybe you can't get to them by boat or over land. there's a real challenge they're going to be facing and now it's starting to get dark here and it's starting to rain again. >> it's hard to believe there could be twice as much before this is all over. brian todd, thank you so much from houston and ed has also spent several hours now on a boat in dickenson, texas. he was there as a dramatic rescue took place. watch. >> okay. >> how are you doing, sir? >> yes. >> reporter: we were about to leave this neighborhood, there was a woman that her and her elderly parents were stuck inside the home. i'm going to put the mike down. we're going to help them try to get into the boat so we can get them out of here. i'm going to put the microphone

down while we help them get into the boat. how you doing, sir? >> get in on that side. >> let me see if i can get something for you to -- i don't have anything. >> yes, sir. >> you have to give me your hand, sir, and i can try to pull you up. how are your arms feel kpg. >> okay. >> jason, you want to come up here and help. i can help lift you if that's okay. >> ready, one, two, three. we got you. >> hello. you got it? >> yeah. >> here, i got you, i got you. >> get that foot in there. all right. not too bad.

>> just sit wherever you feel, you know, is the most comfortable for you. >> there. >> whenever you feel like moving, just sit delight on the edge, i'll take care of you. >> it's all that rain we had earlier today, it's not a problem though. >> you doing all right? >> yeah. >> long day. >> yeah. >> get another puppy dog. >> all right, hey ana, we've got this gentleman's wife and their daughter that's still need to be pulled out of here. so austin, seth, who is the volunteer who has been taking us rnd -- we were just about to leave and we happened to hear this woman. i asked for help. that's what austin here -- they have two dogs as well. come on this way, little fella. so they're trying to --

>> again, that moment just a couple of hours ago. cnn's ed is joining us live now from galveston, ed, wow. describe what that moment was like. >> oh, absolutely surreal. you know, we've been standing here, and we are kind of where we started the day. standing on interstate 45, which is just staggering to think about when you -- this is i-45 northbound, pretty much i think about half way between galveston island and the city of houston just over that overpass where you see a lot of the emergency vehicles. all of this area around us just swamped in water. and that neighborhood that you saw we were shooting in is just behind this tree line over here. and there has been an endless stream of volunteers who have shown up with their own boats to help rescue and pull people out from so many subdivisions. at one point, just down this little waterway here which is essentially the onramp to the

interstate here to get on the service road, just a stream. like you could have thought it was rush hour traffic, just a line of boats making their way back into these neighborhoods. you know, the sun is setting here. and all of those volunteers essentially coming off the water now. that kind of water is simply too dangerous to do. as we were driving through or floating through this neighborhood in one of the flat bottom boats. we were careening over mailboxes and cars that were just below the surface of the water. so, really too dangerous, but we felt incredibly lucky. we had made several passes through that neighborhood, and as you heard there in the video, it was the very last moment, we were on our way out when we heard pam jones, the woman there, the daughter of that elderly couple that we were able to get into the boat with us. kind of plead for help there. she said that she had been waiting there all day long, trying to get a ride out of there. but there are just so many people. and endless stream of people who were trying to get out of these neighborhoods. all of these people, can't

stress enough went to bad last night and even though it was raining, their neighborhoods were not flooded by any means. so they woke up to all of this water inside of their homes. so they were desperately trying to get out of that situation throughout, throughout the day, but the demand and the crush of calls and responses for people asking for help it has just been overwhelming. it has been amazing to see just the fleet of volunteers who've showed up here to do what they can. almost every volunteer you talk to, if you ask them how many people have you pulled off. everyone pulled off between 10 and 15 on their own. you can do the math from there and figure out just how many hundreds if not thousands of people in our little area alone here, we're on the southeast edge of harris county, south of the city of houston, so you can kind of do the math of how many people have been rescued from their homes throughout the day today. >> wow. and these are the times that you really see the humanity shine. incredible images. what stories you're hearing and

showing us, ed, thank you so much. in dickenson, texas, today. i want to head to the cnn meteorologist center in atlanta. break this down for us, what do the next few hours look like for that area? >> well, the next few hours pretty much if you look at infrared satellite imagery, the brighters colors are the higher cloud tops. doesn't show the rain at the surface, but it gives you an idea if you go north of austin, you're into some of the heavier downpours, some of the more severe weather or thunderstorms and it's also been sliding off towards areas to the east. but for the next couple of hours, we're still going to be looking at rainfall and the threat for a few isolated tornados. now let's talk about what we're seeing here, the spin on our radar, we have a center to the storm. and as long as there is a center, there's still a small engine. and when this engine makes it's way offshore, it's going to be like spraying engine starter fluid in your old lawn mower that won't start. so it's going to get a little kick. right now the center is ten

miles. north of victoria. some light rain moving back in, staying just east in san antonio, light rain into austin. but the concern is still these bands. that for the last couple of days, have been feeding from the south to the north. and if you look closely, we've got a little tornado warning that's in effect. this is just to the west of houston, and then another one well off to the east near the border of louisiana, but this feeder ban is just about an hour away from houston, already extending down to the south where we've seen over 25 inches. so again, just when you think it's going to end, it continues to back build. so there is more rain on the way for this area in houston and more thunderstorms now. we're starting to see slide into coastal areas of louisiana. they've also had some tornado warnings there. not like the 134 warnings out of houston. the problem is when it gets back over water. it's a fueling stop. it's going to get a little energized here. not that it's not energized enough, it's hard to believe it's still a tropical storm, but it's feeding on the rain it's dropped on land. once it gets offshore, the next

120 hours take it back to a secondary land fall. the models were hinting at this the other day. remember, we lost all steering appearance and it was going to meander for a while. many of the miles brought it offshore. we're still in agreement with that. that is good consensus. unfortunately it brings it up to galveston and houston, by thursday, it exits the state. by looking at the computer models and seeing, is there any other possibility of a difference? they're all agreement bringing it offshore, but where they bring it back onshore, some skepticism, but again, most of the models are in the same area. moments ago, looking at the next four to five days of total rainfall from the national weather service drops another 27 inches of rainfall in this general area. and the houston region. so, if you think of the rising waters and the a. rainfall that has fallen double that. we're not even half way through this event. if it stays more east, it could generate and get a little

stronger. i mean, is it possible, yes? but i doubt it. it makes it's way back to louisiana for another land fall. what has fallen already is staggering. and the emergency management office. then it slides to the north. we're going to be strapped with emergency services across texas. again, we're looking at what most likely could be a one and 1,000 year event and the coverage will continue after this break. #prayfortexas.

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welcome back. the white house announced today the president will visit that storm and flood-ravaged area in texas on tuesday. white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders released the following statement. we are coordinated logistics and once details are finalized, we will let you know. we continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers. to help each other in this time of need. i spoke with him about it last hour. seeing those rescues taking place, you must be proud of the citizens of your state right now. >> texans are the best. i am so proud of my fellow texans and the way they are responding. thankful for our first responders and the terrific work they've been doing. we've been working to aid them by deploying about 3,000 national guard members as well as providing about 200 or so

boats and helicopters for emergency rescues. but it's these first responders who are making life and death decisions, who are helping so many people live and rescue these people and i'm so very proud of them and what they're doing. up next, many of the news crews covering the flooding in houston live in that city. coming up, the challenges facing news rooms across texas as they report from a city in crisis. you're live in the cnn news room. four seconds on the clock, down by one. championship on the line. erin "the sharpshooter" shanahan fakes left. she's outside of the key, she shoots... ...she scores! uh... yes, erin, it is great time to score a deal. we need to make room for the 2018 models. relive the thrill of beating the clock. the volkswagen model year end event. hurry in for a $1,500 in available bonuses and 0% apr for 60 months on a new 2017 jetta or passat. at holiday inn express, we can't guarantee

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the last 24 hours have been filled with one traumatic episode after another. even with all of the local and national coverage of harvey's destruction, we still don't have a full sense of the damage and the turmoil left in it's wake. and i want to bring in cnn senior media correspondent and the host of reliable sources, brian stalter is with us now.

i know you have been in touch with the local news reporters and editors on the ground there in texas, what are you telling you? >> one of the stations in houston, khou had to evacuate the news room. one of the many examples, but this was out on live television. you can see the pictures here on screen now. as flood waters came into the first floor of the building, they moved to the second floor. then it was decided they were going to leave the entire building. the station was off the air for about eight hours. a lot of help to get back on the air now to inform local residents about what's going on. and that station, you've been showing that area with your reporters on the scene, ana, we have flood rates of now three inches an hour, new rainfall happening here. so the pictures we're seeing, the periods where there's not as much heavy rain. looks can be deceiving right now because these new rain bands are come income as tom was describing, and it's going to be very hairy overnight. the flash flood emergency was just reissued from 1:15 in the

morning. i have ten inches of rain. information from radio and tv. but they're able to post on twitter. we have that incredible moment of the people in the nursing home. the picture that has gone viral, and we talked with the daughter of the owner of that nursing home. who described receiving that picture in a text message from her mom, begging for help. saying she was about to lose power, couldn't get throw emergency officials. and they needed people to come and rescue the residents in this nursing home. social media proving to be a powerful tool in this. >> yeah, it's that combination of the web and television in order to reach a mass audience

in order to inform both the local population and the country about what's going on. i want to be careful with any comparisons to hurricane katrina. god-willing the death toll will not nearly be as high in texas, but this is a multiday event in texas and louisiana. one interesting pair tloel katrina, there weren't social networks back then, there wasn't twitter or facebook. we saw those images belatedly of people being taken off roofs. we're seeing the images much quickener this emergency. we're seeing them on-screen right now. incredible images of the helicopter, bucket being lifted back into the air now and people being rescued off of roofs, perhaps off the highways. >> and these are live pictures we're looking at in fact right now. >> we are seeing this images very quickly as opposed to a day or two later. that's partly thanks to technology, it's partly thanks to the facebook and twitters of the world. you feel like you are there with these folks that are trying to find help. and i think when we look back weeks or months down the road,

we're going to see that the social networks played a vital role in helping folks feel a little less alone when they were trapped in their homes overnight, when they were trying to seek rescues. now look, it's no, it's not as strong as 911. we've heard the coast guard today say don't send your information out on twitter. we need you to pick up the phone and call 911, but in some cases, people in texas are using facebook and twitter as a supplement to calling 911. >> and on top of that, in fact, i just pulled out the news release that shows that approximately 25 to 35 private boat owners showed up to assist after emergency officials actually put out the word on social media, they needed more help. they didn't have enough rescue boats at that time when they were getting inundated with calls for help. >> the best way to think about social media in an emergency is as a broadcast tool. like a megaphone. and we've seen sheriffs and law enforcement agencies using these tools as megaphone in the same way -- a lot of cell phone towers are still up and running.

a lot of folks have power even though their homes are flooded. so they're able to see what the local authorities are sharing with them through the phone alerts, through the wireless networks, that's a big change from past disasters. and i hope one of the outcomes will be a lower death toll than we would otherwise see. >> all right brian stelter, thanks for joining us. >> thanks. some live pictures i want to take you to right now as we continue to monitor the situation on the ground in houston and the surrounding area. that has been inundated with flood waters. you see one of the high water rescue vehicles just rolling down the street. one of the streets that doesn't have wateren to at this moment. we know there were 93 dump trucks and high water rescue vehicles that were deployed around the houston area. 35 boats, 22 aircraft, this was according to to the mayor of houston at an earlier press conference. we'll continue to keep you up to date on what's happening right now as tropical storm harvey continues to wreak havoc.

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it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most. okay. these are live pictures right now and you can see more rescues happening, taking place, there's the helicopter that's coming in in to make a rescue. let's just watch this for a moment. again, live right now in houston.

all right again. these are live pictures in houston. somebody who was just rescued by hospit helicopter brought in that basket. rescue officials are meeting. even has story. there are a number of people still trapped and waiting for help as the flood waters continue rise. brief break in some of the flooding in some parts of houston, we know there's much more rain on the way. and our crews have been there on the ground in southern texas all day. we've been shooting the video of the search and the rescue efforts and interviewing flood victims, and while just going through one of the flooded neighborhoods our ed lavandara became a part of a draumatic rescue effort. we brought you this moment live here on our air and everyone,

including the family's dog, was taken to safety. ed was able to do an interview with that family after they were all on board the boat, by the way, the person who was driving that boat was a volunteer who got a call on social media saying we need more help if you have a boat, please come to this area, his name is austin best. he have the driver. he was on the ground pulling some of these people out of the water and we want to obviously give him some credit tonight as well. but here's ed talking with this family. >> we were about to leave the neighborhood and we heard your voice. >> thank god, we've been waiting on the coast guard and waiting on somebody else. and the girls have been calling. anyway. >> how long have you guys been trapped in there? >> all night. >> all night. >> you've been with your parents. >> uh-huh. >> how are they holding up? >> pretty good. i think pretty good for the circumstances. yeah, it's bad. everything's floating. and it's bad. >> reporter: you guys have been

stuck upstairs. >> yeah. >> all day. >> all night. >> reporter: we've done a couple of passes down the street here and we didn't even know you were in the house. >> well, i heard the boat, but then we found out that my sons were coming on their jet ski and then they got stopped. so -- by a bridge. anyway, they got stopped, and then so i figured -- >> reporter: what was it like in this neighborhood through the night? >> it just -- it just creeped up really -- it was shocking. you know, the -- it came in through the garage, about an inch. and i was shocked. >> reporter: what time was that? >> i think around 1:00 our 2:00, 2:30. it was really pouring in. and i think it's like three feet or more inside the house. >> reporter: i've heard from a lot of people here who said they didn't expect this neighborhood to flood. >> no. my parents were in 100 year

flood, and i can't remember what year that was, but, no, we didn't think it was going to flood. we would have went to my house. we knew it wasn't going to flood. plus they did road work. >> reporter: you've been trying to get people to pull you out all day long. >> yeah, my daughters have been calling. and of course my cell phone -- >> reporter: where are your daughters. >> in the big city. >> reporter: hopefully they're able to watch this. >> i'm going to call one of them to pick me up -- us up. >> reporter: what was it like -- it's dark. last night -- >> no, we had lights all the time. dad has a generator. >> never lost power? >> never. air-conditioning all night. they have a generator. and i guess that's what it was. >> reporter: right. were you worried that -- we're getting close tonight fall, were you worried you weren't going to be able to be pulled out in time before dark? >> we were just starting to because we found out there wasn't a rescue, and then we heard the coast guard and take a

couple days. we didn't know. >> reporter: right. how are you feeling now? >> happy. very happy. very happy. very blessed. >> reporter: sorry you got stuck with the cnn crew here. >> i'm glad. we're glad. we're very happy. >> reporter: what do you do now? do you know where you're going to be spend the night tonight? >> i think we're going to my house. hopefully. >> reporter: do you have someone picking you up? >> one of my daughters. >> reporter: have you heard -- what's it been like in this neighborhood throughout the day? i just see boats crisscrossing all the time. >> boats, jet skis. i don't know of anything else really. i've been up there helping my parents. >> reporter: has to be surreal to see your neighborhood like this. >> it is. it's shocking. it is surreal. yeah. >> reporter: have you been able to talk to any neighbors at all? >> no, i was in helping mom and dad. >> reporter: they're going to be okay? >> yeah. i think so. dad -- yeah. >> reporter: well, they did a great job jumping into the boat.

especially your mom. >> that's good. >> reporter: she did great. >> good news for that one family. more information now on how you can help the victims of harvey, just log on to cnn.com/impact. we're back right after this. ♪ no, please, please, oh! ♪ (shrieks in terror) (heavy breathing and snorting)

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local football star is stepping up to help the flood victims in the houston area. j.j. watt of the houston texans has launched a fundraising effort. he announced it on his twitter feed and he has already raised nearly $200,000, maybe that's been surpassed since we started this segment. because it was going up quickly. and j.j. watt is joining us now. thank you so much, j.j., for spending time with us. i know you're not in houston right now. you and your teammates are stuck in dallas. how difficult is it to see what's happening in your community? >> yeah, thank you for having me. it's very difficult. you know, for guys, especially guys who have young kids and family members back there, it's very tough, but a city as a whole. we're very embedded in the community. the guys are embedded in the community and we care so much about the city of houston. to see such destruction happening and not be able to do anything about it, you feel

helpless. we obviously wish we could get back there, but the least we could do was start a fundraiser up to raise some money so once we can start these relief efforts. we have a jump start. >> and what was it that spurred you specifically to take action in that way? >> it's just frustrating. you feel helpless. we're up here in dallas, unable to get back in houston to help everybody out. we havive platform. understanding that we can utilize that platform to raise money is the best way that we can possibly help the situation right now. so, if that's all we can do, then we're going to do that to the best of our ability. >> so your goal was $200,000. where are you at right now? >> the last time i checked, it was at like 195,000, and we just posted it a couple of hours ago. so it's pretty wild. we have some of the best fans in the world and obviously there's people from all parts of the country pouring in their support for houston and showing so much love. i think we're going to surpass

2900,000 and bump up the goal to continue to raise money throughout the rest of the week throughout the rest of the month. however long we can, there's going to be so much money needed to make these efforts successful. >> i know this was a spur of the moment idea, have you thought out what you're going to do with this money then moving forward? which organizations you might be working with or is that yet to be determined. >> that's kind of what we're working on now. with some of this down time that we have being in dallas and doing research on foundations and things like the red cross and then going out and doing stuff ourself. i think one thing we've done in the past when there's been flooding in the houston and we've distributed the food, we've distributed sandbags and things like that. however we can help and get our hands on personally, that's when we feel like we make the most impact. however we can help we're going to help. >> j.j., do you have friends or family who are stranded right now? >> my girlfriend's back there. she's back there. she's staying with her sister and their two kids. obviously very concerned about her. and then all of my teammates

that have their wives back there. they have their kids back there. so that's what really kind of hits you in the heart is that some of these guys, we have one guy who has a newborn and his wife's back there dealing with a newborn. to not have your husband there, to not have the dad there is very difficult. so it's very good that we're together. that we can be together and support each other, but obviously we'd like it get back there as quickly as we can. >> what's the best way people can participate if they want to join your fundraiser? >> it's posted on my twitter and instagram accounts and facebook and it's youcaring.com/jjwatt. join in, it's five cents, $5, $500, whatever you can support, we appreciate it so much. and i know the people of houston appreciate it so much. >> j.j. watt from the houston texans, again, thank you for taking time out of your evening to talk with us. to share your message and to raise some funds to help the people in your hometown there. we appreciate it. >> everybody in houston stay

safe. and we're just getting word, the website is jamming up because people are excited to participate in this. so keep on trying to reach beyond that $200,000 goal. and we're bringing you more images right now. this again in houston, we're seeing ongoing water rescues and neighborhoods that are completely flooded from the water. that has already poured from the sky and more rain is in the forecast and the national weather service says some parts of houston could get another two feet of rain. meaning the worst could be yet to come. right now 600 vessels are being used for rescue efforts. 3,000 national guard members have been activated. i want to bring in somebody who knows all about disaster response. this is our national security analyst juliette, she is the former assistant security of homeland security and juliette, you have overseen natural disasters at homeland security. when you watch the scenes coming out of southern texas today,

what is your immediate reaction? >> well, look, you never judge a disaster in the middle of it. but what i am seeing so far is the mitigation of the work. and i know that seems weird given the images that you're seeing. disasters are called disasters far reason, and we have to measure success by, you know, whether we can -- whether less harm is done. and so one of the numbers i am looking at, and we don't know if it's definite yet and i know cnn can't confirm all the numbers, but it's the relatively low fatality rates that we lost five people so far, you know, by hurricane-related deaths. that is a remarkably low number two days into a catastrophic event. even though the images are horrific, people are suffering, this is an emergency, that's the kind of number that, first responders are looking at. and the second thing is of course what we call mutual aid. when we're now, they're now

entering a stage in which people have been working 48, 72 hours. well, you're starting to see is other states come forward with their search and rescue teams, national guard. there's a pretty big mutual aid system to help pace this response. we have three or four more days right now at nighttime, first responders are going to have to protect themselves, there's going to probably be a call to bring everyone in if they haven't already. you don't to want harm volunteers and first responders. there's going to be a focus on public safety because of course you don't want looting. you want people to feel safe. so those are the things we're looking at. the unfortunate thing about the tropical storm now is we're going to be doing this for the next three days. i think. until there's some semblance and the saturation stops. >> right, it is still raining right now in houston. and that rain is supposed to continue. i spoke with greg abbot and asked him why there was no evacuation order issued for the houston area. let's listen to what he

responded with. >> well, of course, those decisions are made at the local level here in texas, but listen, now is not the time to do any second guessing. now is the time for all of us to come together. and work to save lives. this is a matter of moments. and we need to use every moment we have to rescue innocent lives, to get them to a safe place, and then to begin the rebuilding process. >> juliette, we also heard from the mayor of houston who was also asked a question by another reporter at his press conference regarding why or why not with the evacuation. and here's what he said. he said you know they didn't know exactly where the hurricane was going to gob, logistics could have load it more chaos and created a more dangerous situation because there are six and a half million people in and around the houston area when you include the county, harris county, and he said, you know, if people then are outside the city, also they're away from some of the emergency services

that the city can provide. so do you agree with this decision for people to stay put? >> so far i do. this is the quintessential debate in disasters is evacuate or stay. each of them has their, you know, their vulnerabilities and their risks. as i said earlier, one of the numbers we look if you play out the facts, of course, everything looks right. if only we had evacuated. it's hard to put 6 million people between the city and the county on the road for an e evacuation would have had to have. happened last wednesday when the data wasn't clear. and disaster management we call it the blinding clarity of hindsight. everything seems so obvious in hindsight. we have to be respectful of the decisions that were made by the mayor and first respond irs and others that looking at the data then i will say right now and

i'm willing to change my mind, i think it was the right decision not to evacuate given what we're seeing that may change, but keeping people in areas where at least they could get assistance where they might not have been able to is very beneficial for the saving of life. that's the number one thing. that's how we're going to judge this. the economy is going to slip. the buildings are down. we know that. it was a number we are looking at is can we save lives and so far while every life lost is a tragedy, these are numbers that i think should be heartening in some ways but we, as i said at the beginning, we have three more days of this. so emergency managers will have to pivot in response to the changing climate and changing situation on the ground. >> juliette, we appreciate b

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welcome back as we continue our coverage of tropical storm harvey dumping a large amount of water over the text region, especially houston. that's the fourth largest city in this country. more than 2 million people in that city alone i want to show you a report from our affiliate reporter as rescues going into the evening

hours. >> as the sun goes down, the need just becomes even more. because these people don't have any electricity right now. they are in the dark. when it gets pitch black inside, outside it's going to be pitch black inside. i don't know what other medical situations that they have, but they are flashing the light. they probably want us to get one of those people up there. we can take you guys if you need. >> an elderly sick person. >> two handicap, two sick and disabled and two wheelchairs on the to have of that roof. we're going to try to get closer. e yes, we're going to get closer. you guys can bring them down to the boat. we're going to have to be careful of the tree and the current is very dangerous right now as well. i don't know how they got those

two elderly people that are sick and others in wheelchairs up there to the roof, but they had to do what they could because they need to get out of this apartment complex. it's getting dark. they need more help. and those rescue helicopters can only do so much. they can only take so many people right now. we hear another rescue helicopter just above us. they probably have some sort of system in place to get to the people that need it the most. two elderly sick people, two people in wheelchairs is a priority to them. you can see right above there, another helicopter right behind that one that just left this apartment complex ready to get some of those that are up there. we're going to try to get as many people as we can in our rescue boat. that's why we're here. a desperate situation. you can see some people opening up the window in their bedroom and look at us. are you guys okay? they are giving us the thumbs up. some people can ride this out. others can't. that's what we're learning out

here. we have a rescue boat, we have the savior for them. we're able to get them to higher ground. we're able to help them out. but others, some people want to stay, some don't. we're going to try to get as many people on our rescue boat as we can. >> our thanks to our affiliate for that report. i want to turn to brian todd who is in houston. also among those being rescued, what are you hearing from the folks you're speaking with. >> brian, can you hear us? talk to me about what's going on there. >> yes, i can hear you guys. we are at a staging area here, sorry about that. i was just talking to a police officer. they were trying to rescue an elderly couple.

they tried to get to them over water and they could not get to them. and now they are trying to get to them over land and meet up with some boats in another area to get to this elderly couple that's stranded. this has been a very, very busy staging area here for rescues. we just had some boats coming in and out. they are going to the only knee hotel where there have been dozens of people there stranded all day today. here's one person here in a stretcher. we heard she has back problems and they have a lot of people here tending to her. basically the bottom line here is a lot of people have come out in private boats and waiverunners, anything to get through the flooded area. when you come down here, they are going to back a trailer over here to us pretty soon. they have tried to get to residential areas over here. we witnessed a rescue from the hotel where the water is about waist deep now. it's raining again. the water is rising again. so it's pretty desperate

situation here about six miles west of hughesouston. >> it's getting dark there. do the rescues continue to go through the night? >> reporter: we have been talking to private rescuers who say they are committed to staying here all night if they can. it's helped out by the police. the police have asked anyone with a boat or high water vehicle to call them and help out. so we are getting indications that people are committed to staying overnight. we just talked to one who we rode to the hotel with. he's going to be at the bel air not far from here. he's going to be here all night. it's incredibly heroic what you're witnessing here tonight with some of these people coming out on their own in boats. one thing we can tell you is according to the office of emergency management, they got

about 56,000 na911 calls. >> 56,000 911 calls, brian todd, thank you. top of the hour, thank you for being with us. the cnn special report. dianna will air at 10:00 p.m. eastern as we continue to follow the breaking news out of texas. you're in the cnn newsroom. we are talking about life-threatening, catastrophic flooding from tropical storm harvey. e we want to show you the frightening reality on the ground there. families wading through waist high water with small children, animals in tow. a thousand people have been rescued in houston alone. officials in galveston say 800 to 1200 have been saved there. all day long we have been seeing boat after boat and helicopters searching for people trapped in