samaritans like will. what a story. meanwhile we have the breaking news for you, so let's get right to it. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> that's our breaking news, unprecedented and catastrophic flooding devastating america's fourth largest city. the flood disaster is expected to get worse today. and in the coming days. rescuers are working to save hundreds of people, maybe thousands, stranded in the high water. roads and highways are impas impassab impassable. officials are asking anyone with a boat to help with these rescues. forecasters say an additional 1r5 to 25 inches of rain may fall this week. >> there's been a major development that just shows how dicy the situation is. the army corps of engineers is now working to pre haven't greater risk by releasing water from two flood-controlled dams. in just minutes federal officials will hold a briefing

to give us the first big response about what this situation is on the ground. we'll bring it to you live. president trump says he's going to visit the region tomorrow. let's begin our coverage with cnn's alex marquardt live in suburban houston. the big concern we keep hearing, alex, is there's going to be more and that the water that's there is going nowhere any time soon. what do you see around you? >> reporter: that's right, chris. in the last few moments the rain and wind have picked up. there's catastrophic flooding all across this city, scenes just like this one. take a look behind me, this is an on-ramp to interstate 610 which is right there. you can still see cars driving along it. right behind it there's an suv almost completely submerged. that's four feet right there. in harris county, 30 inches, it will go up to 50 in the coming days. so things will get worse.

there is an all-hands-on-deck response to this catastrophe. local authorities, the coast guard and all sorts of folks going out there in their own boats, volunteers to try to rescue as many people as possible. the coast guard tells us they've carried out some 250 water rescues, rescuing some 1,000 people. that major development this morning, as you noted, is the release from those two reservoirs, barker and addux. all that water will go into the buffalo bayou, swelling the bayou and threatening the homes along that area. so thousands of people are being asked to evaluate. a lot of people will be needing a lot of help. >> please stay safe, alex. we'll check back. the flooding in houston evokes images of hurricane katrina. thousands of people seeking refuge in the city's convention

center. look at all these cots lined up. it's now acting as a shelter. city buses, even dump trucks dropping off evacuees who have been plucked from their swamped homes. cnn's rosa florez is live in houston. >> reporter: that bayou that alex was talking about is right over my shoulder. all that water is going to come right through downtown houston. you can already see the water levels here. that is going to be devastating for this area as more water continues to flow out towards the gulf of mexico. now, all of this water, testing the system, testing the infrastructure here in houston and also testing the decisions made by city leaders and state leaders. initially the governor of this state recommended for people to evacuate. then the city leaders came back and said that city leaders knew best what was best for residents

of houston. it's been a huge debate. the city mayor here defending his position. take a listen. >> the decision that we made was a smart one. it was in the best interest of houstoni houstonians. it was the right decision in terms of their safety. always we must put the interests of the city of houston and houstonians first. absolutely no regret. we acted according to the plan that we laid out. >> reporter: overnight we did learn of mandatory evacuations in southwest houston in the area of fort ben county, the area of the brasoria river. that river level expected to be at 56 feet. we're learning about voluntary evacuations in north houston

because the water there is supposed to surpass i-45. again, lots of water, more water coming. like you mentioned, alisyn, we're expecting more rain. >> rosa, they sure are. we'll get a forecast right now. thank you very much for all that. at this hour nearly 13 million people under flood warnings and watches in texas and louisiana. forecasters do say the flooding will only get worse. harvey could dump up to two additional feet of rain. cnn meteorologist chad myers has the latest forecast. how is this possible, chad? >> it's possible because harvey is about to emerge back into the gulf of mexico, not very far from where it came off the gulf of mexico and regain some strength. today houston gets two inches of rainfall. the real bogey today is beaumont, port arthur and over to lake charles. that's where the rain is going to be heaviest today. houston, you get two inches today. beaumont gets ten inches. so a slight reprieve.

you don't need two, but you don't get ten. here is the forecast for today. until midnight, there's the circle right there of purple. that is east of houston, thank goodness and back to houston a little bit less. we are still going to see this buffalo bayou go up. it already is a record. it may be four feet above record before we're finally done. >> chris, i just checked center point energy, the power company in houston. 86,000 or somewhere around there, people without power. 2.3 million people still have power. these people that are going into these homes to rescue other people have to understand that that power may still be on. so there's another real danger there that the power is still on for 96% of houston, and the water is going up. >> the good-bad news. we'll be monitoring those numbers. the longer that water stands and the more wind you have that comes into it, the more you can have people losing power. you're right. it's a risk you go in there. but people are always trying to save lives. it's the beauty of the human

condition. chad, thank you very much, we'll check back with you in a little bit. right now let's bring in colonel lars zedderstrung from the army corp of engineers in houston. thank you for joining us. the news about releasing in part some of the flood dams, why did that happen and what does that mean? what's the plus-minus on that move? >> the plus-minus of that move is we are doing controlled releases from both dams to minimize the volume of uncontrolled releases, in this case specifically around the northern end of the addux dam. based off our current modeling, we no longer believe we're going to have water flowing around the ends and spillways of the parker dam. i totally understand that harris county and houston are worried

about us releasing this water. i think the thing that might help clarify why we're doing this is the water is going to go in the buffalo buy you no matter what we do because of what mother nature is doing. the uncontrolled releases around the spillway of the addux dam are still flowing around the watershed and ultimately will flow into buffalo buy you. so we're not -- the corps is not the ones forcing exacerbation of the buffalo bayou watershed. it's just the sheer amount of wat water. a little while ago we exceeded our record pools set last year in the tax day flood. in the 70-plus-year history of these two dams, we now for the second year in a row had record pool and we're going to keep on

growing, and additional perspective is both dams by design and by modifications after construction are providing more than a thousand-year-level of flood risk reduction for the citizens of houston. and so the fact that water is going to go around the -- an uncontrolled manner or this spillway means for addux, more than a thousand-year flood event. >> that's perspective. people now want to make it through this situation. thank god they're holding. it seems as though you're describing this as a bad or worse situation. you have to release some water right now to keep the level steady. that's going to create additional flooding in some of these communities. you're saying you're trying to stave off an even worse event. let me ask you, do you think people need to get out of those surrounding areas right now.

>> based off our models and what we're seeing with the weather prediction, people upstream of the dams that are in the potential inundation zone need to monitor carefully the rate of rise and prepare for a voluntary evacuation that the local elected leadership have recommended. the rate of rise of the two structures is between 2 1/2 and 3 inches. it's a slow rise, but a sufficient rise where homes up stream of the dams could either be impacted, meaning water on the property or inundated, meaning there could be water in their homes. people can contact the galveston district headquarters, and we

can take their address information and put it in and at least give more detailed explanation of what we think as to how it's going to impact them. that's for citizens that live close to the barker dams and up stream. for the citizens downstream that live along the buffalo bayou, these two dams were built specifically to try to minimize flooding in houston, their purpose is to try to prevent water in the addux and barker, plus cyprus creek. in cyprus creek the water is going to jump and go into these dams. even with releases or going around, people need to know all that water that's still in these dams is still being contained that otherwise would go downstream. >> understood. colonel, i appreciate the explanation. please feel free to check back

with us, we'll reach out to you as well. see us as an extension of your ability to get the information to the communities that need it. stay safe and thank you for helping the people in that area. >> thank you very much. chris, we should let everybody know we are expecting a briefing from fema, from federal officials to tell us what the plan is to come back harvey. that's just moments away. meanwhile, joining us now on the phone is texas congressman al green. he represents houston's ninth district, one of the hardest hit areas. congressman, thank you for taking time with us this morning. do you know the status of your constituents in your district? are people still stranded at this hour? >> thank you for having me on. this is the way we do it in texas, we help each other. i'm grateful to the first responders as well. my sympathies and prayers to those who have been harmed,

lives that have been lost. we are facing a major catastrophe. i'd like to announce if i may, my constituents, a good many of them, are still in harm's way. i spoke to the mayor in missouri city in fort ben county. this is where the tornadoes hit, they'll have to move out of that office, it's a satellite office. the mayor has indicated there's a possibility of flooding that will take place in an area that would cause a good many people to move out and tough decisions have been made. people are doing the best they can under unusual circumstances. you had water in one day that would be a record level. you hear people talking about a thousand year flood event. we have to realize that we've

not dealing with anything we faced before and making tough decisions and i hope people will understand it. >> congressman, given that, given the unprecedented nature of this, do you think the mayor of houston should have evacuated more people. >> i agree with what the mayor did. i was here when we had rita, when we had millions of people trying to exit the city without proper contra-flow lanes. i remember the heat strokes people suffered. i remember there were fights that took place on the roadways. i remember a bus that caught on fire and there were persons in there -- >> congressman, i'm so sorry to interrupt you. the fema briefing is starting. >> our speakers include acting secretary of homeland security, elaine duke, the federal emergency management agency administrator brock long, the national weather service

director louie buttelini and from the coast guard admiral paul zong and health and human services secretary price. just to let you know in advance, administrator long will be immediately heading from here to make his way down to texas, so we should end promptly at 7:45 to allow him to get to his airplane to make it to texas. with that, i'll bring in our speakers, thank you. >> this fema briefing, we should be updated on the number of people killed, number of people still stranded, what the federal government is doing. >> -- fema headquarters, home of the national response coordination center. i know everyone in this room and on the president's team has been moved by the images and stories

of people who are suffering in texas. we want to make sure you all know we are working right no now to provide assistance as quickly as we can. right now we are focused on rescue operations and will move into recovery operations later in the week. today we are deeply concerned with those in houston and surrounding areas who are stranded and in need of immediate assistance. people need help, and we are working to provide it. while the hurricane-force winds have diminished, i want to stress that we are not out of the woods yet, not by a long slaut. harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm. according to the national weather service who you'll hear from shortly, rainfall amounts as much as two feet have occurred in the houston metro area. life-threatening flooding will occur over a large portion of

south central and southeast texas in the coming days. rivers won't crest until later this week. it is vitally important for those in texas and louisiana to monitor your local radio and tv stations for updated emergency information and, as always, listen to the direction of your local officials. if you are in the affected areas, we're asking that you please only call 911 if you have immediate need for medical attention or evacuation assistance. if local officials deem it safe, please take time to check on your neighbors and friends, particularly the elderly who may need assistance. the department through fema has been working in close coordination with the state and local officials throughout the region for many days in preparing for hurricane harvey. under the president's direction, we have made every resource

available to respond to this historic storm. the partnership at every level of government has been exceptional, and id want to thank governor abbott and governor edwards for all they have done. we understand that there are challenges before us, particularly in houston, but we are committed to getting the resources local officials need as soon as possible. finally, i'd like to thank the thousands of civil servants, first responders and volunteers in texas and around the country including those here in d.c. at fema, who have worked tirelessly throughout the weekend and will continue to carry out our response and recovery efforts over the weeks and months to come. you have provided a tremendous service to your fellow americans and we thank you. with that i'd like to turn it over to fema administrator brock long to walk us through the response efforts. >> thank you, madam secretary. so emergency management, as i've

been saying, is about partnership. my goal is to unify the efforts of all these agency, not only these guys here, the agencies they represent, but basically the fire power of the federal government. what we want to be able to do is have a coordinated effort and give the state of texas everything they need to fill gaps, bolster their operations an capability. they set the mission priorities right now. we fall in line to support those. right now this is still an ongoing situation. we're not at recovery yet. we're thinking and planning for recovery. we have recovery teams down in texas, but right now this mission, it's very important. this is a life safety, life sustaining mission. we're trying to help bolster the efforts to do swift water rescue, search and rescue, over a huge county jurisdiction, over 30 to 50 counties possibly impacted in texas.

just because we see what's going on in houston, this impact -- these impacts are not only across houston, but 50 different counties within texas. we're also going to see a tremendous amount of rainfall into southwest louisiana. we're asking citizens to still listen to their local emergency managers, county judges or parish presidents for lifesaving warns and communication. right now with regard to search and rescue, the next objective is to stabilize disaster survivors. once we move them, we or able to extract them from different areas and rescue them, we've got to get them into shelters. this shelter mission is going to be a very heavy lift. we're anticipating over 30,000 people being placed in shelters temporarily to basically stabilize the situation and provide for their care. next we are ready deploying essential life sustaining

commodities. we have a tremendous amount of supplies in the state and the state is pilling our resources already to be able to put those out. it's occurring all over the state of texas. through our partners at the army corps of engineers, we're working to restore power. we're providing emergency generators for critical infrastructures to support things such as 911 centers or other critical infrastructure within the state of texas. finally, we're also providing emergency communications. we're trying to help the state reroute 911 centers, but also making sure we're enter operable between the federal, state and local responders out there on the ground. security is also a main concern. the state, as you know, has mobilized a huge amount of national guard, but we have also -- the secretary has been leaning forward. we activated the dhs, what we call homeland security surge capacity force. we're putting law enforcement

down to help with that effort as well, as well as other dod assets. right now here is what i need you to know. helping texas over come this disaster is going to be for greater than fema coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. we need citizens involved. this is a landmark event. we have not seen an event like this. you could not draw this forecast up -- you could not dream this forecast us. it's been a very challenging effort for the national weather service who is putting out great information. we've been telling people it was coming, still on going. you couldn't draw this situation up. the bottom line is it's going to continue on. we need the whole community, not only the federal government forces, but this is a full community effort from all levels of government and is going to require the citizens getting involved. here is what it want you to know as a citizen if youer ooh wanting to help.

www.nvoad.org. if you are looking to help, start there. it will have a whole host of non-governmental and religious organizations that are seeking help and being able to support texas. we have to make sure donations and volunteers are managed correctly to be of fekive down to the state and local levels. that's one way to start. underneath the president's disaster declaration, we turned on what we call individual assistance programs. we're expecting based on this event over 450,000 potential registers of disaster victims. that is a huge number, but we are ready to go to process, we've already processed nearly 15,000 calls over the last 24 hours of getting citizens registered. what we want to do get you in, hopefully qualify for disaster assistance and we'll start

processing and setting up case management to go forward there. to do that, if you have access to a website, go to disasterassistance.gov. if you do not have access to a website and you do have a phone, call 1-800-621-fema. again, i'm asking for all citizens to get involved here. donate your money, figure out how you can get involved as we help texas find a new normal going forward after this devastating disaster. right now what i would like to do is also, i'd like to push it over to the national weather service director. >> just to give a short update here on what's happening and what we expect over the next five days, the circulation of harvey has been drifting southeast toward the coast. it's currently located over

matagorda bay. if you bring up slide one, the forecast has the tropical storm moving up the coast of texas, towards the texas-louisiana area within the next five days. there's still uncertainty as we're dealing with this track. the storm itself is creating its own circulation even aloft, so this track forecast still represents a difficult forecast for us. we have to pay attention as we move forward. very heavy rains are currently associated with an intense band of rainfall extending north-northwest over beaumont and port arthur and into southwest and western louisiana. earlier this morning there were reports of five to six inches of rain per hour associated with this band and unofficial reports of up to eight inches. with respect to houston, we're in a lull right now.

the bands that had been sitting over houston, one has shifted off to the northeast. we have a report of over 30 inches of rain so far near houston. there's a broad area of 15 to 20 inches and even greater in that whole south central part of texas. if we can have the rainfall map, this is a one to five-day forecast. as i noted, houston is in a lull right now but will get back into the moderate to heavy rains later today and into tomorrow and we'll see how long it lasts. it depends on the track. a 15 to 20-inch rainfall associated with that max. notice the shift towards the east, southwest louisiana, western louisiana and going into northeast texas is included. so we'll watch that area very

carefully. if we go to the map, we have major flooding occurring in the houston area. the peak flow and depth of this flood will max out into wednesday, thursday time frame. this does include the projected rainfall that we're expecting. even though we see on this map that currently we don't see flooding in eastern texas and western louisiana, this is as of 4:00 a.m. with these heavy rainfalls occurring, this will quickly change. we should also emphasize, in this case the flooding will be very slow to recede. we are seeing catastrophic flooding, and this will likely expand and will likely persist as it's slow to recede. i just want to emphasize from a

weather service perspective, we're working in partnership with the federal, state and local emergency management and water resource management community. we've been working with them since last weekend in anticipation of this storm as the models and forecasts starting showing the potential for this storm. we're standing here today to emphasize that you listen to your local officials. they're there to save your life. please listen to them as the storm unfolds. thank you. >> folks, i will departing after this news conference to be with governor abbott. it's a dynamic situation that will be constantly developing. one thing with the director of the national weather service, we're having to rescue -- local officials are having to rescue a lot of people getting in your cars and driving in flooded areas. one, you're going to kill

yourself, put the commandant's life in danger. we have customs, department of interior. it's pulling resources away from the people that truly need it by doing that. we are also in the process, we're evaluating and putting forward -- hopefully involving a governor john b. edwards disaster put into. hopefully we'll expedite that coming up soon. yes, joe. >> where are you going exactly today? who is in charge of the response? who is coordinating everything? >> excellent question. all disasters begin and end at the local level. the way emergency management works is, i am not the incident commander over the state of texas. the bottom line is that it starts at the local level. when a local government's capacity has been exceeded to handle the disaster, they call

upon either county to county mutual aid or state resources which you're already seeing. the governor declares a state of emergency which basically gives the governor the ability to mobilize allstate resources down to support his counties. and then once the state's capacity was exceeded over several days ago, they ask for a president disas center declaration, the president moved in an expedited and swift -- one of the quickest time frames i've seen to approve the disaster declaration so we can mobilize our resources to help. >> rene marsh with cnn. i understand and we all know there eefrs several refineries as well as super fund sites, contaminated sites in the region where we're seeing a lot of flooding. my question is do you have an assessment as far as what's in the water at this point and what are the health implications for the people wading through the water. we're talking about a lot of

toxic chemicals. >> at this time, we're so focused on life safety, we understand the environment piece is going to be big in this case. but we don't have accurate information. >> -- hhs secretary price, do you have any -- as far as what you're learning about the potential health impacts for people? >> as brock said, it's very early in this. what we do know is the water in corpus christi and in victoria area, recommendation for boiling of the water before consumption. the good news is, the work that's been done, pre deployment that's been done, there are significant water assets that are there available for folks. that's the challenge we have is getting them to people. >> wls just in terms of the refineries, most of them exercised voluntary shutdown before the storm hit. very prudent measure and that will help with any environmental issue. >> 24%, 25%, a quarter of them already shut down, correct? >> i do not know the exact

number, but it was -- most of them did do a voluntary shutdown well in advance of landfall. >> normally we hear emergency officials say let the first responders handle it. you just called for volunteers, for american citizens to jump in and help texas. what does that say about the situation right now? >> i mean, this is a landmark event for texas. texas has never seen an event like this. this is going to eclipse ike, eclipse allison that occurred in 2001. based on the benchmark of those storms, it's going to be large. >> you've seen images of the coast guard heroically rescuing people off rooftops, citizens going in their boats to pull neighbors out of their houses. should there will been a bigger effort to evacuate houston and surrounding areas than we saw given the amount of flooding? >> that's a great question. so all evacuation decisions are made at the local level within

texas. right now i believe every local official, state official including us, we're operating with the best information we've been provided at the time. atsz i said earlier, the national weather service has done a great job letting people know about the torrential rainfall and the inland event. the problem with forecasting rainfall, it's one of the toughest things to do. pinpointing what watershed that rain is going to go into, it's dang near impossible to figure that out. unfortunately the city of houston is huge, 2 to 3 million people. pulling the trigger on that is an incredibly difficult situation. a lot of times when you're facing a city like that in a rain fall event, you have to ask people to shelter in place because of the time frame you're given, the time frame to evacuate the city of houston could take days, days, literally days. i believe everybody is doing the best they can right now with the information they've been provided. >> quick followup.

do people need to start thinking about getting out now? talking about another 15 to 20 inches of rain over the next two to three days. >> people need to listen to their local officials right now in the houston area. i don't want to step on the governor or local officials and confuse the message. the most important thing during a disaster is a consistent message down to the public. we need people to listen to the local officials in each jurisdiction. >> the thing is, listen, after every disaster we do what are called after-action reports. we have to go down and get better after every disaster. we've been doing those solidly since katrina. we want to get better. we're in the business of saving lives and helping people. we don't want people to go through hardship and get kills during disasters.

we always strive to get better. there will be extentive after-action reports done, not just by fema, but working in conjunction with our local governance, non-governmental organizations to the state as well. yes, we will strive to get better. right now, it's not a time to start pointing blame. right now what i need media to do is organize the efforts, to help us organize citizen efforts, to ultimately help texas. these people are in need. >> where in texas are you going, sir? >> i believe i'm going to corpus christi right off the bat and later san antonio. >> senator ted cruz yesterday mentioned one of the big requests he's passing along from local officials is for more high water rescue capabilities. what more could have been done in advance to have those in place and where does that stand? >> so when it comes to high water -- swift water rescue and search and rescue, each county,

each state and the federal government all have a certain capacity. what happens is, once again, we pro positioned a lot of search and rescue before the disaster declaration was ever prepared by president trump. we pre positioned everything we basically have down, and in support of the state and local efforts. now that those resources are there, we're basically at the direction of the governor to ultimately help the local governme governments. there's something called emac, emergency management assistance compact. calling on search and rescue teams from all 50 states. there are teams coming in from all over the country, whether it's helicopters, water rescues, it's a partnership. >> i just wanted to make one comment on the rescue, too. the commandant might want to

add. i talked to senator cruz yesterday. one of the challenges with this storm is it has to be safe for the rescue officials, also. a lot of the less queue could not start until yesterday morning, just for the persons, and even now air rescue is barely operationally safe. commandant, if you want to add anything. >> unlike katrina which had passed clear and we have vfr flight conditions, we're still operating in the midst of a tropical storm. our flight crews, and we've got multiple, multiple flight crews. we have thrown every coast guard asset available at this response. but there are conditions where it's just not safe to fly. we've also brought in over 27 fast response teams to deal with the sick, but i understand great that with the local responders, so this is a coordinated response as well. the good news is, thousands of lives are being saved. and that is our objective right

now. we are not out of this by a long shot. we're also postured to be able to sustain this level of effort. >> half of your helicopters operationally are there. can you take more, will you bring more? are there more assets -- >> per request we'll bring more in. we have great support by customs and border protection. air national guard is bringing things in. the other thing is safety of flight and coordinating the airspace. the air maritimes operations center run by cvp is providing airspace deconfliction. department of interior uses zones in fire response technology, so they're able to use this. >> are you concerned -- >> we are concerned about that. we have not encountered, but certainly flying at very low altitudes to affect rescues. we're monitoring every media

source that's available, what's coming into the call centers but even out of the twitter feeds, we're looking at google maps to see where those twitter feeds are coming from. if there's a concentration of calls so we can be a little bit more, even proactive to determine where we are. we've got 11 aircraft orbiting the area at the same time looking for oil spills. we have not detected an oil spill yet. we're actively monitoring that under esf ten on oil and hazardous response. this is not the time. private citizens to monitor what's going on. this is a very congested airspace. >> that was our first federal update of the morning. a lot of interesting headlines. you heard the fema director brock long say he's calling on every citizen, even those outside the disaster range to help however they can give money, and those there, they need people's help in boats. they need people to help their

fellow citizens. >> never dealt with anything like this before, and they have a lot of different factors. to me what i think is most importa important. one in every five counties they believe to be affected by this. that is massive. also, no numbers on who has died, on what kind of injuries they have. what does that tell you? that tells you this is a very fluid situation. it's developing. a lot unknown, a lot of places they haven't been able to get yet. the evacuation orders and the issues, you're going to hear about that for weeks. right now you have to focus on these rescues. water has to be boiled in most of the areas. what does that tell us? that tells you it's not just water. that's a toxic soup. it's the sewage, it's all the vehicles breaking down in that water, everything from everybody's household, that's going to exist for weeks. they said the waters aren't

expected to crest, crest, which means reach their top point, until later this week and then they could be there at some level less than that for weeks to come. so this is very real and it's going to continue. joining us now texas republican congressman pete sessions. he represents the dallas area. pete, good to have you with us this morning. sorry it's for this reason. as you heard me say, they don't have a dead count yet. they don't have information about the injured. it's not because anything is going wrong. it's just because it's too hard to coordinate right now. is that your understanding? >> chris, i think you're right. let me go back to a little bit of history. when we had katrina, years ago dallas offered itself up and we had tens of thousands of people. i would like to say in watching this there are a couple things as a result of my boy scout background, look ahead, look where people will make sure they have their tetanus shots, where you have medical advisers that come in and talk with people

about water, the effects of water, dirty water, where you talk about the people of east texas and louisiana. this is going to come to them, they need to be preparing themselves as we speak to be prepared not only for water and flooding, but their own personal lives and safety and health, making sure they get children and elderly people away from these areas. this water is extensive, and i will tell you, we learned in dallas -- i remember walking through saying to the emergency facility people, you're going to have diarrhea problems next. sure enough, they did. when you get tens of thousands of people in one area. but here is the bottom line, you have been exceedingly kind, both of you, the coverage you're providing. but what comes next is the united states congress is going to have to come into effort. we're going to have to figure out how we're going to provide for these people and what the

federal component is. we need to make sure that the administration as well as the united states senate finishes off the confirmation of every single federal official that could possibly relate to this. the president is going to need his full team now, starting as quickly as possible. there are things in looking ahead that i can see, that you can see as a rather established career guy at cnn who sees what the needs of this region and of texas and the nation are going to be, those are the things i'd love to see you start talking about, medical, what lies ahead for louisiana and how we're going to be prepared in the government, the federal government to provide the full coverage that will be necessary. other than that, i will tell you, what you've done today is amazing. >> congressman, this is the easy part of the job. i wish i were out there, especially with the need for

people to be coming in with boats. a lot of our angels out there, the worst of mother nature, the best of human nature. it's unfortunate the call had to go out. when the spotlight comes off texas and louisiana -- it's going to happen, that's the nature of media coverage and how people move on with their own lives, you'll have weeks and months of reconstructing some of this infrastructure and you're going to have people whose lives are hanging in the balance for weeks to come. what do you do on a congressional level to keep the urgency and the need for help going forward, not just now, not just this week or next? >> well, we come to our local communities, our faith-based communities, we get people from dallas and other areas where there are large populations to partnering with people in houston on a priority basis. we need to make sure that our

hospitals, our physicians, are made available to help. dallas, texas, is opening its doors right now. but the bottom line is, you're laerg people cannot get out of houston based upon the outer ring, all that water flowing in. we're going to have to be prepared in 10, 15, 20 days from now, to offer the same assistance that might have been done overnight in the future for some period of time. this is going to be an amazing effort and i think texans are up to helping each other. it's going to take all of us working together. >> i remember katrina, i remember rita, i remember how texas stepped up and helped those people giving them homes, many permanent homes, many people relocated after that. the concern right now about people being able to get out, you heard the fema administrator there say listen, stay out of your car. this is a tricky situation.

yes there's goings to be talk about whether or not there should have been a different evacuation order. you have 2.5, 3 million people in the houston proper, but about 6.5 million in the catchman area. >> the facts are fairly simple. in your car it's more dangerous. you probably can't get out of your driveway anyway. to the extent you have neighbor-to neighbor assistance, that's the best thing to happen. we learned with with emergency coordination with the boy scouts. everybody helps themselves. my texas operations manager, they're helping each other, working together. that's why in texas we know our neighbors, that's why we do things to help. once again, i would focus this,

what your education is, getting tetanus shots, understanding typhoid. looking ahead from a medical perspective. it's what will happen in the next few days after people have been in dangerous water that's going to be the real catastrophe. >> that's part of coordination, too, how do you get the help, get the doctors to them. we'll stay on this story, congressman. please see us as a resource as you have information you need to get out, come to us. we'll do everything we can. be well, sir. >> thank you. >> we want to bring in commander of the coast guard, vice admiral carl schultz who joins us on the phone. thank you for taking the time to talk with us. we heard the press conference from the fema administrator. he was talking on regular american to basically jump in and help. what do you want people with boats to do this morning? >> good morning, alisyn. texans helping texans is a good

thing. folks with boats who have experience on the water that can get out and assist in their neighborhoods is a positive thing. obviously folks need to know their limitations there. we are not discouraging that. >> as long as people know what they're doing, you are more than happy to have their help. what's the coast guard doing in these hours? >> alisyn, we are down here as part of the department of homeland security team supporting the state of texas and the federal emergency management agency. we have been active on the water. we're active in the air. we have helicopters up this morning, up there trying to find out where folks are in distress. we have additional helicopters. it's not quite daylight there in houston. we're bringing in additional boats from other parts of the country. essentially we have made a whole coast guard effort with helicopters from maine and california surging into the area as harvey was coming ashore as a hurricane. we have come in behind the storm, supporting the state,

supporting fema and trying to rescue those that are in need. >> admiral, do you have any sense of how many helicopter rescues you've made? >> alisyn, we rescued somewhere north of 250 people yesterday. i don't know how many sorties that was. during the night we had two rescues here. last night some folks with more advanced medical situations. a head trauma individual that we moved from one hospital to another for higher level care. i don't know the reason for the trauma. we moved an infant with medical problems. >> so many complications and that's just two of them. do you have a sense for how many boat rescues you made? >> what we call the flood punt teams that have come in from the central part of the state were bringing in boats and equippeding them with boats. they were responsible for somewhere north of a thousand rescues. the rescue scenario remains dynamic. there are weather bands, rain

bands. our helicopters have had to set down into open area parking lots. we're flying and rescuing around the existing weather conditions. >> we just heard that in the fema update. that's so important. it's hard enough after a storm passes through to then rescue all the people stranded by floodwaters. you're doing it in the in the midst of a storm and more rain is expected today. what's the plan today? >> the plan is to stay in the fight. pushing as much capacity into the fight as we can. we are linked up with the state emergency operations center on trying to understand where the greatest need is. to the folks that are out there, i would tell you this remains and potentially is an increasingly dangerous situation as the rains are forecasted through the coming days, well into thursday at this point. i don't know if we know the full extent of the challenge here. we are trying to triage those first.

there's more of a demand in capacity but fine item resources we safely put in the air and that's something you we have to be mindful of. >> admiral schultz, thank you for taking the time to update us here at "new day." chris? you see all the vulnerabilities coming into play. we were just showing you the video of ed lavender of cnn. you become a first responder, like everybody else. this is a major issue. you're looking at it right now. these are the elderly. they cannot get themselves out of harm's way. many are convalescent. this nursing home is the portrait of the worst concern. what happened to these elderly people? we have the story and one of their family members next. (boy) and these are the lungs. (class) ewwww! (boy) sorry. (dad) don't worry about it.

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the ongoing concerns, the metaphor for what is happen

something on your screen right now, the most vulnerable, the elderly, unable to get out of the flood zone. you had a nursing home. several feet of water. the elderly waiting for help, blessed of being members of the greatest generation, the capacity for our generation of americans, the greatest americans, to deal with adversity never ceases to amaze. joining us right now on the phone is kimberly mcintosh. her mother owns la belevita, that nursing home that you're looking at. what can you tell us about the well-being of the people on our screens right now? >> everyone got out safely. some were transferred to a hospital and some are now at a nursing home facility with my mother. >> thank god. nobody was lost, no terrible injury injuries to report? >> not at all. everyone is safe now. >> what happened? is this about being caught by

surprised? can they know the waters were coming? >> they didn't know the waters were coming or would have evacuated. they have erack wags plans and they were told to shelter in place. >> how is your mom? >> she's doing well. she's doing well. we were more worried about the residents. she's fine. it really was getting safety for the residents. >> understood. now, this is just one image we're looking at here. in terms of staff, people who were there, is this a situation where people were there left alone or were people there with them? >> absolutely not. they were not alone. there were three nurses on staff. there are 15 residents. my mother was there with the stepfather and the toilet started overflowing. that was the first indication. and water started coming into the door. within 10 to 15 minutes it was waist deep. they had 10 to 15 minutes between entry and waist-deep

water. >> the elderly got out. they're all safe. how about your mother, your stepfather, are they still stuck in that soup? >> no, they were able to get out as well and they're -- you know, everyone now is at another facility. she's there with them. >> how did you hear about this? what was it like for you to realize -- i know there was a window of time where you couldn't find out what was goin. 9:00 in the morning eastern time i texted my mother and asked if she lost electricity. when i texted her in the morning she replied with the photos and one of the photos then we ended up tweeting out to try to get help. once she responded with the photos she said she had contacted as many people as she could there but was basically told no one was coming because they couldn't reach them they

might be put on a list but that was it. she was desperate. shortly after i received the photos and she said she needed help that's when we decided to go ahead and tweet the photos because we were afraid she wasn't going to get any help. >> that was a smart move. who came to help them? >> the national guard came. we're very grateful. they showed up in trucks and they were able to take them out. so, we were grateful, very grateful. >> that was one story of tragedy averted. of course, we're all very careful about assessing the situation. we're certainly not in the aftermath yet. it's a very real situation. there are a lot of elderly down there who are not as lucky. that is a defined term because this does not look like good luck but it is in the context of how horrible a situation it can be. kimberly, thank you for joining us. send your best to your mother and stepfather and let us know what we need to know. >> thank you very much.

>> be well. a lot of news, new reporting of what's happening in texas. let's get after it. good morning. we hope that you are safe where you are. many in the texas and surrounding areas are not on this monday, august 28th, 8:00 now in the east. this is just an unprecedented and catastrophic flooding disaster. america's fourth largest city is under water. the situation in houston is not about the aftermath. it's about the right now and it's getting worse in coming days. fema urging americans to step up and help, literally, the rescue effort demands citizen involvement. if you're in the area, you're physically capable, you have a boat and some friends, get out there and find people. officials are asking for this help. it's not us. this is what you're hearing from fema. now, in terms of the situation, 15 to 25 more inches of