>> 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 rain may

fall this week. rivers are not expected to crest until later this week. there's going to be water there for weeks and weeks to come. >> so the army corps of engineers are working to prevent an even greater disaster by releasing water from two flood-controlled dams as president trump gets set to visit this region tomorrow. let's begin our coverage live in suburban houston with alex. what's the situation at this hour? >> reporter: the sun is about to come up. we heard from the director of the national weather service. there's a lull in this storm in the houston area. indeed we've seen less wind and rain in the last hour. make no mistake there's a lot more of it coming. here in harris county they saw 30 inches of rain in some parts. that number is expected to go up to 50 in the coming days. scenes like this of catastrophic flooding all across the city. on-ramp on to interstate 610. this is an all hands on deck

rescue effort across the city. national guard, coast guard, authorities asking local residents, specifically people who have boats to go out and try to help rescue people. some of these rescues are very complicated. we spoke to a fireman who came out to check out that vehicle to make sure there was no one inside it. there isn't. he said he was called out on 25 different calls yesterday and was only able to reach two of them. that gives you an idea of how complicated many of these are. those two reservoirs. they'll do what's called a control release of the water in the reservoirs, unprecedented levels of water as well. that is to prevent more catastrophic flooding down here in houston. what that also means is that a lot of that water is going down into the buffalo bayou. they're asking residents along the bayou to evacuate. there is a lot of standing water

around here. the administrator of fema and director of the national weather service said that it is going to persist. it will be very slow to recede. as you know, chris, standing water can create a lot of health and damage issues. >> no question. alex, be safe. you seem to have the right gear on. time is the enemy there. that water is going nowhere. we'll check back with you in a little bit. you just had the fema administrator come out and give us a report and conspicuously absent are numbers. how many injured are there? they just don't know yet. what they do know, there have been thousands of rescues. the city's convention center is filling up, operating as an emergency shelter for those who lost their homes. cnn's rosa flores is live in houston with more. 2 million, 3 million in houston proper, 6.5 million overall. one in five counties affected. what are you seeing on the

ground? >> according to the american red cross there are 2,500 people seeking shelter right now in the convention center in downtown houston. that just gives you an idea. this is just the beginning. i talked to some of those people there and they said sometimes it took them hours to get from their home to the area of high ground and then beyond that to get to the convention center to dry ground, food and shelter. take a look behind me. my colleague, alex marquardt was mentioning the buffalo bayou. it's already overwhelmed and over its banks. this would be an urban landscape right now. it is a river. all of this water testing the infrastructure of houston and the decisions made by local and state officials. fema administrator was just asked about evacuations. why were people not asked to evacuate when this has been such a monumentous natural disaster?

and he said that, you know, they always go through and agree with whatever local officials decide. early on in this disaster, the state governor and the mayor did not agree. the mayor telling people to shelter in place. now some of those people who have been rescued by boat, by air now questioning, was the decision correct? the mayor saying that he stands by his decision. take a listen. >> the decision that we made was a smart one. it was in the best interest of houstonians. it, it, uh, was the right decision in terms of their safety and always we must put the interests of the stiff houston and houstonians first. absolutely no regrets. we did what was the right thing to do and act according to the plan we laid out. >> now early on, 50 to 60

churches opened their doors as shelters overnight. we also learned that the city of houston has opened shelters all around this city. as more and more people come to these shelters to get food, to get dry and hopefully to safety with their family. >> right. those shelters will need all the help they're going to get as well. fema is asking all americans to get involved. at the briefing held just moments ago, rene marsh. >> the mission here will be overwhelming and will be a heavy lift. the focus is on some 50 counties throughout texas. they just told us that the focus going down to texas is going to be the search and rescue, those

high-water rescues. people are still stranded and that is their primary focus. the second focus for them will be stabilizing those flood victims. they are estimating that some 30,000 people, they will need assistance as well as some 450,000 people, they say, will be applying for flood assistance as well. but they have a caveat. they say those numbers will change and more than likely go up. we just heard from the head of fema a short time ago. i want to bring you some of that sound. >> helping texas overcome this disaster will be far greater than fema coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. we need citizens to be involved. texas, this is a landmark event. we have not seen an event like this. we have been telling people this is coming. it's still ongoing. you couldn't draw this situation up. the bottom line is that it's going to continue on. we need the whole community -- not only the federal government forces, but this is a whole

community effort from all levels of government. and it's going to require the citizens getting involved. >> all right. you know, what was really remarkable and what really stood out, chris, is because this is something that they have never seen before, they really, truly do need as much help as they can get. it's not a situation where the federal government is telling people to leave it to them. they're actually asking people to step in, the public, the general public, to help. back to you, chris. >> all hands on deck right now. this is very real and far from over. rene, let us know what else we need to know. we'll check back with you in a little bit. this historic flooding, it's going to get worse. that's just the reality. more rain coming. 15 to 25 additional inches of rain. cnn meteorologist chad myers is following the storm. we can't use the word aftermath. we just heard fema officials saying they don't expect river

levels to crest until later this week. >> right. because there's a lot of water upstream that has to get down through houston, through the river, down through the trinity. all of these rivers will be in flood stage for a long time. league city, just put these numbers together. 34.64, the new top number for this storm so far and it is still raining. now the bulk of the rain today will be beaumont, port arthur and lake charles. that's where the heaviest rain is right now and that's where it's going to be. the band sitting over houston has shifted east. that's not good news for beaumont or lake charles. those storms spinning could make some tornadoes. here is the new map of where the storm is going to go. it's getting it back into the gulf of mexico, gain a little bit of strength and move right

back over to the east of houston and finally getting out of here by wednesday and thursday. finally moving away. there's the rainfall totals for today. houston, two inches, beaumont, ten. two sounds like a good deal. you don't need two when it's already flooded. chris? >> fair point. chad, we'll check back in with you in a little bit. officials are turning to social media to get the word out about where people are trapped, to try to get resources there. houston's police chief was live streaming on twitter. what he was saying on real time, take a look. we'll show you what some of the reality was on the streets. joining us now, houston police chi chief. are you well? what can you tell us about those who are injured and those who are not making it right now? >> our folks are tired but they're resilient. they're still out here, working nonstop to keep this city safe. we've responded to 6,000 calls

for service, conducted 2,000 rescue missions, 33 rescue missions still pending that we hope to get done today and so far we probably have close to 4,000 folks in shelter. i don't have an updated number on that yet. the mission goes on. we're resilient and will get through this. >> your men and women on the job, very often in harm's way. they dedicate themselves to the service of others. what do we know about people who haven't made it, the injured, those who have lost their lives? do you have any numbers yet? >> we know one confirmed death from the storm. when you look at the widespread, just horrific flooding we've experienced up to rooftops, m

right now we're still in the rescue mode. as soon as we can recover everybody and rescue everyone we know that's asking for help, our second job will be to go back into every home. we think some folks may not have been able to call for help and may be stranded in those homes and then going through each home to see if we tragically find people dead. >> god forbid, we know that is the reality and things will be changing and some horror stories will be to come. that's just the nature of these situations. good news in that we haven't heard of a lot of looting. what are you seeing on the ground in terms of people helping and in harm's way? >> we've only had four arrests for looting. we're not going to let people come in here, either that live here but mostly those are people from outside that try to take advantage. they come here, they're going to go to jail.

we've had a lot of volunteer folks come in around neighboring states in texas to help us with the search and rescue mission. we've staged those volunteers and as soon as the sun comes up and we get daylight, we'll finish using them to finish going out and rescuing the rest of the people that are waiting for our help. >> let me ask you this. we know this is very far from over. we know there's more rain. they don't expect the cresting until later this week. you're going to have ongoing problems. what do you need? >> first, we need people realize that the danger has not subsided. a very clear danger remains from the rising water. we know we have a lot of water that will come our way in the coming days. don't get a false sense of security, even if the sun is out. the threat is going to be from the water flow between us and the gulf that's coming our way. so, please listen to the authorities, to our police

departments and colleagues. do not come back to the home. do not come to this area unless you need to, because the threat continues and i'm afraid we're going to see many more houses flooding before this is over. >> many people can't control this but if you can, stay out of the water. it's not just water anymore. it's sewage and other chemicals. you'll hear of health issues going forward. unfortunately if people are in place they're told to shelter in place for now because the roads are too difficult to exit those areas. we know you're going to get to them as best you can. social media is actually being a help here. it's getting the word out, coordinating efforts. chief, if we can help, we're here for you. you know how to get us. >> thanks, guys. >> be safe and god bless. >> one of the most known flood-prone cities. we looked into houston's storm readiness. their report detailed their

vulnerability. reporter for the texas tribune. a year ago you and your colleagues did this report. you feared a day like this would come. when you looked into houston's vulnerability and preparedness, what did you all find? >> we basically found that local officials have allowed developers to build in flood planes and not install adequate flood mitigation measures. even if they do, they're allowed to release more water, you know, per hour, per minute than other municipalities closer to hugh houston. and there have been -- every time local officials have proposed stricter development rules, developers have sued and they've largely won. you know, houston is being paved over at an alarming rate as people move here.

scientists say stricter development rules are absolutely necessary but they're not happening. >> so, that's fascinating. basically what you've learned is that development in houston, commercial development trumped what to do about the inevitable flooding? and that they were pouring concrete over prairie lands. and what happened? when you found this out, what happened when you went to city officials and the mayor to try to alert them? >> they said they're doing everything that they can but one county official in particular oversees flooding mitigation for all of the county kind of denied our findings and said that scientists are wrong when they argue that houston should, you know, leave green space to absorb these floodwaters. this argument about the prairie

grasses are magic sponges is absurd and, yeah, he denied scientists' findings, which are pretty overwhelming. all the scientists we talked to said houston needs to incorporate green space more, they need to develop smarter and they're unwilling to do so, largely, and they have been for decades. >> we should mention you won a peabody award for all of this, along with your colleague from pro publica. given what you knew from your reporting, when you heard last week that a possible category 4 hurricane was headed in your direction, what went through your head? >> well, we did a hurricane project last year and flooding focus project. the hurricane project was about a very specific storm that if it hits houston in the right spot it will send a massive storm surge into super populated areas and also into the nation's largest refining and petro

chemical complex. as you've been discussing this morning, several refineries have shut down. gas prices will, you know, sky rocket and a lot of petro chemical facilities could be affected if a storm like that hit. so, we were, of course, watching to see where harvey would go and if it would turn into that storm. it was never projected to do that and, thankfully, it didn't happen. because houston is woefully unprepared for that kind of storm. >> kiah collier, for people who want to read your reporting from 2016 about what might happen and what this day may look like, your report is called "hell and high water." go to the texas tribune. thank you for sharing with us. >> thanks for having me. catastrophic flooding from tropical storm and hurricane harvey, a test for president trump. how is he handling it?

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for under $21 per month. give your family the security it needs, at a price you can afford. since 1985, selectquote has saved over a million families millions of dollars on life insurance. the president's been talking about the hurricane a lot. how is the administration standing up to this challenge as texas is just under water and it is only going to get worse after hurricane harvey? the white house says the president is planning to travel to texas tomorrow. what's the plus/minus on that? washington bureau chief of the dallas morning news, todd gilman. what's your take on that? we like to see our presidents be

present but there's a big distraction also because of the footprint and the security needs when a president has to be on the ground. what do you think serves the state best right now? >> the federal response is, by far, the most important thing. it is important for a president to project the national sense of caring about a disaster. and it also highlights the priority that his government, that his administration is putting on the response. it bolsters the confidence that the state and locals can have, that they are not alone in this ongoing disaster. and the real test, of course, is the follow through in the days and weeks and really even years to come. >> and karoun if president trump were a traditional, conventional president, we could expect all that tomorrow. of course, he's not and doesn't often speak from the same script we've heard over the decades in situations like this what are we expecting to hear from him tomorrow? >> we'll see if he speaks.

we'll see what he does in terms of his actions and how close he can even get to the flooding we've seen, pictures you've been showing of houston and other parts of texas. if he speaks off the cuff we may hear him say various pithy things. i think he will keep the subject matter to the flooding, to the hurricane as he is there. as we've seen on twitter the last few days it's not the only thing on his mind right now. he has other events scheduled where he will be talking about other issues. when he speaks about things like the wall in mexico or, you know, hocking a book of one hifs campaign supporters, it makes it look less focused and he needs to maintain the focus on this issue, especially while he's there. all eyes will be on him and what he's going to do and say. and it's a serious moment for any president but especially, you know, trump at this moment, who has just emerged from a period of a little bit of a

political crisis in terms of the comments he has been making. everybody is looking to see if he can summon the muster to be presidential in the moment in houston because of this disaster. >> the ugly truth is that the president will get a lot of opportunities to handle texas because the problem is only going to get worse and will continue weeks and months to come in terms of needing help. we'll hear from him on that ongoing basis. to karoun's point it was not a coincidence that we heard on friday gorka step into the exit and the arpaio pardon. you don't get the friday pass the way you used to. it was also not that clever a move. he was trying to hide that. how large does it loom that he pardoned joe arpaio, who was, according to the court, according to the prosecutor, engaging in a pattern of discriminatory practices in the name of immigration. >> central political battlefields of the 2018

election. the president has already been feuding with both senators from that state who both feuded with joe ar pachlt io in the past. he is a hugely controversial figure himself and deeply disliked figure, particularly among latino voters. the fact that the president did this friday evening with a storm bearing down on houston. i do think over time you will hear more and more people and have already begun to hear democrats raising as an objection to the pardon that it was done undercover of darkness, so to speak. whenever a president does something that voters think is unseemly, the opposition will try to twist the knife further, by adding anything to the pictur picture. >> whatever happened on friday has been eclipsed by all the devastation in texas.

todd, how do you think the arpaio thing plays in texas? and the local mayors and whether they chose to evacuate or the governor, it seems there's a political battle brewing there as well. >> for many millions of people coping with the immediate crisis of trying to get out of their homes or getting out of houston, that's their top priority and probably are not too worried about the arpaio thing. it plays in texas the way it plays across most of americas a deeply polarizing event for the president to have pardoned this controversial sheriff, sending a message to latinos that he puts a much higher priority on hard line against immigration than what he says, he is a law and order kind of president. it has already proven to be kind of a touchstone event politically in texas and in arizona and across the country.

this is not going to go away. people aren't going to forget about it, as much as they won't forget about harvey. saying don't worry i'm going to use the power of pardon. maybe that's the case. maybe not. he clearly is willing to multitask and use the cover of darkness, to use the cover of harvey to do things that will be politically unsavory. >> i think todd is right there. i would add that right now the storm may be a useful distraction for other things the president wants to do politically as we get past labor day, congress rolls back into town, the white house and republicans want to push an agenda they've been working on for months, the storm could be a distraction of the not-so-helpful kind. there will be a push of some kind to get emergency funding to that state. big delegation from texas, mostly republican, two senators from texas, both republicans. this will be their highest

priority, in all likelihood. perhaps more so than some of those issues that the president has been planning to talk about. >> their reality is the one that we're seeing on the screen right now, karoun. live picture of texas. all those homes, once you're seeing there, once the water is gone, all the damage will remain. everything has to be rebuilt, including these people's lives, assuming they make it out. >> panel, thank you very much. we do need to get to updates on what's happening in texas. floodwaters are posing life-threatening risks to millions of people. george p. bush will join us next to discuss the situation on the ground. >> if you want to help, please go to cnn.com/impact. look for ways that you can help the people on the ground today, tomorrow. we'll be reminding you for weeks to come. stay with cnn. ening all of the time. i tell them the thickness of your enamel determines essentially how white your teeth are going to be. the strength of your teeth needs to be there in order for that whiteness to last.

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texas land commissioner george p. bush with what he is calling for and how the area is. george, thank you so much for being here. i know you're in austin. how is your neck of the woods? >> well, in central texas, we have held up great and currently serving evacuation centers throughout our region to receive folks that will be coming from affected areas along the gulf coast in the greater houston area but state leadership right now and state operations center in austin is deploying all of our assets along with the federal government partners and county and local officials to make sure that we're protecting life. that's the priority right now. we're hard at work. >> and, listen, you worried about this. you know, you obviously have lived in texas your whole life, most of your life, and you know what was expected here. and you tried to sound the alarm. you wrote a letter in april. you said this. hurricane ike was nearly ten years ago.

little has been done to protect the areas critical infrastructure. should the houston and galveston bay area sustain a similar or even larger storm the economic damages to the state and country would be catastrophic. we believe we have all the support necessary. what we need is the $15 billion in funds. did that happen? >> it didn't happen. this is going to be a time where we need to focus on life and limb in the greater houston area along the texas gulf coast. over the long term there will be plenty of time to look at ways in which we can better protect our coast. whether you're a texan or not, this is a critical part of our country. it's a hub for food, fuel and force. a quarter of where our state's population resides. we'll continue to work on this in the long term. right now the 110% focus is on residency can cueing life. >> i understand. look i know, you don't want to point fingers.

that's absolutely the right instinct right now today. you are calling for a solution, looking for this coastal barrier system. did you sense from president trump or from washington that you are going to get help in that, in the future? >> well, we've been in talks with the infrastructure team, with the army corps of engineers for the last several years to begin the process of examining ways in which we can stem storm surge and also look at ways in which we can mitigate flood impact to a state's geography that brings rain from all parts of the state through four major rivers and tributaries through metropolitan areas like houston as we're witnessing right now. that will be an ongoing process. as administrator long over at fema had described this will probably be a generational reconstruction effort. so, you know, our agency along with others will be a part of laying out that blueprint to make sure that this doesn't happen again. >> as you know, there was a

debate on friday about whether or not houston should be evacuated under a mandatory or even a partial evacuation. the governor of your state felt one way and the mayor of houston felt divenly. how do you feel? >> well, i think, again, there will be plenty of time to assess ways in which we could have responded better. for those that have critiqued the way that the evacuation was not implemented we have to go back, at least for texans, to rita, where we had dozens if not hundreds of people die on highways, waiting to get out. and this was in response to a storm that hit us three weeks after katrina. people heeded those but in a record amount of mandatory evacuations and it resulted in people actually dying on roadways and trafficways, attempting to evacuate. so to attempt to evacuate a city of 5 million, 6 million people,

metropolitan area, it's a daunting task. to do that in a short period of time. also this storm was only a tropical storm, what, two, three days before it hit landfall as a category 4. so this is a unique storm. it's historic, truly landmark and every storm is going to be different in terms of the response. >> we've heard that the mayor of houston and the governor have not spoken. is it your sense that all the agencies and officials are working together this morning? >> it is my sense at the operations center here in austin, we have a bidaily brief. we get reports from all the affected areas not just hughous, though that's been the focus of attention. yes, the communication has been strong. right now it's about execution of search and rescue. that's where you're seeing these

volunteer volunteers and the heart of texans really showing themselves by looking out for their fellow man. we're not going to be able to do it all by ourselves, whether it's at the state, county or local level. it's going to be brother helping brother, neighbor helping neighbor. in the coming days when we see more precipitation, that's what it's going to take to make sure we save as many lives as possible. >> we sure have seen that. good samaritans and neighbor helping neighbor have been he t heartening. george p. bush, thank you very much for p talking with us this morning. chris? >> the need will only continue and increase and we will stay on it. so, in a side story, as harvey was bearing down, the president created a political storm by pardoning sheriff joe arpaio. he is accused of multiple discriminatory practices in his enforcement of the law. trump says arpaio was just doing his job. was he? it is the great debate and we have it next.

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the timing matters,

hurricane harvey bearing down on the texas coast, category 4 storm at same time we learn the president is going to pardon arizona sheriff joe arpaio. did the president use harvey for political cover? let's discuss. in fact, let's debate. cnn political commentator ana navarro and state senator steve montenegro. what do you think, ana? you don't get the friday pass the way you used to, but do you think the pardon was conveniently timed? >> well, of course it was conveniently timed. listen, first of all, that same day, he did the -- he signed the ban on transgender serving in the military, which is inkr incredibly offensive, a guy that has been a continuous draft dodger would ban patriotic, qualified americans willing to risk their lives from serving, something he wasn't willing to do, something i wasn't willing to do, just because of their sexual identity. that is offensive.

he does that early in the afternoon. then he does the arpaio pardon and then we learn that gorka left the white house. of course -- or was ushered out of the white house. that's not coincidence. that's him throwing a bone to his base first before announcing something that he knew his base would not like. and, of course, using the context of the hurricane to distract us all, as one of his deputy homeland advisers said yesterday on abc. nobody's paying attention to arpaio because there's a hurricane that we are living through. well, he is damn wrong. there are a lot of people in this country, not only latinos, who are incredibly offended of a pardoning of a man who is a discriminatory racist and profiler. >> i believe we have a latino who is not offended by the pardon in the form of senator montenegro.

>> thank you for having me on again this morning. what's on display here is the blatant outrage, hypocrisy from the left. when president obama was pardoning thugs and when he was pardoning someone like oscar lopez rivera, a convicted, unrepented terrorist, where was the outrage there by the left? when he was pardoning someone like brandon manning -- >> bradley manning. >> bradley manning, excuse me. >> now chelsea. >> thank you. someone that was giving away secrets that was compromising national security to our country, where was the outrage there? >> what does that mean about the arpaio pardon? you don't justify arpaio by saying there were other pardons that you didn't like that you didn't give much attention. that's called what about-ism. let's talk about arpaio. >> pardons are something that the presidents in this country have the power to do all the time. we're talking about a 75-year-old man who served his

country since he was 18 years old. the best the left can throw at him is a misdemeanor. and even then the way that the process was done, the way that the judicial system was used here was incorrect. >> how so? >> well, look, we have judges that should have recused themselves, judges that had complete bias in this case that shud shouldn't have been adjudicating in this process. when it's time to go to trial they set it up, the obama administration, most political and judicial administration there has been, makes it so that he can't have a jury trial. i'm confident that if this would have gone to appeal, he would have won this on appeal. but, again, the hypocrisy on the left -- then they scream racism. that's all the liberal and all the left has when it comes to running out of facts. >> let's take that plan -- >> can i respond? >> ana, yes. the reason that racism is being put into this mix is because

that is what the pattern of discrimination exposed. that's how arpaio got in trouble. it wasn't just injected into this. >> that's because the media makes it -- >> can i respond? >> go ahead. >> listen, those are nice talking opponents about the left. but i am not the left. i have been a republican since i came to this country, fleeing communism when i was 8 years old and ronald reagan was president. john mccain, who has spoken strongly against the arpaio pardon, is not the left. he is a national hero and was the republican nominee. your other senator, jeff flake, also a opinion republican from arizona. people who know the facts and have been on the ground are not the left. paul ryan, the speaker of the house, who came out and spoke against this pardoning of arpaio, is not the left. congresswoman from miami, first latina republican elected to congress is not the left. this thing about the left and what about-isms, they're a very nice crutch for you to use.

and you're entitled to use it. let me say this to you. there will be a lot of latinos watching you and listening to you today who are going to say you're a self loathing latino who doesn't look at himself in the mirror. i'm going to tell them to stop. maturity of a community means we can have diversity of opinion. that's your opinion. we differ from it. i'm not going to call you out on that way. >> let me answer to that, please. >> there are a lot of republicans who have spoken out against it. >> let's put politics aside. >> but chris i want to answer to this. this directly went to what i am trying to say. so let me respond to this. ana, anybody can say that they're a republican. granted, you are a republican but you're also a liberal. and you can't run away from that. the reality is that you voted for hillary clinton. so let's be honest about what we're talking about here. we're talking about a narrative that tries to pin conservatives and republicans as racists. >> here is the thing. >> just because we follow the rule of law.

>> why am i a liberal? because i stand up for my community? why am i a liberal? i want to defend the dream act kids? because i don't forget i'm an immigrant and hispanic and i have a latin accent when i speak english and i want to defend those who get racially profiled by people who would discriminate against us? why am i a liberal? and yes, i voted for hillary clinton because i thought and i think donald trump is unfete, unfit as president, unfit as a candidate and unfit as a republican and i was a republican when he was a democrat. and i was a republican when he was an independent. >> if you want to lean on the hispanic community -- >> i don't lean on it. >> so am i. if you want to talk about what matters to the hispanic community, what matters to hispanic community are jobs. this is what matters to the hispanic community. >> jobs matter to every community.

raising wages. we're waiting to see how the president makes that happen. that's one issue. you have said nothing about the sum and substance of what got arpaio in trouble. do you think it's okay to lock at someone like you and say, hmm, you look like you might be latino. i'm going to check and see if you're an illegal immigrant or not. >> every story needs a villain. in this case, the media has made a villain. >> talk about the practice. >> i am. let me finish. >> go ahead. >> the reality is that you have an 85-year-old man, 33% of his employees were hispanics. out of five of his top deputies, three of them were hispanic. he has a grandchild that's hispanic and another grandchild. something that the left that liberals use -- >> then what was the practice about? >> that can't respect the rule of law. >> if you look like a latino i'm going to check your incht d. >> do you see what i'm saying?

when they are out of facts -- >> defend the practice. you're not speaking to the practice. you haven't said a damn thing about the practice. >> chris? >> the facts that were on the record. address them. >> not to mention that he was doing that, racially profiling way before he was 85 years old. >> chris, this is what i'm trying to -- i answered that. >> you said nothing about the practice itself, nothing. you keep saying that it's being made an excuse by the left. fine, if you want to say that. justify the practice. you don't think he did that? >> look here is the thing. here is the reality. if you're an american that believes in the rule of law, the left screams racism. if you believe in capitalism and free market, the left screams racism. if you are someone that believes in american exceptionalism, the left and liberals scream racism. >> oh, okay. >> why? because we're trying to make sure that we abide by the rule of law. >> that's a viable argument. hold on. ana, we have to leave it here. i'll state the proposition to the audience just so they can

measure what they've seen. either you think it's okay to look at somebody and say you look like you may be an undocumented person. >> that's not the case. >> those were the facts of the accusation. >> those were accusations. >> that's how he got thrown into contempt of court. >> chris, those were never -- accusations made by liberals. >> they were made by the justice system. >> made by the media. >> such a broken record. >> very political justice system. >> fine. but it was the justice system. >> you are a broken record. [ speaking foreign language ] >> thank you. >> mr. montenegro, thank you. you're always welcome to give us your ideas. ana, as always, thank you. another 1,000 national guard members being activated after already activating 3,000 national guard members. flood something expected to get worse as they're focused on rescuing those that are stranded. texas governor abbott, thank you

for joining us. i know it's such a busy morning for you. thanks for updating us. >> my pleasure. >> thanks for being here. how many texans are in shelters this morning? >> well, of course, the number is rising. we will evacuate even more. i've heard numbers rising from 30,000 to 40,000, including people who are evacuees from the corpus christi area and the houston area. that number will simply rise even more today. >> governor, what are you most worried about this morning? >> today, of course, it is life and protecting life. you see that the high and rising water in houston which will continue and so we have search and rescue missions that will be conducted throughout the day. also if you see the weather map you see that east of houston, over in the beaumont area, they are getting inundated with the spread of this storm. so we are having to spread even

further our search and rescue and safety missions. >> governor, we see how hard hit houston has been. we see all of the just heart rending images of the elderly, the sick, the babies being rescued from their homes. do you think houston should have been evacuated? >> the evacuation issue is something that can't be second guessed at this time. we have to focus our priority on saving lives. as you mentioned, it's been so heart warming to see not only the first responders go in there and save lives and rescue people, but texans helping texans, which is the way we always do it. texans taking a boat out and bringing people to safety. that's what texans are all about. those efforts will continue throughout today, tomorrow and the coming days. >> i know you don't want to point fingers or go backward in time. hindsight is 20/20. in the interest of moving forward and figuring out a

solution to situations like this, the mayor of houston didn't evacuate the city because this would have created its own state of problems. there could have been heat stroke, people stuck in their cars with more rain. do you agree with all of those -- that rationale? >> listen, obviously there were concerns, as you pointed out, about the complications of evacuation when we saw hurricane rita came to the state of texas. it was so difficult to look in hindsight to see would it have been better to evacuate or not evacuate, which is simply why we aren't focused on it right now. instead our attention is focused on saving lives. >> what do you want to hear out of president trump when he reeves tomorrow? >> well, first he has been very gracious and very helpful. he and his team. and my conversations with the president and cabinet members and with brock long, the fema administrator. what i would like to hear from him is his understanding of the

magnitude of the damage that texas has faced. it's not just the houston area that's been the focus for the past 48 hours but also the corpus christi area where the hurricane first came across the shore into the state of texas. this is going to be a very long-term project, helping texas dig out. the good news is brock long, fema administrator, has already expressed that to me. he understands this will be a year or multi-year process. and i assume that the president will be echoing that and i assume that the president will be very concerned about what he sees, about the damage that texas has suffered. >> have you spoken to the mayor of houston in the past 24 hours? >> yes. we had a great conversation last night. i spoke to him and asked him what does he need. he told me what he needed. that is, more boats and high-water vehicles. overnight i was able to assemble and, as we speak now, we're in the process of delivering about

150 more water rescue boats, and about 300 more high-water vehicles to continue this process of removing texans from these high-water locations and get them to safe ground. >> are you, governor, calling on the federal government or the military to help out in more ways in texas? >> yes. through the agreement we have with fema, the federal government will be helping out in a profound way, in part, in the rescue and recovery mission and the build out mission once we begin the clean-up process. >> so, governor, for the tens of thousands of people in the shelters in your state and the thousands more who may be rescued over the next days because, as we've heard, sadly, more rain is coming, what is the future for them? what happens when they go home and their houses are gone? >> sure.

first is to help them with food, shelter, water. but others have health care needs that will be fairly emergent in the way we assess them. some will be moved to dallas, and others like austin and san antonio on a temporary basis until the water recedes and then we will begin the process of working with fema to build out new locations where they can move to. >> governor greg abbott, you have your work cut out for you. thank you so much for taking time to be on "new day." we're praying for you and wishing the best for your state. >> thank you so much. all right. the big message for the morning is harvey is only getting going. we know that the hurricane itself has passed. it may move up the coast as a tropical storm but the flooding, that standing water won't even crest until later this week.

it will be a big health concern going forward. we'll stay on this story. >> and fema say they plan thereby there indefinitely, that people will need help for a really long time. >> they don't have real casualty numbers yet. cnn has breaking coverage right now, "newsroom" with john berman. good morning. i'm john berman. the worst of nature, the best of humanity. we're seeing both. new challenges are emerging in an event that is already catastrophic by any nature. harvey could deliver 15 to 20 inches, more rain to the texas coast by friday, bringing totals to more than four feet. army corps of engineers,