tv Inside Politics CNN August 30, 2017 9:00am-10:00am PDT
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that is where he ended up. >> some have welcomed sunshine in houston. but 30,000 people in shelters, more than 200,000 already signing up for disaster aid and expect that number to keep climbing. >> the operation right now is very clear, we're still in life saving, life sustaining mode, this is going to be an incredibly large disaster for the country, it's going to help us, you know, to reshape some of the ways that we do business, we're going to learn from it and go on. >> president trump already planning a return visit to texas and promising that state, louisiana as well will get everything it needs to recover. five days after harvey first hit, though, no one has a clue just what that ultimate toll will be. >> i have had a very collaborative and seamless
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connection between the federal government, the state of texas and the local governments for a remarkable response to as you pointed out a record flooding. but also we talked about where we go from here and to take care of the challenges that texans are going to be facing for months and for years to come. >> that's texas governor greg abbott. we are expecting a briefing from the governor, and we'll show you when that happening. houston r"houston chronicle," e flooding shows no mercy. fema's director brock long will not even estimate how many people have been dislodged in their homes because that number is constantly rising.
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escapes from near-death tragedies and -- caption on houston's i-10, over a dozen people jumping into floodwaters, linking arms, forming a human rope line to lasso an elderly man being pulled under by the current. like this man sorting through the contents of his house. larry in a kayak. authorities finding a shivering toddler floating in a canal, clinging to the body of his lifeless mother who died trying to carry her baby to safety. one area being inundated right now is beaumont, texas just east of houston, 26 inches of rain in just 24 hours. cnn's drew griffin has been watching that city flood.
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and drew, take us back to that scene and tell us about the latest there. >> well, the latest is that rainfall continues to come down, adding to the misery that is going on in beaumont and jefferson county. nine inches in three hours overnight. really, inundated the county, according to the sheriff's department and it created these areas where you have roads that are overtaken and then you can't distinguish the roads from the gullies and the drainage ditches and that right there is where a man was coming across what he thought was a parking lot, when we wound up floating down a ravine, i think we have video of it. we actually saw him doing it right before our live shot, ran over there, tried to help him, were able to get a rope to him as he swam out of his vehicle and pulled him safely to shore. it was a stark reminder of how quickly things can happen and a stark reminder that the warnings
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to stay inside, don't drive around in this weather are real and they're there for a reason. just too many people are out trying to test their way through this and it's creating a bad situation for themselves and for the rescuers. we talked to the sheriff's department there, just trying to keep a list of where people are, trying to stage how they can get rescuers to them. and here in beaumont, the rain is so hard, and the water is rising, it's really difficult to get to these people. >> do not under estimate the power of the water, do not go out if local officials are telling you to sit in place. you see the pictures there, the sun has finally come out in parts of houston, but streets are still flooding, boats are still going from house to house, looking for people still trapped in their homes five days after the rain first started. brian, tell us about the scene
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you have there, you're right in the middle of a rescue? >> reporter: that's right, they just brought an elderly couple out, are you all right, sir? sorry about this, we got to narrate while he help these guys out here. this is the lakeside forest section of houston. if you take a look at the water, this is chest high in some areas, but it's waist high here. this is a situation where there's been late rising waters. can you slide over there? there you go, all right, so they're just bringing an elderly couple out of this house, we have been with this airboat operator, melba and his partner joe. and experts say the water is due to spill over the addicks reservoir.
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we can show you the coordination that these guys are doing with some of the locals who are directing them where to go. >> this is the kind of coordination, john, that's been taking place all morning, local volunteers not affiliated with a state or local government. they're just coming out with their boats. these guys are in a wave runner, just directing people where there are people in need and they have been doing this all morning. >> good samaritans out there in texas. brian, you've been there out all day, how many people have you personally seen being rescue and you talked about late rising waters. it's not safe to go home even though the rain has stopped, and this situation keeps changing and the devastated areas keep
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shi shifting. >> reporter: everybody we picked up said this neighborhood wasn't too bad yesterday, we have to power up so we have to get when the storm came up -- so -- >> we'll just watch as the boat pulls out, brian, don't try and talk over the airboat, just give our thanks to the crew of your boat for doing the good work they're doing there. brian said this neighborhood wasn't so bad yesterday, the sun is out in houston and look at the water there, another reminder, another reminder, listen to local officials as those levees continue to shift. this is the slow movement of this storm that's made it so devastating since the initial impact. as you just saw there, finally out of houston, now pounding smaller cities to the east. our meteorologist chad myers is in the cnn weather center.
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harvey actually made a second lawful tod landfall today and where ask it now and where is it heading? >> this is the backside of that rainfall, and as you said, 26 inches in 24 hours, that's the same type of event that downtown houston had on saturday night and sunday. 51.88 and that's not higher because the rain gauge broke when it got that high, so we don't know what that number would have been. everywhere you see white, there's houston, here's the gulf of mexico, everywhere you see white, those 25 inches have fallen. it's not that one spot got 40, the entire southeastern part of the state got covered up with two feet or more of water, now it is into louisiana and eastern texas and now a tornado watch is in effect for louisiana and mississippi. so it isn't done, we're still going to see rainfall, we're still going to see the potential for severe weather, but finally,
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john, it's moving, it's moving at 10, it was moving at 2, we like to see 20, but moving at all will start to see the rain spread out and that's what we have needed now for about 24 hours. >> you just saw brian todd there, it's stopped raining in hine, b houston, we have emphasized and emphasized and emphasized again, there's still a threat of flooding. >> reporte . >> here is the reservoir called barker, and here is the one calledcall ed addicks. the level is 109 feet high, the water, that part right there. the weakest link, 108. so the water has to go around and it's going into those suburbs there. not that -- that should have been protected from a levee that
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was 108 feet high. and the problem is, the water was higher than that. this is what it looks like right now, and i want to take your attention on to how many homes. can you see the subdivisions here? here's the levee, right here, same projection right there. this is addicks levee. see all these things, buildings, commercial buildings, residences, let me take you back to when the reservoir was made? can you find a building? not really, this was range land, this was farm land, west of houston, houston had 250,000 people when this was built and now it has a cabout a 100 million. this is the place where the water could have soaked in.
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how can it soak in if you have paved it all. and there's all those homes and all those businesses. >> one of the many conversations about the growth in the area and the new steps they're going to have to take to protect that area. the houston area has been hit by more than 50 inches of rain, no matter where you live in the country, it's hard to fathom, just how much rain that is. the "new york times" put together this match, the data in noaa. take a look closely if you can. it shows how long it would take your home on average to get the same amount of rain. if you live in that blue area, the mid-atlantic area, it would take 16 months to get that much rain, if you live in the desert area, parts of california, it would take five years to get that much rain.
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this has happened in five days in the surrounding areas of texas. joining me from dallas, jeremiah johnston who barely made it out of houston, with five kids, and that includes triplets. sir, first and foremost, god bless you and thank you for joining us at this time of stress on your family. you're in a hotel now, i was reading your story earlier in my office, it is just stunning, you were told to stay put, then you were told to get out fast, look at that beautiful family there, you're told to get out fast, and we can show, we had some security footage of your wife and your kids. just tell me when you realized you were not safe in your home and you had to go. >> things escalated sunday night so quickly after being told to shelter in place, our family, like so many others, we live in pecan grove, and just to put it
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in context for the audience, that's in ft. bend county in the houston area, we live in the pecan grove levy, two miles from the brazos river. just when we thought things were going to be okay, they said they were predicting an 800-year high, and this is a mandatory evacuation. we had our pajamas on, and i had stayed up in the 5:00 in the morning so i got about an hour or two of sleep. and we researched evacuation routes and five of those six routes were flooding. i was going up interstate 10 and it was flooded, and i had to turn around and drive with our
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hazard lights. >> when you say counter flow, you were driving on the wrong side of the highway with your family in the car, including those beautiful children, worrying that someone could hit you head on. >> if there was a truck coming, we had to stop and my wife and i, we prayed, and we said what do we do, we can't go left, we can't go right, and we just sent prayers for god and his angels to protect us. and this was what was remarkable. we took 59 west towards el campo. we pulled over and the sheriff said don't go to el campo, you need to get to 71, and get north of i-10. the national guard is coming in, and they're shutting down towns, and when we were driving north on i-10, there were towns levels
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from tornadoes. and it wasn't until we got to waco until we could get to a working gas station. we're stunned, we're trying not to be paralyzed. >> i applaud your bravery, you described this as an apocalyptic scene. >> i can't say enough about my wife, andre is amazing, having triple. there are stray animals, the national guard, the national guard is driving in, we went across the bridge on 77, that was being barricaded, we were one of the last vehicles to get through the bridge before they barricaded, i don't know if the bridge was taken. so it was about four hours of driving around from the moment we left our home and the
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emergency mandatory evacuation to where we got to a point where we felt like we were safe. >> the triplets are so young, they probably think this is sot some kind of great adventure. how about your older children? i'm sure this caused quite a bit of stress. >> our triplets think it's great, they're normally on a schedule, but they're totally off their schedule now, of sleeps, but our 8-year-old daughter is trying to find words for it. catastrophic, unprecedented and our son who's 5, is praying never night, lord, protect our neighbors, protect our children, houston's first baptist, i'm a professor at houston baptist university. i just texted our students and they're okay, and our campus is okay. >> jeremiah johnston, i want to
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thank you for talking to us today. and i want to tell our viewers as we listen to your great story, i wish we had more time to talk about the good samaritans, when you got to the hotel along the way, it's that kind of good samaritans and people helping and spreading good will. thank you for sharing your remarkable story. >> texas governor greg abbott is just about to have a press conference to update the weigh.
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the governor as we await what he has to say today, is that he and many officials don't know the scope of this in much of texas, there's research and rescue efforts in houston even though the rain in that area has stopped. but we do know wholies in the most devastated area. this is harris county, houston and the surrounding county, 42% of the population is latino, 30% is white. just shy of 20% african-american. these people, all of them are neighbors and our friends are wondering, and worryi ining wha happens next. the median income in houston, just over $54,000 a year. the poverty rate, above the national average, again the challenge of helping these people impacted by the demographics of the area.
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the census data tells us that 55% of people in houston own their own homes. will it be impacted? will it escape the flooding? will it stay standing? >> the immedianeed to volunteer going to take place over the next couple of years. not just in houston, but everywhere. so that mission is going to continuing to expand. >> the mayor of houston now calling on city employees to volunteer to help those in need. rosa flores is there. rosa, i understand you actually caught up with someone who's leaving that center there? >> reporter: you know they are leaving, some people leaving to other centers because this
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location had overflowed with more than 10,000 people. some are leaving for shelters, some are leaving for churches and some are leaving with their families. one woman, her name willie burton, she's going to be celebrating their birthday tomorrow so she was really happy to leave the center and join her family and she explains how she was rescued. >> this was six of us in the truck and we went down tarleton and he had to go in the water and he had to maneuver, and when we got to lay road, he had to maneuver down there. so it was an ordeal and eventually we got to high ground at mesa shopping center. after we left our brother-in-law's house. we were there thinking we would relax and everything, and then they said the water was rising and it was time to go, so that's
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what we did. >> reporter: after so much pain and trauma and dramatic rescues, some of these people are smiling for the first time today as they reunite with their families. and i saw willie reunite with actually, and they were talking about what they were going to do for willie's birthday. and can you guess what she was hoping for? she was hoping for a little sleep and a him martini because he she is going to be 61 years old tomorrow. >> a lot of hardships still ahead, but good to see some people finding some reasons to celebrate. rosa, thank you very much. for more information, if you're watching and trying to figure out how you can help, go to cnn.com/impactyourworld. president trump says he's going to play mr. fix it in texas and he promises to help
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welcome back. president trump's visit to texas was on his mind today as he took time for this morning's trademark sweets. he said my heart goes out even more so to the great people of texas. on the ground in texas yesterday, the president was briefed on the disaster response efforts and then took outside and address the crowd. >> we love you, you are special. we're here to take care. it's going well and i want to thank you for coming out, we're going to get you back and operating immediately. thank you, everybody, what a crowd, what a turnout. i will tell you this is historic, it's epic, what happened. but you know what? it happened in texas and texas can handle anything.
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thank you all, negotiatifolks. thank you. >> so can the president deliver on that promise of immediate help? cnn's dana bash, carl holts of the "new york times." it was striking to me that even in the middle of this visit to texas, to go to a state in the middle of a disaster, if you look at social media or anywhere, trump is in the eye of the beholder. there was this big debate even before they left the white house, also it was melania's shoes, the president's hat, people are questioning whether or not he showed enough empathy. he stayed out of the way, he went there. >> i think what trump does is amountize quite a bit. i think they were trying to make
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sure they didn't repeat the problem of hurricane katrina and bush not looking like he had hands on. part of your job is a hugger in chief. this is the picture that we all wait for. and he can do that. he can do that later, but i think they are calculating here the best way to do it and have some rough spots. >> it's kind of a no-win situation, if he goes into where there's too much flooding, where the disaster is worst, of course he gets blamed for taking away resources, that's why he did not go there. but he's not the natural hugger in chief and it was never going to be that way, but even giving a speech which was sort of interpreted as being crass, talking about crowd size, i think it was his way of thanking people for being there to help out. it was just a no-win situation, but he did the best he could. >> trump is who he is, he's
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going to be who he is after this comes, some people won't like what he says, some people didn't like what he said yesterday. but most people are worried about what is the government response going to be going forward. so they're just getting past the immediate urgency in houston and that's when the immediacy is how it's going to be done. >> and the editorial board, they're not shy about thumping this president from time to time. "the washington post" saying that it's impossible to ignore the improved response compared to storms past. but at a time when people have so little trust in government, it's worth noting that -- two people who you will not see shaking hands, you will not see nodding in agreement in houston and back here in washington,
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d.c. there was a makeshift city council meeting down there in houston. perhaps some bipartisanship that might grow from here? >> that might grow from this? probably. let's just start with the here and now. i stopped in my tracks when i saw that moment this morning when ted cruz was speaking, the most conservative of politicians, and sheila jackson lee, the most democratic of politicians and both of whom are, and most liberal of poll tickets, both of whom who are aggressively outspoken about their politics, and kind of zinging the opposite party that they were nodding and applauding and agreeing, and that is the way it should be. and they can go off into their corners and be political when it -- when the situation calls for it. but this situation calls for bipartisanship and thank
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goodness we're seeing some grown-ups in the room. >> if you're chris christie, the governor of new jersey, and senator cruz voted against sandy aid. they needed more money, but governor christie remembers and so when he seeing senator cruz on tv now saying we need to help texas he sees hypocrisy. >> if the federal government is not here to help people when 50 inches of rainfall on them in an historic way, what the hell are they there for. i see no sympathy for this and it's disgusting to me that he stands in a recovery center with victims standing behind him as a backdrop and he's still repeating the same reprehensible lies about what happened in
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sandy. it's unacceptable to me, absolutely unacceptable. >> strong language from the republican governor from new jersey. governor christie right, senator cruz responded. >> i'm sorry that there are politicians who seem really desperate to get their names in the news and are saying whatever they need to do that. we have a crisis on the ground and people are hurt right now. for folks who are focused on raising political shots about this and the sandy bill. the fact of the matter is the sandy bill was $70 billion and 60% of it was nonemergency. >> so that blood feud has not taken a break.
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>> senator christie should stand back, he is going to spend years now asking the federal government to deliver billions of dollars to his state and his career, honestly has just taken a big change. >> what do we think is going to happen? the president initially said he wanted it done separately, an emergency aid package to texas, and there will be many, now people on capitol hill who know the best way to do it to get it through, to get the debt ceiling, a spending bill to keep the government up and running, that needs to happen harvey or no harvey. and then they have to get a relief bill. >> we'll see where the votes are, and i think that the fact that the people who are historically the most likely to oppose that kind of, you know, hiding big federal dollars in that kind of bill, many people are from texas, but many of them
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are his constituents. i don't think it's just chris christie versus ted cruz, you said something very important that ted cruz's career is changing, this is a guy who came to washington on the tea party wave, all about doing away with the federal government, with federal spending and now he is at ground zero of needing federal dollars for his constituents and it just goes to show you how things can change like that. >> i want to stop the conversation for a minute to show you a rescue going on right now, i'm told this is cypress, texas. we have a lot of live pictures coming in. you can see there there are boats in the water. bringing a smaller boat up to a larger vehicle, or boat, i can't
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see from the backs of these gentlemen who appear to be on a larger boat, but maybe that's a dock, we don't know because we can't see the picture there. but it scenes like this are playing out all across texas. so the rain has stopped, you can see that in these areas, but that has not stopped the urgency of the search and rescue areas, some areas that were not flooded yesterday, are flooded today with the levees overtopping and coming down with more water. and these are the hats and uniforms, so some of these appear to be first responders, but a lot of people we have seen doing this are people who are good samaritans. miguel, take us through what you're watching. >> reporter: in what you're looking at is people who were stranded in the cypress area of houston, near the addicks
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reservoir, there were also individuals who had previously refused to leave their home and are now getting out of their home. so the way they're doing this, we're in a 5 ton vehicle here, you can see the people here getting in the vehicle. and the fire department that run this is area, is able to drive out. we're about 300 or 400 feet down state highway 6 and then smaller boats are then bringing people to them. and this is basically just a way to get around. i want to talk to david, if i could, you're with the cyfair fire department. >> we're just making sure that all the resident who is didn't want to get out before and want to get out now are getting out. the problem we're having is originally when we have been coming through here, we have been asking residents if they
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want to leave, some people have wanted to stay not realizing the magnitude of the flood and how long the flood is going to be here, and as the news is coming in that it's going to be weeks and weeks for the water to subside, are calling us to come and get them today. >> how many people have refused to leave their homes? >> we received nonstop reports of them. initially they would call and then say no, we decided to stay. and now they're calling us back. >> so far so good. >> reporter: how long were you in there? >> three days. >> reporter: you were going to try to stick it out and there was just no way? >> right. >> reporter: these guys are going to be out here much of the day here, doing the same thing, david, do you know how long you're going to be out hire? >> we're going to be out here as long as we have to be. we are going 24/7 with multiple
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crews. we have had the national guard and private citizens out here helping us as well. and until these floodwaters subside, we're going to be here. >> reporter: the boats are civilians, do you guys have radios with them, are you waiting until these things mill up? >> there's a base where they have to go in and login, we have to account for each and every one of our personnel and also the civilians s assets that we' using, they can go there and eat. >> reporter: john back to you. >> it's extraordinary the makeshift coordination on the fly, between people who do this for a living and good samaritans who are helping them.
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and we're seeing other rescues happening throughout the day? >> reporter: the boats just keep combing and going from here in orange, texas. it's been a day for us in which we started in lake charles about 30 miles from here, that town bracing for a flood, but when the waters didn't come, we got on i-10 west and it was impassable. and this is what we saw, a fire department official here says he believes this is what the entire county looks like. we had record breaking rains yesterday, the worst of it in the middle ott night. so rescues began in the middle of the night. they actually had to suspend the rescue operations at about 3:00 a.m. but started them up again at
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7:00 a.m. now we're looking at the scene of a rescue operation that's really two tiered. because when you get people out of these waters, they take them to the only ground we can see. nobody can quantify how many people have been rescued here, but the problem now we're seeing, is once you find dry ground, where do you go next? there's one, maybe two of these ramps to i-10 that are still usable. so you've got volunteers that are not just here with their boats, but also with their large vehicles, you can see a very large pick-up truck right there trying to help some people. but now the question is, once you get to dry ground, where do you go. there were questions about where is the nearest shelters, we were informing people that you shouldn't even try to go west to beaumont. so lake charles the best option for most people, lake charles,
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because they have been spared this flood, they're turning to how they can help. they're trying to assess what they can handle. but you're seeing here cooperation of local officials, the fire department here, but also volunteers. i saw a boat with a plate from south carolina. john, all hands on deck here as people try to get to safety. >> that's a remarkable scene and again we salute the remarkable efforts and heroism as people chip in and help. another reminder, the rain may have stopped in the houston area, but the challenge continues, again, a break for houston at the moment, but many people still addition placed, that shifting water still causing problems there, we're waiting to hear from the government greg abbott and his daily update on how houston is recovering from harvey.
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. take you straight to austin texas, the governor, greg abbott. >> good afternoon. there is a lot to report, some new information. first as a recap about yesterday and that is as you know, the president of the united states was here in the state of texas, first in corpus christi, to talk to local officials about challenges they were facing because of damages incurred in their various counties, especially the very hard hit, port aransass, rock port area and the desperate needs they have to get power restored as well as to begin the rebuilding process. and then the president was here at this operations center and got to see what we do. his commitment was firm, strong and unequivocal, that he was going to do everything he could to ensure that texas will be
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restored as swiftly and as effectively as possible. as-all know, there's been rapidly changing conditions in the state of texas. while at the same time, we are beginning the rebuilding process around the coastal bend region. and while we are dealing with what is now receding waters in harris county and the ongoing evacuation as well as safety rescue process in harris county, we're now also dealing with the catastrophic conditions in southeast texas. and those conditions are a threat to life and property. and that is required that we take measures to do all we can to help protect them. and i will cover part of that in
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various different categories as i go through this discussion. first let me tell you, that since i last announced the status of the national guard in the state of texas, i last announced that we had 12,000 national guard members activated, that number has been increased to 14,000. the reason for that is that some members have come back from deployment overseas, others who were unable to participate because their own homes had been subject to flooding or damage, they are now able to help participate. bottom line, we are now up to our highest level of the number of texas national guard members who are deployed to help our fellow texans deal with these challenges, we are also, as we speak, coordinating with the national guard bureau to deploy
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an additional 10,000 national guard who were being deployed here from other states. so that will take us up to a total of approximately 24,000 national guard who will be deployed here in the state of the texas. now some of those will be arrayed across the greater harris county area, we are immediately deploying far more to southeast texas to deal with the emergency conditions that people are facing in southeast texas and we will continue to deploy more west of the harris county area, all the way through victoria, to the coastal bend region. we are also getting immediately, 200 boats and 200 vehicles from the department of defense to be assigned where needed. as you might imagine, the most urgent location for that is in
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the greater beaumont/southeast texas area, as well as ongoing needs in the greater harris county area. i have asked for and received an expansion of the number of could have beens a-- number of countis added to the national disaster declaration, now the total is 33 counties are part of the federal disaster declaration. we have added 14 counties, and i want to list these counties so that people in these counties will understand that by being included in this federal disaster declaration, individuals, as well as local
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governments are going to be eligible to receive aid from fema. first i'm going to list 11 counties that are -- have what i call a complete federal disaster declaration, which includes both individual assistance, as well as public assistance. these new counties, include colorado county, fayette county, harden county, jasper county, jefferson county, montgomery county, newton county, orange county, sabine county, san jacinto county, and waller county. there are four counties added to the federal disaster declaration where public assistance is available, but individual assistance is not. the reason for that is these four counties were not the subject of disasters in the way that these other counties are,
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but they are aiding in the support of the disaster. and they include dallas, tarrant, travis and bexar county, these are all counties that are providing a tremendous amount of public assistance in dealing with these challenges, such as sheltering evacuees, and other law enforcement assistance to these efforts. i want to emphasize something very important. that i will come back to several times during my remarks. for the people in these counties i just listed, especially those 11 counties that are going to be receiving individual assistance, you need to write down this website address. it is disasterassistance.gov.
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if you are in one of the counties that's part of the federal disaster declaration, you will be eligible for immediate support from fema, that you can register to receive at disasterassistant.gov. let me talk to you a little bit about weather, where we are, and where we're going. first as you know, the rain that was received in the greater harris county area has set an all-time record. now that rain has moved to the beaumont region in southeast texas. approximately 15 inches of rain have already fallen in the area and there's more to come. the worst is not yet over for southeast texas as far as the rain is concerned. there will be ongoing challenges both during the time that rain continues to fall as well as for
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approximately four days to a week to come. let me mention specifically, flooding conditions that will continue to be a challenge for people in the area. and includes the sabine and natchez rivers, there will be record flooding in the lower natchez and the flooding there may last a week. major flooding will continue for a few days in the beaumont region and the lower brazos river region where there could be extensive flooding for about a week if not longer. and the lower colorado region, there should be flooding for the rest of the week. over in victoria and querro, there should be ongoing flooding for a few days. it is important for people in all of these regions, as well as
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in every county that's affected by storms that you continuie to listen to and heed local warnings about evacuation, to listen to, heed and follow evacuation notices and then of course on top of that, always please remember, and that issive there is flooding around your area, do not drive into that flooded area, many of the lives, if not most of the lives that have been lost in this devastating storm so far are lives that have been lost because of people who were driving vehicle into flooded waters. do not drive your vehicle into flooded waters. some information based upon certain categories, first, the texas national guard. they are active in 25 locations across the state. as i mentioned, we now have
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14,000 state national guard deployed. with more than 600 vehicles, 500 boats and 100 helicopters. they have been doing most recently air rescue missions in the beaumont region and in the past week, they have made more than 8,500 rescues, more than 26,000 evacuations and more than 1,400 shelter in place and welfare checks. they will continue in a most immediate time period, search and rescue operations and aiding shelter operations across the state. some information about the puc and access to power. there is an urgent need to get
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power restored in the coastal bend region, in aransass county, port aransass, aransass pass and other locations. there are still 107,000 outages, that is an improvement since the last time i reported which i think was around the 138,000 level. but the good news is, there are many new power crews that are out now working in the region to reduce the power outages. since the last time i reported, there are two other power companies with reports. our numbers showed that center point has a little bit more than 90,000 power outages and that would be primarily in the greater harris county
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