again, there is always some uncertainty being this far away. this is miami. you can see in between cuba and florida. one more for you, that's a category four. >> we're going to have to leave that one there, tom. but i know you will leave a close watch on it. i'm jim sciutto. thanks very much for watching. erin burnett outfront starts right now. >> next, breaking news, a major evacuation ordered just moments ago. we have the very latest. and 27 trillion gallons of water. that is what we're talking about in texas. officials warning the fillth in the water could be the biggest risk. and another monster hurricane looming in the atlantic. let's go out front. and good evening. i'm erin burnett. emergency evacuations. a mandatory evacuation just ordered for orange county, texas.

this is 130 miles to the east of houston. thousands threatened as officials fear two near by rivers could overflow. this is happening as they are out of water today. residents stood in long lines overnight hours before stores opened with little more than the hope that there would still be some bottled water to drink. the baptist hospital forced to evacuate almost all or all of its patients and an almost four-hour drive away north of the devastation, drivers in dallas panicking at the pumps. long lines of kars waiting to pay $4.50 a gallon. anticipating gas shortages across the southeast. an incredible scale of devastation. i want to show you this in texas. 40 miles east of houston. there, as you see, unbelievable flooding. a couple drown there after

accidentally driving into that flood water. 35 miles west of houston, this is brookshire, texas. this area especially hard hit by harvey. you see that incredible overflow. once again, our reporters are covering the story from every angle all across the zone. we begin with miguel out front tonight outside the hospital where patients are being evacuated. this evacuation obviously terrifying for those involved and it has been going on every day. they just don't have water. >> yeah. this is like a military operation here. the good thing here is that the evacuation here was not in anger or haste. this was not a situation where the flood waters were rising up on the hospital. the city ran out of water and they had to move people out. they had been doing that all day long. you have helicopter after helicopter moving patients. typically they would move them to houston, but they can't do that because houston is so innone dated right now. it is unclear when the situation will be rectified.

this is a city of 120,000 people. they found out on very short notice that their water was going away. they found out overnight as well. one of the pump stations failed on the river as it went up and up and up. a second one failed just north of here in harden county where they get about 30% of their water. and then that was it. the water literally ran out across the city. the river is not meant to crest until tomorrow at this point, which means they can't even get to the place they need to get to. those pumps, it is a major emergency here and keep in mind, all of this on top of the massive, massive rain that they have had in this area. 300 water rescues today, alone, in the city alone of beaumont.

i just flew from north houston to here. areas along the way, along the trinity river out along the middle of nowhere in texas, it is under water. these tiny towns, how long it will take for them to get help and get back to normal, it is impossible to say. >> thank you very much. and you talk about that fear of not having clean water. it is a race against time to rescue many families still trapped in the deadly flood waters, which of course are rising and still rising and perhaps not even going to crest until tomorrow. anderson cooper is live. i know you went on board a helicopter and helped to rescue people. i want to know everyone a look at one of those rescues. >> that's eric, the flight mechanic.

>> anderson, what was it like up there today? >> you know, it is interesting because the crew when i started out early this morning, they didn't think there was going to be a lot happening. they kind of thought today, given the weather and length of time that has passed that there wouldn't really be much need for rescues. by the end of the day they had gotten 15 people, helped them get to safety throughout the course of several hours. so to watch them work, though, is really extraordinary. first of all, even though the skies are clear and the weather is good, rain is not an issue for them, it is very dangerous flying for them. there are a lot of choppers in the area, from the military, the coast guard and others. they have to keep a constant watch, turning their heads all the time, left and right, up and down to make sure they know where the choppers are in their area. they really try to focus on areas they don't see a lot of

boats. they basically scan the ground. yeah, they get some 911 calls there, but for the most part it is all just visual. people on rooftops asking for help. and they go to areas where they think boats can't get or near areas that aren't near main roads. so that's what they focus on. but it is really like finding a needle in a haystack. there is a lot of tree cover. they have to fly very low. it is very dangerous for them. but their precision is extraordinary. when they see somebody they swoop in about 150 feet over that person. they lower a rescue swimmer who goes down, who assesses the situation and they lower a basket and bring people up, often with their pets and they bring them to safety. it is extraordinary. they thought today wouldn't be busy cht it was. they are going to be out there again tomorrow. they have rescued or aided as many as 9,000 people so far in texas and louisiana. >> incredible numbers.

anderson, thank you very much. and i want to remind everybody that tonight anderson has j.j. watt with him, who has helped raise more than $12 million for victims of the storm. now i want to go to ryan nobles out front live in orange, texas. the situation there growing more serious. you have mandatory evacuations. pretty much everyone, most people at least in that town and county, what are you seeing happen? >> yeah. you can tell, erin, this is a normally pretty busy part of texas right now. and it is pretty much deserted because we are standing in about two and a half feet of water and the water does not appear to be receding, and that is a big concern right now for the emergency management officials in this eastern part of texas. they are worried that the flooding is not over yet. it is for a combination of reasons. one being the fact that the river, which is just about two miles from where we're standing

has yet to crest. when that does, it could lead to more flooding. there is also a dam on the other side of the river in louisiana which they are periodically releasing water from to allow some of the pressure to be taken off some of the bodies of water in this community. that could also lead to flooding in in community. while they felt as though they had gotten through the worst of the storm, this second round of flooding potential has encouraged the emergency management officials to emergency mandatory evacuations for certain parts of orange county, texas. it is not the entire county, but there are specific targeted areas, those low lying areas where they have decided just to get people out. from what we can tell and we have talked to quite a few people, everyone is heeding these warnings, primarily because they don't want to mez with this because they are not accustomed to this type of flooding. this is a community that in more than 20 years has never seen this level of flooding, so they

do not want to mess with it. but it will be important for this community to see if the flooding is going to get worse. and it is only then they could begin the process of rebuilding and recovering. >> ryan, thank you very much. and i want to go now to judge jeff. he is a top official in jefferson county. judge, i appreciate your time. we just were talking to our reporter in beaumont, which lost its clean water supply. people don't have clean drinking water. it seems unclear when that is going to change. obviously, this could be life or death. how soon do you think the water will be working? >> well, the forecast is for the river to peak tomorrow at about 1:00 p.m. once it's peaked, we will see some recession of the water. once the water goes down, then

the city crews will be able to get in and dry to determine what happened. although, we think the water undags caused the shards that killed the pump, so they should be able to get after that pretty quickly and we're hopeful we'll get water restored at the beginning of the week. >> are you going to be able to get water to your citizens in the meantime? obviously if that's within a few days, if people don't have water, don't have bottled water, that is life or death. are they going to be able to get the water they need to drink? >> drinking water shouldn't be a problem. it's sanitary water that's going to be difficult for the citizenry. they're going to have walmart and local grocers in texas distributing water as we speak. there are state assets that are coming in. the problem is is that the water

innone dags blocked all of our major thoroughfares for transportation. all of those have been underwater. so state and federal resources that normally assist after natural disasters haven't been able to push in here and deliver them. they're just slowly starting to trickle in this evening as one of the highways, 90, was able to be opened up. but almost immediately after it opened there was a refinely closure over houston that closed the western regions of it. that further compounded the delivery of goods that could be pushed to points of distribution to the citizens. >> i know in port arthur you have people in shelters desperate for supplies. 1,500 people we know at least have sought ref uj in schools or

churches and many of these places have been running out of crucial things. when will these people get food and relief? >> that should be starting distributed this evening. several 18-wheelers have been able to enter the county through the western portion or northern eastern and southern areas. there is still no traffic coming in. we've gotten a couple 18-wheelers with clots, blankets and pillows. so those will be starting to be pushed to the shelters. we've got over 1,000 people at our airports, special needs being triaged. from there they will be put on hand busses or busses for delivery to other parts of the state for short term care. >> i appreciate your time. thank you and of course our thoughts are with you.

good luck on that. some crucial moments here ahead for the county. and next health crisis. there is a new threat, growing fear tonight over the toxic stew and what it could bring in terms of sickness and disease. flood victims getting their first look going back home and it is too much for some to bare. >> and, you know, to be honest, i don't know if i want to be here very long. >> and now all eyes on this, a category three hurricane forming incredibly early over the atlantic. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,... ...isn't it time to let the real you shine through? maybe it's time for otezla (apremilast). otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently.

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only at walmart. with no artificial preservatives hot doin all of our meat.. and no added nitrates or nitrites. in every... single... one. so, fire up the grill before summer's over, and finish summer strong with oscar mayer. breaking news tonight, a deadly disaster emerging. homes businesses and streets are flooded and it is not just water. it is a toxic stew of chemicals, stewage, debris, so hazard daus the epa and texas officials are warning the water could be the biggest threat to health at this time. tonight we will go to the center of it all to show you exactly what people in texas are dealing with tonight. elizabeth cohen is out front. >> reporter: countless people have waded through these flood waters. some for hours. now the question is what's in it?

alligators, hordes of fire ants and many things you can't see. >> let's start sampling. >> reporter: we asked her to investigate. >> what do you think is in this water? >> based on testing, we are pretty sure that it will be various bacteria, sewage related, things like e. kol form, strep. >> so now we're testing for chemicals. >> yes. this will be for the various heavy metals. >> so like arsenic, lead. >> yes, arsenic, lead. >> this water is everywhere. >> yes. >> so that means that the contamination is -- >> everywhere. >> we asked an emergency medicine specialist. >> what you are walking through this mawater, you cannot see wh you're stepping on. >> there is a lot of fecal

matter and stewage in this water. the most concerning thing that you could see would be things like -- >> the first wave of the disaster flooding and rescues. the second wave the health concerns that come in the aftermath. >> erin, i want to show you what this water looks like. take a look. it is a yellowish brownish color. and those tests that we did to see what's in here, to see what people have been wading through, we will get those lults back in the next day or two and we will share them with you. >> we will have that out front. i want to go now to our general who commanded the military response during hurricane katrina. this may not surprise you. but when you see this, this toxic stew they say could be the

biggest threat to pubic health right now, sewage, deadly fire ants, deadly wildlife, chemicals, toxic chemicals, oil, gas, how big of a fear is this? >> it is a fear and we need to do another risk assessment. right now if you lose power, in many of these communities people are still living in their homes. we are in a street right here -- >> we're showing pictures of fire ants. these are the kinds of things floating in the water. i'm sorry to interrupt you, general. go ahead. >> a lot of people are still in their homes with water in the street. they're able to do that because a power grid is still up. the power grid goes down like it did in beaumont today, and we will go to a megadisaster here

in dallas. if they can't get water and if you lose power and it is 93 degrees today, i think a quick assessment needs to be made based on what's in the flood water to start looking at a selected evacuation of high risk people that are currently in the city that's in the flood zone. if there are nursing homes and hospitals, they're at risk. it is a function of time before more of the grid go down and i think that should be highest priority of all of government, to figure those out, erin, and start doing the high risk evacuation now because you can still get around this city, but you need to take the risk assessment and move them because if the grid go down, we're going to have a mess. >> that's a terrifying thing to think about. the grid holding up is one of the incredible things so far. you point out katrina, they

called it a toxic soup and everything was in there and as we all know, even decomposing human bodies in that water. what can texas do right now to stop it or at this point it just seems like it is what it is. >> thanks for that focus. what we had every soldier, sailor and marine that walked in that water we did a hot soak wash down. number one, try to avoid contact to your skin. if it does get on your skin, you wash it with hot soap. when you go into it and you come back out with your clothes, you wash them off and we go to spray points. so to people still walking in that water, if you go debt it on your skin, you need to wash it off immediately and make sure any cuts you might have that you have got a current tetanus shot. it is very significant to have a

current tetanus shot. if you don't know, find out. if not, go get one. >> you told us the response to the crisis, your words were very powerful. you called it amateur hour. today the texas governor, local officials came out to praise the response and here is some of what they said. >> i have never seen a president, a vice president or a cabinet who have responded as swiftly and as effectively to people in need like the people of texas overcoming the tragedy of hurricane harvey. >> i think the response has been -- has been adequate throughout the community. >> at the present time we think we do have enough boots on the ground. >> general, we also spoke to the former fema director and he told outfront he thinks the response in his words is going well. are they all wrong? do you see something different still today?

>> well, i see if we don't get more deployment of troops in, we've got to get it in every town, every community. we have to push the national guard out to the rural areas and get the big troops in to help fix the infrastructure and the continue to search and rescue. i do think we need to scale up. we don't have enough troops here and we don't have enough on the way. i beg to be wrong and let the politicians be right. but after this search and rescue effort, if they do it to standard and they do it right, unless we have a different way of doing it in texas, this is going to take 30 to 40,000 people to search all of these homes twice, include go into them. and on top of that, the possibility of the grid starting to fail based on the flood waters as they continue to go through the city of houston. i hope i'm wrong and i hope they are right. but i don't see the world the

way they see it. i see it through riding around this state 18 hours a day for the last three days and i'm telling you the thing that's holding up is because this grid holds up. if the lights go out, this is going to be a government changing event here. >> certainly. general, thank you. and next live pictures of dallas, gas station there running out because of harvey. and north carolina declaring a state of emergency because of anticipated gas shortages as it spreads across the country. storm victims going inside their homes for the first time to see what, if anything, is left. we're with a family. during the made to move 2017 clearance event, you can do endless online research about the ct6. or you can come in and have it all for less than you might imagine. don't wait. our 2017 models will be moving fast. you can drive a car. or you can drive a cadillac.

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breaking news, 100,000 homes affected by hurricane harvey. that is the number tonight from the white house. from some families their worst fears are being realized. homes they may frankly never be able to call a home again. alex is outfront. alex you went with families as they tried to go home for the first time. what did they find? >> that's right, erin. now that the rain has stopped and the waters are starting to recede, many people are going home for the first time, assessing the incredible damage in their home. it has been absolutely heart-breaking to see people realize the full extent of this damage as i mentioned many for the first time. these waters are expected to stay here for around five to six weeks, but it is unclear how many of these homes are still livable. >> this the first time that bill wolf has been able to get back to his house since being

evacuated. >> surreal is probably the understatement of the century here. you know, watching a 30 foot fishing boat drive down your street is something you have never seen before. this is my intersection here and, i don't know, this is crazy. >> we'll see how high the water is, though. >> yeah. we'll see if i can even get in or not. >> this captain is taking wolf back. >> one minute you are stressed about your gutters and the next minute everything you have is ruined. >> it was evans who rescued the wolf family along with their cat and dog in the middle of the storm on monday. >> oh, lord. after navigating the boat to the door, we went sba the living roomment furniture floating through passed the pictures of his sons. >> i'm really proud of them.

i'm really proud of them, my wife, my family. and they're tough little kids. >> they're holding up? >> yeah. yeah. i'm not an emotional guy. i'm pretty calm and this has been too much for me. to be honest, i don't know if i want to be here very long. >> back in the office, the real loss becomes clear. >> i had a 150-year-old family bible in this water. >> is this the worst part, is the personal stuff? >> yeah. i mean, this is the stuff that you can't replace, right? i mean, this is -- these are my son's birth announcements. right? i mean -- >> upstairs where it is dry, wolf throws his sons toys and sheets into garbage backs. >> you think there is a possibility you may never live in this house again? >> it's going to sit here for a month or two in six feet of water.

>> people taking stock of their belongings and their lives. >> this 86-year-old is also back for the first time. with captain evans we found him on monday in his dark bedroom alone with no power. he needs his medicine, so evans heads inside past countless positions now suspended in the dark flood waters. >> this was his office, all these papers piled high on his desk. the water in here is so high back there in the kitchen the fridge is now floating on its side. >> on the boat, he tries to take it all in. >> just very confusing. can't get it wrapped up in my mind what's going to be next and what i'm going to need to do. >> grab it. >> they with just two of the countless people who the captain has helped this week, and his work is far from over. >> you see this stuff on tv, but this is total devastation in every way, physically, emotionally. >> erin, this is the tireless

captain kenny evans right here. and all the people who have come out to help over the past few weeks. back to you. >> all right. thank you. of course, thanks to him and i know that those families going home are so grateful. no matter what devastation they found to be able to get any of those pictures, they owe it to you, sir. thank you. as families are dealing with this devastation, vice president pence was on the ground today. pence helping to clean up the debris in a badly damaged neighborhood in rockport. he went and cleared tree branches from the home. pence also displayed empathy, which is something a white house official told jim acosta the president had failed to do. >> to see the outpours of compassion and concern was deeply inspiring to us. we stood in a yard. we watched total strangers

helping people put their families and their lives back together. >> this is the white house says president trump will return to the region on saturday. our presidential historian. doug, thank you very much. the president was criticized when he was there for not meeting with storm victims and that there was no hugging victims or helping out as we saw from the vice president today. it was a very different set of images. he was actually cleaning up debris, hugging people and comforting people who of course were affected by hurricane h harv harvey. >> i think vice president pence got it right. you have to show the heart. you have to hug people, be on the ground, touch people. i think president trump got off to a bad start. he was doing one of his tweeter things when the storm was starting to hit. but then he did the right thing

by young in state. he got to corpus christi but suddenly stood against the wall with the crowd a half a football field away and gave a speech, but he never touched to the victims of the storm and talked to them. so i think the president is going back on saturday to try to correct that. >> let me just give everyone a sense. here is a little bit of what the president said when he went down on his first visit and what vice president pence said today. just to get a sense of president trump, he said, we love you, you're special. we're here to take care and he continued to say, thank you, everybody. what a crowd, what a your honor out. and vice president pence was more along the lines of you have inspired the nation with your resilience and courage. will we see a changed trump when he goes to houston on saturday. >> he's a germaphobe. he may want to touch that water you have just been showing me, not want to be hands on with

people or go into a shelter because many people in an unhinged kind of environment might boo and hiss him. i don't think we're going to see him doing what pence did today. >> now, we did say he's going to donate $1 million to the harvey recovery efforts. obviously, that is a lot of money. is it possible that that's just sort of who he is and the way he's going to do it andtributio >> i agree. and i think thumb's up, he gave $1 million. it was the right thing to do. so we have to give him credit for that. but history is not going to look well on what's going on. many people are saying this is a climate event. we've had unbelievable monsoons and now perhaps irma. people have to talk about climate change.

he has pulled out of paris and is going to find himself saying texas is going to be bigger and better. the governor today said we need $100 billion probably and that's going to be hard to get congress to do that c. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it, doug. next, two brothers drive seven hours to help with rescues, carrying people to safety. their story next. and a dangerous storm gaining strength in the atlantic. it's already a category three. the storm track next. electric light orchestra ]

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breaking news, our cameras capturing a daring helicopter rescue late today near beaumont. a rescuer lowered from a helicopter into rapidly moving flood water as you can see there trying to rescue a man clinging to a tree as you can see back there where there is the water rushing by. it is one of the amazing rescue missions we have seen this week from the devastating flood waters in texas. there are so many people rescuing their own lives to try to help. two of them are brothers. you're looking at them here. they got in their truck and decided to go and help. it was a 200 mile trip and it

took nearly seven hours as you guys braved the storm and the floods. thank both of you for, you know, coming on with us. this is one of your rescues. jonathan on the right helping the group lift an elderly woman in a wheelchair to safety. and then they helped another elderly woman as you can see here on jonathan's back. i know you rescued her husband, their bedridden son, their two grandchildren. the water inside that home was rising quickly. already on seat level for their couch and chairs. thanks to both of you. i know you helped in dozens of rescues here over the last couple days. that video of carrying mrs. gonzalez on your back is very touching. tell us what happened with her and her family. >> well, we responded to a distress call that was sent in

that night. it was sunday night. we were headed from the dallas area to houston and our friends, they were contacted saying that this family was left behind and they couldn't get out. it was a complicated situation because of the son that was bedridden. he just had major surgery and he couldn't walk or sit up on his own. they were afraid if they weren't taken out that night they might not make it through the night. so joshua, he obviously spearheaded this whole us coming out here and we got there at about midnight sunday night and we were able to dock off of a highway ramp and make it there by boat. took us about an hour to get through there with the boat. once we got into the house, we were able to help them get to

safety. it was dark. it was cold. and they were all really scared. but thankfully we were able to get them to the boat. >> i know the neighbor had you went into and this rescue had already been cleared out. so theoretically everybody was out. but of course ythey weren't. and you went back in and found this family. you are here to try to do good things. were you scared? >> well, of course. you know, i was watching the news on my couch in the comfort of my own home with my children sunday and it just didn't feel right laying on the couch and watching houston suffer. it almost felt like a sin. so i felt that god put on my heart to call my brother and say we're going to houston. of course it was scary. when you are going off of faith and adrenaline and basically self-lessness, which i think i'm not the only one. i think everyone out there just completely stops thinking about

themselves for once and started thinking about humanity, started thinking about safety and love and it is very touching. it is mauoving. i just can't believe how many people came together in the middle of the politics, trash and i'm sorry to call it that, but the racism and all this bad news that we have been hearing, even though this is bad news, of course it is heart-breaking, it is a beautiful thing to see everybody come together. and i could almost see the joy in everybody's hearts and in their faces just because of the unity that was coming together. so, yeah, it was very scary. it was eerie. it was dark. the water was almost black just from the sewage and contamination. you can see from the picture how dark the water is. almost up to the mailbox. we need it to the folks home. i can't believe we made it there and connected to where they opened the toor and this elderly

gentlemen left and we go to the room and we're shining the light. the room was just ahead and the gentleman was laying in bed, water inches away from his funds, which could have gone septic, a little girl sitting on a couch probably six or seven years old on the backseat of the couch, just shivering and scared to death, that broke my heart. i had to turn away a few times and, you know, you know how it is. somebody has to be the camera man. the camera man doesn't get to be in the picture, but that's okay because my brother has the brown and i have the brains. so it worked out anyway. we carried those guys out of there. got them out of the septic water, the trash water and carried them to safety. and i just want to say something. i want to thank the people that are behind the scenes, like tracy and michael, who were our

connections to here. i think there are thousands of people that were first responders that have people in the background scene that have been spearheading, have been giving shelter, food. if it wasn't for those folks, we would not have been able to be so successful. very touching, very moving. i love seeing texas come together. we love seeing the red necks and the city folks come together as one and unity. nobody criticizing about camouflage or hunting. and it just shows that us -- and i'm a hunter myself. it shows that whenever it comes down to people uniting for one cause and one person, you know, we were almost -- we were actually almost conditioned for this, if you think about it. a lot of the hunters and fishermen were almost conditioned for this. isn't it nice to know we have so many boats out there? >> and everyone was willing to

do this. jonathan, i know you were visiting your brother in texas. but you live in california. you had a flaight to go home. you let it go and decided to stay and help. that's got to be now one of the most important decisions you have ever made. >> yeah. it's not easy. i'm seeing all these kids that we're helping out and the families and i'm thinking about mine in the background. my wife amy and my two boys are in san diego now. they left monday morning first thing. i was supposed to be on the flagt with them and, you know, they were willing to make the sacrifice and let me go with joshua to help these people in houston and, you know, that's -- it's a big sacrifice they made and i miss them very much. i have been gone -- i haven't seen them since sunday and hopefully i can see them soon, but right now there is a huge need here and we're doing what we can to help.

>> sorry. a quick final word. go ahead. >> yeah. i was just going to say speaking of that, we do need to thank our wives back at home for taking care of the children and being so understanding and self-less to lend their husbands. but we want to thank our wives for that. and before you let us go, i do want to menks a new names of some folks want to thank because it is important that us two here, yeah, we might be in front of the camera, but we had a whole team from ellis county, you know, we had matt heeber and eric myer, matt bowling, paster buck, so many people that responded and dropped everything. i mean, from business owners to people working for corporations and pastors. so it is wonderful. it's really mauving.

>> they have all done so much and i thank you very much for >> next the category three hurricane churning in the atlantic could be headed towards the united states. it is forming incredibly early and incredibly strong. more stations running out of gas in texas and a state of emergency because of harvey. we will show you what's happening to gas. nasal congest? find fast relief behind the counter with claritin-d. strut past that aisle for the steroid free allergy relief that starts working in as little as 30 minutes. and contains the best oral decongestant. live claritin clear with claritin-d.

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>>. >> agreeing concern about gas shortages as far as way as north carolina. this is video from dallas and massive lines at the pump. how bad is the situation there? >> reporter: it's definitely not looking good if you are looking to fill up your tank with gas. you will find one of two things. you will find gas stations fresh out of supply. no gas there. you will find huge lines at gas stations all over dallas. our crew car ran out of gas on empty. it took four stations to find that had gas and we had to wait 45 minutes to get up to the pump. guy had to drive 35 miles to

find gas and ran out in the process and had to push his car to the pump. why is this happening? for one it's a distribution and supply issue. refineries in port arthur are shut down. those service the area of dallas. when they are shut down, it means the supply of gas rene can't get here. there was a frantic call on social media and facebook and twitter of long lines. also the higher price is not helping either. we are seeing the price is up at least 10 cents a gallon and prices very different all over dallas. one gas station for a gallon of regular. 4:49 a gallon. that takes an investigation, but we are definitely seeing a situation where you see a rush of everybody depleting the source of gas. >> thank you very much. also tonight as we are dealing

with that, fears are growing about another powerful and dangerous hurricane. all eyes shifting to what's called hurricane irma. already a category three. tom is in the weather center. where is irma headed and will it get much stronger? already a category and still so far away. >> it's unbelievable. just yesterday it was named a tropical storm and now it went to category one, two, three. that's a major hurricane. we are not following it because of the damage in harvey, but here is irma. we watched the waves come off the coast of africa, but this caught our eye because it's extreme growth and early birth. this system is making itsz way towards the caribbean and has eyes on the southeastern u.s. the national hurricane center is up to a category four. it is computer models are like they were with harvey. the further out in time you go, it starts to spread. the model handled harvey well.

this tropical wave with a following behind it makes its way as category four and goes towards puerto rico. on saturday night from florida to cuba, it could make its way and the u.s. model has it about 1,000 miles away. this is just to the west of bermuda towards cape cod. we are watching the southern track. if we have a landfall, believe it or not, that could be 9/11. between september 11th or 12th or 13th. we need or five days to keep an eye on this. >> thank you very much. >> i want to turn to another story breaking and that's the russia investigation. president trump's lawyers met with robert mueller to argue he

did not obstruct justice in firing jim comey. significant reporting here that there have been meetings between trump's legal team and bob mueller. what more do you know? >> meetings and memos providing to trump's special counsel saying he did not obstruct justice in his handling of the james comey situation in his firing. saying it was well within his constitutional authority to do so and even raising questions about comey's credibility. but erin, we know that the president when we did fire james comey later said publicly that the russia investigation was on his mind. still they are trying to content in private discussions that there was nothing illegal or wrong and it was constitutional. as we know bob mueller is looking into the issue of obstruction. >> that's a big issue and you also have more news on the jim comey front tonight. >> that's right. chuck grassley, the chairman of

the senate judiciary committee announcing they received transcripts from the fbi from fbi officials saying that james comey reached a conclusion about the hillary clinton e-mail investigation in april or may of 2016, before even interviewing hillary clinton according to the transcripts they they released. they were redacted transcripts and this is not the way to run an investigation and shows that comey, they believe, reached a conclusion about the e-mail matter before actually interviewing her and interviewing key witnesses. comey and a source close to him pushing back on that saying he had not reached a conclusion and was looking at this as a possibility that she would not be charged with anything criminally, but clearly more fodder for the white house. sarah huckabee sanders jumping on this and the white house

seeing this as well to give them covering in the firing of james comey. >> thank you very much with those breaking developments at this hour. thanks to all of you for joining us. breaking news coverage continues with "ac 360." good evening from houston. there are new challenges tonight across the area. the entire city of beaumont covered in floodwater without clean dranking water and will be for days. 118,000 people live there and many of those who can are lining up for bottled water. far from the disaster area, people are lining up for gasoline and refineries and major pipelines and the resulting gas shortages and already being felt in a number of states and likely to increase. back here as door-to-door searches begin in houston, the death toll stands at 39. some of the other numbers associated with the storm are staggering. harvey dumped an