thank you very much for joining us on "early start." "new day" has you covered. one week since harvey hit. all of the destruction, the rescue and recovery efforts right now. we'll see you next week. when you look at comparisons, it's far larger than katrina, far larger than sandy. >> the food is running out, the water is running out. >> it's just unbelievable, a nightmare we can't wake up from. >> it's a long way to go. it's not months, but it's years. >> the death toll continues to rise as the president prepares for his trip to the flood zone saturday. >> i've seen a lot of things. but that terrified me. >> it's not even real. you see this stuff on tv. this is total devastation in every way. >> can't fight mother nature. she's given us one right now. our citizens are ready for it.

>> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world, this is "new day," friday, september 1st, 5:00 here in houston. one week ago today hurricane harvey made landfall here in southeast texas. today there's no rain. instead the skies are filled with helicopters searching for survivors. we have seen dramatic images of these rescues around the clock. more than 72,000 people have been rescued. the storm's death toll kwonconts to climb. as of today, 47 people were killed by harvey's rath. neighborhoods like the one i'm standing in, this is called will chester west. the white house estimates more than 100,000 homes like the ones you see behind me are either damaged or destroyed. the scope of the catastrophic flooding is captured in these

stunning satellite neighborhoods. entire neighborhoods that were once green are now submerged in brown water. of course, chris, there are concerns about contamination and diseases that you see behind me and all across the houston region. >> fema announcing they've approved assistance for nearly 100,000 people so far. the job is going the fall to congress. they're awaiting the trump administration's request for billions in emergency funding, the first wave of help to kind of deal with the fallout of the disaster. sources tell cnn the house could vote as early as next week on that first round of funding. vice president mike pence in texas consoling victims, seeing the devastation firsthand, even chipping in in some cleanup. president trump plans to go to houston tomorrow to meet with victims. the more dire situation is taking place in beaumont, texas. that's a city of more than 118,000 people. they have no drinking water.

their pump and the backup pump are both flooded. so people are waiting in these long lines for a ration of bottled water. it will force the city's hospital to evacuate many of its patients. they're having a hard time placing them. let's begin our coverage with cnn's miguel marquez live in beaumont. what's the situation there? >> the situation is they have too much problems on their hand. still too much water coming down the natchez river. it's rapids in the middle of beaumont this morning. they don't have any water coming out of the faucets. that's why the hospital has had to shut down. they still have 85 patients left. it's been like a military maneuver getting those out. critically ill. those in the icu, nine premature babies were moved out, all of them by helicopter. they have to do that because the roads, even the freeways around

beaumont are all shut down. officials say they'll continue moving patients out in the next 24, 48 hours, all of them by air. we expect more of that sort of activity today. this is a town suffering some of the worst. they had 300 water rescues in the city of beaumont alone yesterday. they had over a thousand in the county surrounding it. this is a place literally in the thr throws in two different crises. they're not doing it in haste. they have enough water for now that was trucked in, but they need to get patients out so they can take care of them in other facilities. chris, alisyn? >> miguel, thank you very much for all that reporting. we'll get an update right now. joining us on the phone is beaumont police officer haley

morrow. officer, thank you for being here. what can you tell our viewers about the 118,000 people living in beaumont? >> right now our first responders and city of public works department is running at 110%. they are furiously working to get an alternative solution that will get our water system up and running. of course, we're having to thinning outside the box and try to get something together so we can start pushing water to our water treatment facilities plant and get water running to our citizens. in the meantime, we believe we're going to have a point of distribution center set up very soon, as early as a few hours. we're telling our viewers to be looking for a press release for the location on that. we're just continuing water rescues. they are not happening as often as they were initially, but we're still working on that. our emergency operations center

is running on all cylinders. we've got a lot of different operations going on. now the state assets and the different agencies coming down to help us are finally getting here, getting into place and we're trying to get our plans together. >> obviously you can use all the help you can get. we're looking at aerial images of your town and your city, and it looks incredible. just sub merged by this water. there was a mandatory evacuation in beaumont, was there not? >> actually in the city of beaumont we have not had a mandatory evacuation. we initially started out with a voluntary evacuation to the areas very close to the pine island bayou and the village creek. that's to the north of our city limits. a few other places are doing mandatory evacuations but the city of beaumont is not right now. >> when we look at these images, it's hard to imagine how people

stayed behind. we heard miguel marquez just say there were 300 water rescues. what happens now? how are people still in these homes, how are they going to get water and get out and survive this? >> well, for the most part, like i said, the water rescues are slowed down. our shelters are closed. we have been able to -- some people have been able to return to their homes, a large percent, maybe more than 50% have been able to return to their homes because water has receded in many areas. the other small percentage of people still displaced, we were able to get out of the city. we've had a couple of different plans. we start with plan a. if that doesn't work out, we move on to plan b. it's one thing after another. we continue to take what's getting thrown to us and try to address it as quickly as possible.

number one is life safety. we're still doing a little water rescues. the first thing is getting water to our citizens. as soon as we get a water distribution center set up, we'll start giving out water to our citizens. >> we're looking at how challenging these water rescues are. we all heard the heartbreaking story of the 3-year-old girl clinging to her mom's body. the mom sadly passed away and the girl had hyperthermia. can you give us an update? >> she's doing well. been released from the hospital. she's with family. she's a sweetheart. all the nurses and officers fell in love with her. we've had a lot of questions. she's fine and is with family. >> thank you so much for the update and the status report officer morrow. we will check with you as all

this unfolds. this is a tale of two cities. rescues resume their door-to-door searches in daylight, about two hours from now. but there are these heavily flooded areas of the city. houston's marp declares the city is open for business. cnn's ed lavandera is live in houston with more. what's the situation? >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. still two main areas of the houston area that remain flooded. neighborhoods like this in west houston and another area on the northeast side of town. as water has receded in many places, it's also come with the grim discovery of bodies and people who died in those floodwaters. as we mentioned at the top, the death stole now stands at 47 because of hurricane harvey and the destruction it's wreaked here in houston. some of these neighborhoods, residents are waiting for these

floodwaters to recede. nearly 140,000 homes damaged by the floodwaters across the city. so this is just a staggering number. it really kind of speaks to the daunting task of cleanup that lies in the weeks ahead here. those warnings going out to residents to be very careful about the contamination in these floodwaters, sewage. we've seen the oil slicks and gasoline in those neighborhoods. all this very difficult to contend with and something residence need to be aware of. al zen? >> absolutely, ed. thank you very much for the reporting. let's get more updates now. joining us is colonel paul owen, the commander and division engineer of the southwestern division of the u.s. army corps of engineers. thanks so much for being here. let's talk first about where we are, this neighborhood of willchester, all the flooding viewers see behind us, this in part was caused by the initial hurricane, but part of this is

you intentionally letting out the stress from the reservoir? >> that's true. it's a smaller percentage. we can't really tell where all the water came from. we know we have water we are using controlled releases from, the addicks reservoir north of here and the barker reservoir which is that way. those two reservoir out lets are coming to combine for the buffalo bayou. >> i want to ask you about the kromd releases. hear are air you-all's of the reservoirs. i can only imagine the thought process and the tough decisions for officials knowing that when you do that controlled release, other people are going to by definition suffer, and their houses are going to be flooded. how do they make those decisions? >> we have a very prescribed water control manual that's worked out with the local county officials. we have a deliberate method of determining through all kinds of curves and metrics to determine when we're supposed to release, when we should not release.

of course, we balance that with the needs of the people that are around here. one of our biggest concerns right now is, if we get another rainfall event at this point, we would be concerned because the reservoir is full. if it's full and we get another big rain event, there's a potential for more dramatic uncontrolled release than what we're currently having right now. >> what's the plan for today? >> we have water outflowing out of addiction because we are concerned about more storm that could dump on the forecast. >> is that just a forecast or you're watching? >> we're watching a hurricane in the mediterranean. there's nothing that for sure will hit here. we're not forecasting. but a moderate rainfall here could potentially have impacts. that's why we're releasing water from addicks and barker reservoir. that is having a little bit of an impact on this area, but this

area -- we have to watch that very closely and we'll do whatever we can. it will drain and it's going down right now. >> how long do you think it will take for a neighborhood like this to drain? >> we think it's a couple months -- excuse me -- let me say it will take several weeks to drain from here. it will take a couple months for the reservoir which is normally droi, both rose voyeurs to drain completely. we'll have water flowing out of the reservoirs for several months. after a few weeks it will be contained in the buffalo bayou. but it will take several weeks for this water to move out. >> when are people here coming back to their homes? >> it's a good question. i'd have to talk to harris county and figure out what their plans are. >> so many people obviously want to go home, but their homes are not habitable at the moment. if your first floor is under water, it's really, really tough. what's your biggest concern? >> today we're continuing to watch the dam extremely closely

to make sure it performs as designed and it is. i would ask that people have an understanding that the design -- the dam is working as we expected it to, and there's no at this point indication that there's going to be any kind of dramatic failure in the dam. >> that's a good note to end on colonel, thanks so much. back the chris in new york. also remember, they had always predicted that the water levels would not kreft until later in the week. so there has been no major curveball here. you just can't move back into a house that has standing water if it. that's a toxic soup. people are going to have to be patient. it's going to cause frustration and it's going to demand leadership. that takes us back to president trump. he's heading back to the disaster zone tomorrow. he'll meet with victims, talk to survivors. the battle over emergency funding is heating up in congress. how are they going to do it? are they going to redesign some priorities?

could this mean something for the wall, the political tests ahead with maggie haberman. stay with us.

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at the white house. what do we expect? >> good morning, chris. yes, the vice president of the united states along with a slew of cabinet officials visiting the region. now the administration is ready to get down to the business of talking about what is supposed to be the first down payment for the recovery effort in the gulf coast region. we're also told poem on capitol hill are willing and eager to start talking about a longer term package. this comes at a time right after the august recess as congress returns to capitol hill next week and they have a whole slew of rapid democratic action items on the agenda. that would include the president's wall on the southern border along with the stopgap spending bill to keep the government operating and raising the federal debt limit. the vice president indicating the situation in the gulf coast

has to go to the top of the list because of the urgency. listen. >> we expect congress to move quickly on the initial legislation, and we'll be working very diligently in the opening weeks of congress to accomplish that. let me say we're very confident that members of congress in both political partyies appreciate te historic nature of this storm. >> chris, as you said at the top, the president pledged a million dollars of his own money to aid in the effort. he's returning to the region, expected this time to visit both louisiana and texas. back to you. >> all right, joe. this situation is going to demand direct action and a good plan and follow threw by the administration. let's discuss all the variables. we've got cnn political analyst and white house correspondent for "the new york times" maggie haberman. maggie, good to have you on this. it was interesting the $1 million thing.

not unusual for donald trump to donate money to the cause. it was unusual to have sarp rah huckabee sanders ask where to send it. >> i took it more as filibustering. i do think it is important to note that pledge does not mean donated yet. we know the president has a history, certainly before he was president, of saying he has given money that he did not give. david fahrenthold of t"the washington post" uncovered a lot of that during the campaign, money supposedly pledged to veterans which turned out to be somewhat of a gimmick around skipping a debate. >> a difference between cynicism and skepticism. we saw what happened with that veterans situation, it got muddy. we'll see what he does with the money. certainly he has it. that's not the money that's going to matter. the money that's going to matter will be the billions. i've been harping about what happened with sandy.

you don't want to see a repeat of that. already we hear will it be tied to an overall financing of the government. will it be tied to the debt ceiling. those are the kind of hang-ups that could delay the help. what are you hearing? >> there are a lot of unknowns and uncertainty. if the president gives a million dollars, he deserve credit for that. we'll need to see where the money goes. in terms of the government funding, you're talking about an epic recovery effort. you're talking about sandy, and new york is still rebuilding. that area is still dealing with what happened. i think the important thing for congress and the white house to bear in mind is the scope of this and the duration of time. various operations in september, one is a short-term effort, one is a larger effort. but there are also other congressional and white house priorities coming up in september and they are deciding

how best to get through congress with the votes necessary these various pieces of legislation. it is early, but they are coming into a real deadline because congress comes back next week and the harvey recovery effort, house minority leader nancy pelosi talked about this with other members of leadership. there is a real urgency in getting something through quickly. >> past is prologue. what happened with sandy is you got the first chunk of money and then all this followup that got mired in politics and connected to different efforts. mike pence said this is the priority. i hope congress understands that is what he said. we'll know if they understand it by how much other stuff they attach to it. there's another issue here, though. you're going to have priority issues for the white house as well. the wall, the fema money and budget money that was going to be redirected towards the wall. have you heard anything about

rethinking that for now, don't put that money toward the wall when the money could go to harvey. >> there's some discussion about deferring the discussion of the wall and funding of the wall until december, so at least you get through this interim period. again, there's a debt ceiling issue where there has to be a vote at some point or there will be a government shutdown, and you need money to go to harvey. there's some realization within the white house that this might be a bit of a time buy in terms of dealing with the wall. i think we'll know more in the coming days. >> were you surprised they had pence go down there and do the same job the president is going to do when he goes this weekend? >> not at all. yes eve seen repeatedly in the campaign. i think the president, these are not scenarios that -- a, he is not been a politician over many years. he's someone who worked in business and worked in entertainment and real estate. i think this is a language that does not come as easily to him, frankly, as it does to mike

pence who has been in political life for a long time. we saw throughout the campaign that mike pence would often sort of stopgap these more emotive scenarios and situations where the president had more trouble and was a little stiffer. i also think by the time mike pence went, conditions had eased a bit and it was much easier. i don't think it's a huge surprise. i think ultimately the administration needs to realize, and i don't know how much the presidencies this. what is going to matter is not showing up and making trips within the first week or two. what's going to matter is over the duration of time, how the rebuilding and recovery efforts go. that's going to be crucial. >> harvey is going to play into different issues. let's play some of the sound from a press conference yesterday that teed up a real battle to come. >> are the undocumented immigrants eligible for long-term help? >> once the eligibility

standards range across a number of different programs. if you're an immigrant who has committed a crime, you're going to be removed. if you're an immigrant looking for assistance, it's my understanding you're not eligible in that case. >> so boss cert there saying something that's going to be very controversial. these people in harvey, they're not testing documentation. the president hasn't criticized that. the whole message is about unity, we're all in it together. now you have that political reality, some of the survivors of harvey may not get help because of their immigration status, takes us into dhaka. even donald trump knows he's change and is now talking, oh, this is tough with these daca people. do you think we'll get a friday surprise and they'll end that program? do you think they'll want to wage this battle on the harvey

front with survivors of that storm? >> i think he definitely doesn't want to wage this battle on the harvey front. people in the administration are hoping to delay this discussion, he's giving them some hope. i know john kelly, the president's chief of staff have said to several people given that texas is essentially under water right now and texas is a big drivers of this deadline of trying to do a september 5th lawsuit or a lawsuit by september 5th over daca that maybe this is not the biggest priority. some leaders in texas say they plan to go ahead. i think the administration is going to, at least at the moment, appears to be leaning into the possibility of delaying a decision on this or at least doing it in such a way that everybody ends up the same. this is an issue in terms of status, this is an issue that vexed the president. i believe based on conversations people have had with him, he's very concerned about what's

going to happen with these kids, but pressure on his base. >> you have an open letter from entrepreneurs today saying you've got 800,000 people that create about $400 billion worth of gdp revenue in this country. they're integrated, they're real, positive. leave them alone. maggie haberman, thank you very much. alis alisyn? >> yous, of course, no team rubicon, volunteer first responders and veterans that show up in crises like this. they're here with their specialized training and they'll tell us what thayey they're doi next.

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they conducted these challenging rescues in beaumont. they say trying to spot people from above is like finding a needle in a haystack. watch this. >> they just believe they have somebody who has been waving to them. it's a confusing situation now. they can't tell for sure if this is somebody who wants to be rescued or not. the rescue diver is ready to go down if necessary. but they're trying to figure out exactly -- it's one of the difficultition these coast guard crews are having, is just the lack of communication. they get information based on 911 calls, but a lot of the people that they've been rescuing, they just see, they get a visual on and they hover over the area, give them a thumbs up or a thumbs down to get an indication of whether they need to actually be rescued. >> so these two folks right hrer

and their dogs were saved while anderson was on that chopper. they're among the 72,000 who have been rescued so far. so joining us now -- i should say joining us as well as joining the coast guard in the rescue effort is a group of first responders. they're called team rubicon. john rogers is with team rubicon. what do you bring to the effort that's different thanks say, the national guard? >> team rubicon is a disaster relief organization. what we're able to do is get our volunteers together very quickly, get them on the ground very quickly and respond with more flexibility than a larger organization like the national guard. >> who organizes you, where do you go for marching orders? >> we work hand in hand with local authorities and fema to find out where we're most needed. since monday we've been moving

according to where we needed most. we started in katy, moved through houston. as of yesterday we were in beaumont. >> and how can -- i'm struggling with what word to choose. how chaotic is the rescue effort, the orders you're given. i asked because i was with the s cajun navy. there were moments we were standing on a bridge trying to figure out where to go, calling different sheriff's offices trying to figure out where to put the boat in the order. >> since we're military veterans, we thrive in chaos and used to working in austere environments. if we don't have a mission, we'll find a mission and adjust what we're doing. we started doing personnel rescue earlier in the week. yesterday we did canine rescues. wherever we're needed most, we adjust and go there. >> what if people need you, can regular residents call you or do

you come through the sheriff? >> we work with local authorities to make sure we're needed and wanted. we're kicking off today near rockport which is where the hurricane hit land and we'll be there for weeks, if not months. we'll be doing muckouts and debris removal. we want to help those most in need and help people get back in their homes as quickly as possible. >> people whose homes are devastated, you're going to help them rebuild? >> yes. >> how long is team rubicon be here? >> we'll be here for at least two months. this will be the largest operation we've ever done. we're anticipating deploying over a thousand members in the next eight weeks. we're still working on homes that were wrecked in hurricane sandy. >> who pays you? >> all private donations. any donations help us get more volunteers here to help more people. >> jon, thank you for being

here. chris, back to you. >> what a resource team rubicon can be in situations like this. we're going to continue to cover all of the major aspects of the recovery from harvey. you have all the rescues, you have the continuing threats. look at that thing on your screen. what is that? it is another hurricane named irma. like harvey, it is gathering strength quickly. where is it headed, next.

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so here is the news that no one wants to hear. there is a new storm churning in

the atlantic. it's called hurricane irma, now a category 3 storm. cnn meteorologist chad myers has the latest forecast. chad, where is this one heading? >> well, it's in the middle of the atlantic, as you said, in the middle of nowhere, that's good. but it is heading towards the west, maybe puerto rico, st. croix, over there. the cone comes very wide by the time we get out there. it's 115 miles per hour. as i stood here yesterday talking about harvey, this was barely a tropical storm. but it exploded overnight. now it is a category 3, forecast to become a category 4. 140-mile-per-hour storm by wednesday of next week. let me take you to the forecast track for irma. it's way out here, way away from land. we'll go where the european model right now, very close to the islands sometimes wednesday or thursday. now i need you to think about this, this is ten days away, the storm could be here, or it could be here. that's how far and how big the

errors are in these computer models by the time we get ten days out. let's compare the european to the american model. the american model much closer to land, the european model much further into the atlantic. let's hope this is what we call a big gutter ball, missing bermuda, missing north carolina. we'll know that by the end of the weekend when the models get clearer. right now it's a long way away. i need you to node there's a hurricane in the atlantic. >> chad, got to watch it. especially with the vulnerabilities we have in the gufrl coa gulf coast area. another big story, north korea demandings to be recognized as a nuclear power in the united states. the commentary coming after a joint show of force by the u.s. and south korean military. we have cnn's will ripley in north korea. hee is the only western tv journalist there live from pyongyang and the perspective

from being on the ground there is invaluable. what is the state of play? >> this is an interesting development. what north korea is essentially saying is after the u.s. had that show of force with bombers on the korean peninsula within a few weeks ago, the response we're seeing now on the ground here is north korea saying, yes, it was a rash act by the united states, but they're doing it because they were taken aback by north korea's intermediate range missile launch. and then this new commentary calling on the united states to recognize north korea as a nuclear power, to change their fundamental position, that they refuse to acknowledge north korea as a nuclear weapons state in order to keep the u.s. mainland safe from north korean weapons, but it would give north korea what they want, respect, a seat at the table and greater opportunity in the global market. it says, quote, as the u.s.

wastes time to find a solution, the striking capabilities of the dkrp's strategic forces will rapidly increase. essentially they're saying either you engage with us, recognize us or we'll continue to accelerate our weapons program, no matter what sanctions you throw at us, and we'll. [ increasingly dangerous. vladimir putin saying that kind of pressure is only a dead-end road, saying the united states needs to change its policy. to show you how north korea really feels, that their missiles are the key to their national survivor. they put out a new postage stamp commemorating their intercontinental ballistic missile launch. alis alisyn. >> will, thank you very much. so good to have you on the ground in nrk for us. back here in the houston area, the vast majority of harvey victims are in this area you see around me. you can see the homes behind me. they are flooded.

believe it or not, the majority of victims do not have flood insurance. so how will they rebuild? a fema official is going to join us to tell us their options next. no artificial flavors, no artificial preservatives in any of the food we sell. we believe in real food. whole foods market.

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you see water everywhere around houston. harvey has dumped trillions of gallons of water over texas and louisiana. the volume of this rainfall is very hard to wrap your head around. so cnn's tom for man is going to try to put it all in perspective for us. >> 45 million gallons every minute. that's how much water flowing over all the falls at niagara. they would have to run for 381 days to equal the amount of water harvey has dumped on texas and llouisiana. some putting the dump at 25 trillion. if you put this over in

california, it would stretch from los angeles to san francisco. shoef it to the east coast and you'll have it going from washington, d.c. up to above new york. by comparison, the worst tropical storm rainfall in california was 1976 kathleen. what was that? just over 15 inches over a much smaller area. what about the east coast? new york in 2011, irene, a little over 13 inches. look at harvey, this massive amount, well over 50 inches in some areas, really high in other areas. that's why all the records are being shattered here. if you were to compare this to katrina, for example, very different types of storms. katrina had broken levees, all sorts of things like that. here is the comparison. a lot of new orleans ended up flooded with somewhere between 10 to 20 feet of water. this is what 20 feet would look like next to me. if you took all that water from harvey and compressed it into a smaller area, it would

completely engulf buildings that were 12 stories tall. bear in mind even when the water starts going away, the danger will still be there. the water is not pristine, infused with petrol chemicals, toxins from homes, raw sewage, many, many threats even as the water drains off. >> wow, look at tom next to the wall of water. what about recovery? it's going to take years. it's going to cost billions, maybe more than we've ever seen spent. fema has already approved assistance for 96,000 people. that's just the first wave. they've received 51,000 flood insurance claims from texas. what happens to residents without flood insurance? our next guest has the answers, roy wright is director of fema's national flood insurance program. thank you for being with us. we know you're very busy. let's do a check of the numbers. how many policyholders do you have in this area?

how many people do you believe you have without policies? >> so across the whole texas southeast coast 425,000 policies. we want to focus just in harris county, houston, 250,000 policies that are in those affected areas. obviously, as we've watched overnight, we're now looking at louisiana and the impacts that are happening up in tennessee. >> well, that is an impressive number until you look at it as a percentage of population. you have millions of people there. so simple math, about one in six-ish don't have it. we've seen a reduction in the last five years of about 10%. why have people been getting fewer policies and what do you do with those that don't have one? >> there was an escalation in a certain part of our policy base. 80% of our policies are actuarially priced, the price reflects the risk. based on congressional law, i have about 20% of them that are

discounted. 2012 congress began to escalate those prices at a pretty quick clip. 2014 they rolled that back, said don't do that. so we ladd an erosion across the country of about 10% of the policy base. i think it's important to take this down to a pocketbook understanding. this is an individual decision made by a homeowners. so look at harris county. we have a high hazard zone. that's that 100-year event. what we've watched with harvey well exceeds it. inside that 100-year event, we call it the high zone. yet half of my policies are outside. so the actuarial rate, they made that choice. those are pocketbook issues. while we're appropriately focused on the texas coastline, i think there's many people watching this morning who need to have an understanding that that map is not the end of the water. that's the 100-year event. we will have more events this season that exceed that point.

>> so is there any federal assistance for people who don't have the insurance? >> so this is the numbers that you started with right there at the top of the piece. they need to go to disasterassistance.gov and begin that process, the kind of temporary assistance we can do. what we do under the stafford act, that individual assistance, it's really a life vest. it helps them in the near term with a house, a way to eat, begin to muck out. for many of those not insured, they're going to be reliant on loans, on non-profits to come in and help them rebuild their lives. >> that's an ugly reality. if you have the plan, get on disaster.gov, see what your options are. if you don't, you've got bigger concerns. roy wright, thank you for that sobering reality. we'll check back with you as we learn more about the need. >> thank you for having me. >> that is terrible, as if it's not enough --

>> i hear you, chris. obviously, it is stunning to hear how long it's going to take people to get their lives back. officials are saying this is their new normal because of those things in terms of insurance that they haven't been able to have and all the flooding you see around me. as we've been reporting, entire city of beaumont, more than 118,000 people are desperate for drinking water. we have the latest for you on the water crisis there. when heartburn hits fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum tums chewy bites. when you switch to progressive. winds stirring. too treacherous for a selfie. [ camera shutter clicks ] sure, i've taken discounts to new heights with safe driver and paperless billing. but the prize at the top is worth every last breath.

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surreal is probably the understatement. >> i've seen many events, never have i seen one like this. >> the mistery factor is just continuing. >> the president's team setting the stage for his return to the flood zone on saturday. >> he'll pledge proudly a million dollars. >> no one could have anticipated how widespread this flooding is

going to be. >> you have no idea how terrifying it is until you're actually there. >> houston and texas is struggling right now. we're coming together the one purpose, to make all our citizens well and whole again. >> we are with you and we will stay with you until all of southeast texas comes back. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. good morning everyone. welcome to your "new day." i am coming to you from houston, texas, this morning where the mayor has been trying, chris, to sound an optimistic tone, one week after hurricane harvey made landfall here in texas. now that the rain has stopped, the skies are filled with helicopters searching for survivors. we have seen dramatic images of rescues around the clock. more than 72,000 people, we're happy to report, have been rescued. as of today, though, harvey is blamed for 47 deaths and that number will likely rise. so