zero, hurricane harvey, keep it here to fox news channel throughout the day for updates. >> abby: we'll see you right back here tomorrow morning. >> clayton: cost of freedom is live right now. the pause that is not necessarily refreshing welcome everybody i'm neil cavuto, fox under texas under siege as hurricane harvey un^ leashes all sorts of hell. here is what we know right now. harvey is a category 1 storm and it is still packing a lot of winds and heavy rains, several areas are under tornado and flood warnings better than a dozen texas counties in fact, dramatic pictures are showing buildings on fire, houses on fires, others that are collapsing so authorities are warning the worst may yet be to come with potentially devastating floods which tends to be a rule of thumb with hurricanes of this magnitude. so i'm asking to say that the damage early on they're pegging at about $40 billion which would put in the top five of hurricane

s in american history. this is a major energy center by the way for the entire country. a quarter of our energy production comes from this neck of the woods. for the next two hours we've got you covered with the likes of texas governor greg abbott on the race to respond no matter the danger we've got texas land commissioner george p. bourbon the need for coastal barrier no matter the cost, former fema director michael brown urging president trump to be on this no matter what he has urged do not, mr. president, let this be your katrina and then general russel remember him during katrina he was banging heads to get everyone on the same page and quit the political arguments, he's here on this over some people heeding warnings to evacuate and some who never did and never have and now they could be stuck and may be for weeks some say even months to come. first what's happening now on the ground in texas we start with rick whose been covering this on where this massive storm goes right now.

what are you seeing here, rick? >> it doesn't move very far which is the big problem with us and that's why we think it's such a costly storm. in fact if we hit 40 billion it would be the third costly its hurricane behind katrina and superstorm sandy to give you an idea. i will tell you the national hurricane center nailed this for the forecast, both in the track this was what the track was as of thursday morning, made landfall around five to 10 miles from where we thought it would go across. that is impressive. also as far as the strength goes this year also we have new satellite imagery from a new satellite that launched that was the image right before landfall of the center of it and we also can get an idea of how the storm formed so quickly went from just a tropical depression about three days ago to a cat 4 storm and if you look at this it's getting going but having difficulty. we had in its strengthening increasing its strength storm right there as it made landfall we haven't seen anything like this anywhere in the u.s. in a very long time probably since hurricane hugo, haven't seen a

category 4 storm in texas since 1961 and now that the storm is inland there's high pressure off towards the west of it that is going to get it stuck right here over the next number of days in fact maybe about the next six days or so. our tropical models we look at you get the idea they loop around all in the same spot that means the same spot seeing rain over and over and over again with this for the next number of days . that's kind of the center of it that is going to hang around maybe from victoria pop back a little bit towards the west maybe come back down towards port levaka, but the outer feeder bands these out bands will continue to be pulling up maybe around the galveston area occasionally through houston and some of these storms are going to have incredibly strong tropical downpours because of that we expect to see our rainfall totals get very extreme. want to point out one thing has gone a little bit farther towards the west which had been an option. that would have brought a lot more rain to parts of louisiana, maybe far western louisiana still getting very heavy rain but not as bad around new

orleans which is good news especially with the flooding they had a few weeks ago but take a look at these numbers we've been seeing consistently these modelings putting outnumbers for four days of when we first started seeing numbers none of us believed we would see something like that but when you have numbers coming four days in consistently, we start to believe them a lot more so take a look at this port levaka 58 inches of rain to commas a forecast. i'm not saying it will be 58 inches but we have model outputs showing that much moisture. some spots wherever the bands line up we will be seeing spots in the upper 40s and maybe 50s by the time we're done with this >> and that could be days right? >> probably wednesday or thursday of next week. so do you think if we by the way see the storm move in and right back across the same spot rockport kind of the biggest town about town of about 10,000 people that saw the eye go right over it and saw a lot of damage now will continue to have the rain there. you can't get into fix power to repair roads or anything like that when you have these kinds

of rainfall totals falling on top of you so if you are without power and you stay that's going to go on for a very very long time. we're starting to get some of the first images out of there and it looks like there was a lot of damage across there. indeed, rick thank you very much my friend. to galveston texas, no stranger to hurricanes. some of the most wicked in this country's history in that neck of the woods which is exactly where we will find casey stegall casey? >> reporter: yeah, neil, rick was just talking about the power outages and the flood concerns. i can tell you right now as of this hour, 51,000 people in this area alone are in the dark. that is according to sensor point energy, the energy provider here, boy is it really coming down and in fact we've been having some communication difficulties because electricity and water don't go very well together and gadgets and we've got a lot of gear to bring you these live pictures from the middle of a hurricane zone, but

the rain is coming in sideways and it is difficult to see at times. in addition to the flooding concern, neil, there is also a concern about tornadoes. we have been under numerous tornado watches and warnings here in galveston alone but we want to show you some pictures now that are coming into us from an apparent twister touchdown in the houston area. the national weather service confirmed a tornado touching down in an area known as sienna plantation and about 50 homes we understand have been damaged and new video is coming in of that, first respond res are reporting a few minor injuries right now, nothing major nothing life threatening, again 50 homes are still damaged and if we can show you additional video this is just north of us in bolivar peninsula. where we are on galveston it's a tiny slip of land out in the gulf of mexico so just north of

us is bolivar peninsula. it's just a tiny little slip and apparently some houses have caught fire there. we suspect from lightning that has not come from first responders or emergency management officials but that is common because we have seen a whole lot of lightning also with these tropical bands as they move in, so that is a problem just north of us, so really, right now, all eyes are on the rain up in this area and certainly over in houston metro. you're talking about one of the largest cities in the country and millions and millions of people potentially impacted in addition to the millions that have already been impacted with the storm actually making landfall so a lot of stuff going on, neil. a lot of different threats that people here are facing. >> my friend casey stegall in galveston texas. >> not all residents to casey's

point are evacuating right? maybe at this point it's too little too late and telling me that puts more lives in danger. >> i was thinking of the ones who don't listen and in every storm you have that right? including like those surfing or near the water or taking selfies near the water. what do you say to those folks? >> well, i think it's important that everyone act responsible and it's important to evacuate the area not only for their safety but concerned about the people that will respond after a devastating storm to assist them >> all right i always wonder when i see this phenomenon where people refuse to leave or they make those who are trying to help them endanger their lives what russel would say you remember the retired general the raging cajun after katrina who was in charge of the relief efforts after early bochings on both sides the general joins us now, sir very good to have you. >> good morning, neil.

>> what do you make of those who decide to stick around, say and refuse to be fair what we're sort of voluntary requests to leave and of course at this point, it might be too late for some of them to leave but what do you make of that, what would you do? >> well first of all, god bless texas after katrina and the people of texas they took most of our evacuees of out katrina and new orleans and they did a marvelous job and my heart goes out to them this morning. i think the people who make spectacles of themselves are the exceptions. the ones i'm most concerned about are the elderly, the disabled, the poor and vulnerable population, neil, that on the 26th of the month didn't have money to put gas in their car to leave and those are the ones that were in particularly rural areas and small towns along the coast. this is a big area. texas is big and when something like this hit it, it's going to have a potential challenge as we

looked at day one, if we call this day one, harvey day one, the worst case scenario was the landfall and now, it's category 1 but d2 harvey going to be worse today, neil, because you'll have more flooding and the art of the command and leadership at the state level will be to go to those vulnerable areas that have not flooded yet but will be flooded tomorrow in southern houston in those low lying areas where you have vulnerable communities like nursing homes and hospitals that the models will show will be flooded tomorrow. it's how do they mobilize enough national guards and get troops in there to get those people moved. we've got what we've got to date we know more today than we did yesterday, but it's going to be how we go after those vulnerable populations that if we don't move them today they're going to be under water tomorrow and not

just surrounded by water, so our first responders the teamwork seems to be working smooth between the state and federal government are now the big challenges the weather and the flooding that is going to happen based on the prediction and the winds, neil, will prevent the helicopters from going up. we're going to lose one of our most vulnerable assets which is to do helicopter search and rescue and that may be going on until day three, neil. >> one of the things i've learned general maybe from our last conversation is many of the deaths tragically occur well after days after the hurricane itself flooding and that sort of thing. to that end, i mean you had to address the rivalries and bickerings between parties and jurisdiction issues and who had control, mayor, governor, administration officials. we've learned a lot from the katrina experience so a lot of that you address but the president for example, is tweet ing from camp david where he's closely monitoring all of this general saying that we are

looking at a thorough federal response and leaving nothing to chance quoting the president and that city, state and federal governors are working great together, so everyone seems to be for the time being on the same page. how do you police that about making sure they're in charge? >> well the problem is, neil, if they don't know it they don't know it this time because the power outages for 300,000 people and the isolated people that are surrounded by water now along the gulf coast and then don't have the assessments, i think for the first 24 hours people will be okay even if they're standing in water. but by tomorrow, that situation is going to get a lot worse and we're going to have more people without electricity in southern houston and that is going to make these problems more which i think then the federal government will be behind the texas national guard to see what they need in terms of response

capacity and i think the texas governor is going to have to mobilize more national guard. >> more than the 700 he already activated? >> oh, absolutely. he's got a division one of the best national guard divisions we've got. i see at least a need for 10 to 15,000 national guard to go in there and go into these isolated communities. >> general i go back to the fact that you've mentioned the energy and how important it is at the outset of your remarks and particularly off the texas coast the gulf coast there and i'm reminded you said a few weeks ago i hope i'm quoting you correctly where you said our democracy has been hijacked of referring to these interests that they ride and they go to the petroleum club and they strut with their suv's and they act like they are saving the world but they are doing is saving their family trust fund. are you saying that there's a disproportion at amount of interest on the economic side and not on the folks who really need the help? >> i think at this point in time , neil, that argument is

based on not the necessary energy they provide for us plus they have heat and to have power in the day-to-day operations in the communities is where their influence, right now they are building a lot of infrastructure in known flood zones. we will see what happens after this storm where the industry can reassess itself in building inside of wetlands and building inside a flood zones and the impact it has because we have to have that energy. there's no doubt about it. but they have overinfluenced and local governments and then decisions that are made in terms of control of what's happening in those local governments. >> okay, general. that was the remarks thank you, sir. we have breaking news and heart breaks they call them. more from this neck of the woods right now with a lot of rain.

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>> neil: the president is set to be getting a briefing on hurricane harvey in about 30 minutes he's at camp david this weekend but he's already committed to visiting texas some time next week and is going to be a busy week for him because all of this is happening at a time when he's committing himself to leading to get tax reform done and sooner rather than later. also, with a big white house shakeup announced overnight in fact a little is coming in the middle of the storm would otherwise be page one coverage right now but it again being eclipsed by the storm. ellison barber following all of this right now from the white house. ellison? >> reporter: hi, neil, as hurricane harvey moved closer to land president trump made moves in the white house first signing a controversial memorandum banning transgender people from joining the military and then pardoning former arizona sheriff joe arpaio and either accepting a resignation or firing national security advisor sebastian gorka last week in his campaign-style

rally in phoenix president trump hinted at plans to pardon share of arpaio. >> president trump: by the way i'm curious, do the people in this room like sheriff joe? >> [applause] >> president trump: so was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? >> yes. [applause] >> president trump: he should have had a jury but do you know what? i'll make a prediction. i think he's going to be just fine okay? >> reporter: arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt and facing jail time because he defied a judge's order from 2011 and that order told his officers they could not detain people suspected of being in the country illegally without evidence they violated a state law. the administration did not announce a pardon until yesterday evening. president trump tweeted "i've just granted a full pardon to 85

year old american patriot sheriff joe arpaio. he kept arizona safe" around the same time reports started to surface saying sebastian gorka was out at the white house, initial reports said gorka resigned in part because he did not aprove of the president's plans in afghanistan but white house officials told fox news gorka did not actually resign; however they did confirm that the national security advisor no longer works at the white house. all of this as weather officials watched hurricane harvey escalate to a category 4 hurricane. in a series of tweets democratic senator chuck schumer accused the president of using the hurricane as a cover to pardon arpaio, implement the transgender ban and avoid scrutiny. neil? >> neil: do we know in the case of gorka leaving, ellison that there are mixed reports as to whether chief of staff john kelly would let him talk to the president and tell him that and apparently refused? >> reporter: right we've heard reports of that here but what

gorka has said in that statement that initially came out, he says he resigned we've heard from sources at the white house that he did not resign he was asked. >> neil: thank you ellison very very much. more on the storm right after this. they should start saving for retirement. then we asked some older people when they actually did start saving. this gap between when we should start saving and when we actually do is one of the reasons why too many of us aren't prepared for retirement. just start as early as you can. it's going to pay off in the future. if we all start saving a little more today, we'll all be better prepared tomorrow. prudential. bring your challenges.

hey you've gotta see this. cno.n. alright, see you down there. mmm, fine. okay, what do we got?

okay, watch this. do the thing we talked about. what do we say? it's going to be great. watch. remember what we were just saying? go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing. find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. >> neil: all right still keeping our eye on harvey, now a category 1 storm, but harvey is going to stick around for a while as rick is telling us maybe for days and that makes it very very tough for rescue personnel to come in and do much about fires like you see going on in places like corpus christi that city is still raging through this and trying to find a way to get through this on the phone is the republican mayor of corpus christi, very good to have you, thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> neil: how are things going right now, mayor? >> well, we've got assessment

teams going out now. we didn't, we weren't able to get them out before daylight because half the city is without power and we just didn't want to run the risk of somebody finding a downed power line and getting electricuted and if you run into what you think is a pothole and it's smooth on the top but you run into find out that the street is washed out, so we just wouldn't allow them to get out on streets until daylight. we've got a tremendous amount of damage personal property wise from what i've been told so far and they're going out to confirm that and we have a briefing at 10 our time here. the surrounding communities took a lot bigger hit than we did. rockport, some of those from reports i've been getting again the no confirmation but from people texting and tweeting and facebooking, they've sustained

substantial damage. the good news at least at this point for me and our responsibility in terms of protecting life, i have not heard any reports either in any media reports or on facebook or text of any loss of life and no major injuries as a result of the hurricane to somebody, so if that report holds true, which i'm praying it does, then we [inaudible] >> neil: we might have lost him. can you still hear me? all right, we lost the mayor and i apologize for that but of course given what's going on this has been sort of a systemic problem, as you might imagine the mayor of course was saying this for asking for earlier this week a voluntary leave that residents or volunteer, it was not an order but it was a strong suggestion. we had indications that about

half the city population did in fact leave. you might recall this caused a bit of a dustup, not what he was doing but the difference that governor abbott for example, of texas that urged those in the state to leave these areas. it wasn't a direct order but it was a strong suggestion to get out of danger's way. you might recall that the democratic mayor of houston did not heed that saying that it was not necessary. the democratic mayor saying please think twice before leaving houston in mass. now his point was that they could only add to the confusion and danger itself so it caused a bit of issues back and forth but no one is making big political hay out of this just a difference in opinion what's safe for people. when we come back we'll talk to texas land commissioner george p eabush, he's the son of former florida governor jeb bush. famous for dealing with these storms and now the sun is dealing with the same thing, he's next. what was the worst thing you saw? don't you get lonely? have you ever killed anybody? ♪

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