numbers and telegraph, what i hate to break it to you, a busy hurricane season whether you like it or not. the economic impact, emotional impact and political impact on fox. thank you very much. >> well, it's the fiercest storm to hit the united states in more than 12 years, slamming into the texas gulf coast. hurricane harvey record ashore last night as a category 4 storm. texans are already feeling his wrath. leland: hundreds of thousands are without power. roofs ripped off and there's more devastating damage to come as the storm lingers over the region, predicted to drop up to and perhaps even over 30 inches of rain. we've got reporters spread out along the gulf coast, an area which the president has already declared a disaster zone. welcome to america's news headquarters from washington and, wow, it's going to be a long weekend for so many.

elizabeth: it is, it is. leland: it's terrible. it really is. and the worst is yet to come. i'm leland vittert. elizabeth: i'm elizabeth prann. hurricane harvey hit over texas towns and it's over a big part of the state dropping rain. it's not going anywhere soon. leland: this is video coming from the port aransas fire department. you can see those squad cars headed in, lights and sirens on. last night around 10:00 or 11:00 the port aransas police department tweeted out that they could not receive 911 calls. all their communications were down and they, themselves, have hunkered down essentially telling folks in the path of this storm, you are on your own and that's very close to where the eyewall passed over and now they're headed in just after day break to begin figuring out what went wrong and the damage that is in their city. so often now, it's after the

storm. you've got the flooding, you've got live electrical wires that are down. you have gators that are now out in these flood waters and debris as well. the real danger isn't the wind often times, it's what starts now for the next couple of days and weeks. elizabeth: so often with the first responders, it gets to a point in the storm where they say, listen, we can't help you if you didn't evacuate, didn't heed the call, we can't go in and get you. now we're curious, what is the next step and where is the storm headed. can we expect more rainfall? let's bring in meteorologist janice dean at the fox extreme weather center. hi, janice. >> hi, liz and leland. the storm is not over by any stretch of the imagination. it's maintaining its hurricane status and we'll get a briefing the next hour of the positioning of the storm and whether or not it's been downgraded to a tropical storm. regardless of it being downgraded, the worst of the

storm is yet to come in a lot of cases. it's going to dump historic parts of rainfall over parts of texas that can't take it. looking back, a category 4 hurricane we haven't had one hit the mainland since 2004, since charlie. wind gusts in excess of 130 miles per hour for a lot of folks in and around the corpus christi area, dealing with the threat for tornados as well with these landfalling hurricanes, the outer bands are scraping across land. this watch is good until 1 p.m. local time. we'll likely see another one replace it. the good news is, we do not have any warnings just yet. you can see the heaviest band right now, north and east of the houston area, houston you're not out of the woods. reports of ten inches of rainfall and this system is going to stall for the next several days and that's the real worry. as a lot of these storms get picked up with a trough or a cold front we're done with this.

this one will last for days, possibly making a second landfall and possibly coming back out into the gulf of mexico the next couple of days. we'll have to watch. flash flood warnings are in effect for millions of folks in and around the houston area and the big concern here is epic amounts of rainfall. rainfall that we've never seen in this region from a landfalling hurricane. so when you deal with storm totals in excess of 50 inches of rain over the next several days, that's catastrophic. that's life threatening, and that's why we're so concerned that people can't let their guard down. if you live in and around the houston area you need to be listening to your local authorities and local forecasts. the worst could be yet to come. we don't have any steering right now and this is going to sit and spin and it will be a story we'll cover into next week. elizabeth: janice dean, we appreciate your advice. thank you. leland: we have been talking to

a mayor who said they had major catastrophic flooding, that wasn't from a hurricane or storm, that was just from thunderstorms and now 30 or 40 inches of rain, it's going to be a long couple of weeks. harvey swept ashore around 9:45 local time last night. so we're at about 15 hours or so. the eye went almost directly over rockport, texas, home to about 10,000 people. many without power. very limited communications there. steve harrigan has made his way out to rockport. steve, you've covered so many hurricanes. the destruction behind you looks terrible. is that widespread or pretty limited to where you are right now? >> what the damage looks like from that category 4 hurricane, winds up to 130 miles an hour, rockport texas is directly in the pathway of the storm. this apartment complex pretty much wiped out. the brick wall torn down and

reduced, really, to sticks. we've seen rough rescue efforts beginning now as the wind has died down to let the first responders out. we saw a very low tech effort. just three firefighters with axes here going door-to-door, basically kicking down doors, seeing if anyone was wounded or dead. but no reports of any deaths yet, but that could change as first responders are able to get out a little bit more. the roads are still very bad. a lot of downed power lines, a lot of flooded roads, downed trees as well. it makes it very difficult to get around here. we've been seeing some people just basically stumble around looking for items here in the wreckage. i saw a woman watching with a shopping back over her back, calling out her brother's name. and it's an eerie feeling here, there's no one here and the sound you here are the smoke alarms going off and a few dogs

barking. this storm might have another three to five days of damage left in it, here in rockport, that intense damage has already been done. neil: steve harrigan, rockport, texas. thank you. we'll be back to you in the coming hours as well. liz, as we were talking, this is the chance to sort of see the very beginning of what the damage is. last night as the storm came, you can't see any of this. and we tried to get a hold of folks in rockport overnight. communications there completely shut down. the mayor of rockport said to people if you're going to ride out the storm, write your social security number and your name on your arm because that may be the only way that emergency crews will identify you because you have such a high probability of dying if you stay. and we can see from steve's pictures, exactly what the mayor was talking about. if there are people trapped inside those buildings, it will be difficult to survive until first responders get there and dig them out. elizabeth: you can see the conditions. yes, the storm certainly has

moved, but we've just heard from janice, there's not a cold front coming through or moving that system out so it could stay there for quite some time which leaves the precarious situation for first responders. we're thinking of them and we'll follow the progress. meanwhile, the president is monitoring harvey and the federal response from camp david. the president signing a declaration proclamation at the request of texas governor greg abbott. he did that on friday. doug mcelway is at the white house. >> this is really, don't underestimate it, an important time for the trump administration, how it handles a major disaster. we know what can happen if the federal response is somehow seen as ineffectual or ineffective. senator chuck grassley tweeting out. don't repeat the mistakes of hurricane katrina and the president responded,@chuck grassley, got your message loud and clear, we had people there

long before harvey. so far so good. another presidential tweet, closely monitoring hurricane harvey from camp david, we're leaving nothing to chance, city, state, federal government working great together. it is almost imperative that the president show up at some point in the aftermath of this disaster struck area. in fact, president trump promised he'll do that, the time is unspecified sometime next week, that's the time the president promised a series of visits, the first in springfield, missouri to tout his tax reform proposal. make no mistake, natural disaster appearances are pretty much for optic appearances only. the president arriving at the disaster scene does nothing to actually expedite recovery. here is former fema director michael brown, shall we say, has some experience in dealing with such matters. >> it's a balancing fact because the president travels with a huge bubble and that bubble shuts down everything. it shuts down air space, it

shuts down travel. >> you can make the case that a presidential visit there actually hinders recovery. if he is not seen there though, or if the federal recovery is seen less than effective, mainstream media and his political opponents will be hammering away. take note for sure that regardless of what the response is, it will be in some way, shape or form politicized. to the extent that the federal government can help here, it generally happens over the long-term and we've seen the initial stages with the travel disaster, and home repairs, low cost loans to cover uninsured property losses to help individuals and businesses to recover. these are key hours,the next 48 to 68 hours or so, we'll see how the administration does here. elizabeth: that we will. thank you for the latest, doug, appreciate it. leland: a little perspective. let's bring in former fema director james witt. appreciate you being with us.

it's been about five five hours, six hours since sunup in texas. we're getting video in from various spots. take us from the tick-tock. we've been hearing about this, take us through the hours, what are first responders doing and what are the equipment and resources behind them. >> as soon as they can get in to do search and rescue, with i looks like they've started and the next place would be to start getting the debris cleaned up out of there right away so they can get the other vehicles and other people in to do the damage assessment as quick as possible, starting at the local level, and the state and fema teams coming in and assessing the damage and what the needs are. leland: we keep hearing from janice dean and from others and our reporters on the ground that after this storm, unusually so for a hurricane, the storm is sticking around and continuing

to dump more and more water, up to 30, sometimes perhaps forecast up to 50 inches. how much does that complicate the typical hurricane response that you just talked about? >> it really complicates it. if you remember hurricane floyd that came in to north carolina, it was a flood hurricane. i mean, it literally flooded almost that entire state. it just dumped inch after inch of rain. we saw pigs on top of barns, it was so deep. and this is a challenge they're going to have here. and the challenge here is you've got-- you'll have a lot of infrastructure damage that you cannot see right now. and it's going to take weeks, months, and years for the full recovery of this, and it's really important that the president signs a declaration and more importantly that he appointed brock long, the new administrator of fema. he's an experienced state director of emergency management and i know for eight years i was

at fema. fema employees are just really good at what they do and they'll be there to support the state of texas and local governments. you know, it's important that they get this right because this is, you know, people's lives and people's livelihood that you're dealing with, and it's important that they get this done as fast as they can. leland: live pictures right now from rockport, texas, that's where the eyewall came ashore. they were talking winds 150 miles per hour and you can see what that did to an apartment complex. steve harrigan was telling behind us. on the note of communications, you know, so often now, the world relies on cell phones and cell phone towers are not able to withstand, sometimes, these kind of winds and this type of storm. the generators go out. you've got the flooding that comes in as well. last night the lt. governor of texas told us, this is a texas

size storm. we're preparing a texas sized response. is there enough resources to flood the zone or by the time you've got the flooding, therefore, you can't bring in heavy equipment. you probably can't get across some of the roads here, especially, out into these areas right next to the water on the shore and you don't have communications. what specific resources does the federal government bring to that that even the state of texas can't? >> well, they can use the heavy lift helicopters to get resources in there if need be. they also can do cell on wheels, cell towers on wheels to get in there to put up cell towers so they can have communications in these local communities that the cell towers are gone. so, there's a lot of availability in technology that they can use to get that back up pretty fast. and it's important that they can communicate with the local officials, particularly in the

state operations center. leland: last night, as the storm was coming to shore, we talked to some folks in the texas emergency operations center, they couldn't get a hold of the police in rockport. they couldn't get a hold of the police in port aransas. there was a lot of communication that had gone down. we're looking at various pictures and what's always striking to me, is you see this damage, then comes the flooding and you also have the issues of all the utilities that are down. you've got power lines now in these flood waters. you've got gas lines that often times park off huge fires, and there's sort of so few first responders that are able to come in and so much for them to do. what are the priorities for these first responders as they're now making their way jnt these hardest hit outer islands? >> well, the first priority is to be able to get in there and to see if there are any people

in there that is hurt or injured or got killed. that's the first priority. and then the second priority is to start trying to get in to get power lines out of the streets and the roads and the debris, so that they can bring other equipment in to help in the recovery process. in katrina when it hit and the governor called me down to help in that response, my company, then there was no communications, 800 megahertz got knocked out. everything got knocked out. through a partnership with, at that time nextel, they sent down 4,000 handsets and cell on wheels, so that we could set up communications and that's what they're going to have to do. leland: thankfully, if there is a silver lining here, it looks like the storm sort of came ashore right between corpus christi and galveston, a less populated area which sometimes makes it easier for less people

and infrastructure to have to repair. we appreciate your time and obviously your service through some difficult times in america. we appreciate it, sir. >> thank you very much. leland: a little bit later in the show, current fema administrator who he just talked about, brock long, been on the job just a couple of months, joins us with the latest on his agency's response and what they're working on right now. obviously, this is now just beginning in the very couple-- the first couple of hours day break there in texas and then they start rolling things in. elizabeth: absolutely, we know that there's mange damage already reported out of cities where harvey made landfall. much more is expected up to 30 inches of rain, if not more could fall by mid next week. it's a huge job for texas law enforcement and emergency workers to manage. i want to bring in ken paxton, texas attorney general. thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me on. elizabeth: obviously, you see the best and worst of people after a devastating event like this, which is far from over. i want to ask you, what is your biggest concern as we just begin

to start to see some of the damage? >> well, obviously looting, but, also, we have a lot of price gouging going on. over 200 complaints since this all began. we're investigating a lot of those. fortunately, we have people letting us know. we have a website where people are informing us and so, you know, there are severe personalities in texas, up to $20,000 of occurrence. if you do this to somebody over 65 the penalty is even greater up to $250,000. woo are -- we're serious about this and we'll try to stop this. elizabeth: i had seen an interview you did earlier. 14.99 to 99 for a case of water. so we're looking at damage on the ground. what are reports that you're getting. we're just getting photographs and video out of rockport and we're getting into the communities that, you know, maybe there's one way in and one way out and we're just starting to see some photographs. what are you hearing? >> well, i'm actually hearing the same thing, that rockport,

ingleside, port aransas, port aransas pass, those are the focuses for emergency relief and for our law enforcement going in. we've nl only had since day break to deal with this and that's where we're concerned right now. elizabeth: and i want to ask you the fact that we saw the president sign the declaration, really, before the storm started to hit much of that state. what position does that put you in? does that high pressure you? does that help the state? does it help the governor? does that help you at all before we really start to see the damage? >> no, absolutely helps us. knowing that it's there, obviously, there's tremendous resources available from the federal government. our governor has done a great job working with the president, so, i think it's going to make a huge difference in getting relief more quickly to the people that need it the most. so, organization is key, but resources and having those-- having the financial resources and the equipment to take care of these people is what we need. so, i feel very good about where

we're at right now. elizabeth: you talked a little about the governor. we expect to hear from governor abbott 12:45 eastern time. we have word there's a press conference at that time. he, obviously, is in austin, texas. what do you expect we'll hear from the governor at this point? and also, when it does come to law enforcement and it comes to people seizing on the opportunity and like you said, a harsher penalties for folks who are over the age of 65, who are violated. is that going to be laid out with this press conference along with an update? >> yeah, i think the governor is going to have a lot of detail which areas are hardest hit. where we're at with potential rescues. i think he's also going to talk about resources coming into the state and where we're expecting those resources. so the governor has done an amazing job. he's prepared for this and has lots of experience and texas in and of itself has a lot of experience. we've done it in the past and we're going to do a good job on this and take care of people who need it the most. elizabeth: like you said, texas is no stranger. i have to ask you, we've been

wondering if people didn't heed those evacuation calls. a lot of people are saying they can't get in and out and i'm wondering if you have an update at this hour, almost 12:30 eastern time. if you're getting a sense that people did heed those evacuation warnings? >> i've heard rumors people did not heed the warnings and some of our law enforcement are dealing with that, trying to rescue those people. unfortunately, when you have a state as large as we have, 28 million people and millions affected, not everybody takes those warnings seriously. elizabeth: texas attorney general ken paxton, sir, thank you for joining us. you're in our thoughts and prayers. >> thank you, we appreciate that. elizabeth: how the red cross is preparing to help all the victims of the storm. stay with us.

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>> fox news alert. hurricane harvey came ashore about 12 hours ago. behind it a path of destruction. with it, torrential rains, unlike some have ever seen, including in houston, where griff jenkins is there. griff, we've talked about flooding coming, and it looks like there's flooding already there. >> that's right, leland. this is what all of the forecasters have warned about, the flash flooding and this is the first break we've had in rain, but it's coming back. the national hurricane center warning at least 18 to 24 inches

by the next four days, to hit this place. just to give you a little sense where we are, in southwest houston, this is what, maybe, six to eight inches, it's receded. what causes flash flooding were the constant rain bands pounding this areament we're just about 100 yards from what's known as kegan's bayou. we've been here where cars are. i'll give you a lay of the land. this main thoroughfare, you can see the road closures on this end of the several block of businesses and then if you pan back with me, this way, you'll see the road closed, a few blocks up that way, a major highway, it's southwest freeway, and they blocked it off. we saw several cars get stuck. one being towed out of here. and the reason why this is significant is we compare it back to the 2001 tropical storm alison. now, people have talked a lot about harvey being down gra i hadd

hadded-- downgraded to a tropical storm. tropical storm alison was a rain event. the same amount of rain as expected. that was catastrophic, 23 people lost their lives. up to 10 billion dollars. the water comes up quickly and emergency officials warning, do not drive, stay inside, do not risk it. leland: thank you, griff. for our viewer's understanding, where you are is about 150 miles north of where this storm came ashore. quickly, from your perspective, have you guys seen any of the staging of the national guard and the power trucks and everything else that comes along with these storms? and if so, have they started to be able to roll those resources down to where this devastation was or are they still standing by? >> we have not seen any of that staging here in houston. we've only seen the local authorities getting ready and

trig to close roads. leland: all right. >> we've had a lot of rain band so maybe later. leland: we know the high water rescue teams are already out in force there in houston. griff, stay safe ap and out of the water and we'll talk to you in a minute. liz. elizabeth: i want to bring in american red cross regional executive officer david brady in houston. thank you for joining us. tell us about your resources on the ground and what do you need? >> thank you for having me on today to talk about this. we've got shelters ready to go. last night about 1400 people took refuge from the storm in 24 red cross and community shelters and we've got shelters ready to go right now to accommodate potentially up to 40 additional shelters in the next 24 hours. we're looking at thousands of people needing to be in shelters. so, that's where we are right now. the american red cross, our strategy is repair, respond and recover and we started that

response action right now. when you ask what can people do, what do we need, right now the three main things we're looking for, volunteers, we also need financial resources and support from the community to help us complete this mission. and then we also need people to know how and where to get to shelters. elizabeth: that's what i was going to ask you. you mentioned 40 additional shelters and i understand that you have at least 17, if not more, that are already open to support those 1400 you mentioned. i want to ask you, are you inhibited by the fact that the storm is hovering? we're seeing really strong winds and extensive rainfall. is that hurting your efforts? >> well, i wouldn't say it's hurting our efforts. we always go for safety first and we will not open shelters until we know that it's safe to get to the shelters, both for our staff and volunteers and people who need to be in the shelters. often time it's better to stay where you are indoors until it's safe to get out and go.

we're not inhibited by that, but cautious in opening shelt erriners. we don't want to open up a shelter that's it's just as dangerous to get to that shelter. elizabeth: we'll let our viewers know. you were prepared and as you mentioned i want the viewers to see the red cross is in need of volunteers as you mentioned and donations. thank you for joining us. i wish we had more time, but for our viewers at home. if you want to help out go to www.redcross.org and download the free red cross emergency app for real-time updates on shelter locations, obviously, if you have a local radio, there are other ways to also get that information. so a lot of people need to be aware and whatever resources the red cross is there with a number of shelters. a lot of them you can bring your pets so they're encouraging pooh em. leland: they're not often the first line of defense, but also the incredible work at red

cross. red cross.org, you know your money and donations are going to somebody who is really going to take care of folks. these are pictures from friday as everyone was sandbagging and boarding up in galveston, texas as the waves went over the seawall. that city is under a flash flood warning. casey stegall on the ground standing by with major flooding and also a look at some of the devastation that this storm has left behind. casey when we come back. ugh. heartburn.

sorry ma'am. no burning here. try alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. they don't taste chalky and work fast. mmmm. incredible. can i try? she doesn't have heartburn. alka-seltzer heartburn relief gummies. enjoy the relief. but prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember. >> as we watch hurricane harvey begin to churn, here to bring us up to speed with the efforts on the ground is the acting secretary of department of homeland security. elaine, thank you for joining us. i have to ask you about that conversation, what reinforcements are you getting from washington? . first and foremost, the president and vice-president and

key cabinet members are on the call, most concerned about the people suffering from the hurricane. wanted to express his concerns and inquiries about life and safety issues. secondly, our response in support of governor abbott of texas. elizabeth: do you feel like you're getting what you need from the administration? i realize it's very, very early, it's up to local and state officials. do you feel they have your back? >> absolutely. the president's signing of the declaration, major disaster last night was huge in helping us prepare for this morning and helping governor abbott prepare for this morning. >> obviously, the department of homeland security everseas -- oversees fema. where are they now? are they inhibited by the fact that the storm is hovering over much of that state? are they waiting for requests from state and local officials? >> governor abbott, through his request for a disaster declaration, the official

request for fema assistance. the fema administrator brock long is currently here at the national response center with the representatives from the hall of government and also region six of fema is there in texas leading local operations. elizabeth: i want to ask you a little about the resources. we obviously see them behind you, but i'm curious about the resources on the ground. what is physically taking place right now and what will physically take place over the next couple months? >> well, a lot of that is dictated by the storm itself. right now we're limited by the storm's staying in the area and we're just start to go see a demolishing of win-- diminishing of winds. we'll have the coast guard air assets stationed there, ready to begin surveillance operations. we have the initial response of some search and rescue operations, but that is dictated by the storm itself. >> i know that you were with, if i'm not mace taken, the

department of homeland security 12 years ago when katrina hit. what are you most concerned about, with the characteristics of the storm. i'm expecting flooding, but what you can bring to the table in this situation? >> what i'm most concerned about, you're right, is flooding. because flooding is a sustained recovery period. we're right now in initial response, but recovery will be long. at the current moment, what we're worried about is people being too optimistic. the storm is still in place. we expect peak flooding not to be for several days. so people getting too complacent could add to injury of life and we are concerned about that. what we learned more with preparedness and early, and we've had great cooperation between the government and state of texas and louisiana, also. elizabeth: we appreciate you joining us today. i know you probably had a long night last night and probably another one tonight.

our thoughts and prayers are with you and also the victims of the storm and we appreciate you coming on and giving us the latest. elizabeth: leland. leland: the damage reports are continuing to pour in. the numbers rising. as of now, a quarter million people are in the dark without power. it's not just along the coast. we've looked at outage maps. a huge area has been impacted, reaching as far as san antonio and brownsville near the border. we've talked about hundreds of miles and that's just what we know about. those numbers as history will tell us will rise significantly as they are compiled and more information from the hardest hit areas come in. live pictures right now from austin, texas, as we await a press conference with governor greg abbott about the situation on the ground, what they know. overnight the texas emergency operations center was not able to get in touch with police in rock port, in port aransas and a

number of other communities there along the texas coast. even the emergency operation centers were cut off from my type of contact with those first responders and we hope now to get an update from the governor about what he's been able to learn as day has broke and a number of these police have been able to move in to some of these hardest hit areas and hopefully reestablish communications. back to austin, and the governor's briefing as it happens. meanwhile, we continue to follow the storm on the ground with our reporters, including casey stegall, who is in galveston, texas and casey, it wasn't too bad in galveston a few hours ago, but now we're getting what everyone has been so worried about, which is the buckets and buckets of rain. >> yeah, you could have fooled me that the hurricane isn't making landfall because these are hurricane-like conditions, literally, that we're standing in. hard to keep your footing. the rain is hitting me so hard, it almost feels like little

needles and pins on your face. leland, you talk about the first responders having difficulty getting into some of the areas, that's because, as you know, galveston-- galveston is essentially a little island and there's one road in and out of here and it's this one right here. that direction is going into galveston, that direction is going out. and we see some traffic on it, but literally, within the first 30 seconds or so, we were standing there waiting to go on with you, we saw a galveston fire truck race down seabrook boulevard here in that direction. we're going to try and follow up and see what it is they're headed to, but there was a sense of urgency. walking with me down this way, this is the gulf of mexico. we can't shoot directly into it or the wind is blowing literally

straight toward the camera. but down here is the galveston seawall and this thing is about nine, ten feet high and just for perspective, hurricane ike, when it came through here in 2008, the storm surge was so high that you had water lapping up against this, waves crashing. you can see that the surge is not high at all. there's beach out there. so the water is not even that high, but this is what everybody has been talking about. this heavy rain that's not supposed to last just through today. we're talking about lasting up until tuesday, wednesday of next week, and that is what is going to cause all of this flooding. you hear those three feet possible rain totals in isolated areas, well, look, if it comes

down like this, for days and days, you can see easily how you could have such accumulation, and on top of all of this, it's the water and everything else isn't a big enough concerns, tornados are commonly spun off of these tropical systems. they've done some damage up here the houston area, to about 50 homes. we've had a number of watches and warnings ourselves right here in galveston. i want you to listen to what a harris county official has to say about that ongoing threat. listen. >> you need to be prepared for tornados or you might not get a lot of warning today. these tornados are spinning up very quickly and moving about 50, 55 miles per hour. >> all right. so, obviously, conditions deteriorating. they could be not too bad one minute and then you have

something like this. we're going to go dry off for a few minutes in the car. i'm going to send it back to you in d.c. leland: go get dry, casey stegall. it looks like it could be a while longer. appreciate your work, my friend. >> thank you, guys. elizabeth: we're waiting for the press conference from the governor of texas, greg abbott so we'll have to wait for that. in the meantime, where is the storm headed? we talked to casey who said the rain is still coming down. the national hurricane center has the very latest, so, joining us now from the national hurricane center is the deputy director, mark demaria. thank you for joining us. what can you tell us about the next 24 to 48 hours with this huge system? >> what we're seeing right now, the system is still a marginal hurricane, so there's a bit of a wind threat. you can see from the radar loop, the storm is essentially stationary. the threat the next 24 hours is

heavy rainfall. we're expecting rainfall amounts in additional 15 to 20 inches in some locations so we feel it's going to be the flooding is the major short-term threat. elizabeth: a lot of these low lying areas already have this much rainfall. i want to ask you about the additional threat up to feet of rain. and also what casey was talking about, do people get complacent when they think it's a couple of inches of rain and head out not only in the rain, but the threat of tornados? >> the threat of tornados from this system is fairly high. this is the houston area here all the way down to corpus christi. what we see is very, very strong rain bands. if you're far removed from where the center location is, steams you get a feeling like you're in the clear, but you're really not and it extends into the houston area. elizabeth: these are live pictures of galveston that we're looking at.

northeast of galveston. i was listening to local officials who really mentioned the fact that there are so many rivers and tributaries and i want to ask you a little about the fact that this water really has nowhere to go. is that going to be a huge contributing factors to the water levels rising? >> yes, there's really two kinds of floods. the immediate flash flood caused by the rain over the course of a couple of hours and then longer term threats where the river drains and you get-- that can happen sometimes several days later so we're going to see both kinds of threats from the storm. elizabeth: a lot of people are asking, why is the system so stagnate? can you give us a way to comprehend why it's not moving. so often we talk about a storm that goes in as a tropical depression and moves in and out. why is the storm not being downgraded because it's been since yesterday we have seen it as a hurricane strength and why is it not moving? >> the storm came in as a category 4 so it had very high

winds and takes a while for a storm to spin down, 12 to 24 hours, so it's gradually spinning down, but because it started as a category 4, it's of hurricane intensity. in terms of the steering, the system is moving around a large high pressure system, the bermuda high. there's a competing center in the rockies. it's trapped between the two. elizabeth: before i leave you, mark, what's your biggest concern? it remains flooding? >> yes, the big concern is the flooding and the course of the next several days, we're far from out of the woods on that. elizabeth: any last advice? i just want to get some of our viewers tuning in perhaps in the local areas and i want to make sure that they stay safe. do you have any last piece of advice. >> just stay informed in your area. listen to your officials and stay out of standing water. elizabeth: thank you, mark. appreciate it. i'm sure we'll check with you later on the show and today as

we watch the situation continue to intensify, thank you so much. >> you're welcome. elizabeth: he talked a lot about the standing water and that's a concern. we talked about the wildlife, there could be chemicals in there, could be sewage. don't know if there's sharp objects beneath. people go back home and think it's knee height and it's more after dangerous situation. leland: you've got everything in the water and power lines down and electrified. casey made a good point. so much of the texas coastline are the outer islands, one way in and one way out. we can see that the road that casey was talking about, green -- screen left and right as we await the governor. and when power lines go down or those roads flood, there's no other way in or out and typically by this time in a storm, landfall plus 12 or 13 hours, you have helicopters that are up. you've got the national guard

helicopters, and their blackhawks, the coast guard helicopters and news helicopters as well can often spot these things. the weather is too bad for this. this health care has not moved on and continues to spin, a huge amount of this resources that first responders count on aren't there. and not only the resources, but the backup they count on. as we heard from a number of fire departments you were talking about that it's up until a couple of hours ago, it was too dangerous for them to even go out into these conditions and as casey pointed out, he's been in a lot of hurricanes. even though the hurricane has made landfall, it feels like hurricane conditions in galveston and other places. elizabeth: that was one of the biggest concerns when we talked to mark is that so often, and certainly, texas is no stranger to hurricanes, but, for example, if we see a hurricane maybe on the east coast, there's a system that pushes out and it comes, obviously, it's devastating at the time and then moves out. and we start to really reassess the damage.

we're getting some preliminary reports of being upwards around $40 billion for the state for damages, but there's really no way, there's no way for us to gauge that right now because not only can they not get into the areas, but the storm is staying and hovering. when we talk and hear from mark, he's saying there's nothing to push it out. yes, it's slowly churning a little slower, but it's still a hurricane now and still dumping rain and think about 4.6 million people affected by the storm, a lot of them can't get into their homes. at the same time, officials are very concerned with the fact that when it was coming in, category 1, category 2, category 3, category 4, people perhaps stayed home. that's the biggest concern. we have no idea how many people stayed home during the storm. leland: no idea how many people stayed home. south of galveston in rockport, the mayor said if you decide not to evacuate, write your name and

social security on your arm. these are pictures of rockport. we can see the devastation. we don't have any control over camera, but as it pans you see the devastation. people who did stay home, they're going to be lucky if they rode this storm out alive and we heard from steve harrigan. that's his camera there, that the first responders are now going door-to-door trying to kick in doors, yell, scream, see if they can find anybody in that rubble. and the dangers they pace are significant. you've got the wind and rain coming down, power lines that may be down. gas lines that may be down. talked to one of our other correspondents who is holed up in one of the hotels down there, the fire alarms continue to go off. the power is out. communications are out, and last night, as we were riding the storm out from here and talking it folks down there, slowly and surely throughout the night, you lost communications inland.

first, rockport you lost communications, then you lost them to places like victoria. then you lost port aransas and other cities. so, even before they can send people in, they've got to figure out how to get those communications systems up. there could be an enormous amount of devastation that we don't know about as we look there at the texas emergency operations center in austin where we're awaiting the governor's press conference. we talked to folks in the emergency operation center last night and we said okay, we can't get a hold of anybody in rockport. tell us what you're hearing. they said we can't get a hold of them either. elizabeth: we had a long conversation with elaine dukes, and see lived through katrina and what she learned. the last of it was preparedness and getting people out because they learned their lessons sometimes they didn't make themselves vocally available to perhaps the elderly or people afraid to leave their pets they weren't going to leave. which is why you mentioned from

the mayor of rockport using stern language, they have nothing to lose, and red cross is willing, and this is they're curious as a storm team, more powerful than anticipated, they couldn't go in and gauge. the national guard couldn't go door-to-door on friday afternoon because the storm already hit at that point. this is a time when we're waiting and in other situations, perhaps, continue through the state of texas. when we heard from janice dean and heard from mark, it's hovering and staying and it's not going anywhere soon and i think it to drop a lot of water? >> in many of these communities, galveston one of them near houston. houston being near one, victoria, a number of communities in texas that are totally flat, they flood often even with five or six inches of rain. you're now talking five and eight times that amount of rain that could come down over the in excouple of days, so it's not a question of if it floods, but

just how bad it will flood. as we bring in niles from white house columnist at the hill, there's been a lot of talk by the white house and would he heard elizabeth's interview with the currently acting head of dhs how they're ready, president trump saying he is monitoring it and even the head of fema says president trump is uniquely prepared to deal with these disasters. the contrapositive of that, how worried is the white house of having a katrina-like disaster on their hands? are they fearful of that? are they aware of the human implications of getting this wrong? >> yes. a few things of the obama administration and the trump administration have in common, they're haunted by the ghost of hurricane katrina which caused such reputational damage, i think, to the bush presidency and the sense then that the president was focfo not focused

we've seen president trump avoiding that he would be caught napping in this situation. leland: he's at camp david and we've heard from the head of dhs he's received a briefing this morning and he was tweeting about getting that briefing. pictures of him coming out on the phone with governor abbott. do you get the sense that this administration is ready for this? do they have the personnel? do they have the expertise in place? we're only six months into the administration, and the institutional knowledge to deal with this? >> this administration has been criticized at times not filling all positions, but it does have at least that person in place. there is an acting head of the department of homeland security, but, of course, with all of these things, leland, one of the difficulties, there's so much unknowable. your correspondents have been covering this today and we don't know what the follow-up is going

to be. leland: may not know for a number of months or a number of weeks. elizabeth: we have a new statement from fema and read it in part, says the priorities right now are supporting states with search and rescue, mass care, medical services, temporary power and life sustaining commodities. the reason i want to bring up that statement. there's a lot that first responders are doing right now and the president said, well, i could be down there as early as tuesday. that may be a high-risk situation and he could be bringing down a lot of resources and when we're bringing out search and rescue operations. does he have to walk a fine line, when he goes down there, if he goes down there, it's a political dance and how does he tiptoe around that? >> that's always a difficult balance for a president-- >> i hate to interrupt you. go down to corpus christi, texas, a coast guard news conference. often times these are the first people with a look at the damage.

>> be sure to get good photographs and video of what we've done and as soon as we get our-- we have one fixed wing aircraft and we'll do overflight, damage assessment with the aircraft. we'll get the videos and imagery released so you can help share the information and damage assessments with the public. we appreciate you coming out and making sure the public can get this important information. >> the press conference wrapping up from the u.s. coast guard in corpus christi. at least from the tail end of it, it doesn't sound they were able to launch their fixed wing aircraft or their helicopters. that was key to saving lives in hurricane katrina was them being able to fly over the ninth ward and cherry pick people off. we know that the coast guard has pre-staged a lot of resources down this in corpus christi. the united states coast guard

reported rescue of 12 people from a boat overrun by water. fema's urban search and rescue teams are in san antonio. but we were talking with weather like this continuing in this area, it doesn't matter how much resources you pre positioned, they can't get in if they're air assets. elizabeth: that's why i talked to niall a little bit when it comes to the white house response, he can't be too eager to get down there too soon. it's a tightrope, a difficult dance he has to weave in. every now and again we'll have the press conferences and we see them inhibited. he has to stand by and wait, but can't seem complacent. >> no, he wants to show concern and that he has the finger on the pulse here. there's an argument to go down and allow president trump to be in the conventional role of the president offering comfort to people who are clearly struggling with very difficult

circumstances. but, you're quite right, elizabeth, there's the danger of distracting from relief efforts or of just diverting resources to presidential visit. i honestly feel for any president in that situation because i think it's such a fine line you have to walk. elizabeth: so far it's hard to be critical. the declaration came out early, came out strong. he may be at camp david, but elaine dukes just got the phone with him. he's not holed up and he's making himself accessible. that being said it's just the beginning and we'll find people criticizing and politicizing just about everything. >> we're going to see the task of how good preparation has been. but so far, i don't think there's been any obvious wrong-footed move by the administration. elizabeth: right, right. leland: it's important to note sometimes no matter how much you pre-position sometimes you're overwhelmed. there aren't enough resources to be able to deal with 50 inches

of rain being dropped no matter how the floods are. there could be a huge amount of damage. noon central time galveston, texas as conditions continue to deteriorate. elizabeth: that's right, our hurricane coverage continues, obviously, into the next hour of america's news headquarters. we're going back to the gulf coast. first an update from the fox news extreme weather center. janice dean has been tracking the system and we also spoke with mark after we spoke with you, it sounds like there's nothing pushing the system out, it's hovering over the state, it's a low lying area, and really, really sort of not to be doom and gloom, but it doesn't look great in the next 24 to 48 hours, what can you tell us? >> liz, it doesn't look good, unfortunately. as we look ahead. the storm is going to stall and it's going to continue to bring unprecedented rainfall across texas and i just want to show

you the evolution of the storm from wednesday to friday, when it became a monster, category 4 hurricane making landfall. the first time we've seen a category 4 make landfall since 2004. also want to make mention here, we have a tornado watch in effect until 1 p.m. local time, i think if we zoom in, we have a tornado warn storm right now in the beaumont area, north and east of beaumont. so, with these land falling hurricanes, with the tropical systems we've got the rotation from the counter clock-wise motion, that's why we have the severe threat going on for tonight for tornadic activity. so watching this, now, watch the european model. this is one of our reliable forecast models, as we go further out in time. that's why i people to not let their guard down and because this model actually shows the

storm hovering, sunday, monday. as we get into tuesday, coming back into the gulf of mexico and then perhaps making a second landfall around galveston. so, that's why this is almost

>> wins can truly be devastating. they were just able to make their way now out to the coast.

>> throughout the mounting we been watching people come back to this devastating apartment complex in rockport. through the wreckage i saw husband-and-wife pull out some shirts, obviously samara rescues to go.

in misery to inflict. >> now back to

>> this is true to communications. a numbe

>> casey was starting to talk about it starting to flood their and reporting hurricane like conditions 14 hours after the

storm. at this time it's a case of all the kings men may not be able to do anything so now we are waiting for the storm to start. the storm in the water far out there on the beach in galveston. nile, as you point out, the political analysis will come out in the coming weeks and months. we'll have here to talk about it. we appreciate your insight. >> allison: residence in houston are bracing for heavy rain and massive flooding which they are seen. as the hurricane ripped through coastal texas. were live from houston with the latest, i can see behind you that we are seeing a lot of flooding. >> you are. i talked in the last hour about the bayous in this is keegan's

by you. it was causing the flooding you are seeing me in. this is you see it is very high. we had a break from the rain for more than an hour. look down there to that highway, look how close the water is rising. that is one of the major problems as we brace for three more days of flash flood warnings. i just had the alert on your phone that goes off. it said flash flood warning for your area expires in three days and seven hours. we talked to some owners, if we follow the bayou up this way, the blue building is a little bit of a strip mall and it's a major road there. that owner told me he has been through five floats in his business here. in a storm in 2001 he had 19 inches inside his business and that stripmall. when this bayou rose over that

bank and met the road on the other side. that is the kind of 2-foot plus flooding they are warning. the hurricane center say we are definitely going to see at least some 20 plus inches possibly in rain that is expected. for any viewers in this area in houston i spoke with the spokesperson for the marion he said give them the message to staff the road. seems like were in an aftermath situation or it's not going to rain, the bands of harvey are coming. they are coming furiously will cause more flooding in the city. it can pop up anywhere. 2500 miles abayas like this and a major three and half days left of flash flooding. this is certainly not over. this, the fourth largest city in

america. >> elizabeth: that is breathtaking when you look at that overpass. it always looks like the water is getting close. thank you for bringing that to us. we hope the people of houston stay safe. >> some of the most incredible pictures were getting for the storm as it came ashore is from social media. it was oftentimes the police and fire departments uploading their own images to get the word out to the public about what was happening. a police department using social media to say sorry, you're on your own. they're monitoring all of that and ordinary citizens riding out the storm. >> good afternoon. this is the strongest hurricane to hit the u.s. from 2005. it's the strongest to hit in this area. facebook was a-year-old,

instagram and twitter, today we have been monitoring social media all day to give us firsthand accounts of how it has been affecting texas. we'll begin with the twitter video. this was taken last night around 6:30 p.m. the video lashing, the wind lashing even a canopy. you can see the search getting closer and closer to the row. that was just outside the house in north padre island. this video from corpus christi texas taken from at -- as hurricane harvey was making landfall. this video was taken from the apartment building and appear outside the home. that was torn apart from the storm. now onto facebook where people

are checking into the hurricane harvey facebook safety check page. marking themselves is safe so family members and friends are aware of their status. we've seen these pages pop up after terrorist attacks in people communicate here like a message board. it's very helpful. sometimes people asking for help in some offering assistance. this is a facebook video poster from the police department by department showing their vehicles rushing back into the city after harvey made landfall as everyone else was urged to stay off. everyone either hunkering down or leaving. the police vehicles dashing in to danger to make sure that everyone is safe. we have seen things on instagram and go back to facebook or hear from instagram, this is a father and daughter looking at the storm from houston, texas.

that comes from elizabeth. during the storms people are hunkered down and that is what this family is doing as the floodwaters and ring continues to drop for days as expected. we have another photo coming in from josé and corpus christi. this is on instagram. this is on columbia road, a power line is falling. you will see down to a power lines and trees and the effective areas. people urged to staff the roads. this photo is from north padre island. it was posted at 10:33 a.m. showing appear broken up. we'll continue to monitor social media throughout the day as people post more on hurricane harvey. >> leland: a lot of times these pictures are delayed as we are talking about. the cell phone towers we need to communicate in this age are down. either destroyed or flooded, or

out of power. we will wait over the next couple of hours to see if people are able to upload more things overnight. this morning brian is an new york to cover it all. >> elizabeth: coming up, we are minutes away from an update on hurricane harvey from texas governor, greg abbott. as soon as he goes to the podium we will bring it to life. plus more president trumps pardon and how people are reacting. we will tell you about it. in a massive effort underway. we'll talk with the administrator the first major disaster for president trump boost. it's about moving forward, not back.

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communications have been knocked out. the folks behind the operation center trying to get a hold of these communities to figure out what is going on. casey is in texas saying it felt to him like hurricane -like conditions as the wind and rain continued to churn. president trump at camp david for this weekend telling folks good luck before he left in tweeting this morning that he is closely monitoring hurricane

harvey. the president declared it a disaster before the storm made landfall. that frees up a lot of federal resources. people are calling the storm a first big test, it will hear how the president is responding in terms of what the administration thinks is at stake. is clear they understand it's a big test. >> leading up to hurricane harvey president trump wanted the country to know he was bringing a close eye this morning he said closely monitoring hurricane harvey. were bringing nothing to chance. city, state, federal governments working great together. just as he it was planning to make landfall he declared a major disaster declaration saying for help and federal aid for temporary housing, home repairs and other programs to

help individuals and business owners recover from the did affects of the disaster. officials have been praising the efforts in management thus far. >> were working with a government and our people. he was here early and focused on that, we talked to the governor and he's pleased with the response and declare benny counties disaster areas. run top of this as well as we can be, the president has been to. >> these can be defining moments for elected leaders. president george w. bush approved ratings hit an all-time low. the homeland security advisor says that experiences fresh in the minds of those who live through it. >> is still in their experience in muscle memory. we've gotten better as a government.

congress has gotten better to allow flexibility we need to employ not just deploy. >> the president is planning on visiting texas next week there could be additional disaster declarations in the days ahead. >> that balance between having the president there and getting firsthand look and resources for presidential visit is a delicate balance. talking about some of the resources whether it's the national guard or coast guard, were hearing that the weather is too bad to launch those resources. they just can't get there yet. >> that's right, coming up after the break we are waiting for a press conference from texas governor, greg abbott. we expect him to take the podium any moment. were looking forward to hearing

more about the the local response and reinforcement they're getting from the trump administration. we'll get an update on where the storm is headed and how it will affect a huge area of texas residents. we will be right back. what was the worst thing you saw?

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and running as soon as possible and also safely. as i was telling you at the last hour, this is the only road into galveston and people headed in that direction are not only first responders but also may be residents and people coming out to check it out, those utility crews are growing by. the last town was more than 22000 people without power in galveston. they're asking for people's patients. that is going to take a bit of time. what a difference in our mix. remember the last time we were talking i could hardly stand out here, the rain was coming down so hard and now it's a light drizzle. now i see some sun trying to peek through the clouds behind my camera. that is how sporadic and rapidly

conditions change. think about the storm when you see it on the map. the circular hurricane pattern. you watch it on the radar. has the outer bands continue making their way through that's when we will get the intense precipitation and heavy winds. as the bands continue rotating then you get a loan which were in join now. we want to show you video from where we are, it's just like galveston, a little strip of lands in the gulf of mexico just north of here. it is the line and a lot of people were evacuated from that area. house fires, we suspect it was started by lightning but emergency officials to our north

that some homes have sustained damage there and some even catching fire. lightning, water, storm search, extreme winds at time, a lot of factors are at play. that is what's making this unpredictable. as we know it's not just the outer bands of the storm we are worried about. you talk to the national hurricane center the last hour following our alive report he was talking about how this was expected to sit over the region for a couple of days. it's not moving up. as these things move inland they start to dissipate quickly and start to break up. not so much the case with the storm. that is why projected rainfall amounts of up to 3 feet in some places are in the forecast.

it is something changing a fluctuating by the hour. we are on top of it. we will continue to keep you updated from galveston. that is the latest. back to. >> elizabeth: you have covered a lot of these, the characteristics of the storm is in the history book. thank you for bringing us the latest. stay safe. >> bringing in texas congressman live on the ground. we know you represent an area truly hardest hit victoria, rockport and those cities as you have driven around and talk to folks, how bad is it? >> corpus christi dodged a bullet. once you cross the harbor bridge that's where the rains have passed, their flooded, mobile homes and rvs are upside down. there is not a sign on 35, it's

bad. the part a 35 is underwater and barely passable. we see helicopter pictures and their devastating. >> give me an idea, have you been able to talk to first responders in the police and fire departments in these towns? up until this morning their communications were completely cut off. have they had a chance to search buildings for survivors? >> i was talking to some mayors and they been in touch with their first responders and they said do not come back to town. some of the main streets are blocked with power lines down. i don't think you could get there if you wanted to,'s certainly not without a big truck. >> leland: we have pictures coming in.

as you talked about, utter devastation there. and across that area of the texas seaboard. ditch your perspective of what you have heard from the white house. today seem to you to be engaged enough and with enough federal resources that when the weather lifts the folks will be able to get the help they need? >> they've already declared some counties a disaster area and their calling that a disaster area, but it's far more devastating they the white house has been saying they could move as rapidly as necessary because the weather still between us and the resources are pre-positioned

in texas which is basically between austin and san antonio in about a three-hour drive from where we are. >> leland: that may be the key of the situation and why this could last so long and the suffering could last for so long. how are you doing? to have power? do you have fresh food and water? >> i am well prepared. my power went out about 3:00 o'clock yesterday. if i can find a gas station will fill up our clouds i need to find an open gas station. >> that oftentimes is the biggest challenge. >> this may be the first interview i've done where it has been so important for everybody, being prepared for everything from cell phone power to fuel. and then food and water. stay safe. our best to you and your family.

>> elizabeth: let's check in with the national hurricane center for the latest. the deputy director mark, thank you for joining us. as we talked to the congressman their people getting out a about. can you give us advice as we take the next step. the storm is very dangerous. you know curiosity will get the best of people and they'll be trying to navigate roadways. what advice do you have? >> people need to heed their local advice from the officials and don't go out until you get the all clear. >> elizabeth: we talked about how the storm is staggered. has anything changed? are we still seeing the same rainfall predictions? >> yes. the storm is almost stationary

over the victoria area. we do not affect it to move far. the forecast is about the same and in the same vicinity. >> elizabeth: we talked about the characteristics of the storms. you said it is about 12 or 24 hours it starts to lose power. are you seeing the stay strong when it comes to wind gusts? >> the wind gusts are starting to die down. we still had some hurricane force winds but we feel within the next hours that will diminish. the very art large outer circulation will be around for a long time pumping this tropical moisture into the system. >> when i look at the upper right-hand quadrant, i see some red markers.

is that wind gusts what are we looking at? >> in this radar, shows where the heaviest rainfall is. >> and those are the areas we could expect to see 50 or 60 inches of rain. >> were looking at storm totals of about 40 inches, in some places ten or 15 have already fell. >> elizabeth: thank you for joining us. we hope people stay safe out there. >> an update coming in a couple of minutes from austin, texas. you can see the podium for the governor of texas and behind that the emergency operations center where there gathering more information. it will get a lot worse before it gets better in terms of destruction and devastation throughout southeast texas. crews are monitoring. one of the biggest issues is getting help to the communities. the fema directors up next on how long it will take to reach the communities that are still cut off.

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>> elizabeth: hurricane harvey is continuing to pound the texas coast. the bottom part of your screen fema administrator and emergency operations center in washington, mr. administrator, we appreciate you being up after these long hours. give us a sense of how difficult it is for you to get good information out of texas in terms of how bad the storm has been. >> the level of communication between us in texas is phenomenal. we are actively supporting them across many areas. the bottom line it's to supplement the capabilities but we have been pre-positioning teams in anticipated needs and

the request coming up. were meeting the search and rescue mission with our partners with the u.s. coast guard. we have been pushing forward emergency power admissions as well. >> both the congressman we talked to from rockport there and also some of our reporters on the ground to say at least a lot of the federal assets, the coast guard helicopters we would see with the air national guard's have not been able to move forward because of this unique storm and how it continues to dump rain between the pre-position aspects and where they are most needed do you know when you will be able to push forward and some of these hardest hit communities? >> and some of these cases we

are able to mobilize and supporter state partners. again, the storm is incredibly unique. it's a landmark event for texas. it will be frustrating for the citizens because of the duration of rain's anticipated over the next 72 - 100 hours. we cannot put our support teams in areas where their lives are in danger. it backs up our ability to get the people and help them. we are asking citizens to set their expectations that this is going to be a marathon. >> leland: we heard from the governor last night and he said this is a texas size storm that will require texas size response. what i'm hearing is a lot of help from the federal government.

how does this work in places like galveston where were getting places like rockport and other places that are so hard hit, you have local first responders that going and at least from the folks in texas they're not getting any word back out from there in terms of understanding exactly what the damages inside of texas. now, to

county aid, they will wreak quest resources in. when the state to pass the has exceeded in the present expedited the major disaster declaration claim last night within hours of him making that request were going to talk about it --'s. >> leland: you're looking at my pictures and galveston, this is become a tropical storm. it's not as powerful. as casey is reporting, it feels like dangerous conditions out there. you have huge serve, you have storm surge and water coming over the break wall as a water lapse over. it's one thing for these people to put themselves in danger but the administrator can point out

but as they go into the ocean there putting first responders who will fish them out. it's gotta be frustrating for you to see these people completely ignoring the warnings, and for that matter, common sense . >> it's insane actually. there's not much we can do about people who won't heed warnings or take care of themselves or loved ones. it's incredibly unfortunate. what we can do for those that are trapped and sheltering in place, that need help, we can provide support again for state partners to the local level. that's what were focused on. were running search and rescue missions in conjunction with both the local and state travel lovers of government.

were coordinating the resources behind me here. we chordate that, that resource to the local level to help our state and local partners out. >> leland: the hard work is just now starting for so many of not only the first responders but your team that will come in behind you. we appreciate your time, thank you so much and good luck. godspeed to your folks. >> thank you. our thoughts and prayers are with the state of texas. were doing everything we can to resort the state with responding. this will be a lengthy recovery. will be going through this for years. >> leland: thoughts and prayers

to the people on that. , for wisdom if you will as we think the administrator. this is stunning. we see this every time there's a storm that a few people decide to be really stupid for lack of a better word. >> elizabeth: it really takes less than a second to be swept out to sea. it's not really funny. in the meantime, the mayor of san antonio has been holding a press conference on a tropical storm. i believe his come off the stage. but as you know, san antonio is a bit more inland but they're getting quite a bit more rain. we also know a lot of people evacuated to san antonio. it's not quite as dangerous as the coast. this take a listen live now to get the very latest. >> they have been taken to the various hospitals in the surrounding area. it is hard to know what impact we might have depending on how bad the conditions get in houston, texas. there may be some overflow from their coming into san antonio. if the impact is as great as

some of those being predicted, been a lot worse conditions. while those who have been in the outlying areas that have been unincorporated, we have not had any closures in but we ever cruise in close proximity to those crossings into moving the debris out of the creeks. we would expect it sometime as the rains pick up the low-water crossings will become more dangerous. we expect that in the near future that they will close some crossings. we had quite a bit arise in thee san antonio river in 2013.

it went up like 30 feet. within the san antonio region of the river as we go south. it's up about 2-foot. but we would encourage people not to be going down on those walkways by the mission and to stay away from that area as the rainfall continues to increase. were looking closely at the other cities. and we have 11 emergency service districts activated, along with for volunteer fire departments. we have some 200 personnel between who works for the emergency service district as well as volunteers. they will be ready to help on any high water rescues that might be coming about, medical treatments, and any fires that

might come about as the result as we go along. the winds as we go along today, while average about 25 miles prior hour. but they are picking up, 30 - 3e areas it has gotten higher than that. i think when chris sustained over 40 mile-per-hour winds overnight. we need to be aware that the wind will probably increase as much is 50 miles per hour and that is a significant danger. we are working with volunteer organizations active into vaster. they are deploying washer and dryer trailers to our local shelters because some folks might be there for a while and they will need that help.

so again, we caution everybody to be careful, to stay home if you can and spend time with your family. we have a number you can call if you find any debris in the waterways. we have five major waterways. >> elizabeth: you been listening live to judge wolf in san antonio and that's actually place for many people were seeking refuge, and their experiencing up to 50 mile-per-hour winds and storm like conditions. he's telling residents to stay safe. so we are waiting the texas governor greg abbott. he is with a lot of local state officials. we expect to hear at any moment and expect to learn quite a bit. >> leland: last night through the night they're having a hard time getting hold of communities that have been cut off. some are still cut off from by

hurricane harvey. there's the door that we expect the governor to walk out of. continuing coverage throughout the day and crews all around texas as well as on fox news.com. >> we begin with the fox news alert. as we await a major update from texas governor greg cap it on harvey, which has been downgraded to a tropical storm dumping 20 inches of rain. >> hello and welcome to a brand-new hour inside america's news headquarters. >> and i'm michael. harvey is making landfall at that point harvey was a category for monster.