facebook, instagram and twitter. remember, i'm watters and this is my world. breaking tonight, hurricane harvey is now a tropical storm and caused a pass of destruction through texas. i met mike and thanks for joining us for our special storm coverage tonight. pricking harvey is now in the record books as the strongest hurricane to hit the us in 13 years striking the texas coast last night in the danger is not over yet. heavy rains and out tropical storm expected to lead to widespread flooding and even more power outages. we have live tax coverage of the storm and demonstration and let's start with matt who is live in houston. what is the latest there? reporter: hello mike.

behind me is relatively calm but the weather has been changing by the minute. overall in the past 24 hours we have witnessed steady violent, torrential downpour spread are forecasters of said that most of the damage of the storm will not come from wins but from the consistent rain and flooding. in our reporting we have seen just that. the national weather service has issued a fresh flash flood warning and also a tornado warning. our phones have been going off the hook with all the tornado headings that hit your phone. we have seen 9 inches of rain just outside of houston and the national weather service is saying anymore between 15 and 25 more inches of rain could fall. as you sit here in see the constant rain and we have a little break right now and you're saying to yourself this rain has to be going somewhere and with more steady days of rain in the forecast it seems like the flooding will just get worse. we talk about dirty water and the risk of disease and animals in the water and there's a lack

of services right now. hotels and restaurants, grocery stores closing, gas stations are few and far between when we left southeastern texas and it took us hours to get out of the small towns. there was a series of road closures and you would run into random flooding and sometimes you hear flash flooding and you think it is a matter but when you are driving and all of a sudden you hit a huge puddle of water in your in the car you have to turn around and figure out how to navigate. that's what tens of thousands if not millions of people in texas are trying to do this evening. the storm is referred to as a marathon not a sprint because there's many more days of rain i had in texas. mike, back to you. mike: folks at home see you getting blown around but what is it like for you off-camera when you're trying to get from place to place and trying to do your job? reporter: we were in clashes texas beginning last night into

last morning and we were parked there and to keep our camera equipment dry. as the sun came up we were driving out of there and we expected to run into damage or flooding but our producer in photographer had to make multiple u-turns. he would be driving and all of a sudden you would run into a huge body of water covering the road and you have to turn around and figure out where do we go from here. we are not clear with this area so it took us hours to get out of that small town and into our hotel. when we got to our hotel there was no running water or electricity and it looks like a zombie land if you will. people were trying to figure out how to survive the day. after that we had to drive to another hotel and we are fortunate. we were safe but there many people who are in their homes and perhaps did not have the resources that we had and are trying to figure out where to go from here. the red cross, rescue efforts, via car and helicopters flying

around. back to you, mike five thanks so much, matt, be safe. let's check in now with the meteorologist adam has been tracking harvey's every move four days. adam what is the latest? >> here is what we are looking at. this is the system where the tropical storm hit and were hearing matt talk about a potentially severe weather and that will continue through the overnight hours. he see the circulation in its grabbing warm air for over the gulf of mexico pulling it up to the coast and anything in this region we could continue to see severe weather. it is under that tornado watch that is stretching from the eastern side of the rotation all the way into portions of louisiana. we've seen several tornadoes fire up with in this area mostly along this band that is now crossing into the houston area. currently we don't have warnings in place but they been firing up consistently and i wouldn't be

surprised if he saw another one for too much longer. either way, that's a nasty band of heavy rain and strong storms embedded within that's. taking us back to the tropical storm. it's sitting about 16 miles an hour northwest of victoria, texas and at this point there's your broad rotation. it's weekend a little bit but still a large storm when you're talking about 60-mile an hour winds and it's becoming more of a rainmaker as it sits still. we will see impressive rainfall totals. take a look at the outer bands and all of those are heavy rains toward the houston area where we were seeing that severe weather i just showed you. moving forward it will be all about the rainfall totals. here is some of the totals we've seen thus far. it is still spinning but we have eight, nine, 10 inches and fairly widespread in those areas with more rain is certainly on the way. the storm just doesn't have anywhere to go. here's our topical model and you can see from sunday taking you to midnight tonight into your day on sunday and these circles this is your perking right over

port look off. most of the rain will be on the eastern side stretching up to galveston and houston where we can see impressive rainfall totals and that's been there for the next three, four or five days and that's why were under the flood watch is. what are these rainfall totals get up to. because of corpus christi five, 67 inches and if you run into the numbers it'll be unbelievable into the mid- 30s, 40 total inches of precipitation taking us farther up the coast to the houston area approaching 20-25 inches of rain in the new stretch not much farther to the south into the west and there's 35-inch rainfall totals there. yeah, we are still a long ways away from seeing how much rain were currently getting. mike: those are stunning

numbers. really something to watch in the coming days. thank you so much, adam. joining me now on the phone is roger, director of economic development in the port of galveston. roger, what are your concerns at this point of the storm? >> right now we've got four ships that need to come into port and we got to carnival ships that word due in here today and another carnival ship in one royal caribbean ship that is due in on sunday. that's about 17 or 18000 passengers that need to come into port and so that's very concerning because, as of right now, two of the carnival ships are in new orleans and the other ship is in cozumel. they are waiting for a window of opportunity to get these ships into port.

hopefully we will have an opportunity for small window to get them into tomorrow possibly but it'll depend on what happens this evening with the big band of rain were getting in from the west. mike: roger, folks watching at home are probably wondering what it's like to be on a cruise ship with a massive storm coming in to that area. do you have any sense of what it's like for those folks who i've been writing out a hurricane on a cruise ship? >> i can tell you this, mike, it is not any fun. it's nerve-racking and a lot of the people have their vehicles parked here at the port in private lots and in the port parking garage is and they've got a lot of worry and the ships are big ships and there over 1000 feet long but, you know, the water is so rough that they

can be thrown around just like they weren't anything. it's not much fun at all but hopefully we are all praying that they are safe and sound look forward to coming back to the port of galveston. mike: roger, any assessment so far in terms of damage to the port of galveston. obviously, some critical infrastructure there. >> there is but so far so good. all of the infrastructure has made it through very nicely and the people that park on the lot the blind to the port their cars are not flooded. we had a situation today where we got hit pretty hard by rain bands and a lot of the roads were impassable around the port and in the city but their cars were safe and no water in the

parking lot. mike: when i was a reporter based in texas i remember doing a story on the 100 year story that wiped out galveston and while it is still a serious situation they must be pleased that galveston has held up through this major storm. >> i think so, mike. the good thing about the people of galveston is that we've been through this, i was born and raised here i was in the last category four hurricane and i was also in hurricane carla and the wonderful thing that happens when something devastating is a hurricane in your backyard is that the people of galveston are resilient and they band together and the enemies become friends and they become close and everybody picks up each other and it's a wonderful thing.

mike: roger, thank you so much free time. we wish you the best in your neighbors and all of your colleagues there at the port of galveston. >> thank you very much, mike. mike: we heard of several injuries and one death that have been blamed on hardy so far. that apparently came during a fire. in the meantime thousands of people were evacuated in the state of texas but the people who stayed behind and are in need of help the red cross, as always, is there to help. joining me now by phone is mary jane modifications officer for the red cross texas gulf coast region. mary jane, what is the situation there tonight? >> still a disaster operations center in houston where there are hundreds of volunteers who have been coming in the last couple of days and more and more each day and it is raining outside and you can hear the thunder and we've had tornadoes touched down today so we are continuing to get people prepared. we have many shelters on standby up and down the coast but the

latest development is that we did determine with the city of houston, mayor turner to open up two of our soldiers now before hurricane harvey or tropical storm harvey gets really significant here. were expecting tremendous floodwaters. mike: the people of texas are in the thoughts and prayers of so many of us and people across the country. what do you want folks across the country want to be helpful to the people in texas to do at this point? >> we are so grateful for the well wishes we been receiving and certainly the volunteers were coming from around the country. if you don't live in this area donations still are very helpful because this is a massive relief operation. last night alone we housed 1400 people in 24 red cross trinity shelters and hundreds of volunteers coming in. the littlest bit helps. you can go to red cross .org or

just text 9090 and that's $10. it does go a long way. mike: hearing that the storm may continue to rain on texas for the coming days, how concerned are you and how it may that impact the work the red cross is doing to help those in need? >> we want people to be safe and that does include our volunteers and those who are offering help to those in need. our shelters are located and we do mapping and they're located in the right places where people have shelter but honestly, you know, we have to wait until the water subside so we can get to people to provide shelter and food and hygiene products and so forth. we are all watching and waiting and we all have emergency apps on her phone and in these things are going off and we are

prepared. that's what it's about. you can't panic we have to prepare and make sure that those in need get what they need and we do our best in the coming days. mike: mary jane mud, are things to you. >> thank you so much. mike: an update from rockport, texas, an area hit extremely hard by the storm.

mike: freaking site rockport, texas it extremely hard by hurricane harvey. it made landfall just about 24 hours ago. let's check in with steve who has been there through the entire store. reporter: it is so severe here in rockport that you can look into many people's homes. the second floor of this apartment complex or it was a second-floor and you can see a radio flyer red wagon there and hopefully that toddler who had it is safe and sound somewhere else. the bathtub right next to that and down here some women's clothing still blowing in the wind. as you look throughout this apartment complex you can see more and more destruction. the second floor is gone and the roof is gone lately. when you look down at the brakes you realize the force of the wind and the terrifying night that was here and that mandatory

evacuation order issued by the mayor does not seem so extreme when you look at this wreckage. he caught flak for saying if you disobey the mandatory evacuation order you should take a sharpie out and write your name and social security number on your arm because they could be pulling you out of here as a corpse and that's exactly what could've happened had people stayed. we have one confirm casualty in that number could change as the hours grow. it's tough for search and rescue teams to get out because of the conditions are still very windy and downed power lines. most of these power lines are snapped and is making the search and rescue operations very slow right now. it will pick up in the hours to come as people here try to cope with tremendous damage and wreckage. in rockport, texas, steve harrigan fox news. mike: steve, thank you very much. former fema officer is here with me now in the 2004 for the

hurricanes as well as hurricane katrina and he was a recovery manager for the new york city mayor's office during hurricane sandy. brad, thanks for being with us tonight. what is your assessment of the magnitude of this disaster so far. >> well, mike, on the big picture scale we can see fortunately it's not the total level of devastation that we would have seen from a hurricane sandy or hurricane katrina but to the people affected that is in importance. this is their personal katrina and for people whose homes are damaged or destroyed for businesses it's a long time effort and it will be a big challenge for them to fully recover. the response part seems to be going well so far and hopefully it will continue with the ongoing rain but there will be challenges as wellin response in the company coming days. mike: president trump authorized money cutting federal resources right away and governor greg

abbott talked about the resources bowing to the affected region and from your assessment they are off to a good start. >> they're off to a great start. the state of texas has historically been a strong and emergency management so i think we'll see a good response there. fema's a very agile agency and they have good programs on response and they've upped their game since the days of hurricane katrina and i think this is well within everyone's capabilities to manage so far on the response side. the recovery becomes completed. mike: as a former fema coordinating officer what troubles you about hearing the forecast in terms of rain through the middle of next week. >> these type of systems where the hurricane is now a tropical storm and ultimately becomes tropical depression when they stall and sit there and rain and rain those are not typical and we get all the worst of everything. we've had category for winds,

storm surge, and i will have persistent rain so it will continue to accrue the damages and it makes it that much harder for the response of people to get in do the search and rescue and get the utilities back on and do the damage assessment and all of that will be delayed if the system continues to persist in raining over the area. mike: brad houston, one of america's largest houston cities is in the path of the storm. what are your concerns about houston with two plus million people and extensive rain over the next four or five days? >> city of houston also has a great merge emergency manager and after hurricane ike in 2008 i was with new york city emergency manager and we were loan down there to help her a week or so and saw they have a good capability for the city does flood and if the rain continues and parks there there will be problems that will

continue for quite some time. so far, it seems to be going okay and the waters are flooding where they normally flood in persistent rain falls it hasn't gone to the catastrophic level yet. if it does, it's a great city in a big city and there will be considerable problems to deal with five also when you look at the region you're talking about substantial energy infrastructure for oil and natural gas, what about those concerns and the economic impact overall if that infrastructure is tied up or shut down for an extended period of time. >> obviously we can't afford that we need to keep that infrastructure going at all times. fortunately it doesn't look like the damages the storm itself had been too severe to include utilities and gas and oil but there will be delays and problems in their evacuations it took place on oil platforms and a lot of this will take a while to correct. right now i don't think we have any massive problems with critical of the structure but if

it continues this will be things that we need to take a close look at. mike: brad, if you are working on the storm right now for fema is there one thing that when you're going to bed at night that might keep you awake at night? the next having done the housing recovery piece right after katrina which we didn't do well and we did poorly after hurricane sandy here in new york city where we did better things including a rapid repairs program where we were able to come in fema dollars and repair people's homes and that's what worries me right now is these people were in shelters, the red cross does a great work of the shoulders and in the coming days people will start to try to figure out how do they get back into their homes and frankly, that's not something we've ever gotten it right yet. i'd be thinking about that right now and worried about how will we start to prepare people's homes. fema assistance will only go so far and people will need a lot more help especially if they don't have flood insurance. mike: thank you for your time and sharing your expertise with

us. to stay with us for our continued life storm coverage. marianne, back to our liver

continuing coverage of hurricane harvey. mike: breaking tonight, hurricane harvey is now a tropical storm but the threat is far from over. let's check back in with fox news meteorologist adam whose at the extreme weather center. >> it's no longer the hurricane

and when it runs on sure you get the strong winds but were talking heavy rains and is still chance of severe weather. this leading edge that is showing lightning strikes for every one of those little icons flashing working towards houston and that's producing severe weather in typically when you get on the eastern side of a storm like this it's lifting the moisture off the golf and you can see severe weather. we been under a tornado watch pretty consistently for the day and that continues here into the overnight hours and has produced at least several tornadoes so far. currently we don't have any tornado watch storms but it's been this big and it's stretching right to the heart of houston. folks in that area though there is pretty powerful storms moving to the area putting very heavy rain, strong winds and yes, occasionally a few tornadoes. further to the west were looking

at general rain that will continue for days and days. here's our tropical storm harvey and you see that rotation at this point, 40 miles northwest of victoria, texas. winds still at 60 miles an hour. just north of victoria, south of the club's area still dropping rain and still went in that general region. let's what will come from this? in his drifted off shore but i think as we went to sunday and monday it will be forced to track back down the coast only to allow it to run over spots that it already has with saturated ground it will get even more rain and it will run it back up close to the gulf of mexico and be able to pick up more and more sure and that's more rain fall stretching all the way from corpus christi to galveston up houston. i wouldn't be surprised to be some more rain running close to san antonio and austin areas. here is our model. this is an idea of where the tropical storm will be as it spins. again, the main heavy rain will always be on the eastern side of the system so you continue to see that energy care.

here is monday into tuesday and ultimately into wednesday and thursday in that system sits right where it is. during that entire time were talking about rain falling and these numbers start to pile up. it gets scary. that's why were already under flood advisories and it will eventually be rain in some cases running up to 35 maybe even 40 inches. gary when you talk numbers that big. mike: looking at all those colors on your map it looks like a monster storm still, adam. >> yes, we have way to go. mike: joining me is the mayor of victoria, texas. what is the latest? >> thanks for having me. you know, were picking up the pieces and trying to respond to people's needs and our current big issues are pretty widespread power outages and our water system is currently down but we are working on that feverishly.

mike: have you spoken with some of your neighbors and residents in constituents and how are they holding up? how are the spirits of your community? >> i think they are all pretty good. i just stopped by a shelter this evening and those people seem to be okay and they know that this will pass it will get things together. our community is self-reliant and we do help each other. it's really showing in the current situation. mike: i've been to victoria, texas is a charming community with wonderful people. what are you thinking about in terms of the coming days are you worried about flooding what are your immediate concerns? >> as i mentioned, getting the power back on in utilities working with expect to city operations with the water system is top priority and we need have an issue with a large generator there were collecting hopefully tomorrow morning. beyond that there's a lot of

people wanting to come in and help that we need to coordinate those efforts and we need to complete an assessment of the situation. we got a lot of first responders outdoing assessment of damage and what it is we need to prioritize. i know there will be some housing issues and a lot of infrastructure to traffic lights and things like that. need to make sure that people are safe right now. mike: you mentioned housing issues. have you lost a lot of homes in victoria or is this too soon to say? >> it's a little sooner but based on my observations this afternoon it's not too bad on the residential situation but i only covered a small portion of the city. i think we fared pretty wellin the storm, as mentioned by adam earlier, did diminish rapidly and we didn't get some of the winds as high as we thought we would which is a blessing. mike: speaking of blessings. any concerns in terms of people being injured and i'm hoping

there's been no loss of life in your community. >> not that i am aware of. i have not heard of any loss of life. one thing we are strict on is security and the victoria police department, as well as the county sheriff's office is really controlling heavily and watching homes and checking the curfew is currently in place. if you are not out on official business or emergency need you may be stopped and sent home. we realize people want to get out and check on things but security is a top priority right now. people with ill intent need to know that we are serious and we will not tolerate that intercommunity. mike: last question for me which is how are you holding up how are your top people holding up? i know you can go through adrenaline for the first 24 hours or so but as this grinds on, how is everyone doing? >> we did well. became too apart this evening where it's time for people to get sleep including myself.

we sat down in a policy staff meeting and discuss that and we relieved some of our emergency centerfolds to make sure they went and got some sleep and the replacements are in place. that is working well. we managed very well. mike: mayor, don't let me hold you. thanks for your time in with mr. kennedy the best. >> thank you, mike. mike: of live update of the commander army in galveston

mike: breaking tonight, texas still bracing for extreme flooding in the as the rain continues to fall. joining me now by phone commander of the us army corps of engineers in galveston texas, colonel. good evening. what are the primary concerns from the corps of engineers perspective at this stage?

>> good evening. our concerns right now are about restoring navigation along the texas coast. the galveston district has responsible for maintaining more than a thousand miles of federal channels supporting 28 ports and that's one of our largest concerns is to quickly survey the channels and provide that information to the coast guard so they can make decisions to reopen the ports and as that if we detect any obstruction either sediments that need to be dredged from the channels or debris and we remove those so we can get the navigation industries to the state of texas internation going again. mike: colonel houston is one of america's largest cities and how are you about the flooding in the days ahead? >> obviously, everyone in the

securithouston area is looking n 15 or 30 inches of rainfall and the engineers are looking at and were directly tied to the dam which are too large earthen levee structures that are in northwest houston that have protected the city of houston for the last 70 years. so, we are currently in 24 hour, seven day a week operations in those structures to ensure that they form as designed and they will continue to protect the citizens of houston. we also constructed a levee system around the lynchburg pump station that is now operated by the federal project that we turned over to the local government that protects the drinking water supply for the citizens of houston. mike: any damage to those love you so far? >> so, no damage to the levees

so far. in the one in houston and the other ones that we constructed and transferred over to other sponsors in the city of freeport, texas and port arthur. to date we have had no impact in the structures that help protect the citizens of the state of texas. mike: colonel, any success stories? it seems that galveston has held up well so far. >> we have been fortunate here in galveston unlike the previous storms. we definitely feel for our fellow citizens across the state of texas that have been negatively impacted by the storm. our success stories are our communications between the various levels of our governme government, local, the county, the state and federal government. the sharing of information and

preparing for the response and recovery for the people of texas is one of the biggest successes we've had so far. mike: what are your concerns in the coming days with signs that the rains won't let up anytime soon? >> the concern there is to continue monitoring and to respond as appropriate. other concerns would be with these rainfalls if there will be continued high flow in many of the rivers in the state of texas and so over a period of time you can still have a significant impact to the navigation of the state of texas as additional water and sediment continue to be carried downstream. mike: colonel, we thank you for your time and wish you and your team the best. >> thank you, sir. mike: next, we go live to galveston, texas for the

conditions t

mike: breaking tonight rain continues to pound texas in the aftermath of hurricane harvey. it's go to lauren blanchard who is live in galveston, texas. a foreign. reporter: hello, mike.

were expecting to get hit with more rain tonight in galveston. we are getting hit right now with the winds. as you see by me, there is a lot of lightning and the storm is moving closer and closer to the area. although this is now downgraded from a category four hurricane to just eight tropical storm authorities are saying take this seriously because it is bringing rain and especially tonight we will see inches of rain here in galveston an area that's already been hit with tons of rain. over the next few days they are saying we could see as much is 15-30 inches of rain and possibly even up to 40 inches of rain in some areas from here all the way to houston, a city historically that is not done well with flooding. people need to be on alert for flash flooding and roads that could be underwater. do not drive your cars through that or walk that.

my, earlier today we saw people trying to do just that. please, listen to authorities and what they are saying because as the storm comes background dropping much more water it will pose a serious risk to those were here. the other thing here in galveston that we are watching is a number of cruise ships that were supposed to make port here in galveston and they were unable to do so because of the severe weather. two of those ships heading over to new orleans where folks can get off if they would like to and two others will remain at their ports not here in galveston. 20000 people who were supposed to come here no longer able to do that. i talked with a couple earlier today was here in galveston and was supposed to get on one of the ships but they are stuck here. they're trying to decide to wait it out or if they should say their cruise is a wash and go on home. a lot of people stranded because of this weather not only here in galveston but a lot of other airports are down and flights are canceled and port

authorities are telling people to her down. mike. mike: it looks like the winds are whipping pretty hard. take care of yourself and stay safe. thank you for your time. joining me now by phone is earl armstrong, public affairs officer from fema region six, texas. sir, how are you doing this evening? how is a correlation between federal, state and local. >> that coordination is going very well. we are in touch with the state of texas 24 hours a day and we have our regional response ordination center here in denton working with the state. right now our priority is supporting the state of texas with things like search and rescue, mass care, disaster, medical services, health restoring temporary power and getting life-sustaining commodities out to the folks. mike: it struck me last night that president trump quickly

authorized the disaster relief money. how does that help you do your job? >> when a disaster hits we go ahead and do our job which is providing assistance to those folks. mike: what are the -- sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. >> yeah, what we have done so far in the last couple of days we have a six urban search and rescue teams staged in san antonio and the ready to support any potentially affected areas that needed and requested and each of those teams have a water rescue abilities and we paid position supplies like 96000 liters of water, 306,000 meals, 4500 tarp and 30 generators. these generators are not what you would have at your home but

they're big enough to run a police station or fire station or a hospital. we've activated the national emergency medical services contract for hundred ambulances and folks, listen to your local officials. if they tell you to evacuate, evacuate. mike: earl, in terms of those search and rescue teams should be expect them to turn out shortly or do they have to wait in amount of time and make sure conditions are safe for them to go out? >> you would expect them to be safe in their operations. mike: so, do you think next 24, 48 hours will see search and rescue activity or do you have a timetable at this point? >> that is up to the weather. mike: fair enough.

if it will keep pouring the next four or five days and if that area gets more rain than it typically gets in a year what are the fema concerns about that? >> we are concerned about people's lives and safety. that's the number one thing we are concerned about. if you are driving down a road and it's underwater, don't go down the road. mike: do you worry about -- girl, sorry. we had a break up in the conversation. please, go. >> yeah, as i mentioned earlier, pay attention to the local officials and they tell you to avoid an area, avoid that area. if they tell you to evacuate, evacuate. pay attention to where the water is and don't go through it if it is deep. mike: do you worry about people going stir crazy after being cooked up and writing out a hurricane or trying to get back to their home and what the

potential damage could be of people driving prematurely? >> well, you know, i keep pounding on this: pay attention to the local officials. we know the temptation is there but you been in your house for a wild but pay attention and follow the instructions the local officials five a lot of wisdom there. earl armstrong, we know it will be a long week ahead for sure and certainly some long months ahead for the folks in that region and we thank you and your fema folks for the work you're doing there. >> thank you. we are trying our best to help folks. mike: earl, thank you very much. the state of texas certainly not out of the woods and that is it for this hour of our breaking news storm coverage. we thank you for our very watching. our thoughts and prayers are with those affected. i'm mike emanuel, be sure to stay with fox news channel as

our coverage continues with harrison buckner leading the coverage.

[♪] reporter: cleaning up in texas but residents are days away from cleaning up from harvey. the strongest hurricane to hit the united states in 16 years blew into texas last night. fox news' live team coverage of the storm, what happened and what is still to come. let's start with matt finnn live in houston. reporter: the storm continues. it may wind down as far as the wind power. but it's not over by any stretch of the