dams. a lot to talk about this morning. thoughts and prayers for everyone in the texas. heather: at least 9 trillion gallons of water they are dealing with thank you for joining us, "fox & friends" starts right now. ♪ >> our country's fourth largest city shut down, residents in crisis, houston coping with a disaster of epic proportions. >> it's sad, man. a lot of devastation. i don't think the city was very prepared for it pretty disappointing that we have taken our personal stuff out of here and doing what we got to do. that's what firearm do. >> governor, you got your hands full. what's your priority at this hour? >> protecting lives. >> there is a lot of people left behind that would like to get rescued. >> we know water is coming more tonight and over the next couple days and we didn't want to be there when it was rising even higher. >> 15 elderly residents sitting in waste and shoulder deep water inside the assisted living

facility. they got in touch with the national guard which sent the helicopter rescuing all 15 residents. >> president trump will travel to texas on tuesday. >> i give fema a grade of a plus all the way from the president down. >> what does this mean for the rest of the country in terms of the economy? >> we are seeing the price of gas at the pump go up. it's gob up 5 to 10 cents. hopefully within a month we level back out. >> the sweetest place we have arrived. can you see it? it is blacktop. we have not seen enough blacktop since we arrived in houston. ♪ ♪ brian: there you go. that brings us up to the minute and it's a fox news alert time. because tropical storm harvey delivering another major blow to the nation's fourth largest city while you were sleeping, perhaps. more mandatory evacuation orders put in veecke effect as e army corps of engineers making emergency move to open the dams, flooding more neighborhoods in order to

protect the downtown area. todd: all this days after torrential downpours and catastrophic flooding and thousands upon thousands of dramatic rescues. ainsley: at least five deaths being reported at this hour as the governor there in texas, greg abbott, warns the rest is yet to come. still more rain in the forecast that janice is going to talk to you about. brian: more on what's happening on the ground as well as what's happening with the forecast. first, let's go to griff jenkins who has been doing some sensational work in the eye of the storm. griff, i can see it is still raining. >> it is. it's a disaster situation here as we have seen over the weekend. it's about to get man made worse when artificial flooding comes in the form of the water being released from those dams, -- from those reservoirs to keep the dams from breaking and absolutely wiping out downtown houston. let me just paint the

picture for you. this is one of the southwest neighborhoods that was told overnight from the harris county flood control folks that they will be releasing water from the reservoir to come down the bayous that come past this neighborhood and it's definitely going to flood and residents should remain alert and take precautionary measures. here is the thing, guys, as light begins to come out this morning, it is going to be a situation of utter chaos, the residents, if they remain have been told for the last few days to stay put, don't go out. don't get in your cars. guess what, they can't go anywhere. look at these cars. look how deep this is out here. so, on top of what is expected to be even more epic, historic flooding, we saw the thousands of rescues that happened literally on this block about that way where houses are under 15, 20 feet in the southwest neighborhood. you are going to have water from what is the buffalo

bayou that flows southwest out away from houston. that's why it was created to keep the city from flooding down to the houston ship channel. and all that water is going to start coming in the form of inches and probably feet in the next few hours on top of what mother nature is going to bring. and so this is truly a situation that has been devastating all weekend. it is about to get worse. some of the neighbors here are going to make a tough decision because they're going to feel like sacrificial lambs. here's the deal. many of them don't have power. may not have a television or a phone to look at the information. they may not ivan know that the officials have told them that this new problem is coming their way it's unbelievable, guys. brian: wait a second, griff. are they still asking for boats and have therein there been rescuing going on all night? about 1,000 people already been saved? do they still need people to grab their kayak, their canoe and motor boat and help? >> absolutely.

you know, the story here, one of the most important stories is of volunteers. we went out with one of the volunteers. we will bring that to you later who took john boats to go out and to rescue people. there weren't a few people. when they say search and rescue, you don't have to search hard. we went out. there are not hundreds but thousands of people on rooftops because they were told to go there looking for help. here's the problem. these volunteers, they are operating in littlejohn boats. when it rains the way it has been raining, those john boats can't hold water. they have got to get under under passes and take cover and on be top of that they have hazards. when you are under 10 or 15 feet of water the hazards are submerged cars it takes about an hour of heavy rainfall and artificial water that's coming into this neighborhood. it's guaranteed that car will be under water and john boats, volunteers have to make sure they don't hit structures like that and cause an even bigger problem. that is why a situation of likely chaos is about to

play out. brian: all right, griff. we will check in with you in a little while. ainsley: griff about one of these water rescues in one of the small boats we will play that story coming up. unbelievable. todd: why wasn't houston evacuated? we knew that this was coming, maybe not 100 percent to the degree that we are seeing right now. but why wasn't the city evacuated? ainsley: the mayor is under a lot of fire for that he says he doesn't have any regrets. he is pleased with the way everything panned out. he said it's so hard to evacuated 6.5 million people. this is what he said. this is mayor sylvester turner. >> to try to put forth some sort of evacuation in a couple of days was, i mean, the logistics would have been crazy. there are 2.3 million people. when you combine that with harris county 6.5 million people. where are they going? the decision that we made was a smart one. it was in the best interest of houstonians.

brian: keep in mind, too. what he is thinking about is the 60 people that died leaving to supposedly ahead of hurricane rita a few years bang. he saw how everyone left at the same time. the roadways got jammed. couldn't move and people got pee drowned. you wonder if a phased evacuation would have been more effective. >> i remember in 1999, there was hurricane floyd that hit south carolina. it doesn't take a rocket scientist for mayor's to come together or governors to talk together. that governor at the time was under so much fire because the roads were at stand still. people were running out of gas. no one had a place to go to the restroom. so then they fixed the problem. they did what you were suggesting, brian. they released people. the next time there was a hurricane in zones. so depending on your neighborhood. you got to leave first, second, third. it made traffic flow. they took all of the highways that were going in

to charleston, they made all those highways, those lanes leaving chaferls stolen. so the highways that might have been two lanes were now four lanes leaving the area. they need to talk to other states to find out how to going forward every state, every governor watching needs to talk to other states that have been through this in case it happens to you going forward. brian: communication between the federal government and governor has been strong. they do have somewhat of a different message. greg abbott said if you are in low lying area corpus christi or houston maybe some of the other areas, you need to strongly consider evacuating. ainsley: he said that on friday. governor is saying evacuate. the mayor is saying don't. todd: number of residents and rescue crews saying that the city wasn't ready we will toss it now to janice dean. janice, you got us ready for this. i would like to say that you got the city of houston and that whole area of texas ready as possible with the information you are receiving. what the latest right now? >> listen, i just want to

add this. how on earth do you prepare for 50 inches of rain, really? this will be debated for years to come. as far as the forecast goes, the national weather service, the national hurricane center, once we knew where the storm was going, on point. they knew that we were going to get historic, life-threatening catastrophic floods. we couldn't believe the numbers seeing 50 inches of rainfall, and it's happening. so the national hurricane center did excellent work when it comes to forecasting. we did the best that we possibly with the information that we h look at the rainfall totals over 27 inches already. the problem is we're going to get more. more rainfall. typically with these systems, sometimes a cold front will move through. the jet stream will help things along not happening. we have nothing to steer this. that's why we have the potential for more heavy rain. heaviest rain band has moved east of the houston area. the area of low pressure, the center of the system is forecast to move back into the gulf of mexico. so there is the potential

for the storm to strengthening, perhaps bumping up the winds. the winds are not going to be the problem. it's going to be the rainfall and the threat of tornadoes by the way because we had dozens of reports of tornadoes with land falling systems. we see the potential for weak tornadoes. nonetheless with the rain we could see rain wrapped tornadoes. if you have your noah radio, you need to keep it on. good news is the threat for tornadoes shifts a little bit more east eastward. houston you are not out of the woods yet, things are going to improve in terms of severe storms and tornadoes. here is one of the models spot on with the rainfall forecast. you can see the area of low pressure moving into the gulf of mexico and potentially moving up towards houston and galveston, again, and that's why we are seeing the potential for 18 to 24 more inches. 50 inches from a tropical storm system has never happened in u.s. history. back to you. brian: unreal. pretty amazed something about texas. they like to take things in their own hands.

i cannot believe how quickly they mobilize. they don't blame. they have spring into action. that's why you see some people helping other people and not looking to get a pat on the back. ainsley: we're going to interview reverend franklin graham coming up. he has started this organization called samaritan's purse. it's a great organization. they have already rallied the troops. they sent tractor trailers into texas. they are full of supplies like tools and emergency equipment, that kind of thing to help people rebuild. if you want to give money to an organization, many people are asking how i can help, that's a terrific organization. it's christian-based and they just share so much love with the families that interest in trouble. todd: just so beautiful to see humanity coming together. meantime harvey's catastrophic rainfall and rain in certain areas leaving behind vast devastation. brian: more than 9 trillion gallons of water falling already on texas. there is still more on the way. ainsley: rob schmitt is live in rosenberg, texas where roads are already giving out. hey, rob. rob: this one is a perfect

example. this illustrates exactly how much water has come through here. this is like a little tributary stream that runs behind this roadway. it completely washed this entire thing out. it's crazy to see. of course, we lose the light right in the middle of live shot. there is live tv for you. there it goes again. can you see a total washout. just amazing to see what water can do when it runs through. and the governor talking about this is plain and simple. this is not an overexaggeration of the problem. this is insane the amount of water that they are getting here. you do not need to be out in this. you don't need to be trying to drive through standing water. don't do anything like that. the resources are stretched to the max right now. and if you do you, you might not get saved at this point because there are so many emergencies happening. let's listen to the governor. >> we want to emphasize the importance when there is heavy rainfall, when there is flooding, the importance of staying off the road. if you drive in to water,

you are taking your life into your own hands. rob: you certainly are. look at this traffic camera. this truck overcome by the water. we got to see on live television local station's traffic cam showing a rescue saving a man's life. imagine if nobody was there the man would have ende end endd up drowning in his truck. move down south where the came ashore. rance said pass. where it got by the storm. it ripped everything apart. guys, this has been a bad storm and it continues to get worse. brian: thanks, rob. rob has been there all weekend. we also know, too, the president is going to be coming down on there on tuesday and so far the communications with the governor and everyone else has been strong. ainsley: press conference in hour and 15 minutes. we will cover that people stranded in nursing homes waist deep in dirty water.

look at that picture. we are live on the ground as new word of rescues coming in straight ahead. todd: no question, this is a proud american. the police officer who braved the storm to save an american flag. that's coming up when we come back. ♪ ♪ all day, and all night. now packed into a pill so small, we call it mini. new clearminis from nexium 24hr. see heartburn differently.

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thing has let up at all let alone the tornadoes that are scheduled. president trump is preparing to head directly into the disaster zone tomorrow. joining us to discuss the president's trip and more is g.o.p. congressman blake. thanks for joining us. >> good morning, brian. brian: are you concerned about the logistics? >> well, i think we are going to be able to pull it off. corpus christi where i am right now is starting to recover from the storm. but we have got a lot of areas just around us, rockport that are in pretty bad shape. but i think we will be able to handle the president here in corpus christi. and the president's team has indicated they don't want to get in the way. but the president wants to get a look firsthand at what's going on down there. brian: meanwhile he tweeted this out. great coordination of agencies rains and flash flooding are being dealt with and rescues are taking place. the university of georgia climate expert said yesterday he is also a nasa

scientist this may be the worst flooding in our nation's history. is there -- knowing that and knowing that the game plan can be ripped up then, how do you handle what's straight ahead? >> well, you just keep on working. texans are a resilient bunch. have you seen videos all morning of people helping people. we had that down here. with the wind storm. that was happening and we are seeing it in houston with the associated flooding. we are a resilient bunch down here. we are committed to helping our neighbors. brian: general was just on and he played such a vital role with katrina. he said he would like to see more national guards mobilized. what numbers are you at? what are you asking for from maybe other states? >> well, right now the state is coordinating that with fema. we have national guard on the ground here. porter rasas texas

devastated. national guard there. they are not even letting people in to check their property unless that's their primary residence. it is a vacation town. lots of folks have second homes down there. it's just not even safe there the national guard is doing the work right on the streets in porter ransas and other areas. right now with houston with all the rain, you need the national guard in after the fact. right now in the middle of the downpour, there is not a lot anybody can do. brian: thanks so much, congressman. you guys got to stay coordinate sod when people go to help they know where to go. people in the new york area. 120 officers, active and retired are heading your direction. hopefully they will get some coaching so they will be the most effective. congressman. thanks so much. >> listen, it's a great country. and we're glad to have all the help we can get. brian: thank you, sir. coming up straight ahead. the next guest managed to get out before the storm

hit. the rest of the family still in the disaster zone. did they get enough warning? liberal extremists taking over u.c. berkeley once again. new violence at the so-called anti-hate rally. explain that. your brain changes as you get older. 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. (flourish spray noise) (flourish spray noise)

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you will have african ancestry. this whole white supreme cyst this whole you are like superior to me it's a fallacy. jillian: those two men shouting at each other after they finished speaking. they had to be broken up by people in the crowd. >> major backup for our police officers on the front lines of those protests. is he reinstating a program that supplies local police departments with surplus military equipment. including armed vehicles, grenade launchers and high caliber weapons. attorney general sessions will announce the change later today. ainsley. ainsley: thank you, jillian. this is a fox news alert. tropical storm harvey delivering another major blow to our nation's fourth largest city overnight. while you all were sleeping more mandatory evacuation orders were put in effect as the army corps of engineers makes an emergency move to open up the dams, flooding even more of the neighborhoods in order to protect the downtown area. take a look at downtown houston before and look at

it after. quite a difference. those devastating floods overwhelmed rescuers and forcing residents to their roofs leading many to ask why a call to evacuate did not come sooner. joining us live now is at thteslinfigaro. she and her daughter decided to leave 24 hours before harvey made landfall but her family chose to stay. good morning. >> good morning, thank you for having me. ainsley: have you talked to your family? what are they going through right now. >> my main concern is i have an uncle daniel who is in critical care in the hospital at this moment. my aunt has been there unable to leave, unable to shower. the nurses, the doctors are there stuck there until at least tuesday. they wanted to do a procedure on him, but because of the current condition they didn't want to, you know, take any type of chance or risk, you know with moving him on to his

next phase of healing because of this issue. so, when i think about him, i think about my 1-year-old nephew who is in richmond, texas, who is also under a mandatory evacuation. first cousins who are all over the city, it was really important for me to be here to say that houston is doing all that it can to work together and i know there is a lot. i saw articles this morning about how people of color are receiving a death sentence. and i think there is a time for a conversation about infrastructure and how, you know, people of color, communities are affected. but, right now, what's important to me is people to know i live on the black side of town, my cousin lives on the white side of town. my mother-in-law lives on the hispanic side of town. my nephew lives on the white side of town. this is not about color at this stage at this time. this is about healing. this is about making sure that i have family that's alive that i go home to. and i hope this is not politicized from both sides of the aisle with making this about some type of racial tension.

houston is very segregated. it's a very segregated city very similar to chicago. i'm proud to see that houstons are working together and i, being a veteran, if i was at home i would certainly be pitching in. when i thought about me and my daughter, 10 years old. we are only 60 inches. when you are talking about 50 inches of water that didn't leave us much room to breathe. it only made sense to me to get her out of harm's way and then on next week be about the business of bringing houston back. ainsley: you are bringing up some great points. you are right we need to be a nation and work together, which is happening. i know you mentioned your daughter, but have you talked to the folks that live in your neighborhood? i want to find out what your house looks like now, what they are going through and what the situation would have been if you had stayed. >> no question. houston floods after a drizzle, so, it's no secret. you know, to those who live in houston understanding it is a bayou city. that it is constantly flooding. when i woke up friday morning and saw our mayor on national news, i knew that

it got real. my daughter grabbed all of the things that were important to her, baby dolls, snacks and so forth and we left. my main street on the south side of houston was already flooding just from a simple drizzle. i reached out to my neighbors and got their cell numbers numbers. we have been texting back and forth. i assume we don't have power from where i live. i have been texting and calling. i haven't received any feedback from them. other family members are stuck in their homes. water has receded all the way up to the door. and so we have just luckily have been able to, you know, maintain power. but they have been at a stand still and unable to move. ainsley: tezlyn, how do you feel about the married? i saw the images of your daughter. as a mom too i would have gotten out immediately. a lot of parents didn't. the mayor and the governor were saying different messages. the governor was telling people to leave. the mayor was not. even law enforcement and firefighters seemed really tense when they were talking about this situation. are you upset with him? >> well, you know, i do

understanding that houston is not a small town. you know, it's the fourth largest city in the country so saying mandatory evacuation is the same as telling new york, l.a. and chicago get out now you have 24 hours. so could is there have been a voluntary evacuation or stressing at least on the national forefront, national level, i don't watch a lot of local news because i'm in national media. when i saw houston mayor on friday for the first time. i realized, you know, it had gotten serious there could have been a more coordinated effort for people to know. at the same time it takes some personal responsibility and this as well it didn't take me to be a rocket scientist to know that i needed to go to higher ground. at the same time, there are communities of poverty that do not have the resources. i'm blessed to get out to be able to have you know, a place to go. people don't have those resources so could dallas have stepped in earlier to say hey, we can provide shelter here? where were people really going to go when it comes down to it you couldn't go to san antonio or go to

austin. i don't know much more could have been done than what's being done now. i hope this is a time we bring ourselves together and that we are coming together as a nation to help each other get out of this mess. ainsley: absolutely. we will be keeping uncle daniel in our prayers. we wish you all the best. >> thank you. ainsley: images are heart heart breaking. people standed in nursing homes waist deep. dirty water. just some of the stories in this disaster. we're live on the ground next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ah, my poor mouth breather. allergies? stuffy nose? can't sleep? enough. take that. a breathe right nasal strip of course. imagine just put one on and pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than allergy medicine alone. so you can breathe, and sleep.

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this is the exit ramp off of interstate 45 headed north towards houston. you can't even get passed here because the water is so high and it is covering the roadway. you can only reach the area by boat. and one of our photo journalists jeremy went out with rescuers yesterday through the neighborhoods and the streets of dickinson looking more like rivers as people were just waiting patiently to be plucked out of there to safety. we have a whole mix of people here. you've got search and rescue professional teams. the professional first responders, but you also have a whole lot of volunteers who are out here. they knew that people needed help. and so they hitched up their boats to their trucks. and they came out and started launching right off the side of the freeway. and doing what they could to get people to safety. dump trucks used. we saw that. people being carried out in

dump trucks. they didn't have enough vehicles to even transport the people to the shelters and to safety. we should point out that this is extremely dangerous as well. because the first responders, there are a lot of risks out here for them. jeremy told me that as they were going through that neighborhood on the boat, there were cars that were totally under water. you could not even see them until sometimes it was too late. so, we know that two texas game wardens were injured yesterday. there was some type of a boat crash, the specifics not known. but we saw them carried out of here by ambulance and rushed to galveston, down on galveston island the first major hospital. people risking their lives to save the lives of others. it's heart breaking but inspiring yet all at the same time. back to you. ainsley: casey, i know you showed us those pictures of the nursing home. the lavita bella nursing home. can you tell the folks who

are just waking up and seeing the pictures the story here. >> ainsley, this is incredible. this nursing home is over in dickinson and a man up to me yesterday and said we need help. we have to get these people help. it was a picture that you are seeing. it was a video or, i should say a picture that had gone viral. someone posted it to twitter and it got shared around nursing home patients sitting in floodwaters waiting to be rescued. they thought the coast guard was coming. they then were air lifted out of there eventually out of everyone started talking about it and sharing it 15 people airlifted to scaft. everyone doing okay this morning. just incredible when you think about the number of people who have just been sitting in their homes. we talk to people who said that they were just on the second floor waiting to hear

a boat come by. they were trying to get their attention, flag them down so they could be saved. brian: you wonder where those aids are that usually work nursing homes. i'm wondering that what that story is it's not raining, how long has that been the case? >> it's weird. it's on and off. in fact, right as i was about to come on, it stopped. i was standing here with an umbrella waiting to go on. and it stopped. we have these intermittent periods here, very typical of tropical systems. sometimes it will come down so hard it's blowing sideways and you can hardly see. then it will stop and clear up. so it's just on again, off again. and i know that we have got a potential rainfall of a whole lot more on the way. i'm also seeing stuff this morning that maybe janice dean could talk about that has the models shifting this a little bit to the east and some of the rainfall totals prompted for houston have been backed down a little

bit from the national weather service. and the national hurricane center. so that is encouraging news because the last thing these people need is any more water. todd: that's for sure. with that in mind, casey, thank you. we are going to go now to janice dean for the very latest. janice, is there any sense what casey said could be coming to pass? is there any slide relief in sight? janice: they are still going to get rain. that is for sure. heaviest raflt totals might be moving slightly eastward that isn't to say that somebody isn't going to get another 2 feet of rain. for the houston area, prayers out to the fact that maybe this storm moves a little bit more to the east. we will have to wait and see over the next couple of hours and we will be able to give you better gauge on that forecast. just to show you how much rain they have gotten already, 27 inches in and around the houston area. i want to point out the national weather service had to add another color to their color fable to demonstrate how much rainfall was predicted.

because they had never seen such rainfall totals. so, that is in existence right now. north and east of the houston area over 27 inches with more rain in the forecast. some projections saying yum wards of 2 feet. so we're going to have to see the exact position of where the centered of circulation goes once it moves into the gulf of mexico we are forecasting. still potential of tornadoes east of the houston area again which is great news. they don't need any more tornado warnings in and around houston. through tonight moving towards louisiana. coastal louisiana. there is the future radar. not out of the woods yet. moves into the gulf of mexico. still looking at the risk for heavy showers and thunderstorms. but, fingers crossed. perhaps that moves more towards the east it doesn't matter. the damage is done. whether they get 12 inches, 18 inches, it's still just a catastrophic situation. ainsley: awful. todd: janice, thank you. let's toss it over to

jillian for headlines. jillian: ian? jillian: we are following other news at this hour. let's get you caught up. antifa protesters swarm at anti-hated rally turning it into chaos. [screaming] jillian: more an 100 anarchists including trump supporters. also chanting against cops. at least 13 people under arrest. two people who were attacked had to be hospitalized but will be okay. at least 30 illegal immigrants are busted crossing the border in underground tunnel. border patrol agents uncovering the hole in the ground along with a ladder in san diego. officials say the tunnel started inside a building in nearby tee yuanna, mexico. of those arrested, 23 are chinese nationals, 7 are mexicans. a texas police officer

braving hurricane harvey's wind and rain to save an american flag. this powerful photo showing officer jack mccartedy grabbing old glory before winds could whip it away. this happened on friday. the police department saying the officer would stop at nothing to honor and save her. look at your headlines on this monday. send it back to you guys. ainsley: we are resilient. todd: shutting down the second largest oil refinery in our nation. spike in gas prices next. stuart varney weighs in. brian: trying to keep up for constant calls for help. griff jenkins drives along with crews as they rests could you harvey victims. >> it was about 5:00 a.m. one minute everything was fine. but we could see the waters really high. next minute, are rushing in through every door we h ♪ ♪

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second largest in the country in the wake of hurricane, hurricane harvey, it's not the only one as more texas oil refineries are paralyzed by the flooding. todd: what does this all mean for your gas and oil prices for the hollywood weekend here t -- holidayweeken. the focus is on saving lives. there is the economic toll. >> it is a human story with a financial side bar to it as well. bottom line is this: harvey equals short supplies and rising gas prices as we head to the labor day weekend. let's get this down. currently 15% of the nation's refining capacity, gasoline refinery capacity is shut down. that means you are restricting the supply of gasoline coming onto the market and furthermore have you got some pipelines which are being shut down that further restricts the supply of gas coming onto the market. result, the price goes up. at this moment, the

wholesale price of gasoline is up about 4% that translates roughly in to 10 to 1 15-cent gallon rise. brian: why can't portions of the country fill the gap in this area that has weather challenges. >> to some degree they can. but some parts of the country are supplied by pipelines going from the houston area that would include the mid-atlantic states and new york, too. this supply situation could get worse. huge refinery, largest in the nation. refinery in port are a author. 100 miles east of houston, texas. rain has started there already. if that one shuts down. you add to the supply complications. the next question. i have to think is. after katrina, people rushed out, fill up your gas tank wherever you in the country,

fill up while can you before prices go up. thus far we have not seen that as a result of harvey. it's day break. everybody is getting out and going out in the car. are they around the country going to fill up now, run to the gas station, fill up now as a precaution? i don't know what's happening yet, but we will find out in a couple hours. ainsley: i was reading 10 to 15 cents per gallon. that's a lot of money. highest it's been in two years i was reading. how long will this last generally after katrina a few weeks or talking months gas prices are going to be that high? >> we are talking weeks because the supply of gasoline is hard to bring back online. have you got to fix the refineries, which may have suffered some electrical storm damage. have you got to fix the pipelines which may have been shifted offline because of this flood. so that takes weeks. and not months but weeks. there is a lot of money involved. resources are going to pour in to fix this thing that's for sure. i would say weeks before we see gas prices come back

down again. brian: fema says we are going to be there for years already. the rebuilding that's got to take place. economic stripe that's going to happen. government money that's going to come in. it's going to be devastating. >> katrina insurance -- $49 billion. this may be about that area. of course, you can't tell at this point. that's an awful lot of money it particulars many years to come back fully from a catastrophe of this kind. brian: you will be covering this on varney and company. >> yes. it's a human crisis, too. ainsley: people would come in and clear out trees and they made if you talk about the financial impact. most people losing. in some cases some people benefit. they made so much money. brian: my brother is with turf pro-my own franchise he has been told even though you are in new york, go. >> resources will pour in. ainsley: devastating floods and pouring rain shutting down the nation's fourth

largest city. our own griff jenkins rides along with crews as they rescue harvey victims. >> 5:00 a.m. and all the rooms were flooded. we have been basically sleeping in water. that's it? he means book direct at choicehotels.com for the lowest price on our rooms guaranteed. plus earn free nights and instant rewards at check-in. yeah. like i said. book now at choicehotels.com people spend less time lying awake with aches and pains with advil pm than with tylenol pm. advil pm combines the number one pain reliever with the number one sleep aid. gentle, non-habit forming advil pm. for a healing night's sleep.

todd: 53 minutes after the hour now. devastating floods, pounding rain shutting down the nation's fourth largest city. brian: all right. at this hour rescue crews trying to keep up with the constant calls for help in the houston areas. volunteers joining emergency teams to pull people from their homes. ainsley: reporter griff jenkins rode with one good samaritan on a rescue mission. we are going to see that now. watch. >> how many runs have you made today? >> this is probably my tenth run.

>> we woke up really early like 5:00 a.m. and we were really flooded. we were basically sleeping in utter with a. >> only basic thing see sunken cars. see a sunken car right there. >> your house or my house? >> about 5:00 a.m. one minute, everything was fine. but we could see the water was really high. the next minute rushing in through every door we h. >> where do you hope to go now, just out of here? >> if we can get to the freeway thanks to you guys that will be a start. >> had you known, would you have just left? >> we have never stayed with children, not a second if we thought at all that they would be at risk, we would have left. it's very stressful. everyone in my circle of friends was saying please

get out of houston. i was like oh, it's just rain. it's just rain. >> there's my car. >> that's your car there? >> yeah. >> does it feel overwhelmingly to certain extent to have this many houses, this many people needing to get out? >> yeah. i never seen anything like this. yeah. it's a little overwhelming but i figure just keep going, you know. griff grifknow. >> keep going is going to be tough. john boats can't operate if it's raining. truly heroic in the spirit of the citizens of houston remarkable. brian: that's texas. whatever it takes, right? >> absolutely. and the hazards they face. whether there is submerged

cars and other debris, they are risking themselves to help their fellow man and woman. it's really touching and inspirational at the same time, guys. ainsley: griff, do i have to ask we heard the english lady saying we didn't know it was going to be like this. the other lady thought oh we thought just a little bit of rain. i don't know if they didn't watch the news. i felt last week we were covering this. janice was talking about how big this storm was. if you live in the area you need to evacuate. the governor was telling them to evacuate. why didn't they know? >> well, you know, ainsley, that is certainly the conversation that is going to be playing out for months. that very question. because you talk to people. we had one homeowner that moved into their home last week. they said well, they didn't tell us we had to leave. perhaps understandable because they don't live here. we also talked to one of those women born and raised here her whole life. she said she they weren't putting enough emphasis on

what was coming. had they known what was coming, they would have left. brian: check back in with you later. thanks so much. danger just starting in texas floodwaters rise out of control. ryan zinke next. ♪ ♪ hey, is this our turn? honey...our turn? yeah, we go left right here. (woman vo) great adventures are still out there. we'll find them in our subaru outback. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. get 0% apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 subaru outback models. now through august 31.

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so find a venus smooth that contours to curves, the smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. flexes for comfort, and has a disposable made for you. skin smoothing venus razors. pretty disappointing that we have taken our personal stuff out of here and, you know, doing what we got to do. that's what firemen do. >> governor, have you your handsful. what is your priority at this hour? >> protecting lives. >> there is a lot of people left behind that would like to get rescued. >> we know water is coming more tonight and over the next couple days and we didn't want to be there when it was even higher. >> 15 elderly residents sitting in waist and shoulder deep water inside a

assisted. >> helicopter rescuing all 15 residents. >> president trump will travel to texas on tuesday. >> the president's team has indicated they don't want to get in the way. the president want to get a look firsthand at what's going on down here. >> what does this mean for the rest of the country in terms of the economy? >> we're seeing the price of gas at the pump go up. it's gone up 5 to 10 cents. hopefully within a month we level back out. >> do you want the see the sweetest thing in texas. can you see it? it is blacktop. we have not seen enough blacktop since we arrived in houston. brian: fox news alert now. you just saw highlights of what we have been experiencing for the last 48 hours. new evacuations are ordered in houston. this happened overnight. as harvey unleashes more rain on the nation's fourth largest city. ainsley: also overnight the army corps of engineers making the emergency calls to open up the dam. todd: that move turning

neighborhoods into raging waters. meant to protect historic downtown houston. brian: 22 watersheds spilled over the banks anyway. that created more havoc. it comes as the most powerful storm that you can imagine it gives glimpse into the devastation of what days of drenching downpours and catastrophic flooding already left behind. ainsley: at least five people have been reported as deaths or people have died. governor greg abbott warns the worst is yet to come. brian: almost like you are a bystander in this storm because of what is coming down. can you see it but not stop it. ainsley: live shots intermittent rain. griff jenkins one minute under water and next moment he is not. casey stegall saying the same thing. and then you hear the stories of opening up dams to save downtown area. one of those areas my house is not as important as the downtown area? how do they decide?

brian: over a thousand people. wait a second, i have no clothes, i have no stuff, i have no house, i have no car. i'm hungry, i have no money. so, where do i go? and that brings us to the fema portion of this. meanwhile griff jenkins knows. he is live in houston where new evacuations were ordered overnight. i guess a new approach will happen today because there will be new challenges, right, griff? >> that's right. just when you thought the situation couldn't get worse. it's not only going to be mother nature but it's going to be a tough decision being made by the army corps of engineers. for our viewers, let me just sort of explain. the city of houston is one of the most flood prone in the nation. and as such, it has a system of reservoirs and bayous to keep that water away from downtown houston. well, those reservoirs and that system has hit its full capacity. it cannot sustain anymore. the rivers, the bayous, already cresting at epic

levels because of the historic rainfall that has caused all of this devastation. the army corps of engineers doing a controlled release of water from the dams and going into a main bayou, the buffalo bayou that flows down to the southwestern part of this city where we saw that rescue that you just saw in the last hour. the buffalo bayou just about a mile behind me where you see already cars under water. residents are being told by the harris county water control folks alert and take precautionary measures. the national weather service says they are expecting even mortar religion downpour today. they are going to come out in a bad situation and make decisions and what's even perhaps worse is in some cases where houses are already up to inches or a few feet could be looking at exponentially more water coming in and they may not have power.

they may not have a phone or television to know that they are going to have mother nature continues its deluge on them as well as what is a tough decision. but that decision was made because if those dams break, and all the water in those reservoirs which are at full capacity go in to downtown houston, that situation is all hell breaks loose at that point, guys? >> what about the people in your neighborhood where you are when they are saying we are going to protect downtown but we are going to flood your neighborhood even more. how do they feel about it? rightfully so they feel frightened and sacrificed for the greater good and i'm sure because of the spirit and tremendous heart of the folks in houston, they would be willing to accept that tough decision. but, they don't have a lot of options to move around. you have seen how difficult moving is in many respects the city is paralyzed.

we have trouble getting through. i can't go down the road that i wanted to go because i was going to actually get a little closer to the reservoirs where that water is. people come out and grab their belongings and get in their car. that is exactly what they have warned people to not do for the last three days don't drive. stay put. people have to make tough decisions. the evacuations that you are hearing about, many of the mandatory ones are a little south of here where the brazos level and saint bernard are going to make epic levels. this case it's voluntary in some of these neighborhoods f. they make the decision to voluntarily evacuated they may be additional trouble. they did add national guard troops. this isn't a situation yet

of utter chaos and we don't want to overstate the challenge. but when i say that the situation is going to get worse than it already is, it's not raining now. that's a blessing. but when rain comes again, and they deal with more rising water and that's what happens here in houston, they will have to deal with this controlled release which could bring in areas close to these reservoirs where the buffalo bayou meets a reservoir, you could see four to five feet of water as that bayou is already cresting. todd: you said tough decision. tough decisions to say the least. keep us posted throughout the course of the morning. thank you very much. nau the question brian: a fox news alert right now. we are awaiting a press conference which can be starting in few minutes from the department of homeland security and as well as the fema update on what the people need with the situation is, and where we go from here. and basically, also, how you can help. there is about a trillion gallons of water that's

fallen in that -- in southeast texas. and they are trying to see where it's going to go because the carolinas are poised and louisiana worried it's going to be spreading that direction. todd: now the question that so many are asking this morning is really a two-part question why wasn't houston evacuated and was enough done to prepare the people of houston for ultimately what they received? obviously a lot of people both sides of this issue. matt finn talked with a firefighter who says is he pretty frustrated by the whole thing. >> it's sad, man. a lot of devastation and i don't think so the city was very prepared for it pretty disappointing. taking our personal stuff out of here and do what we have got to do. that's what firemen do. todd: this is in contrast to what the mayor basically instructed his people to not do and that was evacuate. he said an evacuation of this many people, 2.3 million people in a county of 6.5 million people

will create chaos in his words. let's hear what he has to say. >> to try to put forth some sort of evacuation in a couple of days, i mean, the logistics would have been crazy. city of houston 2.3 million people. when you combine that with harris county you are talking about 6.5 million people where are they going? the decision we made was a smart one and best interest of houstonians. >> when there is 50 inches of water pouring ton a city, hard to blame someone. i remember when we lived in south carolina in 1999 we went through that in our state people trying to get out of charleston when hurricane floyd came through. the next time we had a hurricane the governor said okay, i was under so much heat or the previous governor was under so much heat during that time, let's change the system. so they started staggering people. if you were in certain zones wherever you lived you could

go first, then you could go second, then third. it made it so much easier. they put porta potties along the highways. all lanes went in one direction out of the coastal areas. it worked beautifully. >> they are worried about reed. last time they left that region because of rita. they had a bunch of people stuck in traffic and 60 people died. you can understanding it and one thing is pretty clear. there was no way they were going to escape without any damage or finger pointing because no one has ever been prepared for something like this. when i heard what what the mayor said how can i clear out everyone in two days? why two days if you knew the storm was coming couldn't have you started earlier? janice dean is downstairs to update us on the weather pattern and where this whole thing is headed. >> you are absolutely right, brian. when we knew it was a cat 4 we only had 74 hours before it made landfall. hard as forecasters to say

we have a category 4 coming. wait a minute not only the cat 4 but after that a week after that what we are going to be dealing with the flooding rainfall. two fold here. the forecasters had to warn people of a category 4 and then they had to say wait, don't go away because we are going to be dealing with catastrophic flooding for a week. so that was really hard for us to do. and, again, there wasn't a whole lot of time there was like two days. we were warning people on thursday this was going to happen. so, you know, we're going to be debating this for years, unfortunately. and the problem is, it is still happening. we saw unprecedented numbers in terms of rainfall. the one good thing is national weather service was on it in terms of rainfall. we knew we were going to see epic totals and that is what is happening right now. the problem is we still have the potential for more rain as long as the center of the system is west and south of the houston area. once we get up towards, you know, the louisiana area then houston can take a sigh

of relief. we have several days, up until wednesday to watch the potential for this storm system to bring more heavy rainfall on saturated grounds, areas that have seen historic amounts. watching this model here, the one thing we are fearful for is the center of circulation coming into the gulf of mexico. what happens there? the potential for it to strengthen a little wi bit more. bump up those winds and perhaps give more rainfall to areas that have received historic amounts. including houston and galveston. this is tuesday, wednesday, still lingering here. and then finally we think as we get into wednesday, thursday, we will start to see the progression of this move. the damage is already done. again, we are talking about a year's worth of rain in just a matter of hours. how on earth do you prepare for something like that. here is the forecast models right now. you know, 12 to 18 inches in and around the houston area. north of that over 2 feet. so we are not done yet. i mean, this will be historic. we might see rainfall totals we have never seen before

from any tropical system in any year in history. todd: unreal. brian: the dhs thanks, janice, is going to be having a press conference. when it comes up we will get right to it. most importantly where do people go from here. people who are able to watch or people on the outside able to watch they need instructions on where to go. where to get food and where to get clothes. where to meet up with your family to find out if they are okay or not because the cell system for the most part is not as effective. >> already three shelters in dallas. they are also opening one. they are hoping it's going to open tomorrow. it's the mega shelter for 5,000 evacuees at the kay bailey hutchison convention center. live there in texas with the latest. what area are you in, rob? >> guys, about 20 minutes southwest of houston of downtown houston near the town center. it's a busy area and a stream runs underneath this road i'm on right here. look what happens when way

too much water goes under the roadway. it blew the entire thing out. incredible image to see. the power of all of that water is something else. we got as close as we could to downtown houston yesterday and we wandered a little bit and came to a place where we couldn't drive any longer. intersection near the 610 on ramp completely flooded out. we saw this kid riding his bike right through the floodwaters. he had to get home. he had to do it. reason why it's not a good idea to play with that standing water. traffic cam video of a rescue had to happen when a guy drove his truck on the i 10 right in to standing water. got stuck, likely got flooded out and the water started to rise. if it wasn't for -- ♪ >> the central emergency management agency administrator rock long. the national weather service director louie and also joining to take questions will be the commandant of the u.s. coast guard admiral

paul zook, and the secretary of -- i'm sorry health and human services price. again, the first three speaker also provide opening remarks and then we will open up to your questions. just to let you know in advance administrator strong will be heading from here to make his way down to texas so we should end promptly at 7:45 to allow him to get to his airplane to make it down to texas. and with that i will bring out our speakers. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. and thank you for joining us at fema headquarters today. home of the national response coordination center. i know everyone in this room and on the president's team has been moved by the images and stories of people who are suffering in texas. we want to make sure you all

know that we are working right now to provide assistance quickly as we can. right now we are focused on rescue operations and we will move into recovery operations later in the week. but today we are deeply concerned with those in houston and surrounding areas where stranded and in need of immediate assistance. people need help and we are working to provide it while the hurricane force winds have diminished. i want to stress we are not out of the woods yet. not like a long shot. harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm. according to the national weather service, who you will hear from shortly, rainfall amounts, as much as 2 feet have occurred in the houston metro area and life threatening flooding will occur over a large portion of south and south central and southeast texas. in the coming days. rivers won't crest until later this week.

it is vitally important for those in texas and louisiana to monitor your local radio and tv station for updated emergency information and, as always, listen to the direction of your local official. if you are in the affected areas, we're asking that you please only call 911 if you have immediate need for medical attention or evacuation assistance. if local officials deem it safe, please take time to check on your neighbors and friends, particularly the elderly who may need assistance. the department, through fema, has been working in close coordination with the state and local officials throughout the region. for many days in preparing for hurricane harvey, and under the president's direction, we have made every resource available to respond to this historic storm. the partnership at every level of government has been

exceptional. and i want to thank governor abbott and governor edwards for all they have done. we understanding that there are challenges before us, particularly in houston, but we are committed to getting the resources, local officials need as soon as possible. finally, i would like to thank the thousands of civil servants, first responders, and volunteers in texas and around the country, including those here in d.c. at fema who have worked tirelessly throughout the weekend and will continue to carry out our response and recovery efforts over the weeks and months to come. have you provided a tremendous service to your fellow americans and we thank you. with that i would like to turn it over to fema administrator brock long to walk us through our response efforts. >> thank you madam secretary. so, emergency manage wanted, as i have been say something about partnership. my goal is the emergency manager of fema or federal emergency management

administrator is to unify the efforts of all these agencies, not only these guys here, the eafings that they represent, but basically the fire power of the federal government. and what we want to do is to be able to have a unified effort, down to support. and give the state of texas everything they need to fill gaps. to bolster their operations and capability. they set the mission priorities right now. we fall in line to support those. right now this is still an ongoing situation. we are not at recovery yet. we are thinking and planning for recovery. we have recovery teams down. you know, down in texas. but right now this mission is very important. this is a life safety, life sustaining mission. we're trying to help with bolster the efforts to do swift water rescue. search and rescue, over a huge county jurisdiction over 30 to 50 counties possibly impacted in texas. just because we see what's going on in houston, this impact -- these impacts are not only across houston, but

50 different counties within texas. we're also going to see a tremendous amount of rainfall into southwest louisiana. we're asking citizens to still listen to their local emergency managers, county judges or parish presidents for life saving communication. so right now in addition to search and rescue, the next objective is to stabilize disaster survivors. once we move them, we're able to extract them from different areas and rescue them. we have got to get them into shelters. this shelter mission is going to be a very heavy lift. we are anticipating over 30,000 people being placed in shelters temporarily to basically stabilize the situation and provide for their care. next, we are ready and already deploying essential life sustaining commodities. we have a tremendous amount of supplies in the state. and the state is pullin poolingr

resources to get those out. it's occurring all over the sit of texas. through our partners at the army corps of engineers we are working to restore power. so we are providing emergency generators for critical infrastructure to support things scruch as 911 centers or other critical infrastructure within the state of texas. finally, we're also providing emergency communications. we're trying to help the state reroute 911 centers but also making sure that we are interoperable between the federal state and local responders out there on the ground. security is also a main concern. the state, as you know, has mobilized a huge amount of national guard but we have also, the secretary has been leaning forward. we have activated the dhs what we call homeland security search capacity. we are putting law enforcement down to bolster that effort as well as other dod assets that are going down. right now here is what i need you to know.

the -- helping texas overcome this disaster is going to be far greater than fema coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. we need citizens to be involved. texas, this is a landmark event. would very not seen an event like this. you could not draw this forecast up. you could not dream this forecast up. it's been a very challenging effort for the national weather service who has been putting out great information. we have been telling people that this is coming. it's still ongoing. you couldn't draw this situation up. the bottom line is, is that it's going to continue on. we need the whole community. not only the federal government forces. but this is a whole community effort from all levels of government. and it's going to require the citizens getting involved. so here is what i want you to know as a citizen if you are wanting to help. right off the bat. we have a website www.nvoad.org. that's nvoad.org.

if you are looking to help, start there. it will have a whole host of nongovernmental and religious organizations that are seeking help and being able to support texas. we have to make sure that donations and volunteers are managed correctly to be effective through the stated and local levels. that's one way to start. underneath the president's disaster declaration we have turned on what we call individual assistance programs. we are expecting, you know, based on this event, over 450,000 potential registers of disaster victims. that is a huge number. but we are ready to go to process. we have already processed over nearly 15,000 calls over the last 24 hours of getting citizens registered. you know, what we want to do is be able to get you in hopefully you qualify for disaster assistance. we will start setting up your casement to go forward there to do that, if you have access to a website go, to disaster assistance.gov.

again, disaster assistance.gov. if you do not have access to a website. and do you have a phone. call 1-hundred-621-fema. 1-800-621, fema. again, i'm asking for all discontinues to get involved here. donate your money. figure out how you can get involved as we help texas find a new normal going forward after this devastating disaster. right now what i would like to do is also push it over to the nationato the national wr service disaster. >> give you update what we expect, the situation of harvey has been drifting southeast toward the coast. it's currently located over mamatagorda bay. the official forecast has the moving up the coast

towards the texas-louisiana area within the next five days. there is still uncertainty as we are dealing with this tract. the storm itself is creating its own circulation. each the loft, so this track forecast is still represents a difficult forecast for us we have to pay attention as we move forward. very heavy rain currently associated with intense ban of rainfall extending north, northwest over beaumont and port arthur and in to southwest and western louisiana. earlier this morning there were reports of 5 to 6 inches of rain per hour associated with this ban and some unofficial reports up to 8 inches. with respect to houston, we're in a lull right now. those bans that had been sitting over houston, one has now shifted off to the northeast. we have a report of over

30 inches of rain so far near houston. there is a broad area of 15 to 20 inches even greater in that whole south central part of texas. if we can have the rainfall map. yeah, that one. this is a one to five-day forecast. as i noted houston is in a lull right now. we will get back into the moderate to heavy rains later today and in to tomorrow and we will see see house that lasts. all depends on that being trap. about 15 to 20-inch rainfall still, still forecast associated with that max. and notice also the shift towards the east, southwest louisiana. western louisiana. and going into northeast texas is included. and we need to watch that area very carefully. regard if we go to the last map, this is a map of the current flooding. we have our major flooding

occurring already in the houston area. and you see that area blossoming out, north and west of houston. the peak flow and depth of this flood will max out in the wednesday-thursday time frame. this does include the projected rainfall that we're expecting. also, and we're -- even though we see on this map that currently we don't see flooding in eastern texas and western louisiana. this was as of 4:00 a.m. with these heavy rainfalls now occurring. this will quickly change. and we should also emphasize in this case, the flooding will be very slow to recede. so, we are seeing catastrophic flooding. and this will likely expand and will likely persist as it's slow to recede. i want to family size from the weather service perspective we are working in partnership with the local emergency management

and water resource management community. we have been working with them since last weekend in anticipation of this storm as the models and forecast has started showing the potential for this storm. and we're standing here today to emphasize that you listen to your local officials. they are there to save your life. so, please listen to them as this storm unfolds. thank you. >> all right, folks. i will be departing after this news conference down to be with governor abbott in texas to make sure i put boots on the ground and understand the situation that's constantly -- it's a dynamic situation that's constantly developing. one thing with the director of national weather service. we are having to rescue -- local officials are having to rescue a lot of people getting into their cars and driving into flooded areas. you are doing a couple things. one you could kill yourself. two you are going to put the commandant people in danger. not only his but we have customs border patrol. we have department of

interior assets all out there trying to support the state and locals. we have got to stop doing that folks. pulling resources away from people that truly need it by doing that we are also in the process. hopefully we are evaluating governor john bell edwards disaster declaration put in, too. hopefully we will expedite that coming in soon. >> where are you going -- who is in charge of this response? who is coordinating everything? >> excellent question. so all disasters begin and end at the local level. the way emergency management works is i am not the incident commander over the state of texas. bottom line is it starts at the local level. when a local government's capacity has been exceeded to handle the disaster and what they're facing, then they call upon either county-to-county mutual aid or call upon state resources which you are already seeing. the governor declares a state of emergency bachingly

gives the governor the ability to youthize all resources down to his counties. once it wax exceeded over self days ago. they asked for a presidential disaster declaration. the president moved in an expedited. swift. one of the quickest time frames i have ever seen to approve the disaster declaration so we could mobilize our resources to help. yes, ma'am. >> cnn, i understanding and we all know that there were -- super fund sites. contaminated sites where we are seeing a lot of flooding. so my question is, do you all have an assessment as far as what's in the water at this point? and what are the health implications for the people who are wading through the water? we are talking about a lot of toxic chemicals. specifically from the super fund site. >> at this time it's still a developing situation. we're so focused on life safety. we understand that the environment piece is going

to be big in this case but we do not have accurate information at this point. [inaudible] do you have any as far as what you are learning about the potential health impact to people? >> as brock said, it's very early in this. but what we do know is that the water in corpus christi and in victoria area recommendation for boiling of the water before consumption. the good news is that the work that's been done. the predeployment that has been done as brock says, significant assets, water assets there for folks. that's the challenge that we have getting them to people. >> also just in terms of the refineries. most of the refineries exercised voluntary shutdown before the storm hit. very prudent measure. and that will help with any environmental issue. [[inaudible] question] >> i do not know the exact number. >> most of them did do a voluntary shutdown well in advance of landfall.

>> normally each year emergency officials say let the first responders -- you just called for volunteers for american citizens to jump in and help texas. what does that say with about the situation? >> i mean, this is a landmark event for texas. texas has never seen an event like this. this is going to eclipse eick. it's going to eclipse alison that occurred in 2001. and based on the bench marks of those storms, we know it's going to be large. >> when you see images of the coast rescuing people off rooftops, citizens going in on their boats to pull neighbors out. images we really haven't seen in this capacity since katrina. should there have been a bigger evident to evacuate houston and surrounding areas that we saw regarding the flooding? >> all decisions are made within the local level in texas. right now, i believe that every local official, state official, including us, we are operating with the best information we have been

provided at the time. as i said earlier, the national weather service has done a heck of a job setting this up and letting people know that this is going to be torrential rainfall inland and inland event. the problem with forecasting rainfall is it's one of the toughest things can do. you can say it's going to rain over five days, 30 county prediction. pinpointing exactly what watershed that is going to go in to it, it's dang near impossible to figure that out. unfortunately, the city of houston is huge. it's 2 to 3 million people. you know, pulling the trigger on that is incredibly difficult situation. a lot of times when you are facing a if i city like that in a rainfall event. you have to ask people to shelter in place because of the time frame you are given. the time frame to evacuate the city of houston could take days, days. so i believe that everybody is doing the best that they can right now with the information that they have been provided. >> do people need to get out, do people need to start thinking about getting out now you? are talking about another

152020 inches of rain over the next two to three days. >> people need to listen to the local officials right now in the houston area because i do not want to step on the governor. i do not want to step on local officials and confuse the message. most important thing during a disaster is consistent message down to the public. so right now we need them to listen to the local officials in each one of their jurisdictions. [inaudible question] >> after every disaster we do what are called after action reports. we have to go down and eexhaustively. we have been doing those solidly since katrina. we want to get better. we are in the business of saving lives and helping people. we don't want people to go through hardship and get killed during disasters. we always strive to get better with the resources that we have. so there will be extensive after action reports done. not just by fema but working in conjunction with our

local governments, nongovernmental organizations to the state as well. so, yes, we will strive to get better. but right now, guys, it's not a time to start pointing blame. right now what i need media to do is organize the efforts to help us organize citizen efforts, to ultimately help texas. these people are in need. >> where are you going. >> i believe i'm going to corpus christi right off the bat and later sa san antonio. >> [inaudible question] high water rescue capability. what more could have been done in advance to have those in place and where does that stand? >> so, when it comes to swift water rescue and search and rescue. each county and each state and federal government all have a certain capacity, right? so what happens is once again, when the locals, we

prepositioned a lot of search and rescue before the disaster declaration was ever approved by the president trump. we prepositioned everything that we basically have down. and in support of the state and local efforts. now, now that those resources are there, we're basically at the direction of the governor to ultimately help the local government. this is ♪ just a federal government response. there is something called emac. emergency management action compact. there are teams coming in from all over the country, whether it's chinook helicopters, swift water rescue. all of this is emergency management at work. again, it's a partnership. >> i just want to make one comment on the rescue, too and the comment i want to add, i think to senator cruz yesterday, one of the challenges with this storm is that it has to be safe for the rescue officials,

also. and so a lot of the rescue could not start until yesterday morning, just for the person and even now air rescue is barely operationally safe. come dant, if you want to add anything? >> unlike katrina, which had passed clear and we had vfr flight. we are still operating in the midst of a tropical storm. we have multiple flight crews. we have thrown every coast guard asset available at this response. but there are conditions where it's just not safe to fly. we have also brought in over 27 fast response teams to deal with the situation. but integrate that with the local responders so this is a coordinated response as well. the good news is, thousands of lives are being saved. and that is our objective right now and we are not out of this by a long shot. so we're also postured to be able to sustain this level

of effort as well. >> how have your helicopters, are there more assets for coast guard bring to bear. >> we have great support by customs and border protection. international guard is bringing resources. in the other key part of this is safety of flight and just coordinating that airspace. the air maritime operation center run by cdp is providing the airspace deconfliction. [inaudible question] ainsley: you are just watching this press conference that fema and the department of homeland security have put together with many of the leaders that are out there trying to rescue the folks that are still in their homes on the second floor, third floor, on top of their roofs and trying to get out. brian: one thing that's pretty clear is that they have learned from past situations like this you don't sit there and praise each other. you don't say how great a job everybody is doing. especially because they are not out of the woods yet as you heard to quote them exactly bye a long stretch.

they are just saying what they have done and what they hope to do and the order in which they hope to accomplish. he talk talks about go local first and see what they need, answer then outside the county, and then in the state and inside the government that's the toward. there has to be some type of order in this. todd: three take aways, the focused on rescue. they will move to recovery later on in the week. that was backed up by brock long the fema administrator said this is not recovery yet. this is life-sustaining mission. he also went on to talk about how the need right now is for citizens, all citizens to get involved, not just the federal government. and he even asked the media to not ask questions at this point but really to help the federal government do that. to help get citizens involved and then we also heard the national weather service director says unfortunately the peak will

max out on wednesday and thursday. brian: let's bring in brian zinke, i almost said congressman. that was your old job. other old job had you was a navy seal. you are used to acting composed under pressure. as interior secretary, what is your role here? >> well, we have emergency response teams on the ground. dams are a concern. we have emergency rescue teams as well as we have u.s. geological survey on their ground, monitoring the floods. give better model, determine what's going to happen 204 hours, six hours. off oil production 15% of capacity of that oil was the voluntary evacuations on the rigs themselves. on shore we have about six refineries which represent about 500,000 barrels a day are presently off line. ainsley: we have heard gas

prices could go up as a result. we have also heard some reports of flooding certain neighborhoods, opening up dams to save the doubt area. are you familiar with this and what's the latest there? >> we are certainly monitoring it. right now, of course, we don't want a catastrophic break. we have seen what happens recently in california. it's a concern. i think the points are communication is that if you are going to release water. make sure that's communicated to the areas affected. yesterday we had a cabinet meeting. the president, of course on the line at camp david. the vice president was there general kelly is there. and it's amazing to see the cabinet under the chief of staff general kelly, this is very much like a military operation by the numbers. making sure the assets are surged forward. making sure we have communication with our assets and make sure all the secretaries are engaged. brian: you know what's interesting, mr. secretary, is that i know your instinct is you personally, your probably instinct is to grab

a boat and start just grabbing people out, but can you talk about the coordination? we hear about 120 cops and firefighters from new york are heading in. and utah the national guard are heading. in where are they funneling to and then how are they fanned out? how could there be a sense of order to the madness. >> this is where prior planning took place. all the surge assets forward we have the department of interior we have swift water rescue teams. we have wildlife refuges there. we have national park assets. and we have people that do this every day. and so, you know, where we are located, multiple places but we do take our cue from the governor. and we all talk or we're on the same communications band. we have centers of corpus christi and san antonio and then on our wildlife refuges themselves, we look at where the high ground is and move to high ground.

sheltering 30,000 people is going to be as was pointed out a big lift. we have made well over a thousand rescues, you know, and there is probably going to be another thousand as the waters rise. a lot of it is get your cues from the local authorities and for us on the federal government side, we're supporting of the governor. he is in charge dip in time. but all of us are working together and we have great people out there working hard every day. brian: secretary ryan zincky, thank you. we appreciate it. todd: thank you, sir. brian: all right. meanwhile, 17 minutes before the top of the hour. we are following the events as they unfold. meanwhile, heart breaking coming in and around the floods. here are a bunch of victims waiting to be rescued from a nursing home. yeah, patients stranded in waist deep water. update on what happened though them on the ground next. ♪ ♪

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♪ ainsley: we are back with a fox news alert. rescues underways in dick kin senways indickinson, texas. brian: casey stegall joins us with dramatic rescues as the sun comes up we have to do that again, casey. >> we have been stopping here in the pitch dark. have you heard the roar of those big fan boats. even though there have been curfews in place there is around the clock operation. especially when you are talking about victims potentially sitting in their homes now for a long period of time. no electricity, rising floodwaters. there is a sense of urgency. look at this. right here is dickinson, texas. where you get off the interstate on i-45. it is all under water.

back under the overpass there. which is the interstate heading to houston, you see a red truck flooded out. and then in the foreground a boat that has crashed. really the only way you can get around here, frankly is by boat. and my photo journalist jeremy pollard jumped on one of the rescue boats yesterday and the video just blows the minds. looks like rivers. going house to house, yelling out, trying to see if they could hear any signs of life. people that needed help. feeble, elderly people that had to be pulled out. family pets, children, firefighters in knee deep water. trying to pull children to safety. we talked to a person who was pulled to safety and was dropped out on the interstate to then be bused to one of these area shelters. listen to what he told us. >> we kind of -- see what we

were going to do. when it initially started to happen, people helping in the neighborhood. getting people out of there and we just honestly didn't think it was going to be this bad. >> and that's the problem. so many people that have never flooded before have flooded this time. including this nursing home right here in dickinson not far from where i'm standing. we can tell you that the 15 little sweet people that you see sitting in water there, once this video, once this picture went viral, it got them help. and they were able to get them all air lifted out of that nursing home facility and everyone said to be doing fine this morning. so many stories out here. young, old, black, white, it doesn't matter. everyone here is impacted and touched. ainsley: you can see how much water is there when you look at that cvs pharmacy sign behind you, casey. tell the folks that are just

waking up, the nurse will home, also that picture that went viral, that moment whose mom was trapped in the nursing home her mom couldn't get help with 911. >> that's right. the 911 systems were inundated. we started seeing those messages come out. you knew it was bad when emergency management was saying if you have a foot of water in your home that's not an emergency. don't call 911. 911 is only for life threatening emergencies. everything was jammed up and hard for people to reach those. so this woman who has a mother in there she tweeted it out it went viral. next thing you know they are rescued. todd: casey stegall live in dickinson, texas. not just people affected by this disaster. pets also being separated from their families lost in the high water. well, the rush toes are could you thousands of animals in danger and how you can help. that's all coming up next. ♪ i take pictures of sunrises,

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♪ ainsley: this is a fox news alert. you are looking at live pictures now as the sun is come up over houston and the flooding is only getting worse. you can see someone trying to drive through all of that water there. these are heart breaking photos that have come out of texas. showing dogs, pets, the elderly being rescued from flooded homes. some of these animals have been separated from their families. animal rescue groups are rushing in to save the log dogs and all the pets left stranded in the storm and giving them new houses. austin pets alive is one of those great organizations that's already taken in hundreds of dogs. joining us live is the

executive director dr. ellen jefferson. dr. jefferson, thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. ainsley: you are welcome. telling tell us what you are doing as far as the rescue efforts getting underway. >> austin pets alive is trying to help with getting animals out of the local shelters and rescue groups and also assisting with some of the rescues that are occurring in the houston area, in the corpus area, rockport area. our focus generally son shelters trying to help shelters not have to euthanize animals especially because they need to make room for all these incoming animals but also morphed into helping people that are stranded and they know their pets are stranded in their homes and their yards and we are trying to help them get them out. ainsley: we are looking on the left side. these are folks in a boat right now trying to go out and do this and rescue animals and people. we see all these pictures and you wonder, if you have owned an animal, you love them so much, how can you leave them behind, are you hearing are the stories

because it happens so fast and people thought they would be able to go back immediately? >> yes. i think that there -- people in houston, especially, weren't really prepared for this. when we were watching the storm come, in we thought it was all going to hit the corpus area and stay down there. the fact that it's hitting houston, i think it caught a lot of people unaware. and they are just trying to save their own lives. apes ainsley for folks that are watching, are he is that animals up for adoption or how do you get your animal if you have lost your animal? >> right. so there are several groups of animals in need and one of those groups are the animals that are in shelters or that needed homes before the hurricane. and we're trying to help those find new homes as quickly as possible so that room can be made for all of the animals that need to be reunited with their owners. it's going to take a long time for people to find their pets. ainsley: thanks for doing. this it's austin pets alive.org. thank you. god bless you. thanks for helping our little creatures. >> thank you.

ainsley: coming up, energy secretary and former texas governor rick perry, former secret service agent dan bongino and reverend franklin graham with mayor tan's purse if you want to give too that organization is coming up in the next hour. ♪

>> just moments ago, fema's administrator holding a press conference saying this was a land macevent, and he needs the citizens to get involved. take a listen. >> donate your money, figure out how you can get involved as we help texas find a new normal going forward after this devastating disaster. . >> so just to recap the challenges, they're expecting more rain, they could see as much as 20 inches on top of what has already besieged this city of thousands of rescues that we're seeing. but now the army core of engineers releasing water into the bayou behind me. the reason do you know where is that houston is protected

by a system of reservoirs and bayous that keep water out of downtown, well, those are at capacity, so they're going to have to make the decision to flood some of the neighborhoods to spare the entire town of houston being literally under water, guys. >> all right. gregg live for us there in houston. and the question that so many are wondering right now. why wasn't houston evacuated? did the administration there in houston do enough to protect the people of that area? and that's the question. brian: some firefighters weighed in, and they were sitting there getting their stuff, and here's what they had to say. >> it's sad, man, a lot of devastation and, you know, i don't think the city was very prepared for it. pretty disappointing. you know, like i said, we've taken our personal stuff out of here and doing what we've got to do because that's what firemen do. ainsley: people were frustrated because they felt like they didn't have enough warning signs, they didn't know that they should be

evacuating. the local government there, the mayor did not say there's a mandatory evacuation. however, the governor was saying on friday you should evacuate. here's what the mayor -- his name is sylvester turner said after the fact. >> to try to put forth some sort of evacuation in a couple of days. the logistics crazy. and city of houston has 2.3 million people. when you're talking about harris county, you're talking about 6.5 million people. where are they going? the decision that we made was a smart one, it was in the best interest of houstonians. brian: 9 trillion gallons of water that dropped on the area. always going to be challenges. i was listening to russell over the weekend who handled katrina so well. yohe said you're telling them to go toot to it attic.

that shows the desperatecy. i never thought i would hear a public official say this. ainsley: there are other states that dealt with this, and you can release people through zones, through neighborhoods. i know you had 72 hours or whatever, two ways to get people out, but there are ways to get people out. those in your facing home pictures. and then you call 9-1-1, and they're deciding what calls to take. brian: james marble shepherd who used to work at nasa, he said this might turn out to be the worst floods in u.s. history. and the fact that it's not over yet leads you to believe that. >> well, brian, to your point, the governor told people to get out of houston and obviously that's not jiving up with what the mayor said. brian: even the governor didn't make it mandatory. he said if it was me, i would leave. >> so you have that situation, a lot of questions being asked by that. what do you do? how do you save your family? >> janice dean is following the forecast.

janice, has anything changed? >> no. unfortunately, over the next couple of days, we're going to be dealing with catastrophic flooding in and around the houston area. if i can add my two cents, i remember hurricane rita, and people were on the roads for 24 hours, and we're talking about people trying to escape this storm system if they're in their cars. that's a worse scenario. so we're going to be debating this topic probably for years whether or not it it was a good thing that no one evacuated or a bad thing. but i can tell you this will be an epic storm and one that's probably will go down in history as the worst flood event from a tropical system. we've already got rainfall amounts of over 30 inches expecting an additional 12 to 26 inches on top of that. the tornado threat continues. we have a tornado watch east of the houston area. so we could see the potential from gravelston to morgan city, louisiana. louisiana, you're in this certainly too. you're not going to get the

epic rainfall totals, but especially around the new orleans area. i want to point out we're wondering if there's going to be any more heavy duty rain this morning in houston. this afternoon around dinnertime, we're expecting several inches of rain in a very short period of time. so not out of the woods as long as this system is south and west of the houston area heavy, heavy rain that can move into this region over the next couple of days. obviously, major flooding eminent here. we've got major flooding at all of the reservoirs in and around the houston area, and an additional 12 to 18 inches around houston north and east of that, that's where we could get an additional two feet of rain. if we surpassed 50 inches of rain, this would be the worst flooding scenario that we have ever seen in u.s. history. >> janice, thank you very much. tropical storm harvey catastrophic rainfall and heavy winds leading behind absolutely vast destruction. brian: we know about the

9 trillion gallons of would you tell that they estimate, but there's even more on the way. ainsley: rob schmidt picks up our team coverage. rob. >> yeah. 20 minutes southwest of downtown houston and just the impact of water. this really illustrates it perfectly. it's incredible to see what a little creek that runs underneath this roadway can do when you pump it with way too much water. look at this. this is a 30-foot gap in the roadway. it is remarkable to see. look at the guardrail here just wandering right down into the stream now. what a mess. we're on a secure side over here, so i'm going to be okay. if you ever want to know what the ground looks like, this is one way to find out. this is incredible to see. we've wandered close into downtown yesterday, and we found this intersection, this is an on-ramp to the 610, and we spotted a young man just riding his bike right through about two and a half feet of standing water. this is a scene all over the city and surrounding areas of houston and a lot of southeast texas right now. and the reason you don't want

to drive in the standing water, this next video showing you, this is a traffic camera that picked up a rescue. a man drove his truck into the water. he got stalled out. he had nowhere to go. if it wasn't for the police and the firemen, they came to rescue him, he probably would have been killed right there in his truck. so really heed the warnings, don't mess around with it, and this storm all started south from here about two and a half hours of rockport, and it just devastated that area. you're talking 130-mile an hour winds as this thing took over that area. it was a windstorm down there. the water wasn't bad, but the wind just decimated homes, and you're going to have thousands of people without homes in those areas. and now it is of course the water story and all of this rain. we had two feet of rain, and we could get two feet more. and i just can't wrap my head around that rain. i remember thinking three, four, five inches of rain. and you're talking rain by the foot. it's madness. and if you don't need to be

out, don't go out, and don't drive through the standing water. don't be stupid. get through the next four days in houston and just pray that your friends and neighbors do as well, and then this is just a lot of water. and you have to be safe. you have to be smart with it. guys, we'll send it back to you. ainsley: it's just so heartbreaking. you work so hard to buy a house or pay your mortgage or rent, and then to see your entire house flooded. you've been through it. you know the process. it takes a long time to rebuild. brian: yeah, it takes a long time to rebuild. you find a place to stay and hope the hotels aren't gouging you out. then you get your insurance papers out, and then you have to go back and contact fema. it's a race for attention. fema is going to be there for years. ainsley: this is a live video of us going through the neighborhoods just to show you the amount of water you need dealing with. if you need assistance, you can also call fema at 180-0621

fema. there's a guy in the window we're being told? look at this. brian: yeah. i'm sure he's saying is anyone coming soon? do you know what's astounding about that fema press conference? if he still needs civilian help. they're not saying we've got it handled. they're saying i think you've really got to help out. because a guy like that, that's what's going to save him. ainsley: well, it's dangerous because power lines are everywhere too. you don't want to touch those, and they're down in the water. >> to your point, the fema administrator said it's not just the feds, we need help. the website to go to if you need help nvoad.org, and that's a -- basically a website that compiles all the organizations that are helping out there in texas. ainsley: there's also a great christian organization. they had tractor-trailers that are already there helping

out. brian: meanwhile, still ahead more on the response from the trump administration. energy secretary and former texas governor rick perry joins us next you wouldn't believe what's in this kiester. a farmer's market. a fire truck. even a marching band. and if i can get comfortable talking about this kiester, then you can get comfortable using preparation h. for any sort of discomfort in yours. preparation h. get comfortable with it.

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brian: president trump said to witness harvey's devastation when he travels firsthand to texas tomorrow. ainsley: former secret service agent dna has experience with visits on devastated areas and he's also podcast. >> good to see you. good to be here. sad under these conditions. ainsley: i know you worked under president obama. did you experience anything like this? and if so, what happens? >> yeah. we had a model for this in the secret service. you know, we would call them storm stops. they're kind of like disaster trips, and they're always really traumatic. but, you know, i just want to put out there there's a lot of talk about strain on resources. and anything's going to be a strain on resources, including a presidential visit. but, ainsley, we have to remember that, you know, we're human beings and symbolism

matters. and, yes, these are largely symbolic trips. but the folks in there are going through unbelievable suffering right now. some of them lost their homes. some of them lost their pets, their property, their businesses, they lost everything. to see the president of the united states, the greatest symbol of u.s. power in the world show up and look you in the eye and say to you that, you know, you matter right now to me, that means a lot. that's not a partisan thing. that's a united states thing. and i've been there. i've been on the ground. i remember although it was not a storm, it was a bp oil spill down there, and i remember being intimately involved in that trip, a similar trip, really, it can get people through it. brian: here's the same thing the president said. he has such a bigfoot print, he doesn't want to make it disrupt being about him. so, for example, if he's walking up into a flooded area and victims, do you have to pat these people down, look them in the eye? because there's going to be a lot of unscripted, unanticipated interactions.

the secret service just cross their fingers? >> here's the way we do this. you know, what we used to say in the secret service was if we didn't know we were going there, then the jackal, then the fictitious assassin didn't either. so the storm stop off the record disaster zone is if you don't announce the location of the trip until the last minute, anyone who has bad ideas, malicious intentions doesn't know is going to be there either. as for the pat-down, we don't let anyone near the president without some form of pat-down or hand-held magnetometer. there's no way you're getting close to him. >> an area that has had a lot of turbulence over the course of however long it has been in place. how do you deal with the lack of infrastructure? >> well, that's tough request standard secret service advance, you're looking to mitigate threats from the big

six; right? tactical threats, ieds, air borns, fires, and geological type things. earthquakes and stuff like that. so those things are all exponential more difficult in a disaster zone because those you can count on in the past food, water supplies, housing, electricity are not there. so, you know, where do you store your weapons? little things that don't come up on normal advance trips are really tough on these types of trips. again, where do you get the electricity for magnetometers if your batteries are running low? these things are tough and require really talented agents. brian: we'll have you again on tomorrow. straight ahead energy secretary rick perry with former response from the trump administration and what does it look like with things running inside of texas? when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way.

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coordination between texas and the national fema, et cetera, has been very good. so i think the response -- there's always going to be people on the sidelines that criticize you should have done this or should have done that. and the fact is after 14 years of being the governor, watching a number of storms, some of them severe, none of them as big as this one i believe, though. i would say the governor of abbott, the people of the state of texas, particularly the private sector. i would tell you the faith-based community, brian, is going to have a big role going forward. putting people into housing. i know there's been a big outreach of putting citizens to search on the health and rescue side. we're watching a very, very thoughtful, i think well orchestrated effort in the face of a massive, massive storm that mother nature has thrown at the state of texas. our prayers are out there for our people and for louisiana.

they maybe going to end up in part of this storm as well. so the preparations over in our neighborhoods state, i know they're getting ready for that as well. >> well,. charles: well, mr. secretary, i hate to politicize this, but many people are questioning was it a political move when you have the governor a republican, he was telling people to evacuate. was it mandatory because it wasn't his place to do that. but he looked to the local government, and they started essentially making funny of him on twitter saying evacuate? are you kidding? this is at this isn't a big deal. don't evacuate. a lot of people frustrated now because the mayor who a bunch of democrats were basically laughing at the governor and now look at this situation. so was it a political move? why didn't the mayor ask for a mandatory evacuation, knowing this storm was as big as it was? >> yeah, i think spending any time trying to be critical at this particular point in time is a real disservice. we've got peoples lives who are in jeopardy here. it's always difficult to --

you try to move 2.5 million people out, and i think in '05 and with one of the major storms that we had, there are challenges on both sides of this. so, you know, let's focus on the search-and-rescue, and then we'll get focused on the recovery, and i think people will be better served on that than sitting on the sidelines and saying here's how i would have done it. brian: so the president's going to be there tomorrow, i'm sure you've spoken to him specifically where to go and how to approach this. what is the president going to do or is this more of an inspirational visit? what role key play? >> well, the president's really engaged in this. as i've said, you know, been involved with a number of major natural disasters over the course of the years. this president is as engaged in a personal way as any president that i had the privilege to work with. he wants to come to texas. as a matter of fact, he wanted to come today. but he realizes that this is

too early. tomorrow, most likely he'll be at one of the evacuation shelters would be my guess. i don't know that. they'll make that decision i think later in the day. but the president wants to be around some people, let them know that the federal government is a partner in this. we recognize, we respect the state's role in this effort that they're leading this, we're assisting them, we're leaning forward as far as we can in this. but the president is very, very engaged, he knows exactly what's going on. interestingly, brian, he's multitasking at the same time. he's got a lot of other things going on. it's the president of the united states that he's dealing with halfway around the world, on the other side of this country, he's going to wednesday to do some events on the domestic side. so this is a president who can multitask, a president who cares about his people greatly, and we're seeing a

reflection of that in his actions. brian: he has his tax speech on wednesday in missouri. we know he pander with sheriff on friday. somewhat pleased by that. but then with north korea testing missiles. it's never easy to be the president of the united states, especially now. >> indeed. ainsley: mr. secretary, what do you recommend? you've been in this situation being the governor of texas before. what organizations are the best for us to give to? i know we've got reverend franklin graham to talk about, you hear about the red cross and salvation army. what experiences is your best way we can help folks in texas? >> all of those are great organizations. the baptist men's organization is a great group in every one of our great disaster, baptist men are out there. boy scouts. you're going to see boy scouts doing things that are kind of outside of their normal activities. you're going to see boy scout camps being used as places to house people over the course of the month. one of the things i really want to drive home today is

how long this recovery's going to last. the models that we've had historically, you can throw them out the window. this is going to be a really, really long recovery. it's going to take a long time for people to be brought back to any normalcy. so the faith-based community may play one of the most important roles in this long-term, and that's what they've -- that's what they've historically done. this president, he will salute that, he will help them, he will help the faith-based community going forward as one of the major resources to help these people. brian: governor slash secretary, always a texan, thank you so much for joining us. ainsley: thank you. >> god speed. brian: absolutely. we'll talk to you again. we already talked about energy, but that's going to be another thing. after you save life, you wonder about gas prices and the whole oil business. meanwhile, by the way, all

those images you saw, live pictures of what's happening. and it's all heartbreaking. like this one of a nursing home. patients stranded in waste-deep water. what happened to them? we're going to go back to texas live next and tell you about it. ainsley: and the role of faith as governor was saying or secretary was saying, absolute vital in times like these. the reverend franklin graham joins us with a message of hope and how you can help. that's straight ahead ♪

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floodwaters. one of the most hearing images showing a nursing home, all the patients there trapped in dirty waste-deep water. brian: and you see that one older woman still knitting. casey is live with the dramatic details. knows about the picture and knows about the dramatic rescue. but i guess, casey, it's raining again. you've got your hood on. >> yeah. i just got chills, actually, when you told me that the woman was knitting. i've stared at that picture, and i just think what was going through their minds as they sat there, and they were wondering if someone was trying to get them. we're going to get specifics about what happened there. why they may not have been evacuated if there was staff waiting with them. but the picture went viral, and it is dickinson, texas, right where i am, but we can't even get there because the roads, they are like rivers. and so, you know, this is an intersection right here. a cvs pharmacy, water up to the sign. i mean, you stand in it, and

it really doesn't set in. but i guess a picture -- that picture was taken and thanks to social media, it went viral in a hurry, and help arrived for those patients. 15 of them eventually airlifted out of there to safety and were happy to report they're doing okay this morning. however, it all got started because one of the daughters of a patient put it out there and asked for help. this is what happened next. >> we were having trouble getting in touch with anybody who would answer a phone call for rescue. we decided to go ahead and tweet it just because we thought, at least then we could get someone's attention. it's frightening. i mean, imagine your mom a few states away with all of these residents and the poor residents. i mean, it's just so heartbreaking to see them. >> it is heartbreaking.

but, again, happy to report that they were airlifted out. we have seen all modes of rescue. we have seen the helicopters, the boats, but this took me by surprise yesterday. this was a tactic we understand used during super storm sandy. dump trucks. they're high. they can get through really high waters. and so we saw loads and loads of people packed into dump trucks like gravel to be taken out of here and dropped off to higher ground. and then the dump trucks would turn right back around and go out and get more people. as with the boats. and then the folks would stand there on a little island of dry land with their kids, babies shivering in their arms. family pets. and then they would be taken to one of the area shelters or to link up with other family.

it's -- what do you say to that? >> it's a human tragedy. it is a human tragedy unfolding before our eyes. casey, live for us in dickinson, texas. and going back to the picture of the nursing home, you think of your grandmother, grandfather, mother, father in some instances, and i think that's really why that picture punches you in the gut. there it is, because you just picture your relative in that circumstance and the horror they may be experiencing, and you can't not be moved when you see something like that. brian: let's track down kimberly macintosh and find out how everybody is doing. meanwhile, janice dean, you are downstairs to tell us why it's raining in dickinson. >> yeah. still raining. if i could, i want to shout out to the houston fire department. matt fin is with them, and he said that they're glued to the fox news channel. thank you on behalf of being a fireman's wife, thank you for everything that you do to our first responders who are going in there and rescuing people. god bless you.

let's take a look at the radar precipitation. this will go down as one of the most historic events, certainly in houston history. but if we get upwards of 50 inches, that will make it the most rainfall this country has ever seen from a tropical system. so over 30 inches right now. north and east of the houston area. watching the track as long as the center of the storm is south and west of houston, we still have the potential for more rain, and you can see there's rain actually moving into houston right now. we have another slug of moisture coming this afternoon and into this evening where we can see upwards of one to four inches this hour. so we're not done yet. the severe threat, including east, no warm storms right now. but in the houston area over the weekend, over 60 reports of tornadoes. this is one of our reliable forecast models, a center of circulation we think moving southward into the gulf of mexico. that could actually strengthen the storm and then hopefully we will see this move out north and eastward.

but we're going to tuesday and wednesday, and it's still hanging around. so that is the worst-case scenario if we're still dealing this system well into the week because we're still going to have the potential of heavier downpours and, i mean, we're still dealing with the potential of upwards of two feet more east of houston. right now calling anywhere from 11 inches to 16 inches. but, again, any more rainfall, even just an inch is just going to exacerbate an already horrible, awful disaster situation. back to you. brian: all right. thanks, janice. 20 minutes now before the top of the hour. ainsley: desperate calls for help on social media in houston. >> thousands of stranded people begging for rescues like these online as they try to stay above water. brian: so jillian's here with some of the posts and what social media's doing. >> the nursing home picture, that's a perfect example of how social media is helping so many people in this situation. you can see it right there. and after that picture was posted as you guys just talked about, they were able to get help. and as you can imagine, the

requests are coming in as the water is rising in texas. some of them, most of them, honestly just heartbreaking. a woman writing on facebook on a group saying her elderly family is stuck in their fully-submerged home. one mother sharing a photo of kids sleeping on a counter as their kitchen floods. another user writes had he mother and brother are trapped in their two-story home as water rises up the stairs. lone survivor writing on facebook that her houston home is surrounded on water, offering this advice to neighbors in the flood zone. quote find a swim buddy and watch each other's backs until this is over. have a plan and a back up plan. take care of yourself, take care of your family, take care of your neighbors, and take care of your town. melanie sharing a video of flooded road near their home saying they have friends and family staying there, including three babies, and they're worried about running out of formula. just a few hours later, she posted a photo of cans of formula donated by neighbors

and police. incredible to see those images. a lot of celebrities getting involved to help the victims. comedian kevin heart issuing this challenge on instagram. >> i'm challenging a lot of my celebrity friends to follow my lead in donating $25,000 to hurricane harvey, to the red cross. i challenge the rock, steve harvey. i think when you do it, you should challenge someone else. >> and j. j. watt starting a fund-raiser to help victims. >> houston's a great city, we're going to come out of this stronger than ever, so we do need a lot of money to help rebuild. so if you could donate, please donate. >> so far, our fans have donated over $300,000. and before you go, i will say this. one of my friends is a news anchor at a local station, and i've been watching her twitter feed for days now, and i see a lot of people sending messages of help. sofía, can you help me? my mom is at this address.

people who are out of state and don't have access to reach their loved one. and i've seen that sofía tweeting then, hey, police department, fire department, you know, someone's at this address. and then i see messages back saying thank you so much. you saved my mom. it's incredible. it's incredible what social media can do. brian: one of the first major catastrophes with social media presence. ainsley: even if you can give $5, $10. maybe you're not able to travel to texas to help. but you can help in this way. >> jillian, thank you. coming up, rescue crews trying to keep up with the constant calls for help in the houston area. >> one minute, everything was fine, but we could see the water was really high, the next minute, rushing in through every door we had. >> our own griff jenkins riding along with crews as they rescue harvey victims. that's coming up next

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>> 14 minutes before the top of the hour, and we are back with a fox news alert. just moments ago, president trump approving an emergency decoration in louisiana. state already getting rain and expected to get more. in the meantime, of course, devastating floods and pouring rain shutting down the city of houston, texas. brian: you know, a lot of these images we're watching, this one in particular isn't live. but a lot of them are live. rescue responding to calls of team, emergency teams pulling people from their homes. ainsley: one good samaritan on a rescue mission, and he joins us now. hi, griff, tell us about it. >> hey, guys. the heroic and inspiring heart of the folks here in houston is just remarkable and such a great story because these volunteers put their boats in the waters and went in to help with the rescues. take a look.

>> how many runs have you made today? >> this is probably my tenth run. >> we woke up really early, like, 5:00 a.m. and all the rooms were flooded. we were basically sleeping in water. >> the only real treacherous in these roadways, not waterways, which are sunken cars. you can see a sunken car right there. about 5:00 a.m. one, everything was fine, but we could see the water was really high. next minute, rushing in through every door we had. >> where do you hope to go now? just out of here. >> if we can get to the freeway, thanks to you guys, that will be a start. >> had you known, would you have just left? >> we would never have stayed with children. not a second if we thought at all that they would be in a risk, we would have left. . >> all right. guys.

>> let's go. >> it's very stressful. i -- everyone in my circle of friends is saying please get out of houston. >> it's just rain. it's just rain. >> yeah, there's my car. >> that's your car there? >> yeah. >> does it feel overwhelmingly to a certain extent to have this many houses, this many people needing to get out? >> others. i've never seen anything like this. it's a little overwhelming, but i figured just keep going. >> all coming out? >> yeah. >> and they're going to keep going. just a quick look at this exact place where we were. the water has reseated some. you see the flooded areas. this is the bayou and, you know, officials saying that with more rain coming, upwards of 20 inches, and that controlled release of the dam, they could be in for a lot

more rescues later today. guys. >> keeps raining. brian: all right. griff, we'll check in with you again as the rain continues to come. meanwhile, 11 minutes before the top of the hour. reverend franklin graham. he's got a message to help flood victims in texas and how you can help them recover. when itrust the brandtburn, doctors trust. nexium 24hr is the number one choice of doctors and pharmacists for their own frequent heartburn. and all day, all night protection. when it comes to heartburn, trust nexium 24hr. (flourish spray noise) (flourish spray noise) (flourish spray noise) (flourish spray noise) the joy of real cream in 15 calories per serving. enough said. reddi-wip. (flourish spray noise) share the joy. you for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad.

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>> continuing coverage of harvey aftermath as the rain continues to fall around texas. 30,000 people already in shelters. we have a huge lineup coming up in america's newsroom. the red cross will join us as well as texas land commissioner george p bush. how are they preparing for what may come next. top of the hour.

ainsley: this is a fox news alert. hurricane harvey has wreaked havoc on south texas and the storm may be far from over. >> as many are stepping up to provide relief, the charity organization samaritan's purse has rolled out relief trucks to the lone star state. brian: here with more and how you can help out the man who found a good samaritan first, the ceo reverend franklin graham. reverend, you travel the globe helping out people after catastrophes. how does this add up? >> well, this is almost hard to describe to people. this is such a mess. and people don't realize that floods are the worst. because once the water recedes, it's the mud, it's the mold that begins to take over our house, and it takes weeks to clean out some of these homes. and it can take months before you can even repair it because the house has to dry out. this is going -- the recovery

for this is going to take -- i believe, it's going to be several years. it's going to be a long process and samaritans purse, we're in victoria right now. we have chap lins right now in shelters praying with people, encouraging people. people don't know what to do. and they're sitting in these shelters and their homes, they've lost their homes, they've lost everything they've worked for their whole lives. their businesses. and it's -- these people are not only going to need our help today, tomorrow, but for months to come. ainsley: reverend, we all want to be a good samaritan and help you out and the folks in texas. what can we do? >> number one thing is prayer. we need prayer. the rain is still coming. and right now for parts of houston and to the east of that, it's only going to get worse. and so pray. that's what i want to encourage. and of course, all the organizations, whether it's samaritans purse or the red cross or the southern baptist people that are responding, we

all need financial help. but the people there right now, they need our prayers. brian: all right. so when you talk about samaritans purse and helping out, today, those people actually need to know what to do. how to get clothes, where the income's coming from, and where to go. what's the first thing they should do there? >> brian, the -- right now, many of the areas are under -- they're rescuing people. and what we're doing right now, we're staying out of the way of people that are involved in rescue. our job is to come in once the water recedes and help them take their lives back. and that's what takes so long. but we do need money because we're going to be down there for months. by this time next year still working. brian: and that's why you go to samaritanspurse.org. >> samaritanspurse.org is the best place to get information on how you can be involved.

brian: thanks, reverend. >> more fox and friends moments away

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>> thank you for joining us. >> a harrowing and heart wrenching situation unfolding in houston as catastrophic flooding there. over 30,000 people are now in shelters. officials warning the situation will only get worse. as support pours in from across the nation with a message to the lone star state, you are not alone. good morning, everyone. i'm sandra smith live in america's newsroom. >> i'm shawn. bill and shannon are off this morning. officials say their focus is simple, that is saving lives. here is what the dire situation in houston stands at this hour. at least five people have reportedly been killed. that number sadly is