will survive." >> it is appropriate for the incident and what is going on, it will be part of our all-american concert series. >> oh, my goodness. >> she is going to sing that song. >> shannon: and we are following a potentially dangerous situation right now near houston, an entire area evacuated after an incident at a major chemical plants are there, good morning, i am a shannon bream, and good morning. >> i am eric, in four bill hemmer. new emergency evacuations are in order, it was, as a reservoir has begun overflowing, fire crews are responding to smoke and fumes, coming from the chemical plants that has been disabled by the storm. at least one officer was at the scene, we are told. he has been hospitalized for fume inhalation.

we are told that they had to get out fast. >> everybody had to leave. >> they didn't have no electricity. the thing is going to blow up. we have to have a backup plan. they should have had a backup plan. i don't know why -- they don't have it. >> eric: >> it is near that chel plant right now. >> hey, erica, telling fox news now this wasn't so much an explosion as a chemical reaction, but they are still bracing for a potential fire, we are here in cross vue texas, which is about a half-hour drive, lots of road closures,

interstate 90 totally close, there was panic surrounding the chemical plants around 1:00 a.m. last night, officials now saying that harris county fire marshals are saying that's there are series of containers that have an organic compound in them that were being released, and that created the pop, 15 harris county deputies were harmed, they are being treated right now and are expected to be okay, harris county sheriff describes what happened. >> there were different organic peroxides of different grades that were released, and it created a pop in the containers where they were being stored, and some gray smoke initially emanated from it, eventually turned into black smoke it, we did have a deputy out in that perimeter, and so it is not

anything -- >> a few unanswered questions as the story develops, for now it seems that the alarm surrounding the situation has been somewhat denigrated. back to you in new york. >> eric: thank you for reentering us about the danger. >> shannon: moving away from the gulf coast, but the rescue efforts are far from over, going door to door in places like belmont, operated by volunteers basically, people from all over the usa, good samaritans. more resources from the navy are on the way as well, joining me now is patrick hamilton, general, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you, shannon, good morning. >> shannon: we've got to military vehicles, helicopters, airships, these are the kind of duties that people normally think of our military doing, but it is critical in a moment like

this. >> absolutely, and i want to make sure that we stress we are working also with a tremendous number of active-duty troops that have come into the area of operations, national guardsmen, first responders, this is what we trained to do. in addition to our wartime missions with the services, we've got the relationships with the local command systems, and we get to moved it tremendous numbers working with local authorities in the state of texas to begin rescue and follow on with the logistics and life-support supplies. >> shannon: yeah, my understanding is that this is very different from the way that you all would normally prepare and activate in a situation like this, normally the guard and military efforts are very heavy in the first of 72 to 92 hours, it's given the continual pounding by the storm and adjust the enormity of it, it will be a different phasing in of operations and much more long-term this time.

>> yes, and we are prepared to do that, but the state of texas is prepared for these type of events, as well. the state planned for emergency response, hurricane response, including the logistics like providing points of distribution and to the a distribution of commodities and life-support. that's part of the plan for texas, and we have executed that, it is just much larger. >> shannon: folks know that we are showing live pictures in houston, that is the aftermath in these neighborhoods you're looking at cars, homes, entire neighborhoods where you can see a single bits of pavement or street way there, it is the reality of what we're dealing with your, and a general, so many times in the storms, we think of these exceptional rescues, high water rescues, for a day or two, and to the effect size people are still being found in their homes and rooftops in places, where these boats and helicopters are coming to get them, it is unlike anything we have ever seen

before, what your men and women are doing. >> yes, they are doing a tremendous job, going door to door, boat cruise, high water rescue vehicles, moving people to evacuation hubs, large cargo aircraft to evacuate them off of an island, and gets them into a shelter. it is a large scale operations. >> shannon: what i understand is that some of you are waiting for more from governor abbott, he says that he will ask more to come in, what is available to him at this point that hasn't already been activated? >> there is a tremendous amount of capability out there, between the national guard and the active component, we have those lists of everything available, and we will begin flowing those in, we have already begun flowing more in every single day, whatever the best capability is, it will get here as fast as it can, is what we

are utilizing. my role as status commander is taking responsibility of all of those assets and working with the state of texas to start bringing that stuff in and putting it in the right place at the right time periods. >> shannon: these are neighborhoods, these are places where there are homes, cars, completely submerged, and you are getting a both live view, looking around, we are continuing to see people going in with both, many of them are official , many of them are volunteers, simply loaded up their own supplies and headed to the worst areas, willing to help, general, what comes next? because this by everyone's

account is going to be an exceptionally long term project. >> absolutely, the next part is as the water does received, we start transitioning out of the search and rescue and into the life-support logistics distributions and restoring utilities so that local businesses can reestablish, open up, and start rebuilding infrastructure so that people can start to the contracting work to come back into their homes, et cetera. >> shannon: patrick hamilton, our thanks to you, all of the men and women working alongside with you, many of them leaving behind their own families and homes in a less than ideal situation so that they could be there to help. thank you, sir. >> thank you, sir. >> the president speaking today at a factory in missouri, pledging to try to get it done. >> i want to work with congress, republicans and democrats alike on a plan that is progrowth, pro-jobs, pro-worker, and pro-american. >> eric: it that is the message, john roberts now live with more. good morning, john. >> erica, good morning to you,

the president has a couple very important meetings here at the white house, the president laying down a very big marker to those folks who are coming over, that he expects some action on tax reform, springfield, missouri, yesterday, saying in no uncertain terms he expects congress to give him what he wants. listen to this. >> i don't want to be disappointed by congress, do you understand me? do you understand? i think congress is going to make a comeback, i hope so. i tell you what, the united states is counting on it. >> eric: yesterday's speech was basically about why the president thinks that tax reform is important, rather than what he will do and how, the president insists that cutting taxes on business will grow the economy and create jobs, but the president also saying he plans on giving middle income earners a substantial tax cuts as well,

listen here. >> we believe that ordinary americans know better, how to spend their own money, and we want to help them take home as much of their money as possible and then spend it. >> the president is specifically took aim at one member of congress, from the state of missouri, claire from missouri, listen to what the president says. >> we have no choice. it we must lower our taxes. and your senator, claire mccaskill, she must do this to you, and if she doesn't do it for you, you have to vote her out of office. >> at the same time he was saying that, he was also dealing with bipartisanship, believing that this is an issue that's a republicans and democrats can come together on. it shows 49 49 registered votes

say that it is important to them, but 78% of them say that they don't think it will get done this year. >> eric: in about 10 minutes from now, one of the architects of the successful reagan tax reform that happened back in 1986 will talk about what we can expect, john roberts at the white house. >> shannon: president trump is calling on congress to help those left devastated by a harvey. >> right now we have the money necessary, but the real number which will be many billions of dollars will go through congress, i think it will happen very quickly, it will go very fast. >> shannon: capitol hill will have just weeks to ask before the nations of flood insurance program expires, we will speak with one of the lawmakers leading the charge to reform the program, we will speak with john duffy, he joins us next. a >> eric: and of course, the rescue operations are not slowing down at all in texas, fema officials are now planning for the long term for the

thousands who are in shelters, so what is next for those who know have no place to go? >> shannon: and many of those people are there thanks to the heart and courage of the cage and a navy, that group will join us live next. >> the winds are blowing, it is raining, but that is not going to stop us from doing what we need to do, we will be hitting the water here shortly to continue our mission to get people out of these floodwaters.

>> eric: continuing showdown with north korea, american bombers and stealth fighter jets conducting live fire exercises, it is what's officials that describe as a direct response to the north latest provocation, comes after pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over japan this week. at the u.s. exercised simulated strikes against north korean facilities. >> the president will go to ask congress for money, depending on where they needs are, but that is his intention, he wants to make sure that people know that he is there, that we are all therefore them, the only hope that congress cannot do that. to speak destruction in the wake of hurricane harvey, putting new pressure on congress to act on the nation's flood insurance program, set to expire in the end of september, unless it is

renewed, joining me, one of the lawmakers leading the effort, sean duffy, good to see you. this is something that you have been working on long before harvey came along, we talked about the program, estimates around $23 billion in debts, people obviously are going to expect claims, they will be paid out, but it seems like every time there is an attempt at really reforming this program long-term, something difficult happens. of course our hearts go out to those who are impacted, but is this something that will be able to survive long-term question work >> i think what we have to do is say the congress is going to help people impacted, and by the way, only 20% of people in texas have a flood insurance, if you have just a regular policy on your house, it doesn't cover flood insurance. so what you mention, we are $25 billion in debts, it runs on a deficit, so we want to reform a program, we have people paying

a premium that is consistent with their property, we should have a reserve fund in this program so that when you have a disaster like harvey or katrine or sandy, we have resources there to pay it, but right now, you will see the supplemental authorization from congress, it is the heartfelt thing to do, but we should look over the horizon and say how do you make this program work? we have properties that will flood multiple times, and when your property floats, you get a mold in your house, let's help people get out of those homes into a different house that is actually safe and secure for them, not only that, we have really wealthy people who build mansions on the coast, and there flood insurance is subsidized by a moderate to low income people all over america, the program doesn't work right now, harvey is an opportunity for us to take care of taxes but also reform the flood insurance program and make it sustainable. >> shannon: it feels very much about a discussion about entitlement reform, because you look at the worst case scenarios, people who paid into

these things, and to those who end of it benefiting who may be have-nots met that criteria, but the minute you start talking about it, people get very touchy and worried about what is actually going to play out, and it is a tough political call to make it, i will read a piece from "the washington post," sing recent history does not make us optimistic, congress did reform the program on a bipartisan basis in 2012, only to see much of that undead under pressure from a lawmakers in 2014 after sandy, and there is a tide in the affairs of men. congress tends to go with the political flow, there has been a lot of bipartisanship on this, doesn't get done done? >> well, great to democrat a member of congress, he is working with me on this bill, i do think it gets done, he has to get to reauthorize, into the reforms that we are talking about -- you can't shock people, shannon, you can't have a premium one day, and the next

day the premium doubles, people have to start paying rates that are consistent with the risk, not only that, this is a government run program, lets us such flood insurance up to the private markets can actually come in, private insurance companies can offer coverage at better prices than the federal government. so the things that we are doing in the reform package make a lot a sense, and it to an earlier point, we will pay for someone's house, two or three or five times over, at what point does the government say enough is enough? we are not going to pay for your house five times, we might pay for it twice, but we are going to move you out into a different area, but we can't continue to shell out so much cash when people are building in risky areas, so i think there is a compassionate and fair way to do it, but when you have a program that is $25 billion in debts, we are going to have to probably put more into that, when do you say we should be sustainable?

we should make programs actually work instead of reserve funds that can meet the disasters like harvey? it does not exist like that, so i think we will see some opposition to this bill from democrats and republicans, but i think you will see a lot of people supports this common sense reform, we are trying to look over the horizon and how you make a program work after taxes for the next big disaster. >> shannon: and we are talking about government money, but that is taxpayer money, so there are people paying for this over and over who may not be benefiting from it. good to see you. >> eric: amid stories of good samaritans and sacrifice that we have been witnessing, harvey is bringing out the worst in some people, using this tragedy to try to make a quick buck off of the helpless victims, coming up, we will speak to the texas attorney general about this about what the state is trying to do to stop it. >> shannon: and critics going

after president trump, we will talk about what is in the plan, will speak with former reagan economics advisor coming out. your big idea... will people know it means they'll get the lowest price guaranteed on our rooms by booking direct on choicehotels.com? hey! badda book. badda boom! mr. badda book. badda boom! book now at choicehotels.com

>> this is our once in a generation opportunity to deliver real tax reform for everyday hardworking americans, and i am fully committed to working with congress to get this job done. >> eric: that is president trump urging congress to get on board with his plan to try to overhaul the nation's tax code, the president saying that he wants to work with republicans and democrats, he wasn't revealing very much in the way of details, so can he get this done? former reagan economics advisor joins us, all right, you went

through this and 1986 before with president reagan, the president seems to promise almost the possible, to "make the tax code simple, fair, and easy to understand, how can this be accomplished? >> well, i don't think he is going to do that, jerry brown have the perfect plan for doing that, one of two that failed, getting rid of all of the tax code, but what trump is doing here is very admirable, it should get to the economy going, and really the most important thing is to get to the economy growing, and as far as the details go, he says that he once said to go up from 35% to 50%, and in all honesty, that is enough detail because that would work miracles for this economy. >> eric: how can it accomplish that? >> well, it can do it by making it far more a attractive to bring profits back to the u.s., to make companies here in the

u.s. produced goods, and also to make it attractive to expand business here in the u.s. because 35% is the highest rate, and all of them have cut their tax rates dramatically in the last 15 years with the single exception of a hungry, which raised them from 18 to 19%, it is important that we have our tax rates in line, it will get rid of tax evasion, it will pay for itself, eric, three times over. so it is the best one to do. >> there is no gift to the rich. this is companies, if he does personal income taxes, they argue that all the time, but this is just for the corporate tax rate, and i believe that most americans are tired and it paid by corporations, shows that wages are rising dramatically with this reduction, this is the way to make it, and someone who is unemployed is far better off with a job than they are then

sitting there with a welfare or whatever it is, so this is the right way to go, it is the right time, and i just couldn't be happier with the president on what he is doing on corporate tax. >> eric: he is talking about going down to a personal rates, he has congress, and they haven't had tax reform since 1986, lets me read to you watch the washington journal's thing about this today. "it is not too much to say that the republican majority hangs on success, one big question is whether they will be held hostage by higher taxes and more spending, as they did with health care, the test is whether republicans will work to make tax overhaul as powerful as possible for economic growth, but fall to the same traps that scuttle the effort to replace obamacare. finally, how can they actually get that done if there are no democrats on board? >> well, i talk allotted to a group of about 30 to 50 democrats in the house, and they

all understands the importance of or bringing down taxes, they want may be something for it, something to offset it, but frankly the democrats are primed to negotiate if it doesn't just become a political thing like the health care did, but everyone understands that to the corporate tax rate is the adrenaline that really will get this economy going, and once the economy starts, he doesn't stop, it builds on itself, it really does, and if you look what happened to the u.s. in '83 and '84 -- >> eric: we are out of time, but this will continue. thank you. it >> shannon: we are waiting to hear from officials from taxes, after eight houston area chemical plant has been disabled by a harvey, we are told that the possibility of an explosion breaking out is very real, and we will go back to that volatile situation as soon as we can.

>> eric: people still flowing into the shelter statewide in texas, some going out to fort worth, and the rescue effort remains in high gear, we will have a live report from one of the shelters that is still taking people in does he turn everything to gold? not everything. at midas we're always a touch better. book an appointment at midas.com

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>> shannon: the rescue continues in texas, we see people being rescued from their homes, now we have video of dogs that are being rescued, it is a horrific choice that people have to make when they are filling their home to leave behind their pets, and some of these pets have been left behind in shelters, but now we see them not only risking their

human beings watch their furry friends as well, that's my to brighten up your day to see those guys getting out to safety as well. >> eric: look how happy they are. a. >> shannon: they are. they are being helped out. his >> eric: we are awaiting a news conference, crosby texas is the sites, it is a chemical plant, they make highly flammable peroxides there, it was disabled by the flooding, the total is 9 out of the 15 police officers who went to the hospital are now out, they had breezed in some type of toxic fumes potentially, so we will bring you the latest on that. >> shannon: rescue crews are still out in full force and the broader area, trying to help people get to higher ground, more than 30,000 people have reached out for the safety of shelters all across the states, fema officials are pledging to be there for the long haul. siegel lets me be clear, the summation is going to continue for multiple weeks, understanding this takes time to mobilize people to the shelter assistance programs and hotels, we are going to be asking for volunteers to specifically look at the shelter mission. >> shannon: you live it from the houston convention center,

good morning, peter, what are the big changes now coming to the harris county shelters? >> shannon, officials want everybody staying at a more than 40 small shelters throughout the harris county, which is where houston is, to move to too big to make a shelters, there is this one, the george r brown convention center, and then another one about 15 minutes away from here on the ground of the complex for the houston texans play, at the nr g center that is ready to house 10,000 texans and which has been turned into a small town. >> i have talked it to red cross about closing all the shelters in the region, consolidating them, why would we do that? well, if you have been to the energy facility, it has got medical facilities, a grocery store, a child care area, it is a player's that it frankly can't

be duplicated in small settings all around the region. >> a few hours away from here in dallas, there are still four shelters open for about 1,000 people around here, and it is costing roughly $100,000 a day to house them, that is a price tag that is set to skyrocket because officials are guessing that's there could be about 30,000 people in the dallas area once roads are good enough in houston and elsewhere for people to get up there, fema says that they are spending about $57 million just on survivors of the big flood. >> shannon: man, that is just the beginning, we just had a video of folks rescuing animals left behind, so let's talk about the animal shelters, that is a big issue too. >> they are at capacity, shannon, so now they are shelters in places like chicago that are coming into houston and it trying to take all of the animals that were in the shelters before harvey hits,

back to places like illinois so that there are room for the pets that were left behind, and there are now specialized animal rescue teams going into places where the water is a little bit lower, places like massachusetts, iowa, illinois, colorado, and they are just trying to pick up as many dogs and cats as they can that's were either left behind by people who were scared for their own lives and didn't think that they had time, or didn't think that they would be able to bring them into a shelter like this. >> shannon: peter there on the scene, thank you so much. eric. >> eric: at shannon, as many plea, the horror of harvey, they ran right towards the danger, the cajun coast search and rescue team is one of them, first let's go to the news conference on the chemical plant in crosby, texas for the status on that. >> one was taken to a nearby hospital by ambulance, and

others that drove themselves to the hospital to be evaluated, at last check, 13 of the 15 deputies had been released by the hospital, and the other two were still being checked out. the harris county fire marshal's office i have told us that the exposure is similar to standing over a burning campfire, we believe that the smoke is a nontoxic irritant, the fire marshal's office plan from the beginning was to allow the a fire to burn itself out, firefighters are taking defense to prevent it from spreading, next we will hear from the harris county fire marshal's office, and officials will be providing their statement here as well. >> thank you, sheriff, my name is bob royal, i am the assistant chief of the harris county fire marshal's office, this team is part of my command.

a statement i would like to share with you is that earlier this week, at approximately 2:00 a.m. on tuesday morning, the county eeoc which was in full operation at level one, received a call for a water rescue at the plant. the crosby's fire fire department initiated that rescue. at the next morning or later that morning, somewhere after daylight, i remember it to be somewhere around seven or 8:00 a.m., the members down that were working down at the eeoc had a conference call, with the corporate offices, and they asked for a complete evacuation of the plans. shortly after that, an hour or so later, the department of homeland security infrastructure protection contacted myself and

to the fire marshall county's office among others, we had an extensive conference call and talked about what was going on down at 322. since that time, we developed a plan with that the incident commander on this incident, and we decided to that's we would invoke a safety zone around the plans, which has been done, we establish that isolation perimeter, at 1.5-mile radius. after we established that the evacuation zone, the crosby fire department, local law enforcement, and other agencies that are working the flooding event here in harris county went to door door and evacuated all those that were close to the plans that -- since that time, we have been in defensive posture, holding a perimeter around the facility to make sure that our citizens are safe and that our environment is

protected to the best we can. this morning, as expected, were all of the research that was done by myself and others, we found out that we had one of the vans of -- that there was a chemical decomposition -- a chemical reaction that resulted in a fire at that location, there were a number of small containers inside that's it did a rupture. we heard some popping noise coming from that area, then gray smoke, followed by fire. excuse me. it is my understanding that three -- this is 1 of 3 of the containers that they had lost refrigeration on. and so we can expect a similar type of decomposition in those other trailers, maybe even all nine of them before it is over with.

so, so far what has happened is exactly what we expected was going to happen, we are still in defensive posture, we are holding our perimeter, our law enforcement partners are holding that perimeter, and at this time, i will take any questions. >> yeah, i am just going to say for our part of it, -- >> eric: officials basically giving some reassuring news about the arkema plant, the good news is that we are told that his was a nontoxic, that the officers have suffered some type of injury or basically i air attends, the condition is clearly still in stable, as you can see the police are putting the perimeter around a very unstable compounds, these are organic peroxides, i have no idea what that means or what they are, but we are told that they do cause flammable vapors.

now the plant was open, 11 workers and employees stayed at the plans when harvey hits, but they were eventually evacuated because of the instability of the chemical compounds there, they created that's 1.5-mile a safety zone, so it seems that it is potentially under control, but thankfully, the fumes are nontoxic, say officials. shannon. >> shannon: much more to develop on that's likely before it is over. the federal government is winning both praise and criticism for the harvey disaster so far, karl rove who worked in the west wing during katrina will join us to share his thoughts on a famous response so far. >> eric: a plus, do people think that president trump is uniting or dividing our country, we have some new foxholes about that, we will show you what they are revealing this morning.

>> eric: at the news conference is continuing, you can see it from the arkema

chemical plant, it was not an explosion but a chemical reaction, organic peroxides that are manufactured there, that's plant has been evacuated, the officers who were injured believe that is led to i air attends, the good news is that the fumes are not toxic it, so the news conference continues, and we will continue to monitor it for you. of course, the overwhelming drama of harvey, much that we have seen is thanks to volunteers, organizing to save those who have been stranded by the rising waters, he is the commander of the cajun coast search and rescue team and it joins us, tony, first of all, i know it is good for all of us, we thank you, we think you're volunteers for your selfless dedication, it is the best of the american spirit, first of all, you left louisiana at at 2:00 a.m. on sunday, and do you say that it was much worse than

you expected? >> yeah, we headed out saturday night, came into texas, we were shocked to see the actual amount of damage, it was lost more than we thought it was going to be. >> eric: what was the greatest challenge? >> the logistics have been an issue with us, multiple roads close, we can't get around, we can't get through, that has been a nightmare, but we are getting through. >> eric: how do you know where to go? >> we are working with a lot of emergency preparedness, government officials, they are coming in from different locations, we are pretty much just working under them. >> eric: and what happens? you dispatch the boats, walk us through the process if you can of actually rescuing someone. >> what actually happens, they give us a list of addresses where people are stranded, and call for help, we just go to the

address, along the way, we find people who are trying to walk out, we pick them up, people out on the roofs needing assistance, we try to catch them out. even staging a high water rescue vehicle, we just bring everyone out in the boats, and then we drive them out to dry land, whatever location is set up for us. >> eric: and how long are you prepared to keep doing this? >> as long as it takes, our volunteers are out here, strong, we are going to keep on this thing until there is nothing else for us to do. >> eric: what does it feel like for you to give back? there are about three dozen volunteers, who are you guys? >> well, we are people. we also have jobs, our organization was put together about three and a half or four years ago, it is an all volunteer group, so everyone has to take off work. none of us are paid, we do this

strictly voluntarily. >> eric: what do you do? >> actually, i am an animal cruelty investigator. >> eric: oh, while market, so you decided to do this -- that is absolutely wonderful, how can people help who are watching right now? what can they do to help you guys out? >> there's a couple of things, they can visit our facebook page, we have a donates a link, they can donate, like i said, none of us are paid, everything that comes and pays for gas, food, you know we buy emergency things for people, blankets so that they can stay warm. they often keep those blankets, medical supplies. water and that's kind of thing, it is never ending. a lot of times, sadly, it has to come out of our pockets or there is, so it is just greatly appreciated to be helped out. >> eric: cajun coast and rescue team, go to their facebook team.

>> shannon: chemical plant outside of houston, where there have been the serious problems and more potentially to come, let's listen and then. >> as he might imagine, with all of the unprecedented flooding we have had, it has been difficult to get people from around the country organized here to deal with the issue that we are facing, it has been all hands on deck it, and i'm here to try to share key messages with the community, make sure that everyone understands what is going on. first, let me just say in terms of the question that was raised about our coordination with the local authorities, and the emergency response team, and the first responders, who have been doing heroic work to try to help us protect the local community and to the residence. we want to think certainly the

harris county fire marshal's office, the harris county sheriff's office, fema, the department of homeland security, they have all been doing outstanding work it, we have been working intimately with them to help deal with the incident. next, i would just like to point out that obviously with hurricane harvey, making landfall, and this an unprecedented storm, our team took extraordinary efforts to try to protect the integrity of the products that are involved, we'll speak about that and more more details here shortly, the materials that are involved are liquid organic peroxide, this is a chemical facility. we do produce obviously organic peroxide's, handed to that, we use raw materials for the production of the finished products that we make it, the issue is not to those materials, those products are safely stored, and there is no issue

with those, as long as a broader area of the site is not involve involved. and what the concern is is the coldest temperature products, the colder temperature organic peroxide's, that these materials have to be maintained cold, if they start to warm up, they become unstable, and they will decompose. when they decompose, they generate heat, and then they -- there is the possibility of a fire and possible explosions. we do have nine containers, these materials are stored in some a box containers, like you would see over the road to storage containers, one of those containers has been involved, and the product in that container has started to degrade, that happened earlier this morning, we fully expect that the other a containers will do the same thing. in the water is still in our facility and preventing us from

accessing the facility, and we believe at this point is that the safest thing to do is to allow the other eight containers, the products and those to degrade and burn. excuse me, just a few more remarks, and then i will be happy to take some questions, certainly, on behalf of all of the employees at arkema, i want to apologize for the income that this is having on the local community, we certainly appreciate all of the work that the responders are doing to help protect the safety of those in the area, and that is our primary objective, and we're going to continue to do that. i am happy to take some questions. maybe one at a time. so our understanding is that the materials stored in these containers -- there are pressure relief valves on these containers, when pressure builds up in the container, to a

certain point, it exceeds the pressure of that valve, that involve releases, and it makes a popping sound, our understanding is that that is the sounds that we have heard, certainly these things can burn very quickly and very violently, and it would not be unusual for them to explode, but what we believe we have heard, understand, we are a mile and a half away from the facility, so we don't have anybody on-site who is watching this happening, we believe that there just hasn't been a massive explosion and the vapor relief valves, that it could pop. >> is there a potential for something more? >> we certainly anticipate that it is hard to predict, certainly, when these things burn, they degrade, there is a possibility that an explosion could happen. >> why did you rely on cooling as your way to medicaid's this

when it could be a potential problem? >> of the materials are required to be kept cold, as far as i know, i don't know that there is any chemical way of keeping that from happening. >> i spoke with two experts yesterday, they both said that it is standing operating procedure at facilities like this to have a compound to neutralize them. why did arkema not have that? >> i cannot answer that, i do not know the chemistry that you are describing. >> when they started to happen -- >> we started taking measures to shut down the plant, it was shut down, and we put in place multiple layers of detection to try to provide a refrigeration for the materials that needed to be kept in the storage.

absolutely. so obviously our primary way of protection with our power supply, when the storm hits, we offered primary power, we brought in emergency generators to provide backup power to provide refrigeration for those products, as the floodwaters rose, those generators were compromised, and we lost the use of those generators because of the floodwaters. we actually had a third system in place, which was liquid nitrogen, we have a liquid nitrogen system on-site to provide refrigeration to these storage containers. because of the flooding in -- floodwaters, some of the equipment necessary to operate as that was also compromised. and then our fourth layer of protection was the refrigerated storage containers. so we brought these refrigerated storage containers, moved all of the product into these containers, which is where they

are now. [indistinct question] >> yes, we are expecting that the remaining eight containers that have not yet started to have product at degrade in them, we expect that that will start to happen. i'm sorry? [indistinct question] >> my understanding is that we have lost refrigeration capability in eight of the nine. yes. [indistinct question] >> i am not sure about the exact distance, but the containers themselves are in a remote area of the plant, so we don't anticipate any other buildings or equipment -- [indistinct question] >> no, i think that is something that we can a --

[indistinct question] >> no, we felt that the blood best place to keep this material on the nature of the product wan the plant, we have people who would know this chemistry, know how to handle the products, we have equipment to their, based on what we would have anticipated happening, we certainly didn't want to bring these containers outs into the storm with all these people being evacuated and having a trailer stuck on the highway somewhere with it numerous people around, so we felt like the safest place to keep the containers and to protect the citizens in the area was to keep the products there. b-29 >> yes, we cannot share the information about the chemicals. excuse me, i'm sorry. hold on, excuse me.

>> what are the health risks? >> okay -- trying to speak to the individuals asking the questions, sorry. so, the question was what is the health risk? what we have going on, it is not a chemical release that is happening, and i want to be clear about that, that isn't a chemical release, what we have is a fire, and when you have a fire where hydrocarbons, these chemicals are burning, sometimes you have incomplete combustion, and you have smoked, and any smoke is going to be in irritants to your eyes or your lungs or potentially your skin, so if you are exposed to that, we certainly encourage anyone that may be exposed to the smoke coming from the fire to call their doctor or to seek medical advice. >> someone set a campfire, is that correct?

>> the sheriff has said to that, i don't want to necessarily compare the intensity of the smoke -- >> someone said this is no more dangerous than a barbecue? >> i heard that, but i don't want to comment on it. >> so we can't be sure that it is just a campfire smoke a question mark >> what i can tell you is that the toxicity of the smoke will certainly cause an irritation to your eyes, lungs, just like any smoke. so we encourage people not to -- to avoid getting exposed to tha that. >> can you go over what the status of the plant is right now? give us an update right now? >> come so the plant continues to be shut down, one of the nine has -- the water levels in the plant are starting to receive slightly, so that is kind of the state of the plant.

[indistinct question] >> people want to know how endangered they are. >> so the recommendation of the local authorities, we have established that it is one and a half miles in for the evacuation zone, we believe that the local authorities have moved everyone out of harm's way, no one is in danger based on the fires that we expect. [indistinct question] >> no, we are not intending to go into the site, as we understand we do not think that is a safe thing to do. >> when will you be able to go into the plant again? >> certainly we want until all of the floodwaters have receded, that is the first step, and then certainly the products that we believe is potentially decomposing, we are not going to put anyone in harm's way to try to restore refrigeration because we don't know the states that

the product is in the container containers. we will likely wait -- we are working on that strategy now, my expectation is that is what the plan is. if the products have been degraded, yes, as long as they have been kept cold, and the integrity of this material can be kept. [indistinct question] >> correct. >> that's right, once they exceed a certain temperature, they begin to decompose, and said decomposition eventually creates the fire. >> talking about how they burn, and sort of the worst-case scenario, if there is an explosion, you know, how big are we talking about? what is the worst case? >> yeah, that would be all speculation in terms of how big the fire can be, what we do know is the first container -- that the sheriff's department and

sent over some video of what was happening, the smoke plume we understand was 30 to 40 feet in the air, and we could see visible flames coming out of the container. is that the extent of what could happen? we just can't predict. [indistinct question] >> i don't know the temperatures at which it burns, we can try to get that information for you. >> did you all consider flooding and the backup generators? >> how often do we test the nitrogen backup systems? yeah, i am not sure how frequently we are testing that equipment, but it certainly is maintained, it is one of our layers of protection to provide refrigeration to the cold products that we need to start. the beginning of your question was -- certainly we did not anticipate having this much water in our plant, this is

really the issue, that has led to the issue that we are experiencing now. [indistinct question] >> i am not sure. a pardon? [indistinct question] >> yeah, i can't comment on that, i don't know the details surrounding that, obviously, the fire marshal's office composed the one and a half mile evacuation zone, we certainly respect to that, and we certainly encourage all of the residents who live inside that zone to respect that the for their own safety and, if they return back to their homes, they should not have done that, and if they can still evacuate safely, we would encourage them to do that. >> one of these fires could

rupture other chemicals on-site? >> like we said, we believe that they are in a remote enough area that we don't anticipate any other damage to property on the site. >> you said that the chemicals could burn -- is there any potential for them not to burn as they are released into the floodwaters? does that do anything to the environment? >> no, we anticipate that they will decompose once they start to warm up, and then they will burn. we had a generators, backup generators, backup backup generators, so i am not sure what more we could have done to provide additional layers of security. >> did the sled catch you off guard? >> how accurately can you measure the situation? how do you know that the situation isn't worth anything? >> so, inside these containers, there is our ability to monitor,

that is how we know that things are progressing, should we anticipate something to happen soon, that is also being compromised based on the flooding that took place, so it is not 100% certain what the conditions are. [indistinct question] >> no, we are not going to put anybody in harm's way because we just don't know. >> so you don't have any idea of how it will happen? >> we anticipated that certainly we have had the first incident, we don't know the answer. >> you are just not too sure? >> they are noxious, the toxicity of the fumes and the smoke it, i don't know the composition of the smoke but, it is certainly noxious.

>> i believe that was said earlier. nontoxic it, or can you not say that? >> noxious. >> i just want to make sure i am correct. >> organic peroxides are a -- as the sheriff said, they are chemical materials that are used to initiate other chemical productions for the purpose of making plastics, the toxicity is that -- >> you can say it? you are not going to say it, correct? are you going to say they are nontoxic, or are you not? i think it is pretty important. >> the smoke is noxious, the toxicity is a relative thing. >> what will it do to you? >> you breathe in the smoker, it is going to irritate your lungs. and it is an irritant, it is going to cause irritation in

your lungs. >> b smoke inhalation is not going to kill you? >> no, we don't believe that. >> is there any way to reassure the community? it sounds like there is a lapse that you don't know, toxicity, timing. >> we want them to understand -- respects the one half mile radius, we think that's that is providing a safe area, we anticipates that all of this product is going to degrade, we don't know exactly how long it is going to take it, certainly the warm temperatures that we have is likely going to speed that process up. budget we can sit define specifically how long it is going to take role of the material to degrade, whether it is today, tomorrow, we just don't know, it is impossible to predict that some. >> people are worried. >> of course, we understand that, and we want people to understand and respect the one

and a half mile radius, we don't want people to come back and think it is over, this is a very serious issue, and we know that. >> should people around here be comfortable having you as a neighbor? >> i think so, we have been a responsible neighbor, and we are responding to this the best way that we can. we have set up a hotline for people who have experienced issues related to the sandy claims line as well, so we encourage people that's if they have any injuries or if they have damage to their property as a result of our issue, for them to call that hotline. >> can you share that number? >> i don't know the number itself, but it is i believe on our public -- on our public web site, and if not, it will be soon. >> [indistinct question] >> so the evacuation was set up by the harris county fire marshal's office, they were the

ones who made the public announcement about the evacuation, so that is how that information came out. >> we have to keep on schedule. >> yeah, celt my name is richard rennard, and my title is manager of the acrylic unit. >> shannon: that's plant outside of houston that has had noises and some smoke overnight, explaining what is going on there, they actually prepare a substance that needs to stay cooled in preparation, and apparently all of the cooling mechanisms after they shut down the plant on left on friday, all of the backup scum of the backups to the backups, they all failed, and as they exclaims, when that happens, there will be fires, and that is what has happened so far.

there are numerous containers that could be effective, we believe that there are eight others, we have a safety perimeter of 1.5 miles, they are warning people to stay away as they watch and wait to see what further damage the flood will do, it is the loss of refrigeration that is causing problems there, warned that you come, and as harvey has been downgraded to a tropical depression, moving inland, the trouble is far from over, heart wrenching scenes of devastations among the search and rescue efforts, leaving behind record flooding, and of driving tens and thousands from their home. flooded houston neighborhood, the crew is conducting at pet rescue, let's start there. >> good morning, we are here just south of the barker reservoir, they were over spelling, they have probably crusted, so the water should begin to go down, but unfortunately, as we have learned, the flooding remains many houses underwater here in this area and overnight in these neighborhoods where i am in the

county, mandatory evacuation, we are with the sheriff here. sheriff, what are we doing today? >> the residents of this neighborhood have been evacuated in the last 24 to 48 hours, but now what we have discovered is that many of them have left pets back in their residence, so what we're doing is gathering some of those families, taking that back to their residence, so they can recover their family pets. >> just moments ago, sheriff, a heartwarming moment with some pets back here, where did you find the cats? and how difficult is it in these situations? >> of course, crowley the cat was in the garage, up on high ground, but emotions are running so high right now. the saving grace in all of this is that they know that their houses destroyed, but if we can

recover their pets and their families are safe, i guess that is a saving grace in this natural disaster. >> all right, first i have to ask you, who did we rescue here? and how did you feel just moments ago when the sheriff came out with of the? >> we rescued up my cats, crowley, who has been in the family for 15 years, and we just rescued him, so i am glad that he is safe, and thank you to you all. >> crowley went missing once before, not because of a flood, but it does point to the importance of the cats, what happen question rick >> yes, he was missing for 25 days, my wife didn't want to talk to me, and once we got to the cats, made me so happy, so i am just glad that everything is fine right now. >> and i have to ask you, when you come back and do you look at

your home absolutely underwater, your vehicles underwater, i know you're happy to have carly, but what is it like to see this, what do you plan to do? >> you know, i am shocked, i still haven't had it sink in really, i am trying to control my emotions, just trying to catch the important things, but i am happy, i have a wife and three kids, and we were rescued by the national guard, and we are very safe at this point. i am glad that everyone is safe as well. >> well, there you go, we are doing power rescues, and this is a great spot for some of these home owners to get their pets back, which there are still the evacuations going on, we begin the day with the share of going in for a mother and four kids, but many of these neighborhoods, as we learn from the authorities, plan to be underwater in flood conditions for the next four to five weeks,

it and that is going to be a situation that is going to have to require officials like the sheriff here to go in and help them. conditions become more desperate. >> after the onset of that storm, the rescue of people and pets continues, thank you so much for your excellent work, be safe out there. >> we are at glad that crowley is okay. and if what we are going through is not enough, we are closely watching the gulf of mexico right now, you know that's a more rain could actually be on the way. we are alive at the weather center with more. >> you know, i am hoping upon hope that we don't have any more rain, obviously we have it record rainfall in the last seven days, with over 50 inches across texas and louisiana, the storm is almost done, we still have the potential for some tornadoes and rain, we could be seeing four to 8 inches in some area, mississippi, ohio, now

houston, as you can see, that dry weather is heading into monday, and then we are watching the gulf of mexico, both of the reliable computer models are showing something in the gulf of mexico, will it to be a depression? will it be a storm? we'll have to watch for it, yesterday, we had this potential system moving interest texas, today, it looks like mississippi, luisi, alabama, this is the time frame, so is obviously something that we have to pay attention to, it is peak season, and if we have an area of low pressure, it has the potential to bring heavy rainfall, so listen to your local weather, listen to your local officials, and we'll keep you posted here, by 11:00 it, this will be a hurricane, we are watching irma, because the official -- some of the models

are saying that it could be even greater or stronger than that, something we have to really watch for, this is a classic hurricane, and the european model -- this is both of the models where we see that cone of uncertainty, so gfs pushes it towards the east coast, perhaps curving us, we'll have to watch, if the other happens, this is a more dangerous situation because it is going to affect more people, dominican republic, cuba, and some of the gulf of mexico, not this weekend, but next weekend, so i'm just giving people a heads up, i don't want to scare people, but we are into peak season, eric and shannon, and i just want people to be prepared. >> eric: that is a lot to be prepared for, we will be watching. >> shannon: as harvey downgrades to a tropical depression, many towns are starting to deal with much larger problems, beaumont, texas, getting a huge look, why the recovery process just got that much tougher for them.

>> the shelter mission is the biggest battle that we have right now as well, obviously, we have had a tremendous number of assets to support the life-sustaining mission of shelters, shelters are never an ideal situation, we understand that, we are throwing everything that we cannot them.

>> shannon: special report to joins us, good morning. >> good morning. >> shannon: there are a lot of disagreements going on right no now, end. >> yeah, it is texas versus new jersey, a couple of things to point out, one is to point out that they have since been new jersey national guard to help in texas, he is also drizzling urging to vote for whatever comes out of hurricane harvey relief in that region, there are some hard feelings, it

is not just chris christie, there are others in the region, lawmakers who remember super storm sandy, almost every lawmaker voted against that to relieve bill, saying that it was -- senator cruz was the most vocal about it, saying that they did not need to the unrelated things, two-thirds of the bill was unrelated. an analysis by the congressional research office that shows that that just was not true, and that's most of the built in fact adults with disaster relief, emergency and, most of it, but others preparedness and showing up, other places that were hit by the super storm, so those are the facts, the back and forth in the politics, i think most people are aware of, congressman brady is saying let's deal with the situation on the ground now and it talked about the politics when we have to vote. >> shannon: well, and they may have to vote very soon, the present says that he expects it to move quickly, the people of

texas and louisiana get the help they need, there are no questions about this and what it may get attached to because there are so many difficult things that congress needs to get done, the debt ceiling, other funding, there seems to be a question about whether the g.o.p. would -- publicly have to explained that, to something else that would be a much more difficult vote. >> you are exactly right, i think it is very possible that it could be time for a debt ceiling increase, there are some real funding problems broadly about emergency relief, especially when it comes to flooding, the national flood insurance program, it is a federal assistance program, it is $23 billion in the hole, and that's bill comes due when the debt ceiling comes due in the middle of september, so it has real problems as far as our ability to pay for these big disasters and not incur a lot of dust, as you know, we are over 20 trillion as it stands right now. >> shannon: and all of the

south congress will come back next week to tackle numerous things, the president needs a big legislative win it, and feel at home, apparently not big fans, but it's the new low shows that congressional job performance is at 15%, with 74% saying that they disapprove, and that works across party lines. >> that's right, so the president is it cheering this, his approval rating, listen, you are right, congress does not get high ratings at all, if you ask people about to their congressman or their senator, most times the approval numbers are much higher, but congress overall, they are even worse than we are, journalist, and so the approval process is not good, they do you need ws, especially republicans, who are controlling this, expect sandy -- excuse me, harvey relief to sail through, and i doubt that there will be these big battles that we saw before.

>> shannon: well, speaking of people not being big fans of the media, what do you think is more of a threat in the u.s.? many said the media, white supremacist, and then others said that it was equal, so 40% of people think that the media is bad for america, but that is a very close number 247% for white supremacist, it is clear that's many of them have factually been unfair to the president, but that is a bad place to be. >> >> it is, there are some nums in that poll that just were shocking, is the president of tearing apart the country? 56%, but if you freeze that is the media tearing apart the country, i think that she would get even a higher percentage, listen, the bombardment of coverage, however you look at it, it is nonstop. and there is a sense, i think i come across the country, if you look at those numbers, that it is not a good thing,

bottom-line, the losers are congress, journalist, into the presence approval numbers are not that great in that full either, so we'll see how it goes, come tuesday, one congress comes back. >> shannon: it feels like if they can get done something on tax reform, one of those big pieces that they are coming after, that can really shift very quickly, people feel like nothing has gotten done in the months since they elected this presence in this congress. >> exactly, and i think that this will be a very big one, you will see the present go after these states, states where democrats are up for reelection, ten democrats up for reelection in 2018, in states that a trump won it, some of them by 82%, and expected traveling, tax reform, pushing the buttons like he did with claire in missouri the other day, and if they do get tax reform, that will be a big w. >> eric: it despite to the heart wrenching it does unser,

texas note cracking down, compliance now rolling in about a about businesses charging up to eight times more for essential goods, like a gas and even accommodations. man, texas attorney general will join us live on watch they are doing about that. the health issues could linger much longer, coming up, a breakdown of the potential risks that many texans are facing.

>> shannon: thousands of people have made it to shelters in the aftermath of harvey, but even there, not all the conditions are ideal, check this out, this is a photo where a gym is searching as a shelter house flooded, tom price is declaring a harvey a public health emergency, help save thousands of lives, and spoke with the secretary prays about the

looming health dangers, and they are real, doctor. >> absolutely, shannon, it is declaring a public health emergency, helping dr. to mobilize supplies that he believes will save many lives. the secretary's operation center is open 24/7, it is currently taking care, everything from hospitals to shelters to dialysis centers and whether they are open or close, only the third position to serve as the hhs secretary, and he told me that his medical skills are paramount in a triaging patients, whether it is only a few or thousands, as is the case now. >> as a physician, you know what's the springs, the element of just appreciating the individual patient, the individual is out there that needs assistance, and we use to take a call in early days, treat

one patient, one individual, who needed a physician, who needed expertise, care, compassion, and love, and that is what i try to bring to the table. >> the ute tool yet from the flood is to be determined, he is concerned from everything about injury and infection to mold, asthma, ptsd in the long term, he told me that it can take many years to rebuild the health care infrastructure here, in the meantime, hhs has a focus on keeping the medical supply lines open. >> the challenge in the storm, because of the incredible flooding that has occurred, is getting the resources to the individual, so the pharmaceutical supplies are available, making sure that we get it to the individual, the dialysis units are individual. >> he has heard these scenarios, helping in the past, to ensure a coordinated response, in order to help save victims of these

terms, one by one, force, there is a lot of work left to be done. >> shannon: a lot of strain on the medical system there, as you noted. thank you very much. >> thank you, shannon. >> eric: meanwhile, those looking to profit from the disaster are out there, looters face heavy penalties and jail time. more on that, the attorney general. state attorney general, welcome. >> thank you. you know, it is so heartless at this time to have people take advantage of victims, what type of cases are you seeing? >> so we have dealt with water, fuel, food, hotel rooms, a lot

of things that people need right now that are in crisis, and those are people focusing on the things that people need right now, they can't really live without, so that has been a focus of the last six or seven days. >> what type of penalties could they face? >> yeah, so with the legislators are taking this very seriously, they passed a law on implementing it, you can be fined up to $20,000 if you do this to someone 65 and older, you can be fined up to $250,000. so we are doing this seriously, when we get these complaints, we are getting pictures sent to us, people calling our hotline, when we get these complaints, we send out our law enforcement guys to go investigate this, now some of them in places that are shutdown right there, so we can get to them, but when they are back open, will be back there. >> so someone could actually take a picture on their iphone. >> absolutely. people are selling cases of water for $100, pictures of people charging $20 a gallon for gasoline, so it is very helpful, given that we have this technology, it has been greatly helpful to us in tracking it down. >> eric: i.c.e. subs for example that there have been fake federal agents, people coming to the house, claiming that they are from the federal authorities, then it they go rob

your house. >> yeah, it's horrible. how many great volunteers, hundreds of people risking their lives to save people, they are in desperate situations, we have had some of those incidents, and what i would tell people is that you should verify that you have the right documentation, do not leave your house, unless you are absolutely sure that you have the right people in front of yo you. >> eric: and there have been some very sporadic and rare cases of looting, about 40 people have been arrested, in other liquor store, where they grab liquor and the sort of thing, has the curfew help? >> i think it has, it is frustrating when you're trying to focus on saving lives and you have to deal with looters, it is extremely frustrating, but i don't think we have had that many instances of it, i think we might see more, as the water keeps coming, it is even hard for the leaders to get around, so they will have to deal more

with this as its goes on, the difference between looting and may be having to take an essential like food, just basic food during a hurricane, does law enforcement see any differentiation between that? between people trying to go in and take a tv sets of forces trying to food? >> they have to make these decisions, they have to make these decisions based on the fact of what they see, and someone just trying to get water or food to survive, that is a whole different deal and someone coming into your house to steal everything you have, most people have great minds, good discretion, they just need to think before they are us to someone getting what they need, i don't think you will have too much problem with law enforcement. >> eric: and finally, you made a great point, the extent of this damage, the horrendous scope of this catastrophe, frankly, we really do not have very many examples of this.

>> come texas, we get more natural disasters than any other state, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, this is nothing like we have ever seen though, this is really remarkable, and i do have to say that donald trump, and our governor, has done an amazing job, if you think about the number of lives that they have saved, the severity, we don't want to lose anybody, but it is amazing, the efforts in the court and is coordination. >> eric: sadly, there have been over 100 deaths, and you do have a point about that, this will continue. good to see you, i am sorry that it is under these circumstances, our hearts are with you in the people. >> keep saying your prayers. >> eric: we do. >> shannon: they are keeping up their rescue efforts around the clock and taxes, folks in a

nursing home getting pulled out of the mess, we are going to tell you how those folks are doing. >> eric: plus one at texas lawmaker has been stranded right in his home, we'll talk to you congressman about how he and his family are now holding up.

>> shannon: earlier this hour, we had an update from the arkema plant, where chemicals are actually produced, organic pesticides, and peroxides, and what we are told is that it is a bit of a crisis situation in that these chemicals and the preparation materials need to stay refrigerated, and the company did everything they could with backup, backup backup generators, all of those things that they could do to keep it refrigerated, that has sadly because of the flooded -- all of them have been disabled, and that's means that there has been a fire, they are warning people to stay away, there is a mile and and a half restricted area around this, and there are other

containers there that could be in jeopardy as well, we'll keep an eye on that as that continues to unfold, and by the way, congressman o'brien lives in that area, he was rescued yesterday from his home, he will be joining us by phone, congressman, thank you so much for your time. >> absolutely, let me clarify something, i was not rescued, okay? yeah, i was doing an interview with cnn, they said what do you see? i said lots of water, and as soon as it receives, i will be able to get out, and that is exactly what happened, we had a little respite from the rain, i was able to get out, my county in my emergency folks, so it was not an emergency rescue, there was no life-threatening situation at all, we had folks across the district dealing with a lot worse, i can promise you

that. >> shannon: well, we are glad that you are safe and sound, you mentioned that they are so many others who are in life-and-death situations, who may have lost everything, have you been getting out and talking to folks, what have you been seeing? how are things going? >> you mentioned the situation down in crosby, and we have been in contact with the company, the officials, and what i would say there is that it is just easy advice of our harris county emergency response, who are closely monitoring the situation, but texas 36 -- the entire district, all nine counties, have had up to 24 to 50 inches of rain over every square inch. it is like a vast lake from houston all the way to louisian louisiana. and it is densely populated by people of all walks of life, all socioeconomic situations, and

most of these folks have seen hurricanes before, but most of these people have never seen one like this before, we have never seen anything like this, i was born and raised in this district, shanna, and i have seen a lot of hurricanes, going back to the 1950s, and i have never seen one like harvey. so we have a lot of work ahead of us, i can't be more proud of our first responders, or volunteers, from louisiana and other states, just some great people who have come over to help us, and we now have an enormous job of cleaning up and rebuilding. >> shannon: yeah, and congressman, it has been an incredible show to the world, the way that people have stepped up and helped, complete strangers, young and old, as you said every background, people are out there helping to rescue and being rescued, it is a beautiful thing to see in the midst of all of these ugly devastating images that have been filling our screens all

week long. where do you even begin? i know that you will have to wait for these waters to receive, part of this is just natural things that have to happen, but how can you and others begin to help folks rebuild? >> well, that is a great question, my staff, most of them here in the districts it, it is flooded, and we have been working around the clock locally and on a federal level, to try to get reinforcements in. we are going to have it for of our staff come down and spread them around, these four counties, and i have spoken with top white house officials, about the budget, as well as our own house leaders, i just spoke with senator ted cruz just a few minutes ago about the federal response that is going to be necessary, and the magnitude, the absolute magnitude of what

we are seeing on the ground across this district, and in fact, from corpus christi all the way to lake charles, louisiana, it has just been an enormous geographical area, and huge population center, it is absolutely the most expensive and devastating weather events i think in american history. >> shannon: we look at these images, we are just getting little bits and pieces of what you describe, a geographic area that it is tough to comprehend when he talked about the fact that it has turned into basically agree lake of its own down there, and there are people who have been using social media to get help and it to connect and help with other people, what does it say to you to see these folks out there? i have a friend who described them as taking their both out coming back banged up and

bruised, it has to be encouraging to see people coming to help and saying i will take my boat out, i will get my pickup as close to that water as i can, i'll save any person who i can. >> that is exactly right, there are incredible stories, great things going on right here, i can sit here and name names of people who got their boats, made their way down through impassable roads, and we had some -- we had some fatalities down here as well, and our hearts go out to these people, we had electrical waters, rising water, just as i said, our district is a vast lake, dogged by at small islands of refugees. minute by minute, they become densely populated by people. and it is just going to be --

this is new territory, shannon, and we are going to dig out -- the people of texas are tough and resilient, we pulled together, and as you said, the ugly pictures are now going to be replaced by folks who are rebuilding, and that is going to take months and maybe even years, but we are going to do that. and i am sure that the country -- i just had a conversation with one of my fellows from kansas, he said that gas prices are already up by $0.25, and with the chemical facilities down here, they suspended operations. we are going to see this. right now, we are trying to alleviate human suffering and rebuild. >> shannon: will, in the process, the country is grieving along with you, so inspired by what we are seeing in texas and

louisiana. thank you so much, we wish you the best. >> thank you so much for covering this in an excellent way, and to just keep prayers coming. >> shannon: will do, we have to go. more in just a minute. do. even love it. and today, you can do things you never could before. ♪ ♪ you're developing ai applications on the cloud. finding insights hidden in decades of medical documents. and securing millions of iot sensors. so get back to it. and do the best work of your life. ♪ ♪

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>> eric: the confederate statue controversy is now extending into other areas, voting almost unanimously to dump columbus day as a holiday, declaring instead of that day as indigenous peoples day, joining a growing list of u.s. cities that have done the same. we are in los angeles with an update on this. >> once revered, the l.a. city council for trade columbus as a

mass murderer, fdr first name to the second monday in october as columbus day in 1937, it became a federal holiday in 1971, l.a. is now the largest city in the u.s. to -- native americans who consider him a killer, dropping columbus day to cleansing the south of confederate symbols of oppression. >> we will no longer stand for indigenous -- celebrating someone who is responsible for setting in motion the greatest genocide and world history. >> i think the offense and charlottesville have shown us how much we need racial healing in this country, and racial healing will not happen in this country without native american people. >> columbus sailed for spain, italian-americans it say that columbus represents achievements

of a man who brought arts and sciences to the new world, the new holiday simply substitute the one history for another. >> how can we on one hand support and the dignity and human rights of people while on the other hand replace one groups and social inclusiveness for the sake of another? >> eric: is so about a dozen cities in five states have now replaced columbus day with indigenous peoples day, yesterday, the statue of columbus was beheaded in new york at the mayor renounces all hates. shannon. >> shannon: still in high gear in southeast texas, keeping an eye on the chemical plant as well, it assented deputies to the hospital and force more evacuations, we are live in texas straight ahead.

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>> eric: our fox news continuing coverage of harvey continues. >> shannon: that's right, we'll keep an eye on a chemical plant. in the meantime, speech when one right now. >> leland: a fox news alert. more on the chemical plant in just a minute as harvey is moving on heading north and east, but the misery is far from over in the gulf states. at this hour, rescue efforts are akin to weighing net only in houston, but in east texas as well. welcome to "happening now," i'm leland vittert and for jon scott. >> molly: i'm molly line. harvey is being downgraded to a tropical depression. a chemical plant in the houston area lost power during the flooding. initially, it was reported as explosions, but now it's being called a chemical reaction that resulted in a fire and there could be more. although the plan produced no toxins, the feds are describing the resulting