freedom business block. so glad you were with us. i'll see you weekdays on fbn, me and cheryl casone. thanks again. leland: 11 a.m. in houston, texas, live pictures of the tarmac where air force one will arrive in the next couple of minutes. president trump and the first lady on board, along with the cabinet secretary there for the president's second trip to areas devastated by the storm. we're going to go along as the president and first lady connect and comfort the victims that have lost everything in harvey. elizabeth: and water may be receding in parts of texas. families are just returning home and they're finding complete destruction. >> it was like, the moment was scary, the water was really coming really fast and it was like nonstop.

leland: but thousands are still in shelters as dozens of towns and much of houston remain underwater. in some places the water is still rising. the president now asking for billions of dollars more in federal aid. we're going to get an update on fema's efforts and hear from some ordinary americans doing extraordinary things. ♪ boy, if there's been anything to take away from this week, it is how americans, specifically texans, rise to the occasion. it's been incredible. welcome to america's news headquarters from washington, i'm leland vittert. elizabeth: i'm elizabeth prann. thanks for joining us on a busy saturday. leland: we are awaiting president trump and first lady melania trump's arrival in houston. they're a little behind schedule. we hear air force one might make it up in the air live to

ellington field as it happens in southeast houston. they should arrive sometime in this hour. and peter doocy with the astrodome behind him. you covered the first visit by president trump to corpus christi a couple of days ago. how is this one different? >> it's different because the second president trump trip comes a day after his budget director made an almost $8 billion request to congress for harvey relief money, the way they're laying it out, most of that would go to fema and some to small business loans and they want it by the end of this month so services are not interrupted if the debt limit is not raised. today some people who are going to most need that federal help will meet with the president and first lady for the first time since their lives were disrupted by the historic storm. >> the president will be back in texas tomorrow to visit with storm survivors and it will them personally that the federal government is here to help in

any way that we can. >> the first lady is going to be making this second trip to the impact zone today. she sat beside the president at briefings with emergency management officials on tuesday and says that this visit is going to be different because it will be a chance to tell victims that the federal government will not forget about this disaster once air force one leaves the lonestar state. >> i want to thank all the volunteers, all across the country that have came to help, to texas. we're going tomorrow to visit them and i just want to tell them to be strong and everything will be okay. >> we had a chance yesterday to see some of the hardest hit areas from above in a blackhawk. and some areas near port arthur and beaumont are still inaccessible due to high water. and others are evacuated because

water needs to be released from dams, and the mayor pleading with people who have water in their home to evacuate because they will not have power in their homes for work. this is an active emergency situation and that's what the president is going to be seeing and hearing about shortly. leland. leland: all right. peter doocy. back to you throughout the next couple of hours. we hear the president is just about now 15 minutes away from touchdown. peter, thank you. elizabeth has more. elizabeth: well, as some people get the all-clear to return home to parts of southeast texas, thousands of harvey victims are trying to figure out their next move in shelters. the largest of bring the george r brown convention center in houston. joining us live in robert jackson, senior public affairs at houston first and he manages that facility. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you, elizabeth. good to be with you. elizabeth: first and foremost, it's hard for some of our viewers to believe because they've been following the coverage now for the better half of a week, but the fact of the

matter is, some people are not able to go home at all. is it true that a lot of these centers are still at full capacity? >> no, we have capacity at the george r brown, but right now, all evacuees and people requiring shelters are directed to the nrg center. elizabeth: so what are your resources like? >> we're going to house everyone. elizabeth: i know that no one's getting turned away, but what type of resources do you have and also other centers? what resources do you all have? >> right, well, the response in houston has been just overwhelming. extraordinary times require an extraordinary response and that's what houstonions do, they step up. saw it during ike, during alison, saw it during katrina and you're seeing it now. what really drives the relief effort has been the response in terms of donations and volunteers. in terms of material, food, clothing, water, diapers, we're

well stocked at the george r brown center. what we need people to do, log in and monetary donations we need to power the relief effort. elizabeth: you said houstonrecovery.org, we'll put that up on the screen. >> houston-- sorry, houstonrecovers.org. i want to be clear, houst houstonrecovers.org, with an s. elizabeth: what for helping the folks, they cannot go into their homes, what's next for them? >> when we opened the shelter, we got short notices when it rained all night saturday night and on sunday we got notice, standing by and we got notice that the shelter would open, the mayor announced it and people started arriving all within about one hour. and the numbers rose dramatically from that point to over 10,000 people.

now, since the storms have abated, the people have been flowing out, doing kind of what we call self-resolving, which means being picked up and moving in with friends and family members in the area, so that 10,000 has dropped down to about 1400 today. now, we have an ongoing effort. the number one focus is for the city of housing housing department working with fema and red cross and others to find either short-term housing solutions for those folks now or many of them were trying to move from the george r brown to sustainable long-term housing arrangement, in most cases that's apartment buildings. elizabeth: and what would you say when we talk about comparisons to katrina and other disasters, what would you say is the biggest take away, as far as what you learned from those horrible disasters to make this as seamless as possible. there were families who had pets, there were single mothers, there were people that were just alone by themselves. i mean, there's so many different sets of people. how did you separate them and

keep it seamless and organized? >> that's a great question. we have learned a lot from the big storms in the past. at the george r brown convention center we set up what people call a small city. we have five halls and we were able to divide it up into a feeding area, a medical area, essentially entirely mobile hospital. they can handle all, but the most life threatening injuries and conditions here. from there, we also have many feeding and dining area, dormitory, and the far end we have a large service provision area, anything from legal services, immigration questions, locating loved ones. we have a children's play area, we have a separate area for our neighbors who have pets who were able to be rescued with them. so, we have those folks separated into an area where their pets can run around in a contained area and not have to be crated for the entire time.

we have a post office on site. any facility or service we need we've been trying to provide. elizabeth: a city within a city. robert jackson thank you for your hard work keeping families comfortable and safe during this very daunting time, sir. thank you for joining us. >> i appreciate that very much. if i can tell you, just like in the word of our mayor, houston is resilient, we're resolved, we'll rebuild and be back bigger and better than ever. elizabeth: furry friends from the gulf coast are calling the nation's capital home. dogs and cats will be placed in local shelters, of course examined by veterinarians and evaluated for adoption. they were removed from a gulf coast shelter to make room for more evacuated families. the trip is being funded by the greater good.org and wings of rescue. this looks like live pictures

now. m man-- manassas is close to dulles airport. we're not the only city receiving pets from the devastated area, but you know, there's a lot of eager families out there right now and i will tell you that there are eager pets to match them. leland: on that note, your husband called recently. elizabeth: yes. leland: i think he said that he'd love if you brought home a harvey pet. elizabeth: i think he would, too. we'll work on that and keep you posted. of course, we're waiting for the president to be arriving in ellington field southeast of houston. so we're waiting for the president. leland: right there. president-- governor abbott coming out. and you've seen governor abbott sort of around the clock. elizabeth: right. leland: it's unclear the last time he slept since last friday when the storm began, but he met president trump and was with him on tuesday, down in corpus

christi and also with the vice-president and declared tomorrow a national day of prayer by the president and also by the texas governor there. to see, perhaps, if he comes up to the cameras. in the past, sometimes he's been willing to give a quick interview. if he talks to anybody, we'll go back live and hear what the governor has to say and the governor has given the president, so far, an a-plus on this one, so-- >> and this isn't obviously his first visit to texas. we watched him visit corpus christi on tuesday. some people wanted him to meet with survivors and get a little closser to the disaster area, which was impossible to do on tuesday as folks were still getting evacuated from their homes at that point. now, this is an opportunity for the president to meet some of those survivors and show more empathy. every purpose has its own visit and that was one of the goals that we talked about as the president made the trip not only to texas, but he'll also be visiting with some folks in louisiana today. it's going to be a busy day for him and he should be arriving in the next few minutes. leland: you'll see the national

guard deployment down in lake charles, louisiana and thank them. the military has stepped in to help in so many different ways. you've got the air force and marines and the national guard. as of now, more than 100 military helicopters have been flying missions. so far they've rescued more than 16,000 people, and as we saw, hundreds of pets. two navy ships are headed to the coast to assist. the department of defense has supplied more than 20 million meals to victims and they're currently about 3500 guard troops on the ground. more could be called up and the president is going to go meet with some of the folks who are there and ready to thank them as soon as he gets to houston. elizabeth: all right, other news we've been following, an explosion that rocked a chemical plant near houston. officials warn there could be more. we'll take a look at the video, this is a plant in crosby, texas where two more trailers caught fire yesterday. flood waters knocking out the plant's cooling system causing the stored chemicals to heat up

to grade, and of course, catch fire. the company warning the remaining six trailers could catch fire. that area has been evacuated and they are continuing investigations into that plant. leland: yeah, and there's a lot of other infrastructure in houston that they are very worried about in the coming days and weeks. in some places in texas, the flood waters continue to rise. evacuations continue. in other places, people realize they do not have a house to come home to as the waters have receded. the common thread, thousands of volunteers ready to help. rick leventhal on the ground in vidor, texas. >> leland, the water is slowly receding here. we want a quick look at main street downtown where it's flooded. many neighbors are still isolated by flood waters. there's patches of dry payment

and more flooding and dry pavement and flooding. they're driving boats through the flood waters to get to the areas and rescue two to three people an hour, it's slowed down, but they're bringing in supplies to people who didn't want to leave their homes and have run out of food and water a week after the storm hit. we want to give you a look around here in a grocery store parking lot where a massive relief operation has been set up. air national guard is behind us, where they're checking in the folks rescued and brought here for help and they're getting plenty of help here. you see this is a medical triage area, a lot of volunteers coming from out of state, nurses, paramedics, first responders, treating anyone with medical issues, and right here is the food distribution test. they're cooking hot food and told me yesterday they served roughly 7,000 meals throughout the day to everyone and anyone who was hungry. first responders, military, police officers, residents, and anybody who was here helping out, the volunteers who needed

to eat a hot meal they would give it to them here. the market basket food store is actually open today, but there's a line out front. they're letting people in one at a time or families in one at a time. a police officer is a the door to make sure there were no issues, apparently there were some before they had the police officer. that store is running on a generator, i'm told and other members of the cajun navy coming out to assist and they're continuing to go into the neighborhood to pull people out as needed all coordinated by cajun navy and other volunteers and you see the state police and others here trying to manage this massive relief effort. i do want to point out that while all of this has been handled by volunteers for the last 48 hours here in vidor and given out a lot of food and water, the guy running this operation told me they really need generators and they also need ice. not sure if it can get here because the highways are still

pretty bad, but they need generators and they need ice in vidor. i was just handed this by the national guard. they have two distribution set up in orange right now and they've activated a third here in vidor to the middle school, 2500 highway 12 in vidor, texas. they don't have ice, but they have water and mre's for the folks who need it. a massive operation. where you see the inflatable boats, that's main street. to the right, down that road is where the flood waters are. and that's where you see that state police m-wrap, the military vehicle headed in that direction. the high water vehicles can get through. pickup trucks can only get so far and that's when they put the boats in the water and we found out yesterday-- >> rick, we have to cut you off, rick. we'll get back to you. we appreciate you being with us in vidor, texas, north of beaumont and pretty far east, a couple hundred miles east or so of houston where we're seeing

the president touch down and air force one landing at ellington field. you see governor abbott ready to meet him and you see some of the helicopters in the shot helping with these rescues. not only helping with the rescues we see on the winchs, but helping them with the hospitals that shut down. they're using heavy lift to bring in water and trade in and out first responder crews and it's amazing the resources brought to bear and rick talked about that in the past week, the resources bra ut-- brought to bear and praise for president trump and his administration how they've answered the call from houston and governor abbott from texas. elizabeth: this is why the president is here today. we talked a lot about his visit on tuesday to corpus christi and meeting with officials, but he wasn't able to get the close-- firsthand look like he's able to get now and he wasn't able to meet some men and women perhaps not slept for days on end and

see resources brought in and what amazing work has been done. this is an opportunity to capitalize on that, for him to get a humbling look at some of the work that's been done. we saw governor abbott on the tarmac there as they wait for the first lady and also the president to arrive there, in however. if i'm not mistaken, they'll head to hurricane relief center where he can see how the emergency response team handled it from the beginning when they saw the storm hit as a cat 4 and they saw there was going to be so much rain and devastation he's going to be able to see exactly what happened. so it's a really neat opportunity for him. leland: the president of course is the commander-in-chief and often said at times like this, he is the comforter in chief. and often times, in president's time in office, whether it be four years or eight years, some of the defining moments are after real national tragedies, whether it be good or bad. we saw for president trump how katrina was such a defining moment in a not so great way, and we also saw for president

bush how the response after 9/11 was a defining moment in a great way. think about president reagan after the moment of the challenger explosion. this is when america looks to their president to be president. and so far, universally, high praise not only from officials on the ground in texas, but across the country, for how the president has handled this, and he's uniquely qualified how this is coming together, something right in the president's wheelhouse, not only because from his time in construction as a builder, but plays to the role after strong executive when he tells the head of fema to do something, they do it. he doesn't need to talk to congress. when he talks to the national guard or military to do something, they do it. you saw him bring in so many of his cabinet secretaries as well as, he's travelling with him, everyone from ben carson is travelling with him and we saw rick perry, secretary of energy down there as well. bring in brad blakeman, ferm--

former counsellor to george w. bush, and somebody who organized so many of these kinds of trips. brad, as they're putting this trip together, priority number one, do no harm. don't take away resources from the first responders, go down the list after that. >> well, the first thing you have to do is make sure that you're coordinating with state and local officials. you're not getting in the way, you're not taking resources away and also, you're meeting people, hearing their stories. there's no substitution for the president looking victims in the eye and not only hearing what is going well and what is needed for the people. what do you need, when do you need it and how can we help? the president needs to have an ear and listen and importantly, take that back and internalize it, how can the federal government help. i think the president as response last week and this week could not have been better. s' letting the local and state

officials dictate to the president what he needs, and how best to serve them. elizabeth: right. >> the federal government is a backstop to the state and local officials who know their population best. elizabeth: as you're watching, governor abbott is approaching air force one taking the hands of local officials on the ground and we're waiting for the president to be taken off air force one. i want to know about the dynamics. what is the president doing right? when we talk about him coming on tuesday, there was criticism he wasn't able to to meet with first responders, and people wanted him closer to the disaster zone. but there's a question of what's appropriate and not stepping on local officials. what does the president have to do today? >> he has to meet with victims and look at what's going on at the recovery centers and centers, hear the stories of people affected by this and then he's got to make sure that the

influence of the president with his cabinet and military comes to bear on things needed for the people to recover. he also has to manage expectations. the greatest achilles heels with politicians when they overpromise and underdeliver. in this case, they have to underprim and overdeliver for the people. manage expectations and understand what exactly the federal government can do and let the people know when the president leaves, the federal government stays. we are going to be in this for the long haul and it's going to take time in order to have a full recovery. could take as much as a decade, but the government is not going to leave. the president's going to be back and his cabinet is going to be there and anything that the local and state government needs, they're going to get from the federal government. we're going to spare no expense to make sure that the money is appropriated so that the people of texas, the people of louisiana, are going to be well taken care of as they should be. >> when you talk about, i know you had a piece about the role of government to prevent harm and not merely just to respond,

but to empower them. is that also what the president is doing today, empowering those on the ground as they take the next chapter in this disaster? >> no doubt about it. we have to make sure that the state and local officials are the ones in charge because they know their populations best and they're elected at the local level in order to care for their populations. after katrina we learned valuable lessons to pre-position supplies in the areas most likely to be affected by natural disasters. leland: for a second for our viewers just joining us. you're looking at live pictures. ellington field just southeast of houston. president trump, along with the first lady, landing there bringing with him a large contingent of his cabinet and other government officials with him to come to houston. they're going to head over it a hurricane relief center, and then head, wills, to lake charles, louisiana to meet with the national guard. the optics of this are important. the president arriving, brad, you know this as somebody who has planned these visits, not

using the big formal stairs the president normally walks down. these are stairs built in to air force one and we saw when he visited corpus christi, a pretty lean approach to the president's footprint as he moved around. this time we're told he's going to do exactly what you said, brad, which is go meet with a number of the victims, and people who survived hurricane harvey, who lost so much. some who are still in shelters, going to receive food, and assistance at this hurricane evacuation center and then also volunteers that we've heard so much about who have showed up there in texas to help. you made a good point about, brad, in terms of how the federal government needs to make it known, not only are they going to be there today, but also, as time goes on, and we as a country move on, the folks down there who have lost so much will not move on, and we're

hearing the same line over and over from president trump and from the vice-president who made a visit to corpus christi and rockport on thursday, which is, as we're with you today, we will be with you tomorrow and we will be with you until this is over. brad, to you, where does the rubber meet the road on that? what are the first deliverables? obviously, the initial response has been very good. what are the deliverables now that we're going to watch as president trump comes off air force one? >> we have to make sure that people are getting the assistance they deserve. fema's got to step up, relocate these people in housing, create an environment by which their life has minimal amount of disruption, their kids still have to be educated. they have to have a place to live that's home, and this is the priority of government, is to make sure that we restore some normalcy to their lives that have been turned upsidedown. then we have to go the next step and looking down the road and

make sure that we can return the communities themselves to habitability. so, the president has to have a team. he already has. but he also has to have margins of success as we go down the timeline to full recovery. this is going to be throughout his entire first term. s' going to have to come back multiple times to these areas to take stock? what exactly has been done and measure the success of what was promised to what was delivered. leland: just worth noting. the people responsible for delivering some of that are people walking off the stairs. we saw ben carson travelling with the president and the president has at least made, sort of his first entree into requesting help for everybody, 14.55 billion dollars in an emergency funding request to ensure that the federal agencies can ten with the harvey response, that heads to congress. that's one of the things that congress is going to have to deal with. they come back into session next

week. brad, you hate to make this political in any way, but it is political. these trips by the president down here and showcasing this plight, he takes ownership of the response, but at the same time he says to congress, if you don't deliver on this funding, it's on you, not on me. >> look, good government requires good decisions, and the president is taking a leadership role. that's what presidents do. congress now has to step up to the plate. it's not the amount of money that's appropriated it's the amount of money spent properly. you're going to see tranches so we make sure every buck is accounted for and every buck is well-spent. this is probably going to be a continuing appropriation, as needed. and we're going to have to make sure that congress opens up the wallet and the generosity of the american people throughout the country, to make sure that we're taking care of our fellow americans in texas and

louisiana. elizabeth: we obviously all remember what happened after super storm sandy and we heard a lot from governor chris christie this week, he was critical saying we should not repeat what happened and should handle it differently. what being said, what can the president do to prevent that from happening again. obviously there will be times where it's polarized and we'll see it get politicized like leland had said. what can he do in the next coming weeks to revent that? >> he can lead and he can call in the leadership of congress, and make sure that this is a clean bill, a disaster bill. the sandy bill was chockful of nongermane amendments. we've got to stop that. look, we don't need to bribe congressmen and women to take care of their fellow americans by giving them something for their vote. that's an outrage. we should come together on a clean bill and make sure that there's enough money that can be absorbed into the economies of texas and louisiana for the people's needs as they exist.

and forget about telling them what can i get for my vote? that's just unacceptable. elizabeth: right, well, we're taking a live look, we're seeing president trump getting into the back of an suv and melania travelling with him. they're going to a hurricane relief center and the president will meet with victims of the storm. he's got a lot on his plate when he heads back to washington and this is adding one more thing. congress is coming back to work on tuesday. do you think that this is going to be sort of a seamless transition for them when they come back? congress has so much on their plates, but that being said this really adds to it. is this going to be a difficult task for them? >> well, perhapsing this going to be more incentive for people to work together. the american people want their government to be responsive. and they want their government to honor the promises that they made as politicians. and there's a lot on the plate, there's no doubt about it. there's the debt ceiling and the budget to contend with at the end of the fiscal year, we also

have to deal with taxes and immigration and health care, so, you know, this is a time for americans to not only come together, but also to challenge their elected officials to start delivering for us. >> right. >> and we're now watching the motorcade with president trump and the first lady head off the field there at ellington field in houston. there with him, the governor of texas among others now headed off to this hurricane evaluation center. we're not exactly clear which one it is. this trip planned very quickly, and as brad will tell you, these things sort of come together at the last minute. brad planned a lot of these trips. so, you're watching pictures from the tarmac. travelling with the president is the press pool, which is a small group of tv cameras, that travel within the bubble, if you will. so inside the motorcade. and we're hoping to get from them live pictures as the

president makes his way through that center and meets with some of these folks. we don't expect any really formal remarks from the president. but often times as we've seen the past couple of days, the president will stop and have a small talk. we've seen him in corpus christi, make remarks to citizens affected. so the motorcade is headed off from ellington field being back live into houston when the president arrives. no word who he's meeting with, liz, down there as we thank brad for his insight and expertise. we'll ask you to stand by the next couple of hours, we're going need a little more of your thoughts. you brought up the meeting with the texas delegation and the texas senators, the representatives, and also those with him, secretary ben carson, secretary devos of education, a question how kids are going back to school and how to deal with

that in texas. secretary shelton, elaine duch, -- elaine duch, and brock is going to need a long, long nap the next couple of days, working extraordinary hours and gotten extraordinary reviews for his work. as you see the motorcade roll off. you brought up the super storm sandy issue and whether it's going to be politicized. among the folks that the president is going to meets with is john cornen and ted cruz, especially senator cruz during super storm sandy had a different tune into big relief packages and now he's leading the charge. elizabeth: there are a lot of questions as lawmakers head back. we have the debt ceiling, like you said, could aid be attached it a debt ceiling. that's something that people are talking about and predicting.

as a lawmaker do you let the government default or do you sort of take the helm and help out fellow americans and making sure that we don't surpass the debt limit. it's going to be a pretty interesting week in washington to say the least. leland: every congressman we've had on over the past week. elizabeth: right. leland: whether from texas or from alaska or any other state, i'm not sure we had anybody from alaska, but no matter what state they were from, they said our thoughts and prayers are with the people of texas and houston. the question is will their votes as well? how long does this coming together of america last? we've heard from a lot of congressmen that it's going to last at least through passing through the initial bill to provide relief to hurricane harvey. the other issue, and we heard this over the past week, it's hard to tell how much money you need in this situation because the damage and the extent of the damage and how much it's going to cost to clean up is still far

from known. elizabeth: well, as you know, hurricane harvey shut down at least ten major refineries in the gulf coast, causing fears of fuel supply shortage across the country. leland: big gas lines. elizabeth: gas prices jumped for one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. will carr is tracking it from los angeles. hi, will. >> hey there, liz. if you're travelling this holiday weekend you'll certainly notice that surging gas prices with a direct link to hurricane harvey. according to triple-a, the average price for a gallon of gas today is $2.59. that's a 23 cent increase from this point last week and that spike resulting from refineries from the texas and louisiana coast shut down and that put a panic across the country. drivers rushing to dallas to stations and running out of gas not because there was a

shortage, but because so many swamped the station in a short time. the drivers across the country are saying they're taking the prices in stride and especially with everything that texas is continuing to go through. >> hopefully there will be mechanisms in place to not let it get wildly out of control, but i expect to see a couple-- an up-tick in that. >> when the supply goes down and demand stays the same then prices are going to go up. i totally get it. >> the colonial pipeline which carries around 40% of the south gas has been forced to close down sections, as it's continuing to be inspected. as the department of energy is releasing at least half a million barrels from its strategic reserve, but add it all up and drivers across the country can expect to see gas prices continue to go up three to five cents per day for at least the next week, liz. elizabeth: will carr reporting live. thank you so much.

>> and check out these videos. everything is bigger in texas, including the trucks. monster truck owners have sprung into action to help carry out their own rescues in cities swamped by flood waters. there has been a fleet of these massive trucks converging on houston and the surrounding area, getting to places where even some emergency vehicles could not go, and depending how this video was cut, you're going to see some of the monster trucks actually pull military vehicles out of the water once they got stuck. to give you a sense how widespread the destruction is in texas, we just heard from the pool producer who was on air force one as it descended there into houston, and she said at 10,000 feet up as they flew in, they could already begin to see the flooding that had overtaken houston. so, some incredible-- >> square miles.

leland: distance that the waters covered. the president is going to meet, when he heads to the national guard armory in louisiana, he's going to talk to a lot of people who came to volunteer, the cajun navy who brought in their boats, the bass boats able to flood into the area and go around and then you might think that you'd like to say something to the monster truck folks as well as. elizabeth: there's a point when he goes to louisiana not only meeting with members of the louisiana delegation and officials there with the national guard, but made a big point to say he's going to be meeting with the cajun navy. so, certainly all hands on deck and there's a lot of attention to the civilian heroes as well. and we all know texas and louisiana are still reeling from harvey, but another powerful storm is strengthening in the atlantic. you may not want to hear this. and tracking hurricane irma's

pattern. adam, i know it's early and we may not see the impact for a week or so. >> irma, you're right, it's a week away. i want to begin quickly with remnants of harvey. here is what we're looking at. the rain in the mid atlantic, if you're in one of the spots, that's the remnants of harvey continuing to rain on you. from the ohio stretching up to the mid atlantic and seeing the rain here overnight tonight running into tomorrow. the next big system, you nailed it on the head, this is hurricane irma that's all the way out in the ocean. this is running you way out into the atlantic. the wind are at 110 miles per hour this far out doesn't typically happen. there you can see the eyewall spinning. this is a big, big storm right now, continuing to see some move. here is our radar as it moves this way across the ocean. as we've said, this one is a long way out. here is a cone of uncertainty.

it's picking up a category 3 and eventually a category 4. as this spreads out those are possible paths it could take. it's a long ways out. it's tough to know tell where it's going to go. it's running to san juan. if you're on the lower end of the track or upper, it could turn back into the ocean. there's the track that's going to strengthen up to a category 3, up to category 4. if we take the lower end of this, perhaps we could run into portions of florida or georgia in the carolinas. if you take the upper end of the path, we could turn it right back out to sea and then never even see irma. that would be the best case scenario. see the surface temperatures and this is going to strengthen and they're into the mid 90's and that's going to make a very powerful storm, liz. elizabeth: we can hope, adam, hope that it can take that hook and avoid us altogether? >> fingers crossed.

yes. elizabeth: thank you. leland. leland: our coverage continues. video there of the president and the first lady arriving in texas, as they take a look at the hardest hit areas. they'll meet with some of the victims of the hurricane. and the first lady showing off texas pride on her green hat there, texas. we'll see if she changes her hat as she heads to louisiana later in the day and also this. the brazos river is cresting and in some places the water is rising forcing more dangerous rescues a week after this storm came ashore. griff jenkins, yeoman's work. his work continues as he's on the river with the fort bend county sheriff. hi, griff. >> a lot of work to be done here, leland. i'm with sheriff troy as he delivers cattle feed to stranded rural areas. we'll have that when we come back. ♪

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>> hard to imagine it's been a week since harvey slammed into texas, but the waters in some places continue to rise as do the rescues. and as does the work of our own griff jenkins who has been on the ground in the past week and done some incredible week as he is been out with the rescuers. he's been in fort bend county deputies and the sheriff himself right now. what are you doing, griff? you're now patrolling and dealing with livestock? >> that's right, we're here in booth, a rural part of the county with the sheriff, he's delivering cattle feed, a large cattle farmer, isolated by waters. sheriff, first, what are you doing here? >> well, we have many cattle ranchers outside of the booth area and obviously, this water has come from the brazos river. so some of the ranchers reached out and said some of our cattle

is on high ground and we have no way to get them food. if they don't have food for three days, it's over. we're getting food to them so they can survive. >> leland, the rest of america wants to know, the president landed and maybe he should come out with us. the secret service didn't put him on this boat. why should he be out here. >> it's my understanding he's in texas and appreciate the fact that he's here and meeting with our state and federal officials here, but to have the president here in fort bend county to reassure the flood victims in fort bend county not just to hear the talk and the federal bureaucracy that comes with federal government, but coming here and saying i'm going to eliminate some of this bureaucracy and red tape. i think it would be reassuring for the residents of fort bend county that has lost everything

because this is trying times for them all. >> leland. leland: griff, i want it -- i want to take a couple of minutes first to thank the sheriff for hours of work and days and days of rescue. in addition to what you want to hear from the president, sheriff, what do you specifically need? we've talked about what the urban and suburban folks need. what do folks out in the rural parts of texas who have been affected, what do you guys need? >> we've had so much support here from our state and federal authorities. and we have the border pralle he rushing to support the fort bend county. it's emotional and they'll be home for the next several days and understand that their--

they're here and having the president here in the county to look them in the eyeballs to say we are here to help eliminate some of the red tape and get with my cabinet members and do everything i can to get you back into your home. >> and that's certainly a presidential visit means a lot to everybody and we're hearing that from folks down there who he's just about headed to. sheriff, you've mentioned so many people who have come in to texas to help, so many who have come in with their boats and put their own lives on the line to help you and deputies rescue folks. at the same time there have been looters who have come in and want to take advantage to the situation. your message to them? >> we have had-- we've heard of looting around the greater houston area, specifically harris county, and as far as fort bend county, we haven't. i made a comment the other day that we support the second amendment here in fort bend county and there are many of us that are armed. i would caution those that want

to come and prey on our people here in fort bend county, not to come to the county because you could leave the county in a bag. leland: i think that's a pretty clear warning. sheriff. didn't mince words there. the houston police chief warned folks they're going to jail for long time. this is a step up, you might say. if the president can't visit, and understandably, he can't visit everywhere, what do you all need in terms of resources from the federal government that you don't have or that you're doing pretty well. has the federal government given you everything you need to help folks who, as you point out, are in such desperate need? >> fort bend county is doing so well. i've received so many phone calls from the area churches and civic organizations that are willing to offer their homes or showers and warm towels and

blankets. the food and restaurant around, the grocery stoshs, they're doing quite well and they're able to feed the flood victims within fort bend county. the challenge ahead now is the recovery effort for the next several weeks and that's where our federal government really needs to step up and take notice. leland: well, sheriff, it would be an understatement to say that you and your men have stepped up in an incredible way, as we thank the sheriff, you can attest to. >> thank you, thank you both. leland: thanks, sheriff. thank you, griff. appreciate the good work. we'll keep watching your camera there. if you guys come upon anything interesting when you find the battle, make sure to come back to us, we'd appreciate it. elizabeth: as we heard there from the sheriff, he wants the president to be in texas and he does want to actually-- that being said. as we pointed out.

you can't do everything in a day. this is a playback of the president coming back earlier coming off air force one in ellington field in texas, a southeastern part of houston. and we get from the producers on the ground that the president and first lady are now meeting with some of the victims of this storm and obviously, we're waiting to get more information on that, but that was one of the things that the president was trying to do today. and we heard from the sheriff there with griff jenkins who says he's getting support from the state and federal authorities. they want the red tape to be eliminated as they start this cleanup process and perhaps that's one of the messages that the president wants to get across as he is now on the ground, meeting with some of the victims, letting them know, as he arrives and you noted with some of the cabinet members he's going to do everything he can to eliminate that red tape. when we saw that last night with the additional release, upwards of $8 billion to go straight to

fema and straight to the folks to relieve the folks. and we'll bring in brad. when we hear that the president is meeting with some of the storm victims, and we take the next step and he comes back to washington and he says, i spoke with the men and women and they want that red tape eliminated and want the relief straight into their pockets. is this the best way to do it, to go back to the ground and go back multiple times and see what needs to be done. >> there's no substitution for listening to people and looking them in the eye and i guarantee you that president trump will meet with them in washington, look, i spoke to the sheriff of this county, i spoke to victims in that county, and they're telling me what's working, but they need additional resources and help. look, people, when they're in need, they don't want to hear

ten ways things can't get done. they want to hear, as the sheriff pointed out, things can get done. if it's proper to do the government should step up and listen to people and heed their advice. the president is going to internalize this. i can guarantee you every president that went through a crisis stayed with them every day that they're president and every day of their lives and this is something that they will never forget. it's important for the president to recant the stories time and again to people he's giving orders to, because he's made a pledge not only on behalf of his government, but on behalf of all of us, when help is needed help is going to arrive and we're going to spare no reasonable expense to get texas and louisiana back to where they should be. leland: you heard from the sheriff, it may not only be with money, but the issue of regulation and red tape and allowing the local communities to deal with it. it's noteworthy, one of the real

points that the president has kept his word on and made good on his campaign promises is eliminating the huge amount of federal regulation. that's something that he's done in broad strokes across so many of the cabinet agencies and one would think, that he would be able to do that across the rest of the agencies to help the victims of harvey. back to houston as the president continues his visit there in just a minute. taking the ancestry dna test is really quite simple. it comes in the mail, you pull out the tube and you spit in it, which is something southern girls are taught you're not supposed to do. you seal it and send it back and then you wait for your results. it's that simple. i expect a lifetime guarantee. and so should you. on struts, brakes, shocks. 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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>> fox news alert as president trump and the first lady are in houston, texas, you saw them land a little while ago. the first stop on this his second visit to the gulf coast will be a hurricane evacuation center to meet some of those affected by harvey, later they traveled to louisiana to offer comfort to some of those who have actually been on the ground saving so many including volunteers along with updates from some of the emergency management officials on both situations. now, first the situation in texas, then the situation in louisiana. in the meantime, we go to cleveland, texas where we've got steve harrigan standing by, we have seen long gas lines, we have also have matt, beumont, texas, where there's enormous amount of flooding that continues in the disaster. first to steve harrigan, with how folks are able to get home

or move home are finding the situation, hi, steve. >> leland, it's tough to get home and gasoline are one of the challenges, many stations closed down and other seen prices to go up 30 or 40 cents a gallon from a week ago. if you take a look, you can see a common scene all across the state, large piles of what was furniture out in front of people's houses. blankets, tables, dressers, mattresses all soaked, ruined by the water in front of each house, a large pile of junk and clothes hanging and a tough situation here for a lot of people. inside houston itself, mandatory evacuation underway in the western part of that city, two reservoirs are undergoing control release. that release water is going to flood several thousand homes for the next two weeks, they have to do that in order to save the reservoirs. the mayor is say if you're in that flood zone, you have to get

out, he's sending first responders with supplies. >> it is creating an increasing strength on our first responders when we are asking them to cover the entire 640 square miles, when they are now in the process of going door to door. >> the mayor is also asking for $75 million, that's just for debris clean-up and wants more high-water vehicles this to carry out search and recovery operations, he says he doesn't have those on the ground. the death toll hit 50 early this morning, that's expected to continue to rise. there's still a lot of missing people out. as far as the destruction of property goes, 90,000 homes hit by the flood water of those 90,000, thousand destroyed completely. >> steve before we let you go, gas is hard to fine, are people

also trying to scramble for that? >> people are scrambling for the very basics, water, fuel and even getting from here to there, when you hear cell phone conversations, one phrase you hear a lot is how can i get to there from here. that's not asking for direction, it's asking which roads are passable through water. >> yeah, still a long time to go before this water recedes. might get worse than it gets better. thank you, liz has more. liz his as we have been talking about, president trump will ask congress for $7.5 billion in hurricane aid for hurricane harvey clean-up. the bulk of it will go to fema, more than 3 million meals and 3 million littest of water, matt has update with the very latest, hi, matt. >> liz, beaumont, one of the

areas hit the hardest in the recent days. will be in a short time. we will be out on boat. fema is still doing active search and rescues, day 7, so this is not over, you know, we are outside of beaumont, just to show you how widespread the damage is, it's not just honous or coastal areas, we are in a rural area and you can see the road is flooded and the car in the water that's absolutely totaled. it's so hard to get around here. the basic necessities are hard to get a hold off. that's closed in one direction. add that to the list that roads that are flooded, impassable fairs that people cannot get through and over to my right just like steve mentioned, another gas station that's closed and locked up. getting back to normal way of life or even surviving, all across texas very difficult at this house, liz. liz: thank you so much, matt, we

will check back with you later in the show, of course. if you're hitting the road for the long weekend, we sure hope you filled up yesterday, gas prices jumping 2.8% overnight going to 2.59 a gallon. lines forming where prices are up 12% from a week ago, hurricane harvey knocked almost 17% of u.s. refining capacity offline causing fuel shortages among other concerns, colonial pipeline runs from houston to new jersey and also partially shutdown earlier this week. very complicated situation, something that may not be resolved right away. it could take some time. >> takes a while to get refineries and colonial hopes to begin moving fuel this weekend, economists warn that any delay or drawn out delay in getting the gulf's energy industry running in full capacity could have wide impacts not only across the united states but across the global economy.

let's bring in michael weber, director at ut austin. do the energy in houston have a contingency plan to deal with this kind of storm and this kind of flooding or is this worst than anything they imagined? >> well, yes and no, this kind of storm is not new, we get a lot of storms like this in the gulf of mexico, certainly industry is prepared but the storm was different. it didn't bring the same kind of wind damage, it brought the flooding and it's a different kind of risk and different kind of consequences. they shut some production but not real lot of destruction than refining capacities. it's really gasoline shortages, gasoline price concerns that are causing prices at the pump. >> double-digit refining capacity is offline. talk to oil and gas trader from

the chicago exchange yesterday, it arrives in the next couple of weeks, started back again, we have seen the president order and through his energy secretary releases from the strategic petroleum reserves from national emergency, we've seen the easying of restrictions on the exact types of gas that can be sold and how to blend gasoline, is that enough or is there more you think the government should be doing? >> well, i think we are going to see some prices rise because supplies are constrained and there's a little bit the government can do to help things flowing but i think it'll take time to get refineries and pipes online, the way it's through storage, storage tanks in our cars, also storage tank that is the gasoline station and large-scale storage and that's going to take us so many days a week so you can't refill them and start to see shortages and therefore higher prices,

releasing crude oil, that helps crude oil prices, that helps bring on refineries to help them ramp back up but doesn't help the gasoline prices because the storage reserves are holding crude oil not gasoline and the crude oil has to go to refinery first before it becomes jet fuel. >> yeah, we've also watched jet fuel, update our viewers right now that the president is arriving at stadium, that's where the houston texan play. that being one of the places that they are turning into the shelter for folks not only sheer size but also what's inside, live pictures coming in from our pool camera, this is the tv pool into part of nrg, what part of complex it is, i'm not quite sure, with us michael webber,

deputy director at the university institute ut austin, is your hearing from folks in texas, the president visits here and what he's bringing with him, that is doing what to sort of the emotion of texans who have come together in such a unique way? >> well, when our president visits and sends sign that the federal government is paying attention and trying to be helpful and sort of sends a signal that this is an important effect, a lot of people are at a loss and devastated and they want to be helpful. i think we see presidents do this. they like to visit the sites where people have been hurt and send a sign that america is with them and a lot of people will interpret this visit. in terms of -- >> go ahead. >> in terms of federal policy levers there's things he can do to keep things flowing and a lot at state level and city regulators become really important for coordinating a lot of the movement sagas line or food or medical supply. >> we've heard from reporters on the ground that there's severe

gas shortages, we heard you earlier pictures of the massive gas lines as far north as dallas, texas, for folks in houston, poll incomes the shelter, we can see kids playing there, evacuees who have lost everything, how long is it going to be until people in houston are able to get gas when they need gas? the rest of the country takes it a given when you pull up to the gas station there is gas and not so much in parts of the country right now. >> we depend on it so much, it's always been there but prior storms have brought similar destructions, famous lines in atlanta in 2008 after hurricane and jet fuel shortages and this kind of thing happens but it's unusual to happen in houston. there's plenty of gasoline in the state of texas, it's just hard to move it around and we have shortages in dallas and austin, word gets out and people fill up their cars whether they need to or not and that helps

exacerbate the shortage. i drove around austin the night before last and eight gasoline stations i went out were gone. >> wow. >> there is a shortage but takes to get it to other places, some of the roads are blocked, some pipelines aren't running, that's days or weeks before things are running and people no longer feel the pinch. >> you start to wonder whether the military will help move logistics that only the military can. michael, we appreciate your time, sir, thanks so much for your insights as folks down there try to get gas. we will show you right now live pictures now in houston, this is the tv pool that has been brought in ahead of the president's visit to nrg stadium which is one to have shelters for hurricane harvey victims and you can see some movement and that looks like the president walking in. >> this is something that we were anticipating the president

arriving and meeting with some of the storm victims, in fact, he tweeted about ten minutes ago, he said the governor with him as well and other cabinet members, obviously the first lady and some state and local officials, the president tweeting about ten minutes ago, texas, we are with you today, we are with you tomorrow and we will be with you every single day after to restore, rebuild and that's the message that he wants to get out today obviously with his tweet and he had played video on his twitter page of him coming off air force one and the optics of the administration is that he wanted to be on the ground taking selfies with folks, letting them know that the reinforcement is there and he's been asking for congress for more money that state and local officials are there and that he will be there for however long it takes which is part of why he said today and tomorrow and every single day thereafter. now it's clear, people are still in shelters and perhaps unable

to get back to their homes, this is an opportunity for him to say, it's going to be okay, we are going to be there for you. >> a lot of the folks who are in this, this is the nrg center, for those of you who watched the super bowl, nrg stadium is where the football team plays, houston texans and where they have a large convention center for nrg complex and complex convention center is where president trump and you can see texas governor greg abbott are touring and they talked about moving a lot of people out of the shelter at the houston convention center that they brought so many people and that actually overflowed and then moving them here and at this convention center, the nrg stadium center, they feel like they have a lot more resources and a lot more space to be able to deal with people and we see the president heading around, as much about taking self-yes, sir and hearing stories. as we hear from blake berman, we

see the fist lady hugging some of the folks hard to know whether they are volunteers or whether they are victims, in a sense everybody in texas has been a victim. >> we talked a lot to robert jackson earlier and he's with houston first which was organizing the recovery effort and the refugees coming in at the convention center which you mentioned earlier but there was a lot of mistake that is were learned in 2005 or lessons learned rather where they were able to make the process fairly seemless and they have different areas of the convention center layed out for let's say folks with families, folks with pets, a single woman sort of area, area just for males as well and then they have a medical area where if you needed anything from a pharmacy they had the stage, so they tried to make it as seemless as possible, like you had said, the convention centers reaches capacity and you would know better than i you would, 10,000 where they had to look for other places for folks to go to keep that environment safe which is when they went to energy stadium which is

obviously a huge property. but -- but this is an opportunity for folks in the administration, we had al mentioned that ben carson was there, secretary carson is there, and so then, you know, to really get an opportunity to -- to talk to them. i want to bring in steve, steve, we had talked to you earlier about what the president faces in this time of recovery. you're with the bipartisan policy center. this isn't your first rodeo when you see white house officials really face devastating, i guess, you could say situation where they have to really, really have to cater to these folks. i want to ask you sort of your take away when you see the president not only go to texas once but go to texas twice but what he can learn from his visit when he comes back to washington and he talks to lawmakers as they reconvene on tuesday? >> you know, what strikes me is how much children affect this president and he now greeting a

lot of young children in the nrg convention center. i think there's going to be the same thing as brad said that he really internalizes this and he knows building -- being a builder himself. a mold remains after the house is clear after the water, all of the things will be coming up day after day, month after month and have to be dealt with. so my own opinion is we have to politicization, now it's the first time and real emergency. i don't think we are going to have it next time. ic, for example, congress will be -- i'm not going to hold against the texas delegation. i'm going to vote for the money for texas. so i think, maybe, ted cruz is going to have to go through a little bit of a shaming but

after that is done, we will get the money. liz: how does he cut through the red tape? you can't go and meet these men and women, you see this little girl sitting on the governor's lap. she hasn't been home for the better half of the week, she's been sitting on a cot, how do you get this message across when you come back to these cities to prevent the bickering and the fighting that we have seen they've had -- since they've had both houses and chambers. >> one, i think you're going to see rapid response here. the $7.9 billion, i think, they move very quickly on. they may put it on continuing resolution, big-spending bill. liz: can we attach it to the debt ceiling? >> the house freedom caucus, mark meadows of south carolina said, don't do that.

liz: in the meantime i want to listen in, this is the president sharing some time with the young victims there. i want to take a listen. [inaudible conversations] [laughter] liz: i want to weave you back in, steve, if i may. continuing on the thought that the congress comes back on tuesday, they're facing these pictures, the president is probably going to be much more passionate than he was before after meeting young children as you can see here, he has to fight the bureaucracy, how is he going to do that? >> first of all, he can use executive orders as far as federal agencies go and you can cut down on red tape, what happens at the state and local level i think he's lucky that he has a republican governor and a lot of the folks specially in

harris county they may not be republicans but they are people who have a real responsibility, constituents of what you've seen from the mayor and the police chief and all the rest of the officials there, so i think this can be something you can do starting at the federal level telling the regulators, hey, they don't have to sign ten forms, give them the money, specially the first 8 billion. i would remind everybody that a month out after sandy we gave $2 billion, two months out the congress gave them triple that. so we are now looking at the first down payment on what could be really in the 100, 125 billion-dollar cost. liz: let's take a moment. i want to listen to the president. he's weaving in and out of the crowd, perhaps first responders and organizers and volunteers there as well as victims. let's just take a listen if we could. [inaudible conversations]

>> thank you for your service, appreciate it. keep up the great work. tomorrow. [inaudible conversations] >> we had heard the president talk about a national prayer day tomorrow, he talked about that yesterday as well from the oval office. you can see him there talking to texas governor greg abbott, we are going -- we are having a little bit of problems with the microphones, the tv pool is kept pretty far back, sometimes they don't want us to hear, that's just what the secret service does but we have our poll incomes the control room listening and at any point that we can hear what the president is saying, we will go ahead and go back to that audio.

we are unclear as to who the man standing next to the president is in the white shirt and the blue shirt there you've got the brock long from fema and ben carson and then i'm going to pause for a second. our director is from texas and just told me that it is harris county judge ed emmet who is the man in the white shirt. county judge, commissioner there and you can see him briefing the president on what's been happening there inside nrg stadium and them talking, i'm guessing, guys, we still can't hear anything the president is saying, correct? all right, we can't hear anything. it's just the background noise of what's -- liz: huge facility. >> you've also got a huge number of people in there and in the meantime you have a whole lot of kids who, i'm sure are excited to meet the president and a few would like to get back to coloring books and some would like to play kickball, the kids have been cramped up for six or

seven days in there. one touching that you saw on the table that the president was at, was sort of overflowing of toys and we've heard that one of the problems that they've had in texas and at this shelter and others is they have gotten so many donations and they have so many volunteers, it has almost been overwhelming in that sense as well. at one point there was a longer line to be a volunteer than there was to be in the shelter as a victim. >> well, and we heard that from robert jack soon and -- jackson and like i said he was at the convention center. we are getting donations and he very politely said it's basically monetary donations at this point, they have enough legos and they are getting enough food and enough water but they're looking for that next step, in the recovery efforts, getting people back in homes and getting them into temporary housing and getting them into apartments and any way that they

can get back to normal lives and normal jobs which is something the president is obviously wanting to comment. >> seemless as possible. it's going hard. perhaps in history, hurricane katrina that had affected so many for so long, i want to bring in brad blakeman, former chief of staff, traveled with the president on so many visits with -- places like this. he seems to be following -- >> this is what presidents need to do. they need to touch the people who are most affected. most important listen, hear the stories, find out more importantly what do they know. let them know that we are going to be there today and tomorrow

and well into the future. the president is going to make many trips, i predict to texas and louisiana. but also the president has an eye as he gets back on air force one on irma to make sure that we are not stretched too thin and we are also thinking about other possibilities of damage that could happen to our country in the very near future. the president has to look at a myriad of options that's available to the federal government response, most importantly he has to listen and heed the advice of local officials. they are the ones closest to the people, they know what the citizens need and they know what the government both locally and state can provide and more importantly what the calry -- ca valry and this is a national event. everybody in america should be thinking about what they can do to help people and america's

army of compassionate soldiers, we have seen it whether it's the cajun navy or donations that are coming through monetarily and humanitarily as far as supplies and americans don't have to be told by the government and we know what to do and we come through. >> we have seen so many people come through. you mentioned the cajun folks and folks that got in fast boats and went into the storm, you had guys pulling up and throwing their boats in the water in the middle of torrential downpours and uj imaginably waters to go out and say perfect strangers, they would drop the strangers and come back and go back out into the neighborhoods, sometimes 2 or 3 miles into flooded neighborhoods. president trump is going to meet with some of those folks on his next stop in lake charles, louisiana, two things to bring up that happened at nrg stadium while we saw the president visit

and walked through the center where there was kids playing and set up play areas. people were asking, when are you going to release fema funds and that was folks in the crowd who were shouting, not folks with the tv pool, so it's clear that folks on the ground are very concerned about when they're going to get money and when fema is going to be able to begin doing that. also noteworthy that just now the ap putting out an alert, many houston ultra polluted super fund sites are flooded, concerns about toxins and began to have issues with chemicals there. it's amazing how widespread the damage is going to be and we saw so much from the air and the flood, once those flood waters recede they'll be all sorts of problems that we know about and a whole lot of unknown unknowns.

>> you to wonder what type of impact that's going to have on lawmakers as they look at the budget. we talked a lot about that and there was some voices this week, critical saying that they didn't want some of the budget cuts to both fema and the epa which is -- which is why i thought it was interesting you brought that up, it's because those are the people on the ground that are in situation right now and that's where people need the funding to go at this very moment. you wonder how this is going to impact so many things on the docket for lawmakers this fall and if i could, if brad blakeman is still with us, brad, i want to ask you about that, a, it's hard to be critical of the response thus far, but, b, it's hard to imagine this isn't going to have a huge impact on the conversation across washington over next 3 to 6 months. >> there's no doubt about it. we will be seeing pictures every day of the recovery so the

president is going to have to keep his attention and focus on the recovery efforts as they happen and we are going to hear good stories, we are going to hear bad stories but most important thing is for the president to listen to those stories and there's only so much we can do and -- but what we do, we have to do well. but managing expectations too is important. this is not going to be a recovery that's going to happen today, tomorrow, a year from tomorrow. this is going to be a decade's long recovery effort and we have to let the people know that we are going to be there every step of the way. >> we heard the president tweeting out 30 minutes ago where he said, texas, we are with you today and tomorrow and every day after to restore and recover and rebuild.

>> we've heard that from the president and vice president, this seems to be their montra, today, tomorrow and every day. and in some way it seems like trying to insulate them from the concerns of folks who say, look, the president gave a speech about taxes this week, next week he will go to north dakota. there's different things that will come out. brad, i wanted to sort of update viewers on where -- where the president is. right now this was moments ago. we understand that he's still in the nrg complex moving around, go back to live pictures as soon as we can. brad, what's the balance for officials here and for the president for that matter, you don't want to sugarcoat things, the president wants to hear what's actually happening, how does he make sure he does that

when the visits are so short and are so controlled? >> well, it's a delicate balancing act between showing your compassion but also telling the truth to the people who are affected. look, these people can handle the truth. i've been in situations where there's been disasters and all the people want is to be leveled with. they can handle it but they also want to know that their government is working in their -- in their best intentions. that's the key. the president has to say, i'm on this, my people are on this, we are listening to local officials, not only are we listening but doing, acting, we spare no expense on making sure the military, fema, homeland security, every agency within the power of the executive branch is -- is working to their benefit. and in addition, the president now has to be the person who works with congress to make sure that those bills appear on his desk so he can sign them and get them the help they need. >> meeting with both the texas

delegation and also the louisiana delegation when he's there. brad, thank you, continue to standby, we are waiting for the president to move to another area inside that shelter, you know, brad was talking about money, all he wanted was the red tape lifted. a lot of folks have different asks of the president and obviously you'll hear a lot of those todays as he visits this facility in houston and then also head to louisiana back to houston as we see the president in just a couple of minutes.

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probably now a disaster inside of their homes. the president there meeting with local officials, volunteers and here is a live look right now, like we have said inside nrg center, we will take a listen to the president's speech. >> a lot of love. >> what do families tell you? >> they are happy, it's been really nice, it's been a wonderful thing. as tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing. so beautiful. have a good time, everybody, i'm going to be doing a little help over here. [inaudible conversations] >> they're really happy with what's going on. it's been something -- it's been well received. even by you, guys, it's been well received. >> did you look out the window at all? >> no, i didn't see. you mean the flooding? >> yeah.

>> it's a lot of water but it's leaving pretty quickly but there's a lot of water, a lot of water. but it's moving out. but i think most importantly the governor, the relationship with the governor and the mayor and everybody has been fantastic and with the federal government it's been -- signing a lot of documents to get money. 7.9 billion. we signed it and now it's going through very quick process. >> how are the kids doing? >> i think they are doing great. they are doing really great. [inaudible conversations]

>> how are you? [inaudible conversations] >> my hands are too big. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] >> beautiful. >> hello, everybody. [inaudible conversations] >> handshake, president trump. thank you so much. >> thank you. who is that for?

[inaudible conversations] >> thank you. i like that. anybody? [inaudible conversations] >> thank you, honey. hold it. [inaudible conversations]

>> you need two. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you so much, sir. thank you, sir.

[inaudible conversations] >> let me see that beautiful girl. she wants a hot dog. that's all right. that's all right. [inaudible conversations] >> go ahead. how are you? you're a vet. i can see it. go ahead. [inaudible conversations] >> let me ask you, when did you get back? nice to see you. go ahead, take a picture. go ahead.

let's go. right here. got it, man. >> thank you, thank you. >> wait, take it. go ahead. try it, we will do it again. take that, you've got it? >> nice to meet you. >> thank you. how is it? everybody keeps running into each other. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you, thank you. >> you're so beautiful.

>> you can see as any situation like this, you have to weave throw in and out of a crowd. battery issues. it's not easy. there's thousands of people inside of energy center there. but you heard the president interacted and hanging out hot dogs and chips and provided to people and people taking selfies, we had one family said i have family being denied family members, we were anticipating that conversation to take place. so as we talked to brad blakeman earlier, this is an opportunity for the president to be hearing from people who have been holy affected by the disaster and what they need. >> well, to bring back brad in. brad, the president handled pretty well, go get those folks

and the guy left who was confronting him to go retrieve some of his family members who were having an issue or friends who were having an issue. you have to think that the president's advance team at the very moment was thinking, this is not going how we want it to go. >> i tell you, i think it's going exactly how it should go and that is the president should not only hear what's going well, but he also has to hear complaints and grievances of the people affected. the president will get to the bottom of it. allegation that his family was not getting the kind of help he thought he deserved and the fema people are there with the president and the president is going to want to report back on exactly what went down, is he being denied rightfully, wrongfully, this is the kind of thing that the president needs to hear. he needs to find out what can we do better and then get it done, get it fixed. >> he had been asked as he was just walking in the center, i don't know if it was reporters or folks on the ground, it's

hard to see who is shouting the questions, what flooding did you see and he said, you know, there's a lot of water, he saw it firsthand and i think the mayor said there was upwards of 600 square miles, a lot of it under water so he's getting the firsthand look and i want -- we only have about 30 seconds left but i want to ask you, what's next for the president in the days to come? >> the president needs to get back to washington and then reconvene his team and find out exactly on a timetable what is the federal response now, what will it be every week, what will it be next month and lay out a long-term strategy of funding and federal response. that's what the president needs to do, he needs to empower his team as a good executive should do to get the job done. >> all right, we are still looking at pictures coming in at energy center, the president will be spending some more time in texas before he heads to louisiana, stay with us. we are going to have much more news after the break and try to dip into some more live pictures

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>> live pictures now. you are looking at the field of the houston astros who are getting ready to play their first game back after obviously taking some time off because of the storm and the damage there in houston. this is a big moment as you might imagine for the first ball game afterwards, we remember some of the first ball games afterwards and listen in. they are going to be ready to take a moment of silence here sometime in the next couple of minutes. the schedule there at the -- there in houston is a little bit fluid as you take a live look at the field. doesn't look like the fans have gotten a chance to come in, i don't know how many people are coming, first responders and evacuees get free admission to this game and, boy, in some ways we have seen this after major american catastrophe, even if it

was 9/11, getting back to some sense of normalcy is really important for people and important for the city, it's important for the community to have that sense that normalcy is beginning to return to their city, live pictures now at houston awaiting out the national anthem and the moment of silence as well. >> right, so they have a double-header today. they were suppose today play the texas rangers last week, obviously thick of the storm. they had moved that series to tropicana field in tampa florida and the mayor will throw first pitch and a couple thousand tickets to hand out to first responders and volunteers and i would expect that we will see some people heading to the ball game and i know that this morning, local officials could say that there could be sense of traffic woes. road closures and at the same time you had really referenced

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>> 12:53 central time in houston. the president has been on the ground now for about an hour and a half or so. this is live pictures of the houston astros beginning to get back to playing ball there in houston. [inaudible] >> on his way to the next stop in houston. >> if i'm not mistaken he has

more stops before he leaves to louisiana and that's where he will be meeting with the louisiana delegation and members of the national guard and, of course, meeting with members of the cajun navy and where civilian effort was as important as a lot of government officials. but we thought the president had a fairly busy morning, he arrived and met with the governor, arrived with different members to have cabinet and obviously the first lady and he went straight to nrg where you can see the video there where he was handing food and taking pictures, speaking words of encouragement. we heard a gentleman say that friends and family members weren't getting the support they needed from fema. this is an opportunity for him to really hear the concerns of folks on the ground and it'll give him an opportunity to come back to say, listen, i heard from these folks and i hear what they want, let's gut the red tape. >> as we hear from brad blakeman, this is what the president wants and needs to hear which is the ground truth.

it's easy to hear, everything is great, we are doing a great job, mr. president, everybody is happy, when you are there and somebody says, my family is not being taken care of, all right, we may be doing a great job, but in this case, we need to deal with this. you take a look back at stadium. mayor throwing out the first pitch and the mayor is there, first pitch, we will wait for a moment of silence there at the astros game. >> thanks for joining us. obviously we will have continuing coverage at the top of the hour as houston begins their recovery efforts, thanks for joining us. it's time for the biggest sale of the year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep you effortlessly comfortable. and snoring.... does your bed do that?

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