making news in america this wednesday morning, searching for survivors, rescuers in boats going door to door overnight in houston after harvey dumped more than 52 inches of rain. the city opening more shelters this morning as the convention center reaches double its capacity. and another area of texas dealing with a flood emergency right now, a new neighborhood surrounded by water and at least one home on fire. and people are bracing for harvey's third landfall. the storm is now setting its sights on new orleans where flood advisories are already in effect, and we're tracking it all. and new this morning, another warning from north korea after its military fired a missile over japan. how kim jong-un is signaling more launches.

good morning, we begin with the breaking news and the new flooding emergency as harvey makes landfall moments ago. >> it's happening right now in the beaumont, port arthur, texas, area east of houston. you can see tropical storm harvey swirling over the region which got hit with 25 inches of rain overnight. >> a near record for a 24-hour period and torrential rains along with neighborhoods underwater. our station in port arthur is live streaming their coverage on facebook and people are commenting saying they're trapped in their homes with nearly five feet of water and there are oreos of dozens of people who are also trapped in a bowling alley. >> take a look at this. the port arthur civic center. this was opened as a shelter where people were supposed to come for help. that building is now flooded. you can see the cots surrounded by water as some of the victims are still inside with nowhere least 18 deaths reported there with emergency workers trying to reach more people stranded by

water. >> another shelter has opened at the nrg center there to ham theover flow crowd from the convention center which was at double its capacity last night. houston still trying to figure out how to get out of the storm. >> abc's maggie rulli is tracking the latest and joys us from houston. good morning. >> reporter: diane and kendis, good morning. well, the weather here in houston does appear to be clearing up. but harvey was such a devastating slow-moving storm that the floodwaters here are still at catastrophic levels. america's fourth largest city is at a standstill. reeling from the 100 trillion gallons of water harvey left behind. >> there they are. there they are. >> reporter: first responders and volunteers alike are racing against rising floodwaters. more than 7,000 people have been rescued so far. many plucked from their roofs desperately clinging to coast guard baskets. but the calls for help just keep coming in. >> i hate to think that there

are people in these houses. >> reporter: at least 1,000 people are still in urgent need of help. >> don't give up on us. seek the higher ground. we will get to you. >> reporter: linda was trapped in her car on the highway for two days. >> all i could say is there are angels out here. >> reporter: those rescued are often left with only the damp clothes on their back and anything they could grab. shelters are beyond capacity. the houston convention center with 10,000 taking shelter inside nearly doubled their limit. with harvey moving on, there's the fear of what's left to find once the water begins to recede. >> it's been a nightmare just waiting. >> reporter: the communities now relying on each other and the kindness of thousands of strangers who have kept the donations pouring in. houston's mayor says the focus today will remain on rescues and safety. and he's put a mandatory curfew in place between midnight and 5:00 a.m. he says it's going to stay indefinitely. diane and kendis. >> maggie, what's it like now that the rain has finally

let up there? it seems like there's still a huge amount of work to be done. >> reporter: diane, there's so much work to be done, but i have to say when that brief sunshine shone through yesterday, i really wasn't expecting the impact it had on people. just our crew here went outside, looked up at the sun, and there was an entire change in spirits and in mood, and even the mayor yesterday said this is something that houston needs, but you make a good point, the sun might be shining a little bit more today but the recovery effort, we just have so far more to go. >> sort of like the solar eclipse all over again. people going out to take a look at that sight. >> all right. little rays of hope. we'll take them where we can get them. maggie rulli live in houston for us. thanks, maggie. the president praised emergency officials coordinating harvey relief efforts during his visit to corpus christi and austin tuesday. the president waved the state flag and declared that texas can handle anything but he's receiving some criticism for not acknowledging the victims of the flooding. he plans to return to texas

saturday to meet with some of those evacuees. as we mentioned, houston city leaders have opened a new megashelter, it's the convention hall at the nrg center and the complex includes a stadium used by the houston texans football team. now, officials say they're trying to make the shelter as welcoming as possible. >> these are guests. these are neighbors. those are the terms. and you see people are greeting them, and that's what we want to do. we want everybody that's coming in here to feel warm, feel like this is a place where not only are they safe, it's a place where they can begin to put their life back because most of these folks are going to want to get back into their home as soon as possible. >> absolutely, and the nrg shelter's capacity is 10,000 people, but the capacity of the convention center was only supposed to be 5,000, and it soon had twice that amount. >> and sometimes we forget that in many cases the professionals and volunteers rescuing flood victims are victims themselves. >> this was interesting. houston officials say the homes of 200 police officers and other first responders were damaged by the storm and flooding.

>> they've been unable to stop at shelters or pick up any personal items like clothing or even toiletries. >> what we need right now is underwear, socks, undershirts and toiletries, and please, if you are out there watching this and you can make a donation to assisttheofficer.com to help our officers rebuild their homes, they've lost their cars, they've lost everything. we've had hundreds of officers impacted and they're still out here serving our community. >> clearly they need the basics. other charities say they prefer cash contributions rather than physical goods like clothing and food. the nation's oil and gas industry is taking a major hit from harvey. video shows the chevron phillips complex in baytown that's just east of houston flooded. it's one of the largest chemical campuses in the country, and it was undergoing a renovation when it was shut down over the weekend. exxonmobil and royal dutch shell have also halted operations at their gulf facilities. and harvey's also dumping torrential rain on southwestern louisiana right now. schools and government offices will be closed from baton rouge to the texas state line,

although they will be open in new orleans today. engineers in new orleans have been working feverishly to get all of the city's pumping stations online, and that prompted a prankster to put this banner on one of those stations. the banner says, i think i can. i think i can. the little pumping station that could. let's check in on that forecast and what else we can expect. here's accuweather's justin povick. justin. >> diane and kendis, thanks. good morning to you. again, tracking harvey as the system makes landfall as we go throughout the morning hours, but what has been and will continue to be the biggest impact will be the precipitation. the heavy amounts of rain and the dangerous life-threatening flash flooding. more so throughout the overnight we've seen some tremendous amounts of rainfall in and around beaumont and also port arthur. now, as we go throughout the day we're going to start to see harvey increase its forward momentum and decrease its wind speed, and these are both good

things, especially the fact it's going to be moving faster over the course of the next couple of days. with that said, still dangerous flooding ongoing in houston, even though the rains have come to an end about 90 miles east of houston, the rains continuing. flash flood watches in effect up the mississippi river where we could see some areas picking up an additional 6 plus inches of rainfall even locally over 8 inches of rain. drier air returns to houston for today. impacts continue to be widespread to the east of harvey. diane, kendis. >> houston is going to be in the 80s and sunny today. thank you, justin. and abc and our parent company, disney, pitching in to try to help. >> on thursday disney will hold a day of giving. it's a fund-raising effort that runs all day on abc, freeform and radio disney. >> to kick things off disney has committed $1 million to the red cross, and you can donate right now by visiting abcnews.com. when we come back other news of the morning next including the president's push to ban transgender people from the military. that ban now frozen. also ahead, the new threat this morning from north korea

after launching a missile over japan. and $99 for a case of water? the outrageous prices being

the scene shows just a small part of what the houston area is dealing with. see those trucks coming down that flooded freeway. that small car on the opposite side just doesn't stand a chance. up to 500,000 cars and trucks are expected to be a total loss because of the storm. and now to the standoff with north korea. president trump says all options are on the table after the north launched a missile over japan. >> north korean leader kim jong-un was shown smiling after the launch and his regime is apparently considering more missile launches. here's abc's emily rau. >> i think something serious has to happen.

>> reporter: u.n. ambassador nikki haley saying enough is enough after the united nations security council called an emergency meeting on north korea unanimously condemning kim jong-un's latest missile launch. >> i think it sends a very good message to north korea. >> reporter: the intermediate range missile launched near pyongyang soaring 1,600 miles crossing over a japanese island before crashing into the sea. sirens blaring in japan with warnings to take cover. the government sending text messages to its people about the possibility of an imminent attack. >> we were trying to get neighbors out, and we just knocked on people's doors. i was quite shaken by it. >> reporter: south korea immediately responding with a live bombing drill and in a statement president trump saying only, all options are on the table. >> no country should have missiles flying over them like those 130 million people in japan and so i think something serious has to happen. >> reporter: north korea's state

run news agency is reporting kim jong-un has said this latest missile launch is a, quote, prelude to containing guam. diane and kendis. >> yeah, and, emily, there are fears now they may test yet another nuclear weapon. emily rau, thank you. transgender troops will be allowed to continue serving in the military for now pending completion of a study. defense secretary jim mattis is forming a panel that will offer recommendations on how to proceed with implementing president trump's ban on transgender service members. the president called for that change in policy on friday. that's a month after announcing it in a tweet. democrats have asked the president to reconsider. former white house press secretary sean spicer can finally say he's met the pope. you may recall he missed out when president trump visited pope francis in may. but spicer was there last weekend at the vatican for a meeting. his final day with the trump administration, by the way, is tomorrow. and when we come back, the new flooding emergency unfolding in eastern texas right now.

also ahead, just hours after a levee breached in houston, we check in on the city's reservoirs and how they're holding up. and flood victims sleeping on expensive mattresses and sofas. being treated to fancy dinners. the generous store owner providing much needed relief. f underwear are those? they're breathable underwear from fruit of the loom. [gasp] what are those? guys... they're breathable underwear from fruit of the loom. yes, they have these tiny holes to let the air through, can you help me? wa wa weewoo look at those. can you feel this? [blowing] turn around for me. seriously? yeah. slow...slow...slower...slower is that okay. i don't think you should get that dress. it doesn't fit. stay cool with breathable underwear from fruit of the loom.

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the addicks reservoir in west houston is so full, it's spilling into nearby streets. people and pets evacuated on boats, humvees, even this garbage truck. so right now you're trying to figure out when that critical point is to call for help and get out. >> it's actually now. we decided we need to get out. >> reporter: neighborhoods downstream of the barker and addicks reservoirs are flooding too as officials are forced to release water to relieve pressure on the dams. >> the dilemma is to try to balance the inflows that we can't control based off of that unparalleled level of rainfall that's occurred upstream and the outflows that we can control, which is what you see here. >> reporter: the man in charge of monitoring the dams for the u.s. army corps of engineers say he believes they will hold. >> these dams are currently performing as expected. you can see that the releases are performing as we would expect them to be with this amount of rainfall that's unparalleled, and you can see that the water pooling behind the dams is still being

controlled. >> reporter: officials now say they see a glimmer of hope as bayou and reservoir levels in parts of houston begin to slowly go back down. but there are some places like this neighborhood that will continue to flood as the reservoirs upstream continue to drain, and that could take weeks or even months. diane, kendis. >> yeah, clayton, certainly a new concern there for many residents. thank you. and tv pastor joel osteen's megachurch in houston is now accepting evacuees. it comes after osteen was sharply criticized for not opening his megachurch with 17,000 seats there for people. now, osteen says because the building was close to flooding and because the mayor had asked people to stay off the roads, the church could not open earlier. he denies ever turning people away. and over in the houston area police say they're keeping an eye out for possible looters as well. only about a dozen arrests have been reported so far. >> in the meantime, complaints are pouring in about price gouging with prices for basic necessities like gas and

drinking water skyrocketing. texas tempers flaring. furious over markups on necessities like this man selling water out of his truck accused of marking up bottles by 500%. >> you ought to be ashamed of yourself. >> reporter: now in the middle of this massive crisis, the texas attorney general says he's already received more than 600 reports of price gouging. >> we've seen water up to $99 for a case of water. we've seen fuel prices up to $20 a gallon. we've seen hotels jack prices up sometimes six, seven times what they should be charging. >> reporter: check out one woman's receipt from a corpus christi convenience store. she said she was charged nearly 70 bucks for only two cases of beer at a raceway. raceway says it's investigating the incident. the store manager apologizing telling abc news overnight it was a clerical error and not price gouging adding we did give a full refund. and we should note in texas price gougers can be fined

as much as $20,000 and up to $250,000 if the victim is over the age of 65. and some evacuees in texas have been enjoying some high-end accommodations. >> that's right. that's thanks to gallery furniture stores. the owner, who is known as mattress mac, ordered the stores to open as temporary shelters. now, those fleeing those floods were allowed to sleep on $8,000 sofa sets, tempur-pedic mattresses, and they were also treated to a nice dinner including a rack of lamb and tenderloin with asparagus, so riding out the storm in style. >> i think they deserve it. well, still ahead, we're going to show you some unique rescues as the floodwaters kept rising up in texas. and we're looking at the remarkable before and after images showing the unprecedented level of destruction there in texas. the remarkable before and after images. is to make sure that that enamel stays strong and resilient for a lifetime the more that we can strengthen and re-harden that tooth surface, the whiter their patients' teeth are going to be.

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you're taking a look at some new images of people coming in to check in the convention center in houston now at double its estimated capacity. new shelters are now opening up to help house those victims but harvey has also forced the houston astros baseball team to find a new home. >> yeah, that home is 800 miles away, tampa. the astros opened a series against the texas rangers last night in tampa. both teams saying the game felt unusual. >> revenue from those games will be donated to hurricane relief efforts. and we've seen lots of rescues during our harvey coverage but none quite like this one. this is at a home in north houston. check it out. >> 78-year-old grandmother karen spencer seen here on the back of a jetski. the guy driving it backed right into the door of her flooded home. >> here's the thing, though, spencer and her husband called a local chick-fil-a to order some food. they also mentioned they were trapped and they're regulars there. it was actually the manager at

the chick-fil-a that then sent help. >> but they never got the food. finally, some amazing before and after scenes from houston. >> this is a look at the buffalo bayou taking over the downtown area. there's the before picture and take a look at the after. all of the roadways completely covered in water. you just see the tops of the trees. >> this is a striking one because you see the houston skyline here, and you take a look at that overpass. and now take a look at it there. just gives you a sense of how much water is there. >> we'll be right back. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis had both...

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good morning. it is wednesday, august 30th. sue hall in for alexis. by the way, is celebrating her birthday today. >> happy birthday, alexis. >> you know she's not up to see this. we'll have to send it to her later. hopefully she's enjoying sleeping in, but you're not. >> we kick it off with mike nicco. >> let's talk about what's going on as far as stepping outside right now. getting cloudy by the moment, as you can see on live doppler 7. the gray there, the low clouds, the reason we'll have another mild day with temperatures in novato to about 59 in san jose, mountain view, and hayward. vuheyo, 67 in brentwood for the warm spot. we'll have your 12-hour day planner next. >> here's sue. >> we'll take a look at the bay bridge toll plaza which is very light, looking good. no problems here.

metering lights probably about an hour away. no delays there getting into san francisco. and here we go on the san mateo bridge. also looking pretty good. although for 4:30 in the morning, looks like there's quate a few cars trying to get over to foster city. we'll look at road work when we come back. >> breaking overnight, a warehouse catches fire in san francisco with classic cars inside. >> firefighters went to work in the bay view district. that's where amy hollyfield is live. amy. >> reporter: hi, reggie. the building looks okay. you can see behind me, but it's what's inside that's the value here and that has some damage. we're at the crown customs vintage speed shop in the bayview on dan viek. this is where they restore old cars. the owner on the website has a lot of pride for what he does. he moved here from england in 2002 and hasn't looked back. there's about five cars inside. we can't tell how much damage was done to the cars, but some

do have some fire damage. the call came in at 1:23 this morning. firefighters got this one out pretty quickly. they siit was out at 2:00 this morning. te owner is not out here at this time, but we will be o watching for him for when he comes to survey the damage. reporting live in san francisco, amy hollyfield, abc7 news. >> thank you. chp investigating a deadly overnight hit-and-run crash on highway 4 near concord. one person was found dead before 10:30 last night. two cars were involved in the crash. the other car fled the scene. chp still trying to find the driver that drove away after the crash. >> this morning, tropical storm harvey has made its second landfall west of cameron, louisiana. >> the death toll climbed to at least 11 with many more missing and feared dead. the storm is just shy of breaking the all-time american rainfall record for a tropical system. that would be 52 inches. all of that rain fell in just a

little more than six days. >> federal and local agencies have rescued more than 13,000 people in the houston area as well as in surrounding cities and counties in southwest texas. >> and a second major shelter opened overnight in houston. it can hold up to 10,000 evacuees. >> we'll have a live report on what's coming up in just a few moments. >> the victims of hurricane harvey need your help and cash donationerize the best way to do it. one easy way to donate is by texting the word harvey to 90999. that will add a $10 donation to the red cross on to your cell phone bill. you can also call, 1-855-999-give, and more info is on our website, abc7news.com. >> let's get over to mike nicco. >> let's look at what's going on outside. we'll open the weather window from our exploratorium camera at pier 15. you can see the fog hanging around the low clouds around the