a rising toll. a family is feared dead while trying to escape while the death toll rises following massive floods at the hands of tropical storm harvey. a presidential visit. the commander-in-chief heads to texas to survey the damage himself as the governor praises the federal response. this as north korea fires a missile across japan setting off alarms on the island nation. and some good news for coffee drinkers. "early today" starts right now. i'm frances rivera. my co-anchor is in houston following the recovery efforts as tropical storm harvey continues to batter that area. he'll join us.

millions are waking up to rising flood waters and onslaught of rain and at least three deaths have been linked to harvey and all out search is under way after six members of a family tried to escape harvey and there is a search for them. about 280,000 are without power in the state. over 2,000 individuals have been rescued. the national guard roughly 12,000 now mobiled while citizen rescuers plunging themselves in the water to help where they can. here's texas governor greg abbott. >> if not the largest, has to be categorized as one of the largest disasters america has ever faced. and to see the swift response from the federal government is

pretty much unparalleled. >> when all is said and done, fema predicts over 450,000 people will register as disaster victims. nbc's dylan drier is in the houston this morning. dylan, no letting it up it seems right behind you it's coming down hard. >> guys, it certainly is, frances. we were in this location yesterday leading up to nightly news and we were seeing water levels just continue to rise and rise over halfway to some of these signs. so, we have seen it come down a bit, which is interesting, because the rain hasn't let up. so, it's certainly not 4 to 6 inches per hour we were dealing with during the height of this storm. but the fact that we're still dealing with the rain, some areas, southern harris county picked up 45 inches of rain, in houston itself, we have had reports over 35 inches of rain. the transition is going to go from this real steady rain over

to intermittent showers, some can produce heavier downpours. but we'll get a break as we get on the back edge of steady rain. but we're still looking at 4 to 6 inches of rain in the houston area. eastern texas, near port arthur, into louisiana, lake charles, those are areas where we could also see some flooding. because 7 to 10 inches of rain is possible there. certainly interesting to watch these bayous come up. this is a parking lots, ramps up to some of the highways. it's incredible to see it all under water and with the rain coming down, it's going to take a long time for this water to recede. >> make it hard for those water rescues taking place. all right, dylan, thank you very much for the update. want to bring in my co-anchor phillip mena, also in houston right now, it's coming

down where you are as well. not letting up at all. >> frances it really hasn't let up. this is now the fifth straight day that harvey has dumped rain on this community. i'm right by the buffalo bayou, just west of downtown. it cuts right through downtown houston and it dumps into the houston ship channel and then into the gulf of mexico. but because of this record rainfall in some parts of more than 40 inches of rain fell in certain parts of houston here, it has swelled all the dams, rivers and bayous like this. these abandoned cars is a very common scene on these streets. it's devastating just to see all these businesses and apartments all here. this used to be a park. now part of that bayou. tons of rescues still going on. as we speak, they're still going

on right now and lot of them are being take on the the convention center the main shelter here, there are eight shelters, they are quickly become iing filled capacity. we spoke to one about that rescue. >> our house has been hit two other times, this is the third time. memorial day, tax day, now this one. this by far was the worst. couldn't imagine it. it's at the roof of some of our friends' house. >> i don't know if they have the picture over there. but you can just describe where the water line was to your home. >> yeah, it was at the top. nothing can be salvaged from that house after this. literally the clothes we have right now is what we have to move on with.

>> that's exactly we're seeing. they had to pick up what they had in the moment and get out and get to safety. the shelter there is past capacity. that's inching closer to 9,000 now. for a look at what's like inside right now. julia brown. >> reporter: hi, there, phillip. the front door, this is where people show up. in fact someone who just walked in the doors right now. first stop is a security check. there's a chevy police presence now with more than 8600 people at this convention center. you get patted down as we did on our way in here and then right after that, you get to pick up some dry clothes over here, dry socks, probably the most valuable we have seen, blankets, so many people coming in here with wet clothes, wet

everything, sometimes barefoot, many of them who have lost of their belongings, perhaps escaped their flooded homes had to be saved in a high-water rescue. we just talked to some small children who came with their parents, their family, and they were putting on some tiny clothes, tiny shoes, just right to get comfortable. phillip, this is difficult for parents to explain to their kids, to help them understand exactly what's happening here. the original capacity, 5,000, now more than 8600. this has been designated now as an evac wee shelter. they'll welcome everyone and figure out how to find a place for them. i asked the volunteers what is your limit? they said we don't have one. phillip? >> yeah, julia, thank you. that's one of the largest areas people have, that's why they

chose the convention kenner the to use as a shelter. they're expecting nearly 30,000 people to need that help and to have evacuated from their home. outside cities, like dallas, several shelters have opened and they're getting filled to capacity. we're seeing an entire community, tens of thousands of people who have nowhere else to go because of harvey. >> still no relief with that rain still coming down. phillip, thank you. we'll check back in with you. animals had to ride out the storm. alligators, another one followed its lead. they're warning residents to watch out for alligators.

the hawk is now in the care of a wildlife rehab center. an update on this clever pooch, took the internet by storm, he's something of a looter. it's okay. his name is otis. >> he knew where they kept that bag behind the ice machine. so, he went back there and he spotted it and he said, well, you know, everybody else's taking provisions. i'm going take my provision and the lumberyard keeps the food on hand just for otis. who carried that bag all the way home, there he is, dry, few people in that scenario. anything positive. >> otis is storm-ready. unfortunately the tragedy continues to unfold. now we're watching some of the

big reservoirs. the water is coming in so fast they're about to overflee. buffalo bayou goes right through houston. the blue line there, that's the top of the spillway the purple line, even though they started releasing the water just not doing the job. we'll have water flooded new areas on the northwest reservoir and the other story today and developing, the river, the forecast is still 59 feet, that's about five feet higher than the previous record. that goes right through friday. that's painful for those people in the shelters waiting to see if their houses g

hot, high temperature about 115 in palm springs. we'll talk more about how much more rain is to come with this foreca forecast. >> bill, thank you. we do have other stories to tell you about. north korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile through japanese airspace. just before 6:00 a.m. local time this morning. japanese prime minister shinzo abe described it as a significant threat. spanish researchers found drinking four cups of coffee a day can low er your risk of death. and apple is expected to unveil three devices. t now it'so take control with stelara® stelara® works differently for adults with moderately

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released the reservoir, everything happened so fast this morning. >> you weren't flooded before then? >> no, the water was rising. but we weren't flooded. that really triggered and accelerated the process. >> speaking with lester holt after rescued just west of houston. she blames the army corps of engineers for flooding her home for with the controlled release. president trump will check in on relief efforts. we're live in corpus christi, the president is going where you are but not hard-hit houston. >> reporter: right. houston at this point is still obviously under water and extenting more rain. they consider that and thought it was too dangerous for the president to be there. he was very concerned about the fact that he might cause a distraction to the recovery effort that's under way there. didn't want to be a burden.

i'll go to corpus, see some of the damage there. local officials here the mayor of rockport, they're very enthusiastic about trump's visit. he'll return to washington with that and pass some sort of bipartisan funding bill. it's going to be billions of dollars and quite some time before they're back on their feet. >> all right, katie, thank you. still ahead -- food price wars and the city of dallas prepares for thousands of displaced storm residents. that's next. protect from uv rays and harmful blue light. both indoors... and out. they seamlessly adapt. so you can live the good light™. find an eyecare professional at transitions.com. now, finance your glasses with no interest if paid in full within six months,

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it's the megamerger that's the talk of dinner tables across the country. amazon closing its deal to buy whole foods and cutting prices in the grocery world. >> reporter: on its first day running whole foods, amazon slashing prices by as much as 43% on more than a dozen staples to start. bananas that once sold for 79 cents a pound are 49 cents a pound today. organic fuji apples, once 3.49 a pounds, $1.99, and lean ground beef, $6.99 a pound last week, today $4.99.

amazon is also pushing its own echo, the voice-activated speaker. the prime members nationwide get special savings and customer rewards program. all shoppers can already buy whole fooded-branded products on amazon.com. grocery analysts say the idea is to bring in younger customers who already shop on amazon. >> they are not afraid to take a hit on their bottom line a long period of time so they can grow. i see this as a move to try and get into the grocery business as quickly and fast as they possibly can. >> reporter: this bold move will probably now lead to a grocery price war for now. the goal, bring whole foods closer to the competition and shake that infamous nickname, whole paycheck. nbc news, los angeles. just ahead, we go to dallas as they prepare for an influx of evacuees from tropical storm

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thousands of evacuees pouring into the city of dallas. this convention center you see behind me has transformed into a megashelter and it alone is expected to house up to 5,000 gulf coast area evacuees, people coming from the worst-hit places in texas. people coming in the worst possible conditions, watching events unfold back home. i want you to listen to a soundbite from an evac wee who finally made it into dallas last night from texas. let's listen. >> you look exhausted. >> i am. >> what's your mental state right now. >> stressed. that's about all. >> you look blank almost. >> el with, i mean, here i am in a city i know nobody, got no money, no car, clothes i'm

wearing and my dog. >> reporter: people like martin who we just heard from, frances, they'll be flown n bussed into the city of dallas and many will be coming here as i mentioned lining up behind this door in the shelter. it's closed right now. but we're expecting to see a lot of activity in the coming hours throughout the hours. we'll be bringing you those images live. frances. >> heartbreaking they're going through this all by themselves and relying on the onrossty of others. thank you for the update. just ahead -- before and after. a look at harvey's devastating impact on eastern texas. you're watching "early today." hundreds of dollars on youmy car insurance. saved me huh. i should take a closer look at geico... (dog panting)

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welcome back, the path of harvey does it move finally over the next couple days. it will linger for about 24 more hours and then the heavy rain should be gone and heading further to the north. one more day of possibility of catastrophic rain. southwest of houston could pick up another 5 to 10 inches of rain on top of it. some will report over 50 inches of rainfall. lot of our computers are slowly taking the heaviest rain away from houston during the day today. but too late. >> hard to imagine one more day. >> and watch out for beaumont. bad flooding there. new footage continues to come in daring rescues

throughout texas. those images are putting the human toll into perspective. for more we go to phillip mena, my co-anchor. >> reporter: frances, all this catastrophic rain and flooding is leading to catastrophic changes in the houston landscape. i'm at the buffalo bayou here, runs right through downtown houston. take a look at the before and after pictures. this area was one of the most coveted areas of real estate in all of houston. beautiful strip of land with parks and it was set right in front of the houston skyline. and now, it's all just covered, just e immersed in water and it's just astounding to see the stark difference between the way it was and the way it is now. one of the most costly disasters in texas' history, or at least

one of them. it will take years to rebuild. we can get it back to looking the way it was at some point, frances. >> a long way to go before that, phillip, thank you. as more and more people become victims of harvey, we have a list of charitable organizations linked own our facebook page. the way to donate to food banks, diaper banks. and the salvation army is accepting donations and the red cross is collecting donations online by cell and via text. all that information there on your screen. we thank you for being with us. stay with nbc news and your nbc stations throughout the day for the latest headlines. thanks for watching. see you again.

a very good tuesday morning to you. let's take a peek outside overlooking downtown san jose this morning. wow. cooling trend coming our way. pretty hot yesterday. i'll fan you. >> two degrees cooler. >> good morning to you. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm marcus washington. thanks for joining us this morning. a great day to get out and cool off any way you can. >> it is still going to be really hot. we don't have the excessive heat warnings and advisories today but we are still looking at some 90s across much of the bay area. as we start out this morning here is a look at our high temperatures for the south bay. san jose up to 87 degrees and in moan