captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, august 26: hurricane harvey hits texas. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.b.p. foundation. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been

provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. once-mighty hurricane harvey is weakening, and drifting slowly but dangerously over land. forecasters warn the storm is still capable of generating" catastrophic" flooding as far as 100 miles inland. after making landfall overnight, harvey was downgraded today from a category 4 hurricane, with 130-mile-an-hour winds, to tropical storm status-- still with very severe 75-mile-an-hour winds. harvey came ashore about 30 miles northeast of corpus christi, as the strongest hurricane to hit texas in almost 60 years. harvey has already dumped 20 inches of rain in some places. there's a report of one hurricane-linked death. but the storm knocked out power to almost 300,000 homes.

because of harvey, officials say about a quarter of gulf coast oil refinery production has been taken off-line. hurricane harvey struck the town of rockport, northeast of corpus christi, as a category 4 hurricane late last night. by dawn, nearly 20 inches of rain had fallen. the heavy winds caused damage to this coastal community of 10,000 people. after the roof of this senior center collapsed, some of its residents were evacuated to the county jail. despite the warnings, the storm's severity caught some off-guard. >> we're kind of just hoping. we didn't think it would end up a category 4. >> sreenivasan: near rockport, the coast guard sent helicopters to rescue the crews of three tugboats that had sent mayday notifications. nearby aransas pass was under a mandatory evacuation order, but some residents stayed behind. >> it was pretty scary. it felt like 150 mile an hour winds. i mean, it was whipping pretty good. >> sreenivasan: albert guzman prepared by moving all of his possessions into a storage

container. >> the storage pod's got everything i own in it. >> sreenivasan: in corpus christi, the closest major city to the center of the storm, there were heavy winds and downed lamp posts. but the large marina was relatively unscathed. about 75 miles north of corpus christi, the storm demolished structures in the town of victoria. the mayor estimated that 65% of the town's 65,000 residents didn't leave, despite the mandatory evacuation order. farther north, near houston, harvey was blamed for what's believed to be a tornado that touched down in the nearby town of katy. president trump signed a disaster declaration for texas before the storm hit the coast last night, and in a tweet early this morning, he said he was" closely monitoring hurricane harvey from camp david. we are leaving nothing to chance. city, state, and federal govs. working great together!" the white house said later, mr. trump and vice president mike pence met today with the cabinet and senior administration officials to

discuss the federal response. now-tropical storm harvey is now headed inland in the direction of san antonio, before it's expected to turn around and start heading back toward the coast by tomorrow morning. harvey is expected to hover over the texas coast until the middle of next week. in a news conference this afternoon, texas governor greg abbott said he had activated 1,800 texas service members and warned the worst of harvey may still be ahead. >> in various key regions ranging from corpus christi to the houston area, perhaps as much as between 20 to 30 more inches of rain could be coming down. that is coming down on already- saturated ground and already- filled-up waterways, whether it be creeks, bayous, or riverways. and so there is the potential for very dramatic flooding. >> sreenivasan: when hurricane harvey made landfall, the eye of the storm descended on corpus christi. it's a city of 325,000 people in southeastern texas, right on the coast of the gulf of mexico. natalia contreras, a reporter

for the "corpus christi caller times," joins me now by skype. you've had a chance to go out there and see it. how bad was it. >> corpus christy was pretty bad. what was surprising this morning was how it flooded. in corpus christy a lot of debris, downtown, it's still pretty windy. people are driving around about a hundred thousand people are still without power. >> sreenivasan: did a lot of people from corpus christi move to higher ground in advance of the storm. >> a lot of people did. in social media a lot of people prepared, they boarded up their homes but also at the same time a lot of people did board up their homes here and stayed here and just rided out the storm. last night we were monitoring our social media channels and we were getting reports of people who were tweeting and posting on facebook that they were at home that they were safe, that they had their pets an significant, e

hospitals on-line or any of the first responders or emergency services they're all functioning well. >> police are responding. i believe it was reported also there were babies born during the hurricane at the hospital. so right now some word from that area of town, we got word that cruiscrews guard was going to to fly people in that area. so yes hospitals are trying to help out people here. >> sreenivasan: natalia contreras reporter for the corpus christi caller times. >> sreenivasan: 130 miles inland from corpus christi lies texas' second most populous city, san antonio. a city of one-and-a-half million

residents that is perhaps best known for the alamo and its winning pro basketball team. today, san antonio is bracing for a foot of rain and severe flooding. newshour weekend's christopher booker is there with more. >> here at the salvation army is an emergency family shelter here in san antonio. less what happened as the storm made land fall and more about what's still to come. >> to get ready in the last 72 hours and even before that, we did plan for things like extra food. >> she's the manager at the shelter. >> we're in need of power and basic essentials for the clients who come in who don't come in with anything, they had to abandon their immediate place of habitation. >> even before the storm this shelter primarily for at risk families was already at full capacity. the salvation army brought in trucks with extra food ands supplies. are you worried about what the fallout will be from the storm. >> the worry is to make everybody safe and secure here

in our building and the local community coming in from the places of non-habitation. >> a few miles away at one of the red cross centers in san antonio a large volunteer effort is under way. among the volunteers are three college students who evacuated their home in corpus christi 140 miles away yesterday. >> we boarded up the house, we tried to push everything in. it was hectic and chaos in koar puskoar -- corpus was all the stores were running out. we want to get the house ready and get out of here pause we didn't want to hit traffic. >> they learned their house had been damaged in the storm. >> one of our friends back home our coworkers sent us pictures. our trees in front of the house have been up rooted. the damage could have been a lot worse with minor things and for us coming all the way over here and not being stuck in there and what we go bac back to.

>> henry is executive director of the greater san antonio red cross. he says he's not sure what aid will be needed next. how many people are currently in need of shelter. >> right now currently in san antonio i think right around a thousand people in shelters in our vicinity. the need is could be increasing or decreasing based on the situation on the ground which you know is changing. >> you've been in and around san antonio all day this is where people have evacuated and they are in preparation for the rain that's coming. >> the red cross and salvation army, we focus on the people who are basically getting ready for an unknown number of people who left the coast, basically who are at the forefront of harvey's arrival. we went to one of the areas where the state has a hundred buzz anbuss and emergency vehic0 to 15 bus convoys.

we spoke with a police officer at the gate who said they are heading towards the coast line. >> what about the flooding they're expecting to have? >> right now there's basically some flooding. it's just standing water in san antonio. we visit areas in the city that are known to flood and some of the roads were indeed closed but the flooding itself wasn't very high. we saw mail truck delivering mail coming through the streets. it really didn't seem to be cutting up too much of the activity of the city. >> chris booker, thanks so much. >> sreenivasan: 200 miles east of san antonio is houston, the most populous city in texas, with two-and-a-quarter million people. it's the 4th largest city in the u.s. houston is also a hub for the nation's oil refinery industry. the national weather service forecasts the city could be deluged by 15 to 30 inches of rain in the coming days. dianna hunt is the metro editor of "the houston chronicle" and joins me now by skype to discuss the impact harvey could have and preparations for the hurricane there.

how is the city preparing? >> the city is doing what it usually does. people are hunkering down, they're putting, tying thing down. we had a little bit of a break with harvey strange as it may seem because we didn't have the hurricane come ashore here. we haven't had the high winds that we can sometimes get with hurricanes. those have all been south of us. so the refinery and the oil industry here hasn't been as devastated, haven't had to tighten things down as they would have normally. we had some winds but not hurricane force winds. now we're just waiting. >> sreenivasan: one of the things i noticed on the map of all the different areas in houston who could flood or are prone to flood if you have high rains. we're talking 15 to 30 inches of rain that's a lot of water. >> that's going to be devastating. that brings to mind tropical storm allison wasn't a hurricane, 2001 dropped 25

inches over about a 24 hour period if i recall. we had 18 wheelers floating down the interstate just north of downtown. so the city can't handle that much rain over a short period of time. the bayou flood, we had rivers headed toward the golf, the streets can't handle it. we get a lot of street flooding. now we're having some street flooding. we're anticipating rescues going on soon. at the moment western part of houston, we're not even getting rain but there's some rain going on in the north eastern part of the city and the county. >> sreenivasan: how about the people that do live in the lower lying areas in the houston suburbs or in houston proper, are they being told to evacuate or are authorities telling them listen the infrastructure is not ready for the kind of water you're about to get? >> houston is so big, it's about 6 00 square miles and how much rain and where it hits can determine whether to evacuate.

there's no massive evacuation of houston and no real orders to that effect. we had two back to back floods over the last two years. tax day flood and a was moral day flood before that. the green point area had a lot of home flooding lots of apartments, a lot of people displaced. it just depends on how much rain a certain area gets at a certain period of time. >> sreenivasan: what about thdrainage, where does all that water go that hits the asphalt or the pavement of houston it goes down the storm drinkdrains and then what happe. >> we have a fairly elaborate bayou system here. bayous are bigger than creek and smaller than a river. one that's inundated, it just starts to back up. that's just the nature of houston. it's build on a plot, very low city and we've had flooding here for decades. preerm worse now than it has been. >> sreenivasan: dianna hunt from the houston chronicle.

thank you so much. >> sreenivasan: the united states pacific command says last night's missile tests by north korea involved short-range missiles. the u.s. and the south korean military say two missiles fired from inside north korea flew 155 miles before landing in the sea, while a third missile blew up immediately. north korea's short range missiles cannot reach the u.s. mainland, hawaii, or the u.s. territory of guam. following stepped-up united nations sanctions, north korea had gone a month without any missile tests, prompting secretary of state rex tillerson to say this week that he was" pleased" north korea had been showing "restraint." yesterday's missile tests came toward the end of annual, joint military drills between the u.s. and south korea. a search is underway for one american crewman missing after a u.s. black hawk helicopter crashed off the southern coast of yemen last night. the five other crewmen who were on board have been rescued. the pentagon says the black hawk was on a routine training flight

when it went down. the u.s. military is supporting a saudi-led coalition battling shiite rebels in yemen. british police are detaining a man who drove his car toward police guarding buckingham palace, the london home of queen elizabeth, last night. scotland yard says the 26-year- old man stopped his car and got out with a four-foot-long sword. the suspect shouted "god is great" in arabic before being subdued. three police officers were slightly injured in the confrontation. no members of the royal family were home at the time. a massive crowd, estimated to number hundreds of thousands, marched today in barcelona, spain, in a show of unity to honor the 15 people killed in last week's terrorist vehicle attacks. many chanted "i am not afraid" and carried banners with the same message. one of the marchers was king felipe vi, the first time a spanish monarch has ever taken part in a public demonstration. eight of the suspected terrorist attackers are dead, including the driver of the van on the famous "las ramblas" pedestrian street. two more are jailed on murder and other charges.

iraq government officials say their u.s.-backed army is on the verge of completing the recapture of the city of tal afar, one of the last isis strongholds in the country. tal afar is about 50 miles west of mosul, iraq's second largest city, which fell to iraqi forces last month, and less than 100 miles from the syrian border. the tal afar offensive began only last weekend. today, iraqi forces raised their flag over what's left of the citadel in the center of the city, and said only 5% of the city remains in isis hands. president trump's decision to pardon convicted, former arizona sheriff joe arpaio is oving as controversial as the sheriff himself. the 85-year-old arpaio defied a federal judge's order to stop detaining latinos on the suspicion they were illegal immigrants, without any evidence. he was facing a maximum six- month jail term for criminal contempt. until he was voted out of office last year, arpaio spent 24 years as the sheriff of maricopa county, which includes phoenix. his national reputation centered on his steadfast campaign to

arrest undocumented immigrants. for years, arpaio's critics said his deputies racially profiled latinos, and eventually the justice department proved it in court. arpaio also jailed some people in his jurisdiction convicted of crimes in an outdoor, desert tent city and made them work in chain gangs. he once boasted the tent city could be compared to a concentration camp. his successor has closed it. announcing the decision last night, the white house said arpaio gave "years of admirable service to our nation" and called him a "worthy candidate for a presidential pardon." later in a tweet, mr. trump called arpaio "an american patriot" who "kept arizona safe!" in a tweet of his own, arpaio thanked the president and called his conviction last month "a political witch hunt by holdovers in the obama justice department." however, the f.b.i. investigation of arpaio for civil rights violations began during the administration of george w. bush. the pardon was unusual in that arpaio had yet to be sentenced and had not expressed any

remorse for his crime, nor was any pardon application submitted for justice department review. this is the first pardon by president trump, and it comes much earlier into his time in office than the first pardons by previous presidents barack obama or george w. bush. some arizona republicans, including a former governor, applauded the pardon, while others like senator john mccain said the pardon "undermines" mr. trump's claim "for the respect of the rule of law." democratic senate leader chuck schumer denounced the pardon, saying arpaio "systematically" targeted latinos, which schumer called the "definition of racism and bigotry." another controversial, senior white house staffer has been fired. sebastian gorka worked on national security issues, but many critics had questioned his expertise and credentials. he appeared frequently on tv to defend mr. trump's policies, particularly on immigration. gorka had been allied with top trump strategist steve bannon, who was fired last week.

>> sreenivasan: president trump has formalized his ban on transgender americans serving in the u.s. military, signing the official memorandum late yesterday. the order asks the defense secretary to determine what to do about currently-enlisted members of the military who are transgender. it also prohibits the military from spending money on surgery for military members who are transitioning. joining me now to discuss the president's latest actions is newshour weekend special correspondent jeff greenfield, who's in santa barbara, california. jeff, is there something that binds all these different actions together? >> yes, it's all about the base. so you have the second level departing whitehouse aide charging that the whitehouse has been captured by the globalists, the knee oh conservatists, the enemies of the steve bannon nationalists. if you want to appeal the base, you please the social conservatives with the bannon trans genders of the military then you pardon sheriff art pie

pie -- our pi arpaio. and you say obama's plan to protect the children of undocumented immigrants, that may be going by the wayside. that's all about shoring up the promises you made to be tough on immigration and to side with the social conservatives. >> sreenivasan: why do that on a friday night literally as a hurricane is coming to shore? >> for anybody else, you'd have the suspicions that he was trying to hide it. but remember trump all but announced he was going to issue that pardon at a very well covered ruckus rally in phoenix. so with trump, there was something about friday night because it's been happening all summer where everybody else goes home and he's left alone with his iphone and the tweets and decisions start coming. >> sreenivasan: let's talk about the pardonnene pardoned he people are also seeing a different message from that. >> right. the obvious message is to the people who want to crack down on

immigration if you're with me on that i want to protect you. but for a lot oh trump's critics, they're looking at other people, they're looking at paulman fort, the former campaign manager, general flynn both who are in the cross hairs of special counsel mueller. some people are saying if there's a mean here, if you protect me, if you stand with me i'll make sure you do not suffer legal consequences which is another way of saying if you're thinking about flipping as they say in the law, turning the tables on me or my son or my son-in-law, remember i've got this pardon power. >> sreenivasan: joe arpaio is already using this as an opportunity to raise some funds he says for his legal defenses. >> it's very expensive to put on a criminal defense and now he's got the president of the united states basically saying not just i'm pardoning you, i forgive you. there's nothing to forgive. you did the right thing. >> sreenivasan: all of this is also happening around arizona and you've got senator john mccain pushing back even against joe arpaio saying hey, mr. president, you said you

respect the rule of law but this goes, you're supporting a guy who went against a federal judge. >> not only that but the other senator jeff flake who has been very critical of the president, trump at his rally all but said i'm going to back one of his opponents in the primary. flake is one of the two republican incumbents who is seen as most endangered. that in turn is not pleasing people like senate majority leader mitch mcconnel who wants to keep his senate majority more probably than he wants to be nice to president trump. it's an amazingly unpredictable unprecedent series of events and it's going to get weirder. >> sreenivasan: let's talk a little bit about the consequences here down the line when they get back in session. >> it's astonishing what's on the table. relatively short amount on time to fund the government or the government shuts down. even more perilous they've got to raise the debt ceiling. if not, the full credit of the united states is in the doubt. what does that mean.

countless dollars in borrowing cost and potential destabilization of the entire world financial market. now normally presidents really care with not doing either one of those things but you have trump saying if they're not going to build the wall, then maybe we should shut down the government. and you have the most conservative members of the house republican caucus, the freedom caucus folks who are prepared it looks like to say if you don't hit the debt ceiling and things we care about maybe we won't vote for it and let the heavens fall. it's another of 500 examples where people like me keep telling people you know this is not normal. this isn't the way the government normally works. >> sreenivasan: if you actually had a government shut down and we've had these conversations before when we've come to the brink and it's been kind of veered off the last minute, there are a couple days where people in washington d.c. could go home. what are the significant

consequences? >> if it's just the kind of shut down that's happened where they close the national parks and they close the monuments for a few days, i'm glad you asked this because people always said in the last one, the republicans took a real hit. they were blamed for the government shut down. but if you look at what happened in like the last mid term elections of 2014, no, they didn't. they had a second huge vehicle tree. vehicle ---victory. one thing i would be nervous about is the political power for the republicans. on the other hand they have everything now. they got the whitehouse and the congress. so maybe this time the government shut down would really wind up having series political consequences. we've been surprised so often in the past but what has and hasn't happened, a little hu humility s in order here. >> sreenivasan: all right, thank you very much. >> sreenivasan: scientists have detected 91 volcanoes under a massive ice sheet in west antarctica. you can read more at

www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: on tomorrow's brodcast continuing coverage of harvey and the damage in texas and a report on how big business is tackling climate change. that's it for this edition of newshour weekend, i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by:

bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more, pbs.

-this prograram is brought to you in part by a passion for better understanding our world. thoughtful travel can engage our minds, challenge our assumptions, broaden our perspectives, and completely surprise us, just like public television. and by... -bread for the world, an advocacy organization working to end hunger and poverty at home and abroad. -hi. i'm rick steves, back with more of the best of europe. this time, we're celebrating the traditions in umbria and tuscany. it's the heart of italy. thanks for joining us.