captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> o'brien: good evening. i'm miles o'brien. judy woodruff is away. on the newshour tonight: wading into the wreckage. as flood waters recede in houston, rescue crews move door-to-door, and an explosion at a chemical plant fuels fears of the challenges ahead. then, returning home after harvey. we join texans as they see the damage to their neighborhoods for the first time. and, rise of the robots. making sense of what a future with driver-less cars and automated lawyers might mean for your job. >> almost every profession i look at where you require human labor or you require intelligence, i see computers being able to do better than us within the next ten years. >> o'brien: all that and more,

on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals.

>> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> o'brien: harvey is gone, but houston still faces texas-sized problems tonight. it runs the gamut from catastrophic housing loss to the dangers of damaged chemical plants. and as the region struggles to recover, officials are searching for the living, and the dead. william brangham begins our coverage. >> reporter: above: it's more sunshine and mostly clear skies. but down below: flooding from harvey, still as far as the eye can see. as the water begins to recede, fire and rescue crews in houston are going door-to-door in flooded neighborhoods, hoping they won't discover more bodies. >> we're finding out, just to

see how much damage there is, if there is any civilians that have been left behind. we don't think we're going to find any humans, but we're prepared if we do. >> reporter: at the same time, many of those who fled the floods were returning to their homes today, to assess what's left. i'm in the north-eastern part of the city, one of the areas hit hardest by flooding, people even began pulling their soaked belongings out to the curb. just outside houston, there were small explosions at a chemical plant, sending 30-foot flames and plumes of smoke into the air. a power outage had left containers of volatile chemicals unrefrigerated, and as they heated up, they ignited. it happened at the arkema site in crosby, texas. dozens of workers were removed before the hurricane. and officials had already ordered people living within a mile and a half to leave. >> we're trying to make sure that our citizens are comfortable in what's going on,

and that they know the truth. and so with that, these are small container ruptures, that may have a sound-- excuse me-- may have a sound of a pop or something of that nature. this is not a massive explosion. >> reporter: the u.s. environmental protection agency said the smoke posed no immediate threat to public health. 15 sheriff's deputies went to hospitals, but most were quickly released. to the east, orange county, texas ordered a mandatory evacuation this afternoon, as the neches river surged higher. the river also knocked out the water supply in the city of beaumont. that forced the evacuation of nearly 200 hospital patients by air, and the closure of local shelters. >> we are not sheltering anybody any more. with the situation that we are in with the water, we are having people, people that are displaced, we are finding other locations for them. that's what we're working on. >> reporter: vice president mike pence, his wife karen, and other members of president trump's

cabinet today visited areas of texas hit by harvey. the vice president again promised full federal support, in the severely damaged city of rockport, where harvey first came ashore. >> we are with you, the american people are with you. >> reporter: meanwhile, harvey's hit on the country's energy supply also came into focus. colonial pipeline said it's shutting down part of a key line that moves nearly 40% of the south's gasoline. it could start carrying fuel again by sunday. but the interruption, coupled with the closure of several big texas refineries, sent gas prices soaring. in turn, energy secretary rick perry, a former texas governor, and part of the pence entourage, announced he's releasing 500,000 barrels of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. >> gas prices are going to go up because of the cut in supply. every state's attorney general

will be watching to make sure that there's no price gouging going on, and anybody that is considering raising prices above what would be considered to be appropriate need to watch out. >> reporter: to the north, remnants of harvey moved farther inland. it's been downgraded to a tropical depression, but it's still soaking western louisiana and southern arkansas. and, as much as 10 inches of rain could fall in mississippi, tennessee and kentucky in the hours ahead. that report from william brangham. william, houston is no stranger to flooding. do you get the sense that people there see this as if you excuse the term, a watershed. >> yes, in many ways houstonians are familiar with flooding, it has been going on for decades what is not talked about as often is the way houston

continues to grow has substantially exacerbated what those floods do tho to this area. the nickname for houston is the city with no limits and in many ways that is true. the growth that occurred the last few decades have been explosive and they have been digging up farm land outside the skirteds of the city and they put up parking lots and highways and developments. you don't have to be a hydrologist to know that if you replace spongy, absorbent farmlands with hard concrete surfaces, when a lot of comes down that water will flood these neighborhoods. so harvey was going to be a problem no matter what. but there are many people who argue that there could have been things done in the decades past that could have made harvey a little less damaging. >> it sounds like there is a big civic conversation that needs to occur in houston that might be a little bit overdue. >> certainly that conversation has gone on in the past. but every time reforms have been suggested, they have been put aside for one reason or another. after i believe it was ike in 2008 there were numerous flood

control projects that were proposed, they were shell of the. after allison came through and devastated a lot of this area, more reforms were proposed, they were put aside. voters here have several times said they don't want to change the zoning laws which are incredibly lax and don't really require cities and townships to put in good flood control measures. so every time this has come up as a conversation, people recognize that it's an issue but the incentives of economic growth and economic development and inexpensive housing are very powerful. so the conversation maybe will occur again but right now the focus is really on rescue and recovery. >> william brangham in houston, thank you. >> you're welcome, miles. >> o'brien: louisiana is the next target for harvey's wrath. like texas, the terrain is prone to flooding and for residents there, the worst is yet to come. congressman clay higgins represents louisiana's third district, which covers much of the state's southwest coast. he's a former law enforcement officer and now serves on the house science committee. i spoke with him by phone a

short time ago. congressman higgins, thanks for being with us. i know you were very worried about your district in advance of harvey and the concern was that there be a direct blow on that second approach to landfall. it appears you dodged that bullet. give us a sense though of what the consequences of harvey were in your district. >> well, the hit exactly at the state border which my district, of course, includes the parishes in louisiana that border texas in the southern portion of the state. so so many of our citizens from louisiana and from the district that i represent were part of that rescue, civilian rescue effort that is commonly referred to as the cajun navy was essentially just thousands and thousands of civilians with

boats and four wheel drive trucks that load up their vehicles with water and food and temporary shelter and they just roll out to areas, neighborhoods that have been flooded. and they begin reses cueing people from-- rescuing people from second floor, you know, apartments or from rooftops or out of atiqs. a very common mistake is for someone as a house begins to flood they go up to the second story or crawl to the attic and then they have no way out. so we have to use chainsaws to cut through the roof in order to get sometimes whole families out of an attic on to a boat and then to high ground and then from there, they have to be picked up by buses and brought to a shell ter, a temporary shelter until they can get put somewhere more permanent until they can return to their homes and begin the recovery process. i've been through many storms, brother, and i've never seen

this much water, never. not in katrina and not in any of the storms that hit louisiana. i'm 56 years old. i have never seen this much water temped at one time. >> tell us a little bit about how many shelters you have in your district, how many people have come from the hard hit areas and are being sheltered there. >> we have two major shelters set up in-- parish in the lake charles area with hundreds and hundreds of displayed americans out of texas that have been brought into those shelters. so it's quite an endeavor. there are so many entities working with this response and recovery, and rescue efforts that it can be quite difficult to coordinate all those entities, especially when you include civilians working in massive quantities just out of the goodness of their heart, out of their own pocket, they don't get a dime back, you understand. and you have large government

responses. it can be quite complicated. >> congressman clay higgins, republican of lust lust, thank you for your time. >> thank you and god bless you for shedding light on this and for your kindness during this interview. i thank you for your journalistic integrity, sir. >> o'brien: the record-breaking nature of harvey has renewed the conversation about the role of climate change in extreme weather events. congressman higgins has been public about his denial of human influence. i asked him if the events of the last week have at all changed his mind. you can listen to that exchange on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. >> o'brien: today's explosions at the arkema chemical plant northeast of houston are underscoring concerns about the hazards of dangerous chemicals in the area. houston is a major hub for

refineries and has some of the largest petrochemical operations in the country. our science producer, nsikan akpan, has been looking into those concerns, and published a piece this week documenting some of the other leaks and ruptures in the region. >> it is on our web pij, nsikan, tell us a little about what we know about ar connect-- arkema, what is apping there. >> arkema produces organic peroxide that produce plastics, they are inherently unstable. so they tend to react with other elements in the environment. they are also very sensitive to the heat. so arkema was storing these compounds in refrigerated boxes and when the power went out, the heat rose, it lead to pressure to build and you have this explosion. >> and unfortunately the backup systems didn't keep the materials cool and hence you had this deficit. let's listen basically to richard raynard an executive with arkema. >> what we have is a fire. when you have a fire where

hydrocarbons, chemicals are burning, sometimes you have incomplete come bust shun and you have smoke, any smoke will be an irritant to your eyes or your lungs or potentially your skin. so if you are exposed to that, we certainly are encouraging anyone that may be exposed to the smoke coming from this fire to call their doctor or to seek medical advice. >> so point well taken. it's not as bad as an outright leak, i suppose, but with the smoke, there is some concern, isn't there? >> exactly. i mean these compounds are cor rossive which means they tend to react with things. they want to react with the water in your eyes, with the compounds in your skin. and that might explain why 15 deputies from the sheriff's office were sent to the hospital because, you know, potentially they were exposed to this incomplete burn that he brought up. >> good reason to have that mile and a half zone around it where people should not go in for now until this gets sorted out. let's look at the bigger

picture. houston in general, huge pet ro chemical facilities, a number of them, you have had a chance to look at the big picture, tell us what people are looking at, what concerns there are. >> so the sierra club looked into epa data and found that 170 chemical petrochemical and oil & gas hazardous waste facilities exist in harris county which is home to houston. many of these facilities exist in flood plains. and we know that at least a dozen of them were damaged by the hurricanes. >> obviously a lot of petrochemicals in houston. give us an idea of the types of concerns, the specific problems that can crop up. >> so it is known that petrochemical companies have these emissions when thefer-- whenever they start up and shut down. so before the hurricane even arrived, there were reports, regulatory filings by these companies showing that they were releasing hundreds of pounds of these chemicals into the air. but most of them were done in a controlled way, which isn't so much of a hazard to the environment. if you leak these very slowly, they spread out in the air and

they are not going to be toxic to somebody. what happened was after the hurricane hit there was so much rain, so much wind that there was damage to what is called floating roof tanks. and so the floating roof tank is exactly what the name suggests, right. so you have a roof that moves up and down depending how you fill the tank. and what it allows for a certain amount of venting, for a certain amount of the chemical to turn to vapor. what happened was some of these facilities, these tanks took on so much water that their roofings actually collapsed into the liquid that they were holding which allowed the vapors to escape into the air. >> so let's talk about other potential hazards. a lot of super fund sites if houston what about those. >> there about a house super fund sites in harris county in the flood plains, so far harris countyssued about 45 boil water advisories, and i think about, and there are about 160 issued for the state.

>> okay. so you could ask the question we knew a hurricane could hit houston, of course. are these facilities, when you look at the big picture, are they hardened enough against that threat? >> well, so other studies have looked at these floating roof tanks and shown that when hurricanes hit, that they do tend to take on destruction. so due to the fact that they are built with very thin walls, that they have very untirdy foundations, these things do tend to move around when there is a lot of rain and wind. >> nsikan akpan is our science producer, thank you. >> o'brien: there are lots of questions about the health risks associated with this explosion, and what people need to know about the air and water. dr. anthony fauci of the national institute of health is here to guide us on some of the public health questions about these toxic chemicals. fir of all, give us an idea, when we hear about kem kales like organic peroxides or benzyne either in the air or water, that

naturally raises people's concerned, help us calculate-- calibrate how concerned we should be. >> it depends on the con sen taition of these things. you were talking about the smoke because of the fire and the burning. had the authorities in that area cordoned off the area so that you have a circle around so that you don't get direct exposure to that, exposure, if they are mild in the sense of daily just a small concentration, it's mostly an irritant, particularly the peroxides, that in that smoke would irritate the skin or even irritate the lungs. so for the most time it could be either just a little bit of a nuisance irritant or if you get a really big whiff of it, particularly people who have, for example, reversible airways disease like asthma or different types of hypersensitivity diseases, you could get a serious problem. for the most part what i'm seeing and hearing that is being done there, about cordoning off

an area to keep people far enough away that at worst it would be just an irritant, hopefully it stays that way and we don't see any more of it going to where people are. >> what about when we hear about chemicals that end up for one reason or another in the water itself. how big a concern should that be? >> it really depends on what the chemical is. you had mentioned hydrocarbons, things like benzyne and tuloine, those are more an an irritant because they with:can be absorbed from the gastrointestinal track or lungs, it is really a whopping dose, i don't want people to get concerned that if it is a really diluted in water that there will be a problem. but at its worse it does have the potential to cause organ system disfunction like liver or kidneys or even central nervous system and even some cardia arrhythmias. but again, that's in the extreme. you don't want people to be

concentrating that that is going to happen to them if they are in the water and you have a very low concentration of these. but ultimately the capability of that really depends on what the dose is and the concentration. >> tell us about some of the other immediate health concerns people in your position have as they look at houston. >> yeah, well, it really is a broad spectrum. it goes from anything from the immediate acute thing, we have already seen it on tv multiple times. you have people, for example, who could drown, that tragic situation of a family drowning in a van. you have people who could get electrocuted, could you have injuries. that is the first thing, then when you have the water which is contaminated with sue age, you can have multiple problems with that. it could be, you could have gastrointestinal problems like inadvertently swallowing some of the contaminated water that is contaminated with sue age and you can get a variety of bacterial or viral types of gas

fro-- gastroenteritis. also you can irritate or get infections in the skin. you could have either obvious lesions, scrapes and cuts, for example, on your lower body. we have seen people who are in the water up to their waste. those are the kind of things that people need to be aware of. that is one of the reasons why secretary price of hhs declared a public health emergency and why rur own cdc, the centers for disease control and prevention are working with the local and state authorities to make people aware of this broad spectrum of health hazards that you need to pay attention to. >> as you look toward the long-term what are the real concerns, we're talking years down the road for people who have been through something like this? >> well, for the long-term down the road, clearly whenever you have traumas like this with natural disasters, there always is the situation of mental issues. namely depressions, either depressions in people who have

not been depressed or exacerbation of people who have a propenceity it depression. and even post traumatic stress disorder. also as i think people don't fully appreciate sometimes, when you have a situation like this that we're seeing on the ground, people get dissociated to their medical care. they don't have access to their standard medications they take or need medical care that gets interrupted can have long-term effects on their health later on as well as immediate effects on their health. those are the kind of things that you don't immediately think of when you think of a hurricane or a flood but that are important health issues. >> dr. anthony fauci is the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious disease, thank you for your time. >> good to be with you. >> o'brien: according to the latest estimates, about 100,000 homes were damaged by harvey. but today in houston, as the skies are clear and the water starts to recede, it was the first time many were able to see the destruction first-hand. our william brangham joined some

on their journey back home, and he is back with this story. >> reporter: this is your place? >> yeah. >> reporter: wow. this is jonny silva's first day back home since the flood. the waters have receded, and now he and his wife are here to see the damage. >> water was here. >> reporter: jonny's a pipe- fitter for the oil and gas industry. his family evacuated in the middle of the night when the water kept coming in. >> i've got two kids. one boy and one girl. >> reporter: this was their room? >> yes. >> reporter: jonny says he doesn't want his son and daughter to come and see this. he thinks it'll be too tough for them to see how bad things are. so what are you going to do? >> i don't know. we called the numbers for help. so you know, we got to wait. i don't know. for real. >> reporter: they live in an apartment complex in a lower- income, minority neighborhood, and everyone here is going through the same process: coming home, assessing the damage,

and just wondering how to rebuild. >> now i see how the people in new orleans really felt. >> reporter: phyclicia joseph-- like most people here-- was evacuated by boat. a few residents rode out the storm up on the second floor of the complex. she spent the last two days crowded in a relative's apartment. >> she had a one-bedroom-- 20 of us in a one-bedroom. >> reporter: 20 people in a one- bedroom? >> we made it to her house and we went from there, we just made it home today. today. but we did the best we could. but it's really sad. >> reporter: phylicia has an apartment here. so does her sister. so does her aunt. they've all lost nearly everything they own. >> it's all gone, it's damaged. but i'm glad we have our lives. i'm not really worried about material things because we can always get this back-- we can't get our lives back. >> reporter: one of her neighbors wasn't so lucky. the woman who lived in this apartment here had come back to

check on her two dogs, but when the local bayou overflowed, its surge of water-- strong enough to knock over these fences-- swept her off her feet and she drowned. neighbors are looking after the dogs. it's estimated that 80% of the people in the hardest-hit parts of the houston area don't have any flood insurance. everyone we spoke to here were renters, and none of them had coverage. victor's a chef at a local hospital. he saw the body of his neighbor who was swept away-- he initially evacuated with his wife and mother and two daughters. his apartment is now a soggy, stinking mess. he has no flood insurance either-- he lost replaceable things, like beds, a fridge and furniture, but irreplaceable ones too. how long before you think you can get back to normal? >> man, i don't know. to be honest, i really don't know, cause, man--

>> reporter: i'm sorry. >> kind of sucks. >> reporter: he's also upset because while he was evacuated, he says someone stole his tools. you think it's just people taking advantage of a disaster? >> yeah, quick buck. >> reporter: the people here are doing what tens of thousands are doing across houston, and southeast texas today. it's the same, all-too-familiar ritual after almost every natural disaster-- assess, grieve, and start the long road back to normal. for the pbs newshour, i'm william brangham in houston, texas. >> o'brien: while lousiana gets battered by harvey, new orleans is not in the crosshairs this time.

12 years ago this week, it was a different story, as katrina made landfall. and there are lessons to be learned about the long, difficult road of recovery ahead for houston. mitch landrieu is the mayor of new orleans, and joins us now. i'm curious what your best advice is to other cities more hard hit this time. >> well, it's not really a time to give advice. can i tell you i had an opportunity to watch your previous two segments, it's just heartbreaking, it brings back so many incredibly difficult memories and exactly what was said in both of those segments is unbelievably presh yent and correct. those individuals that lost everything will go through a very, very difficult time. this is one of the worst disasters that the country has ever seen, it's hard to compare the two but it's clearly as big if not bigger than katrina. and of course people lost everything.

and so there upended. a lot of people are in shelters, you can see what is happening down in the south western part of louisiana and in the eastern part of texas and beaumont with them still suffering the effects of the storm and rescues, not being complete yet. so the rest of the nation is going to rally to the cause, they're going to be there to support the people of texas and the people of southwest, louisiana. i want congress to learn the less on of sandy and katrina and not quibble over how much, it's going to be an extensive amount of money. i know they will step up to the plate and make sure the financial resources are available to help this community stand back up. this is a national crisis. it requires an immense and a total and complete national response and i know that our nation is up to it. >> you get the sense that we're learning the same-- or not learning the same lesson over and over again or are we getting better at this? >> well, to a certain extent. i can say this, that the emergency response teams across america are far better prepared. and you can see the response happening right now on the federal, state and local level. this doesn't happen by one level

of government. and our first responders are out there, doing a really, really good job on a very difficult circumstances. there are very few, actually there are no cities in america that can prepare adequately for a category four storm that dropped 50-inches of water in a short period of time. it's just not possible. and you know, people are trying to get out of harm away. we just have to make sure they have what they need. now there is the rescue. there is the recovery. and then this is the long-term thing you were talking about a minute ago, the rebuilt. it's not something that happens overnight, people get disassociate from their homes. they feel a lack of security. they don't have the financial resources to stand back up. the one thing they should not have to suffer is what happened after katrina and then after sandy for a minimal period of time, about wondering whether or not the resources will be there. this is clearly going to be in excess of a hundred billion dollar event. i done think that there is any question about that. but it's really important that the nation step up to the plate and do this, as a federal government n partnership with the state and local authorities.

now the other thing that you are going to see, you are seeing it already, is miraculous, which is people helping each other. i just talked to a guy a couple of minutes ago who was here rescuing people 12 years ago and would you know it that he was in the houston area rescuing people, our chefs are over there feeding people, our firefighters are there. of course this is happening all from all over the country, it is miraculous to watch the people of america come together in difficult times where it's clear that we're all in the same boat. i think the lesson to be learned is we ought to be that way all the time. and we would all be the better for it. >> it is quite literally a two-way street. i remember houston's help of new orleans 12 years ago. you know, in the acute phase, as it were of this crisis. a lot of attention, a lot of focus. as the media turns its attention elsewhere, as we get on with our lives, that can be the hardest time for the victims, right? >> well, there's no question about it i mean and hopefully in a reasonably short period of time everyone who can be rescued will be rescued. unfortunately there will be more

deaths because there are people that have not yet been found. there are people that are in shelters. eventually they will move back into some sense of normal see to the extent that that is opinion and then the media will go on to north korea and a whole bunch of other stuff. in the mean time all of these individuals are going to be left behind. and we have to make sure as a nation that he with don't leave them behind. that we get them the resources that they need. on top of that, the economic picture is that houston and beaumont and lake charles, lust louis, are the hub of the nation's national security because of our emergency policies. just economyically we have to do it i hope congress has learned the lesson, that we don't have to quibble about this, this shouldn't have any impact on the debt ceiling. we should just get through this. this will cost the nation a lot of money it is an investment that is well worth it. all of these communities are important to the united states of america and we ought to lift up all the individuals that will be hurtment and make it easier for them to come back am but this is not a handout t is just a hand up, and it is a part of who we are as americans. >> you know, one of the lessons

of katrina, i think, was that, you know, people have a hard time moving forward after these situations. and part of that is being prepared, in advance. do you think that that lesson has been well learned? >> well, i think we're better at it. unfortunately, a lot of times folks, you know, just don't listen. sometimes folks do, and even when they do listen you get overwhelmed by a storm like this. but it really is important to understand that you can't guarantee -- guarantee that people are not going to get hurt what you have to do is be prepared and try to engage in risk reduction strategies and how we build back, where we build and things of that nature. and of course you get into the emergency response which is far superior. i think everybody could watch it on tv. this is something that has taken a long time to develop, amongst the emergency responders across the country, there is better command and control, better communication, better coordination. and this is a good effort. however you can see how easy it is for a city to be overwhelmed

by mother nature. when you get a category four storm or five storm coming at you with 150 mile an hour winds and 50-inches of rain, you get an interior rain event like this, you just, you know, mother nature will have her way with you. so as we go forward, we have to think about how to build back stronger. one of the real challenging things is that every time somebody has trauma in their life, the first thing they want to do is go back to exactly like it was. it is harder to think about well, what should it have been. each community has to go through that on their own and i'm sure that houston and beaumont and all of the areas that have been hard hit will think through that, and build back better than it was before. >> all good words. mitch landrieu, the mayor of new orleans, thank you for your time. >> great, thank you so much. >> o'brien: the outpouring of people helping those in need has been enormous in houston over the past few days. one example is a group of restauranteurs and chefs who got together to supply food to both victims and first responders. houston public media's tomeka weatherspoon paid a visit and

joins me now. tomeka, what are the restaurants doing? >> they're gathering together to help each other and to help the community. so we visit reese restaurants today and they're making so much food. yesterday they told me they made 10,000 meals to give away to hospitals, evacuees, and spirs responders. i talked with coowner of 9 restaurant jennifers could ddzwell. and she said the restaurant community is really tight knit and they wanted to do something to help. >> as we sat there and watched what was going on and we knew we would not be able to come back in here and serve our customers, we knew that we had are-- we knew we had customers and vendors that wanted to help. and we wanted to turn the kitchen into a hub to be able to do thatment and we know that our chef community and our restaurant community is such a strong and well knit community that we could get everybody on the same page. and working together towards

that goal. >> so tomeka how did the restaurants figure out how and where to send the food. >> so initially it seemed like they just put the word out that they were available to help in anyway that anyone needed. and you know, i was talking to some chef this morning and they were saying now they're just getting requests. they're getting text messages, can you please help us with this. and they are more than happy to help. and they're getting a lot of volunteers too. so i talked with a volunteer who is helping in another way, his name was gavin, and he was going around to precincts as he went to a station in southwest houston to see what they needed. >> they were down to basically tortilla chips and water. and i said instead of helping aimlessly wander, let's direct our focus and it started out, we asked how many mouths. he said we can't tell you. so we guesstimated about 50. and 50 turned into a hundred and a hundred turned into 200 and like i said, we're up to 2,000. >> and miles, like i said, people are volunteering in a lot

of different ways. in really crucial ways, physically driving the food to locations to these hospitals, to theas shelters. i talked with, and road with a volunteer driver, his name was mark austin. and he pointed out, he is delivering food from some of the best places to eat in houston. >> in the last 24 hours i have delivered food from reese, rial restaurant, hugos, brennans, so it's-- d western' not just delivering ham sandwiches to people, we're delivering hot, fresh, best product food, you know, from award-winning chefs. >> tomeka, i imagine there are a lot of other people and a lot of other places that could use this kind of service. i think of assisted-living facilities, even private homes, are there plans to expand. >> right now they're really trying to get organized because demand is so high. they're really just getting of the ground. so many restaurants had flooding issues and travel issues.

and they have just so many demands they need to meet. i was talking to one chef and he was saying you know, they ran out of protein really quickly. but because of all the volunteers they were able to get it within the hour. another restaurant owner said you know, what we really need is refrigerated truck. you about the need changes minute by minute as the situation here keeps changing. >> breat to see that kind of response. tomeka weatherspoon with houston public media, thank you. >> thank you. >> o'brien: in the day's other news, another storm has formed far out in the atlantic, and it's growing into a major hurricane. by late today, irma already had sustained winds of 115 miles an hour. it could reach the eastern caribbean by early next week. no word yet on where the storm might go from there. there's new retaliation in a diplomatic duel between the u.s. and russia. the state department today

ordered the russian consulate in san francisco to close, along with two sites in washington and new york. moscow had already forced cuts in american diplomats, in retaliation for u.s. sanctions. but white house press secretary sarah huckabee sanders says, now, the two sides are even. >> we've taken a firm and measured action in response to russia's unfortunate decision earlier this year. we want to halt the downward spiral and we want to move towards better relations. we'll look for opportunities to do that. >> o'brien: the announcement came as the new russian ambassador to the u.s. arrived in washington. he urged calm, and quoted soviet founder vladimir lenin, saying: "we don't need hysterical impulses." the u.s. military put on a new show of force over the korean peninsula, after the north fired a missile over japan two days ago. u.s. b-1b bombers were joined by f-35b stealth fighter jets for the first time, along with south korean planes. south korean military footage showed the bombers and fighters

carrying out bombing drills at a military field in the south. north korea condemned the drill as a "rash act." defense secretary james mattis has officially confirmed that more u.s. troops are on their way to afghanistan. he would not give exact numbers today. other officials have said about 3,900 troops will deploy. just yesterday, the pentagon confirmed about 11,000 u.s. troops are already in afghanistan. that's several thousand more than previous figures. in iraq, the prime minister of iraq announced that tal afar has been "fully liberated" from islamic state fighters. the capture of the northern city follows the fall of mosul, the country's second largest city, in july. isis still controls small pockets in northern iraq and along the syrian border. days of monsoon rains in india have triggered a new disaster. an aging, five-story building collapsed today in mumbai, the country's financial capital, killing at least 22 people.

rescue workers managed to pull 35 survivors from the ruins, but others could be trapped. witnesses said they heard a "bang" as the building went down. >> ( translated ): the sound was so loud, we all got scared. when i saw there, was only smoke, and when the smoke cleared, we saw the building, but by that time, a lot of people were crushed by the building as it collapsed. >> o'brien: the deadly rains are the heaviest in 15 years in mumbai. overall, the monsoon has claimed more than 1,200 lives across india, nepal and bangladesh, since june. the crisis engulfing rohingya muslims, in mostly buddhist myanmar, grew even worse today. reuters reported 27,000 rohingya have fled into bangladesh since friday. another 20,000 are stuck at the border. meanwhile, three boats carrying refugees capsized today before reaching bangladesh. at least 26 women and children were killed. the rohingya are fleeing reprisals by government troops and vigilantes, after rohingya

insurgents attacked police posts last week. back in this country, civil liberties groups hailed a federal judge's decision to block a texas law restricting sanctuary cities. it would have taken effect tomorrow. among other things, the law would let police ask people about their immigration status during routine stops. texas' republican governor has promised to appeal the ruling. it turns out a wells fargo scandal over fake bank accounts was far larger than first reported. the company said today 3.5 million accounts may have been opened without customers' knowledge, in a bid to meet sales targets. that's up from 2.1 million. wells fargo has since settled with federal regulators and paid $142 million in a class action suit. on wall street today, the dow jones industrial average gained 55 points to close at 21,948. the nasdaq rose 60 points, and the s&p 500 added 14.

>> o'brien: we're going to get a better picture tomorrow of how strong job creation is when the monthly employment report comes out. but whatever that snapshot looks like, there are concerns about the rise of robotics and automation, and what that means for the future of the workforce. our economics correspondent, paul solman, has been exploring that subject. here's his latest report for our weekly series, "making sense." >> reporter: in silicon valley, author vivek wadhwa says he already lives in the future. there's his mostly driverless electric car-- okay, so, your car can open the garage door and greet you in the driveway? >> yes. and then when i get on the road, i can put it on autopilot and say, "okay, car, take over." look at that!

i mean, i'm just sitting here, with the car doing its magic. >> reporter: there's his magical solar home, which has cut his energy bills from $1,000 a month to $500 a year. >> this is how all of us are going to live in about 10 or 15 years from now. solar is going to keep dropping in price, to the point that it's almost free. >> reporter: and, having survived a heart attack, his magical "health cube"-- 32 instant tests that give new meaning to the phrase, "doc in a box." >> and each test costs about 10 or 15 cents. >> reporter: here's an e.k.g. >> 12-lead e.k.g. the same stuff that they do at hospitals, you could do here today. and everything goes into your electronic medical records on the cloud. >> reporter: in a heartbeat. his daughter-in-law taught me to use it. >> so we're going to take blood, my friend. >> reporter: i can handle it, i think. what i won't do for television. >> there's your reading. >> reporter: so my blood glucose reading has already been done? >> yes. >> reporter: projecting ahead, says wadhwa...

>> we live in the most amazing period in human history. we can have unlimited energy, unlimited food, provide education for everyone, clean water, all the things that have held mankind back. >> reporter: but when it comes to what we'll all do for a living? >> i see millions of jobs in every industry being wiped out. >> reporter: just ask the voice of amazon. >> alexa, how many people does amazon help employ? >> amazon.com is an employer of 222,400 people. >> reporter: that's a quarter of a million people that amazon is employing. >> well, how many people does walmart employ? 1.3 million people. and amazon is just getting started with automation. they're working on drone-based delivery. they're going to have self- driving trucks. the workers put stuff in boxes, but there's no reason why robots couldn't do that as well. >> reporter: now, a human-free future isn't here just yet. but nearly half a world away, at oxford university, researcher michael osborne also thinks jobs are toast. >> back in 2013, we came up with

an estimate, that as much as 47% of current u.s. employment might be at high risk of automatability. waiters and waitresses is one example, truck drivers is another, forklift drivers, accountants and auditors, people working in retail, even umpires, and interestingly, referees. >> reporter: to be sure, futurologists have been predicting automation armageddon for decades. but, says economist carl frey, the future is now. >> the potential scope of automation has expanded quite rapidly and a new set of occupations and industries are affected as a result of that. >> reporter: and it's going to happen faster than we think, says vivek wadhwa. >> almost every profession i look at where you require human labor or you require intelligence, i see computers being able-- able to do better than us within the next ten years. i'm talking about a mass replacement of humans with artificial intelligence and robots. >> reporter: but health cube or

no, certainly not the doctors who saved his life, who keep him healthy now? >> but why not? ten years from now, i would trust an a.i. doctor over a human doctor any day, because the a.i. doctor will be looking at all of my data. >> reporter: and it isn't just happening at wadhwa's house, but also nearby, where facebook was built. >> mark zuckerberg stayed here his first summer in palo alto. >> reporter: stanford university computer science undergrad josh browder, working to fulfill a shakespearean ambition: kill all the lawyers. >> i'm trying to replace the $200 billion legal industry with artificial intelligence. >> reporter: browder's created do not pay, an app he built to fight parking tickets in the u.k., where he'd amassed dozens, and couldn't afford the tab. >> and so i had to figure out other ways to get the tickets dismissed-- if the signage is not up to code, or if the parking bay is illegally too small. there are these letters where if you cite the code, cite how your case applies to it, you can get

out of the ticket. there's nothing the government can do. >> reporter: browder claims a 60% success rate, and has expanded do not pay to the u.s., and to other legal imbroglios. >> so it currently works for over a thousand areas, a thousand legal robots, i like to call them. all sorts of consumer rights issues. but soon, i'm going to do much more complicated stuff, like lowering your property tax bill or filing for divorce. >> reporter: free legal software for all. browder sees it as a sort of realization of a family dream. >> yeah, so my great grandfather was... the head of the... american communist party... >> reporter: in the 1930s and '40s, earl browder ran for president twice, as a communist. >> he's a big believer in everything being free, and so i like to think, "although i'm doing it in a different way, using technology and silicon valley, he would be proud." >> reporter: but to wadhwa, it's not the thought, but the technology that counts. >> a young kid who has no qualifications in artificial

intelligence, who has no qualifications in law, he's talking about wiping out a hundred billion dollar industry. so this is the amazing and scary thing about the future we're heading into. >> reporter: scary, because while automation is the very definition of productivity-- more output per unit of labor-- as oxford's carl frey points out: >> sadly, since the 1980s, quite a few workers have had a bad experience from automation, and i think that is what is determining much of the resurgence in populism that we see now. >> reporter: indeed, frey has just published a paper showing that automation anxiety was strongly linked to votes for donald trump. so are vivek wadhwa and the trump electorate seeing the same dark future? and if so, are they right? not at all, says silicon valley computer scientist jerry kaplan. >> there's more people employed today than there ever have been. and, how do we explain that? except through a process by which increased productivity, increases economic opportunities

and actually employs more people than the robots displace. >> reporter: for example, if we're wealthier, we'll take more vacations. >> you've got jobs like flight attendant, hospitality workers, masseuses, yoga teachers, advisers of every kind. and that's a result of the increase in the discretionary income we'll have as the result of the growth of the economy. >> reporter: so think of all the jobs we could do that we haven't even thought of yet. and that's true, admits oxford's osborne. >> in the 2000s, we've seen occupations such as zumba instructors emerge. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: but, he says, as more and more workers compete for non-tech jobs, what will the jobs pay? >> i think we've seen some of that in the last couple of decades, right? with median wages remaining relatively stagnant. >> reporter: right. >> technology is, many people believe, the key driver behind that. >> reporter: and tech researchers like osborne are driving the technology. and so i asked:

if you say to a fellow researcher, "hey, we're displacing jobs, or putting downward pressure on low skill wages," what do they say to you? >> i think... this is, i'm not sure i want to answer this question, to be honest. >> reporter: but i pressed for an answer. >> so we're in this really exciting, but in a way, terrifying period of history where it could go either way. >> reporter: and that happens to be the message of vivek wadhwa's new book, "driver in the driver- less car:" humanity, he says, is at a tipping point. >> we are the drivers in the driver-less cars. we're basically now sitting there watching it all happen. look ma, no hands. >> reporter: the car is taking us where we told it to go, but the car is in control. at least, we hope it is. there's all these cars coming up. no, no, no, no, no, no, no! stop it! stop it! >> you're right. why didn't it do-- it wasn't stopping, was it? >> reporter: no, it was not stopping!

>> it would have stopped. i would have bet it would have stopped. >> reporter: happily, we'll never know, any more than we do at the moment, about the future of robots and jobs. for the pbs newshour, economics correspondent paul solman, reporting-- don't do that again! --somewhat anxiously, from el camino real in palo alto. >> o'brien: now, another in our "brief but spectacular" series, where we ask people to describe their passions. tonight, we hear from manu prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at stanford university, who shares his take on designing affordable scientific tools for all. >> i grew up in india. i love science, and it was very clear but, you know, we couldn't afford the traditional scientific tools. and so from that moment itself, the idea that you can invent your tools as you go along became very important to me. i was in uganda in 2013 and i noticed this centrifuge being used as a doorstop.

and i realized the fact that there was no electricity. and so of course, what good is a scientific instrument if it only runs on electricity that you don't have? we make affordable scientific tools that are accessible to everyone, to bring the joy and discovery of science, not just for the traditional scientist, but every single kid in the world. we've shipped 50,000 of what we call foldscopes. these are origami microscopes that anybody can make. they cost just $1.00 to make. this year we have set a goal to release a million foldscopes to kids around the world, and we will not stop until every single kid carries a tool like that in their pocket. i call it frugal science; over the last five years, we've been working in many countries, many of them in africa and india, to really be able to try to understand, how do you empower

community health workers who are on the frontlines of infectious diseases trying to protect all of us? and the area that we focus on is infectious diseases and diagnostics. now, diagnostics has a really hard problem, which is, it's like searching for a needle in a haystack. and one problem that we've been tackling in this is, how do you really bring that needle out? and we just discovered a new tool, that we describe, we call it paperfuge. it's an idea to build a centrifuge, a really legit complex tool that's used for sample preparation, out of a very simple children's toy. i actually am carrying it in my pocket, so if you haven't ever seen one... depending on how much force i apply and how much air drag there is on this disc, and how much torque is there in these strings, i can back-calculate how fast this will spin. one million rotations per minute. that's very, very fast. what i can do is take a drop of

blood with a lancet, fill it in. and now what i'm doing is as i spin the blood that i have taken in there is also spinning. and between 30 seconds to a minute, we can separate the content of that blood into plasma and red blood cells. and now, the ratio of how much red blood cells i have to plasma actually gives me an indicator of whether i have anemia. now, if i was to spin this for a couple more minutes, i might be able to separate out the cells that are infected with malaria. intellectually, it becomes quite an exciting endeavor, to really be able to do the same kind of performance that you would do in a traditional lab, but to be able to do it with almost nothing. my name is manu prakash, and this is my "brief but spectacular" take on frugal science. >> o'brien: and finally tonight, my friend jeff flock is well known as a storm-chasing reporter. this morning, he was doing a

live shot for fox business news when-- by coincidence-- he spotted his own daughter, our newshour reporter and producer elizabeth flock, on the back of a truck. let's take a look. k this is what they call a deuce and a half, a two and a half ton truck, it is army issue but now they sell them to folks. >> these people, that's my daughter, she's waving. >> what? >> my daughter works for the pbs newshour. >> wave again, lidsie. >> i knew she was here, i hadn't seen her. >> oh my goodness. i will be gosh darn, isn't that something. >> shucks. >> that's your daughter, just driving by. >> i'm sorry. >> in a military drawk, i know you got a lot of daughters. i didn't expect that, i'm sorry. i'm off topic here. >> i have never-- never seen jeff at a loss for wordings. and online you and online, you can find liz flock's reporting from that very truck, a remarkable story of three brothers who bought the

vehicle to help save stranded people in the hurricane. find that and much more on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm miles o'brien. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh

. >> rose: welcome to the program. it is the end of summer and as we prepare for the next season we bring you some of our favorite conversations here on charlie rose. tonight we talk about books with jd advance, author of hillbilly elegy. neil degrasse tyson uh-huh thor of as to physics for people in a hurry and with al franken. >> i didn't fesly think i was the guy who was going to beat norm coleman and as the campaign progressed, it became less and less about norm coleman and more and more about those who any cafe i would go to, small towns, anywhere, vf-w hall, american legion hall, you would see a sheet up there saying we're having spagh