hurricane harvey. that brings this hour to a close for me. see you back here at midnight eastern. i'll be here saturday and sunday as well. you can always find me on social media @ali velshi. on twitter and facebook and instagram. nicolle wallace is up next. hi, everyone. it's 4:00 as hurricane harvey bears down on the gulf coast of texas. the white house is on a storm footing for the very first time. but the president started his day today as he does most of his days, by taking to twitter to vent and using twitter throughout the day to make clear that he's got an eye on the storm. most recently, tweeting quote encouraging everyone in the path of hurricane harvey to heed the advice and orders of the low and state officials. we'll cover it all, starting with the hurricane which is expected to make landfall tonight. let's go to the white house where kelly o'donnell is covering this first national

disaster for the white house and phil rucker from "the washington post." what i saw today was a whole lot of traditional sorts of moves for a white house. really with the safety and well-being of the citizens in the path of a natural disaster in mind. >> i would agree with that, nicolle, with one exception. predicting the president would travel to texas some time next week, before we have seen the actual path and the scale of this impending natural disaster struck me as unusual. you know as well as anyone that even the smallest travel package, the security team and staff around a president can be disruptive when there is a local emergency because local police are drawn in. that's the one thing that i thought was different, but in tom bossert you have in the homeland security adviser someone with deep experience with someone with these emergency management issues and with fema, a man with a lot of experience in brock long for

this kind of an event. so they are well positioned and a lot of what we heard today was lessons learned from what happened with katrina and that of course goes back to 2005 when there was a very different sort of footprint of federal resources going into the disaster zone and so many complications with the way that all unfolded, both in the event itself and then the two governors having different responses and then the federal lapses that were so devastating at that time. so lessons learned and at this point also i would say a traditional move, the vice president canceling his weekend scheduled planned trip to reno, nevada. the president is at camp david, they reminded us today that all of the resources of the white house are available there which is of course a military secured facility. the presidential retreat. so the president will be able to monitor all of this and at this point what they're trying to do is say, listen to your local officials. the president being prepared to

sign whatever declarations are required in advance which could sort of push forward some additional resources and man power and assets. but this is a huge test for president trump who's never dealt with a natural disaster and nothing of this scale before. so it's a test for this white house as well and they have had the opportunity to plan for it because of hurricane season. now we have got the specifics here that they're having to grapple with. but certainly for president trump there will be -- there will be a bar he's got to cross politically for how well he is perceived to being on top of this and of course whatever happens with federal resources supporting all of the local agencies he'll get a grade for that as well. >> phil rucker, let me bring you in. kelly o talking about the president's homeland security adviser tom bossert. one thing that struck he me said from the podium today, quote now

is not the time to lose faith in your government institutions which is true, but that it needed to be said is because of the strained tensions in our country. but kelly mentioned brock long the new fema administration. he was confirmed by a vote of 95-4 in the u.s. senate. not a divisive figure. he's the former director of emergency management for alabama. it seems to me that this is the first event of this presidency where sort of the dire nature of the event seems to have halted other instincts in this president. he seems to be focused on the storm after some early morning venting and he seems to be putting forward the kind of folks that would reassure any citizen in the path of such a dangerous and frightening storm. >> i think that's exactly right, nicolle. there's a third person i would mention who's general john kelly, the new white house chief of staff. we say him in the photo tweeted out this morning in the oval office briefing the president at

the resolute desk and he's very involved in the white house response. they are trying to put forward a real sense of competence and strength and make people feel assured that they'll have this under control. i think it was telling that we didn't hear directly from the president today. he did not come out to the cameras and address the american people and instead, they had tom bossert be the face of the administration. bossert is somebody as we saw today at the briefing with the extraordinary amount of knowledge and detail and can speak with real precision and accuracy about what the government doing and what citizens should be doing who are in harm's way. and that seems like a deliberate move by the white house. >> kelly o, let me bring you back into this. you mentioned hurricane katrina in the interest of disclosure, i was the white house communications director for what was one of the darkest chapters of george bush's administration. plenty of mistakes made and one

of the lessons of hurricane katrina, the federal government can only do so much. you're really there to support, enhance and augment local officials. it is interesting to me that in texas governor abbott this is someone with a pretty good relationship with this president and this white house, right? >> yes. we see that playing out. and part of what happened in katrina as you remember so well is you had governor blanco of louisiana, who was the opposite party of democrat, and you had governor barbour, a republican, they had different approaches and we learned that the federal government is really there only when the governors ask for that additional help. and that is a big part of the federal system that a lot of people learned about it then and i think there's a new level of communication to try to get governors to request the help they need earlier and the challenge for governors acceding authority. they don't want to turn things over to the federal government

if they feel they can manage it and that's where it can get so overwhelming. so that was a huge part of the lessons learned. also trying to forward deploy resources like water and the kinds of shelters that would be needed and of course in this instance we don't know exactly the map, but bossert told us today they have prepositioned some of the things they will need in the region so that it will be accessible in the immediate aftermath. that's significant. but the coordination between the federal, state and local is something that we think is a lesson learned since katrina. >> and kelly o, i'm going to be watching you and watching your coverage because you and i, our friendship and working relationship span more than a future -- few hurricanes. phil, you're staying with us. let's go to catie beck on the shores of corpus christi.

the hurricane is expected to hit right where you're standing. when can we expect it to make landfall? >> they expect about 1:00 a.m. when we see the first dramatic impacts of the hurricane as it makes landfall. all eyes tonight are going to be on corpus christi. it will be the center of that impact. and will really bear the most brunt when it comes to the storm coming in. we are told 120 miles an hour winds, between a 6 and 12 foot storm surge which we're standing on a platform outside the hotel and the top of this railing is about ten feet from the beach. so if you can imagine two feet above this will be basically where the surge will likely come. but the folks here mostly heeded the orders to evacuate. there was not a mandatory evacuation order given but most have taken the threat very seriously as this storm has continued to strengthen. the elements out here have continued to strengthen as well. we have seen sort of light rain turn into heavy rain, small winds turn into very powerful

wind gusts so this is a long stretch. this storm is going to stall over texas for the next several days and they're going to be dealing with flooding and all kinds of other issues. several -- the mayor of corpus christi said be prepared. we may not have power for several weeks, a month. you will be uncomfortable. this is going to be difficult. it will be a long time before it's over. nicolle? >> that's right. catie beck, thank you for spending some time with us. texas governor greg abbott has one chief mission today -- to get the affected texans out of harm's way. here he was a few hours ago with that stark warning. >> it's a hurricane that's going to prove more dangerous than many hurricanes. not only are we going to be dealing with the high winds that typically come with what should be a category 3 hurricane, but we are going to be dealing with

immense really record setting flooding and multiple regions across the state of texas. it is essential that while there still may be time -- a few hours. >> that video broke up on us, but we are fortunate because joining us now by phone is harris county, texas, judge ed emmett. the county is home to 4 million people in and around the houston area. tell us how -- first of all, how does it look from where you are and what are you prepared for and what are you worried about? >> well, here in harris county and the greater houston region we're not going to be hit directly by hurricane harvey so we're more concerned about the rain and the rain is going to be extensive and it's going to last for four or five days. so we could be looking at 10, 15, maybe upwards of 25, 30 inches of rain. so because we are on the gulf coast, we're a low lying area. if we get that much rain over

certain water sheds then we will have some flooding. >> i spent a lot of time in houston. you have my thoughts and prayers but i want to ask you as a government official to take me through this decision for any of our viewers who are -- who have been asked to evacuate to evacuate or not evacuate. i know it can be a life and death decision for some. not just the evacuees but for emergency responders. can you walk us through that? >> we tell people to run from water. by that, we mean run from storm surge and hide from the wind. in the greater houston area, we're not going to have significant storm surge. so there's no reason for people to evacuate. some of the smaller communities along the bay are asking people to evacuate as are the coastal areas of brazoria, galveston, matagorda counties. but here in the greater houston area, we are asking people to stay inside. because even though we get a lot

of rain, you don't know where that rain is going to fall. you don't know which watersheds are going to be affected. it would be far more dangerous to put people on the road and try and have a mass evacuation. so at this point, our highways are clear and people seem to be heeding the advice and staying indoors. >> so much of houston -- i don't know people who haven't had the good fortune spending time there, they don't know how much of your infrastructure is underground. so much of your city is probably in the harm's way by this kind of water event and rain event. talk about how you're prepared to respond in the aftermath. >> well, you know, we have a full-time office of emergency management and we have had three major flood events in the last two years. so this is something that we're fairly used to dealing with. our much bigger concern had hurricane harvey turned and come closer to us where we would have

had storm surge in galveston bay, which would have made the rainfall even more difficult because it wouldn't have any place to go. at this point, we really think we are going to have some flooding. some homes will have water in its. but that's not a cause for people to evacuate. so we are monitoring and seeing where we need to do high water rescues and things like that. >> all right. stay safe, our thoughts and prayers are with you and all of your citizens, judge emmett. they for spending time with us. >> my pleasure, thank you. when we come back, the resignation that wasn't. we'll talk about the latest to criticize the president's response to charlottesville. and we'll talk to the acting homeland security secretary. we'll ask her about how the federal government is preparing to support local officials directly in the storm's path when we come back. four seconds on the clock, down by one. championship on the line. erin "the sharpshooter" shanahan fakes left. she's outside of the key, she shoots...

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the feud between president trump and republicans in congress continues to simmer today. the president's starting his day with a warning tweet to his own party. quote, if senate republicans don't get rid of the filibuster rule and go to the 51% majority few bills will be passed. eight demes control the senate and he followed that with a shot at bob corker who last week questioned his fitness to serve as the president of the united states. trump finally responding, quote, strange statement by bob corker considering that he's constantly asking me whether or not he

should run in '18. tennessee not happy. all this on the heels of attacks yesterday on house and senate leaders paul r and mitch m. ironic when we consider the president's oft repeated campaign trail promises he'd be the best deal maker this country has ever seen. >> i dealt with politicians i know politicians better than anybody and honestly, if you can't deal with a politician there's something wrong with you. the fact is, obama doesn't work hard. he doesn't deal. he doesn't deal. he signs executive orders. in theory, the old fashioned way get everybody into the room and get something that people agree on. i get along with politicians, i know how to get politicians that's what i have done. so much of my business has been political. okay. i'm going to get along great with congress, okay? paul ryan i don't know i'm well. if i don't get along with him, he'll have to pay a big price, okay? okay.

>> let's bring in our panel today. joining us the reverend al sharpton, hose of politics nation here on msnbc. and president of the national action network. robert traynham is a former bush/cheney senior adviser and now a political analyst. jeffrey pollack from global strategy group and chief national correspondent mark leibovich and phil rucker still with us. just on this question of trump as someone who can deal with congress because he understands politicians i guess that didn't include the leaders of his own party. >> yeah. it would seem. i mean, i think what -- i mean, i'm always sort of curious about the constructions he uses. he talks about getting along with people as if that's like the whole game. he even talks about how it's important that he get along with putin. and what it seems to kind of forfeit is any notion that he can engage on the substance. because when you get right down

to it, i mean, getting along with people is obviously great. but he showed no and whatsoever to engage on substance during the health care debate at all and the only level of engagement has been through twitter and it's not positive. i think we have been looking for a grand strategy to think he's playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. i don't see it. it's -- i mean, there's also speculation that maybe he's trying to isolate himself completely from the hill so that if and when the hill does not, you know, have any success with tax reform, with the debt ceiling and the budget he's in a position to wash his hands of it which is hardly leadership at this point. we'll see. i think it's puzzling on many levels. >> phil rucker, let me bring you in on this and ask you, you know, this idea that mark leibovitz points out that getting along with -- i think in his mind meant they'll fall in line with me and phil bump had a

piece that unity didn't mean uniting people around shared goals but uniting around me. we are seven months in, we're kind of decoding what he means. maybe by getting along with he meant i would win them over. maybe that's the disconnect. >> i mean, in his mind getting along with means 100% personal loyalty. that means voting for everything he wants to see passed and never seeing a stray word against him. and it's hard to hold, you know, independent politicians who have their own political brands and their own political constituencies to that standard. and it's striking that president trump in the last couple of weeks has not attacked really any democrats on capitol hill, that he's gone after now -- is it five or six republican senators by name. his aides keep telling him don't attack these people by name. attack the institution. attack congress. attack capitol hill. but don't make it personal. and the president is still making it personal. >> rev, i mean, we have talked and we have talked about these

questions from bob corker and james clapper now two men largely respected across the ideological spectrum and both with a firm hand on national security issues. they have in the last ten days questioned donald trump's fitness. this morning instead of picking up the phone and calling bob corker who he knows pretty well by now, to say how can you question my stability and competence, those words really undermine my presidency. he took to twitter and attacked corker, a man i'm sure he has his cell phone number. talk about how the president himself is making the questions last longer and stay in the water longer. >> i think not only does he make the questions linger, i think it shows his kind of thinking in that he's not trying to build relationships. he stays on the defensive and he only knows, you know, let's

fight for fight combat really. if you don't submit, if you're not singing my praises, let's go to war. and he does not seem to have the capacity to try to say to people, maybe you don't understand me, maybe i don't understand you. but let's try to come together. i hope in this crisis we have this weekend that he will behave in a way that we get beyond that because we're dealing with a real potential catastrophe in texas. and even i who have been very critical of him, we have a thousand minister march on monday, i hope he does the right thing here and we can -- >> of course we all do. we should stipulate that. >> he's showing us -- you know, it's almost like you see, nicolle, on tuesday he makes a statesman like speech and then on wednesday we have a bipolar political president. we don't know what we're dealing with. he doesn't seem to have the capacity to drop the guard and say, let's talk about and work

it out for the good of the country. >> robert traynham, his homeland security adviser acknowledged that this was not the time to question our government institution, from the white house podium today. but rather sort of stunning and frankly brave admission in the -- in sort of the hours before a potentially deadly storm hits this country. but a really alarming thing to have to say. >> yeah. thank goodness someone said it from the podium. thank goodness someone doubled down on the core institutions and what makes this great -- this country great in that sense. a 9-year-old acts in what we have seen in the twitter through passive-aggressiveness. a 19-year-old says you don't like me, let's figure this out. can we go out to lunch, can we have a drink, let's figure out what the weaknesses are. you'd think anyone as a rational adult would say i'm in a

leadership position, you're in a leadership position. he's try to figure this out for the good of the country but what we see is a president that loves to be on the offense. and that loves this tit for at the, us against me kind of mentality. that's not doing anything but self-destructive behavior unfolding. >> here's what's interesting about the crisis. in politics we tell people you never let a good crisis go to waste. i don't want to pretend -- >> rahm emanuelism, right? >> indeed it was. right. that is a truism. because it allows them to show their strengths, it allows them to show they can be strong. so he has an opportunity as the reverend said over the next couple of days and this is a guy who's creating his own crises. each one of the twitter blasts is yet another its own crisis that he's creating.

in fact, creating a legislative morass and he doesn't care necessarily because he's not on the ballot in 2018 but all of the other folks in the midterms they are. and their fortunes are tied to his job approval which right now is in the toilet. in the three key states that flipped the election, there were surveys, nbc mare rest had surveys. two-thirds of the voters are embarrassed by president and this is an opportunity to turn it around, i doubt it -- >> could he leave people like bossert and kelly -- >> background, donald trump? >> i don't think he's capable of it. >> yes, his name is not on the ballot but his policies are. >> yeah, i heard that one. last night. >> one would think if i want to be the best president ever, maybe the best deals ever, i would think that i would want my team behind me and not berate them on twitter. >> you have to look at how he thinks. see, i think that there are two things at work here when i heard it said that he's only been

attacking republicans and not democrats. one, i think he's beginning to try to set the stage for what he's going to blame for not getting his policies through. >> true. >> he's got the russian investigation in his mind and you guys are not protecting them, not stopping them from coming after me that's the only logical reason that he could be only going -- >> mark, let me give you the last word on this conversation. let me ask you as an expert on all things washington, what is sort of the talk in your areas of expertise in greenrooms, in, you know, swanky washington bars -- yeah, you know, this town. all that stuff. but seriously, what's the talk on two figures like a james clapper and a bob corker publicly questioning the competence of the president seven months in? >> yeah, i mean in fairness they're not the first to do that. i mean, these are -- these echo a lot of conversations that have gone on privately.

at some pretty high levels. you know, it's always sort of a dicey sort of slippery slope to be talking about stability, things like fitness. because it's such a subjective and such a fraught term. and look, i think you will only see more of it. i mean, look, i think sort of to step back a little bit and we are on the verge of what could be a massive major -- very serious natural disaster. and the idea that we're all standing here and talking about the president and how he will do and how his very unique and very -- you know, obviously unpredictable skill set will translate into what could be a very, very scary moment is i think itself telling. if you look at his track record on other unforeseen disasters whether it is the bombing attack in london, whether it was the shooting in orlando last year, whether it was charlottesville, i mean, these are things that he always made worse. i think there's probably underneath all of this and sort

of speaking to the stability issue a question of how this would all play. >> i think it's important -- i mean, you sort of -- you play this role for us of sort of putting out into the open what is the fear. i mean, the fear is as you said, people have long worried privately and you're right. they have said this for a long time privately. my only point with clapper and corker doing it publicly these are people with an echo. they are respected men in national security circles but you're right. as we face the first test the kind of test that lets people who would take to the streets to march against him hope he does his very best for the safety of our fellow citizens. the fact that these conversations are ongoing is a stunning tell about the times in which we live. thank you for making the points carefully but saying out loud sort of what i was getting at. don't go anywhere. when we come back, president trump's top economic adviser gary cohn finally speaks out about his boss' response to

charlottesville but it's apparently all he's willing to do. we're continuing to track hurricane harvey. we'll talk live with the acting homeland security director and how prepared the administration is. that's coming up. you owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad. then liberty mutual calls... and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement™, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. intrzero alcohol™.ine® it delivers a whole mouth clean with a less intense taste. so it has the bad breath germ-killing power of this... with the lighter feel... of this. try listerine® zero alcohol™. whyou're not thinking clearly, so they called the fire department for us.

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the president's chief economic can adviser gary cohn responded to some of the criticism he's taken for not resigning his post in the wake of donald trump's reaction to charlottesville. saying quote, i have come under enormous pressure both to resign and to remain in my current position. as a patriotic american, i'm reluctant to leave my post as director of the national economic council because i feel a duty to fulfill my commitment to work on behalf of the american people. as a jewish american i will not allow neo-nazis ranting jews will not replace us to cause this jew to leave his job. he said i feel compelled to

voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks. citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with neo-nazis and the kkk. i believe this administration can and must do better and consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups. phil rucker, i know you're on deadline but i wanted to get your thoughts on this stay. little trump like in that it wasn't the kkk that was calling on him to resign. it was people that thought that maybe people of good conscience might not be able to stomach working for someone who saw many good people on both sides, so this statement seems like it's all relative. >> it seems like gary cohn is trying to have it both ways to get kind of credit for the -- for his morals for wanting to resign while still keeping the job and keeping the access to the president. but i think this is really going to test their relationship because it's the first time that i can think of that a senior official in trump's inner circle has publicly criticized him in

this way, has talked openly about resigning and this is a president as we all know who demands intense personal loyalty from his staffers. so we have to see over the next couple of days and weeks what this interview does to their relationship and what it does to gary cohn's hopes of becoming the next federal reserve chairman. >> because you always hear these things, are you picking up any sense of how the president reacted when the comments were made public and when they were all over cable news which we know he watches? >> yeah. so i have heard from sources that he wasn't thrilled with the comments but that he largely expected they would come in part because gary cohn and the president met last friday at bedminster and cohn was said to have been very direct to the president then about how he felt. so i think the president knew it was only a matter of time that this would come out publicly in some way. >> all right. phil rucker, thank you for spending so much time with us. we'll lot you go. robert traynham, i talk to a lot of white house folks in the wake

of the president's response and especially the day that the three magazine covers came out and they said, listen, i could be a hero and walk out of here. but i won't make it about me. in some ways, there's more nobility to -- i mean, if your choice is to stay to keep your head down and not have it both ways. >> peggy noonan said there will be patriots and there's political opportunism in the white house. i think some of the friends i talk to in the white house are true patriots unbiassed but they believe that this -- despite all of the this chaos -- >> you want to name ones? >> well, sean spicer. he's a true patriot and -- >> even though he lied on the podium. >> i can't speak to the lying part. >> a lying patriot. >> my point is bigger than that. there are people that work in the white house, particular will i in national security positions that feel as though that if not me, then who? if we -- for example, let's take

harvey for example right now. that's going on right now. i think mr. leibovitz did a great job of putting this in context. i want my president to succeed tonight. i want him to succeed because when he succeeds, that means fema succeeds. that means those people down in the gulf hopefully are safe. so let's hope and pray that he does the right thing. let's also hope and pray that there are people that work for him in that context are doing the right thing. >> right. and actually, for anyone affected by this storm, there's some reassuring things about the people you're talking about. brock long the new fema administrator was confirmed by the u.s. senate, 95-4. his predecessor from the obama administration had good things to say about him. he said he knows hurricanes. we have got some career folks that have been around these things in those kind of posts so your point is not that gary cohn deserves praise or scorn. but that at the end of the day you're glad that some of these people stay. >> yeah. look, they have to look at

themselves in the mirror, i get that. he probably went to the white house -- or to bedminster and said, mr. president, here's my letter of resignation. hear me out and he may -- if the president did not hear him out he would have submitted it. i get that. >> look, i think it's -- i give gary cohn a lot of credit for it. because i don't think he's trying to have it both ways. the minute he says something negative about trump he's on -- >> blow back, right. and breitbart took him to task. >> doesn't matter. >> there was a column about dana milburn and he used the great yiddish word, shonda. that means shame. and the shame is people like steve mnuchin who have stood there and said absolutely nothing. that's a disgrace. i think the military folks have put up with that nonsense. they're there and they're patriots. if i were there, would i have quit, yes. but cohn knows what he's doing. >> but i think we have to be

real candid. you know, i have been to work over the last several weeks closely with some of the rabbis that have said they're not going to engage in this traditional phone call with the president before the holidays. they have been working with us on this march i talked about on monday. you have to remember what donald trump said by equating -- making a moral equivalency between neo-nazis, marching with torches and talking about jews will not replace us with protesters. this goes deeper than your job, it defines your whole nationality, your religion and your people. yes, you're trying to have it both ways if you say i'm not going to be forced out by them. they were not your point -- they were not forcing you out. the conduct of the president is what was forcing you out. the only reason cohn or anyone else was an issue of resignation is because of what the president

said. not because of the march. nobody associated cohn with the march. they associated him with a president that made a moral equivalencies between neo-nazis -- >> on a day -- we want to be careful every day, but the point being the consequence of his words is that the white supremacists themselves felt cheered. so we're not extrapolating anything. mark, let me let you have the last word. gary cohn did go there, and he said this jew isn't going to be chased out of my job by people chanting in the streets. >> yeah. in fairness, steve mnuchin i guess wrote that thing to his yale classmates in response -- >> were they mad? i don't follow yale. back and forth. >> yeah. something like that. but i mean, to be honest with you i'm burned out on the sort of middle grounds like the sort of private leakage that -- that a letter of resignation was prepared, so and so was miffed,

agonizing over whether to continue. look, my feeling on this is and maybe this is a personal opinion, either resign or don't. i think it's not for us to sit here and speculate on the conscience decisions and looking in the mirror decisions and the work decisions and the patriotic decisions that you can make. i mean, i don't know why we even have to talk about, you know, this agony at all. obviously the media drives a lot of it. but i think that -- i mean, i guess one thing i respect about general kelly, general mattis maybe, whatever agony they have is done privately and it's not a subject of anything we're talking about right now. >> right. we're dignified, i can add on. thank you so much, mark, for spending some people with us. we appreciate it. when we come back, we'll go to fema headquarters for an update on the emergency preparations as hurricane harvey barrels toward the texas coast.

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now is not the time to lose faith in your government institutions. those emergency managers giving you advice and making recommendations for you to evacuate are doing so with your best interest at heart. >> that was homeland security adviser tom bossert earlier today. we are keeping an eye on hurricane harvey which is officially a category 3 storm and is expected to make landfall late tonight in texas, bringing significant flooding along with winds in excess of 110 miles an hour. the national weather service says areas to the northeast of the storm's eye may experience tornados. experts are worried the storm may be the strongest to hit the region in nearly 50 years. to talk about what preparation for something like this looks like, let's bring in acting homeland security chief elaine duke. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> i know that so much of what the federal government can do

depends on the local and state officials asking for it. so if you could just tell us -- i know there's an open line of communication with the texas governor's office, with local officials. can you tell us what the federal government is prepared to assist with? >> yes. we have been talking to governor abbott for a full week anticipating this storm, also governor edwards of louisiana. we expect to have the full force of the federal government assisting government abbott in response to his request for a disaster declaration. >> so we have been talking about brock long, the fema administrator who was confirmed 95-4. someone who comes with a resume and experience in dealing with these things. now i want to read you something that president obama's fema administrator said and ask you to respond. he praised mr. long, but he declined to sort of confirm that fema was prepared.

can you confirm at this hour that fema is fully staffed and prepared to do everything to support the state of texas in this storm? >> yes, i think fema and the federal government are prepared. i have -- >> are they fully staffed? >> they are staffed. they have both their permanent staff and their core staff. we have surged ghs staff to augment the fema operation and additionally we have the partnership of the federal government working with us as is typical in the major disaster. we have representation from across the federal agencies with interests in responding to this disaster. >> one of the -- i think most terrifying things in a water event are the rooftop rescues that became one of the most tragic memories and probably really scarring and searing memories of hurricane katrina. and those are the kinds of rescues that locals don't have the capacity for. i wonder if there are lessons learned from katrina and if there are special teams prepared for those kinds of rescues if

they're needed? >> i think the most important thing learned from katrina is that residents should heed the warnings to evacuate their local and state officials. that's number one. if a governor issues an evacuation order it's a serious thing and everyone should heed it. in terms of those that chose not to heed it and are sheltering in place we do have the resources to do rescue operations with the coast guard, with the national -- and the state has the national guard. that will be done once the storm allows that type of response. >> i wonder if you could weigh in on support from the white house. you're new to your role but certainly not new to this line of work. your old boss is now the white house chief of staff, obviously it's a very easy line of communication between you and the white house chief of staff. but can you talk about your interactions with the white house and their degree of attention to this sort of impending natural disaster. >> absolutely.

the president has spoken with both mr. brock long and me and the governors of the affected states. and he has pledged to support, he is there once -- has fully empowered us to carry out the operations we need to do and has said he has an open line for any assistance we need throughout the government. >> thank you so much, madam secretary, to spending some time with us. we hope everyone in the storm's path stays safe. please come back if there's important information to get to the residents of texas. when we come back, gabe gutierrez who is on the ground gives us a live update.

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we're still keeping a close eye on hurricane harvey as it bears towards the southeast texas coast. in the last hour it was upgraded to a category 3. to give you an idea of the soap and size here is a picture taken from the space station. gabe, how are you doing there and just as importantly, are there any folks around or people large largely heeded the evacuations. >> well, there's no one here on the beach except me. >> that's good. >> the wind is picking up quite a bit. it's that part of the storm when, you know, it's a few hours from landfall. the wind is really starting to pick up.

the rain really feels like it's pelting you at this point. it's kind of started up in the last hour or two. it's gotten progressively worse. the conditions are deteriorating. as you can see behind me the sufb is really starting to kick up. we expect this to get worse after 8:00 p.m. and into the overnight hours. as we've been reporting, hurricane harvey expected to make landfall sometime in the overnight hours. what we've seen here throughout the day is we've seen hundreds of people at one evacuation center alone really frantically trying to get out. local officials here in the city of corpus christi they actually made what they called a strong volunteer evacuation order. they couldn't force people out of their homes, but other low lying areas, they are under a mandatory evacuation order. for the most part we've seen people heed that warning, although as if every storm there are people sticking around. just here in downtown corpus christi it's pretty empty at this point. the hotel where we're at is mostly media. people are really getting out of

dodge as the mayor called it. but the concern is this rain, this storm surge that's going to pound this part of texas. also, the rain that's going to be dumped on some of the inland cities. as you've been mentioning, we're talking about san antonio and houston and then up and down the coast all the way to louisiana. right now we're waiting landfall. this is a mee an derg storm but a very powerful one. and local authorities are really hoping that the dire predictions aren't as bad is necessity seem. that this is going to dump so much rain, but at this point it's a wait and see approach and we're expecting landfall here in just a few hours. >> you stay safe. thank you for sending some time with us. let's bring in nbc news peterologist shanna mendiola. tell us what you're seeing and what you're watching for. >> a current look at the radar right now shows that well defined eye of the stormment and it's about 85 miles off the coast of corpus christi. we've got some time before it makes landfall tonight which is around 10 to 2 eastern time. and it's not only that, we're

already seeing the bands around the storm make their way on landfall with tornado warnings already issued for galveston. if you are in this area, even through houston there's a tornado watch through tonight at 2:00 a.m. and it's because of all that instability within this storm. we'll go ahead and take you through what we do expect in terms of rain. about 35 inches possible by the time we hit tuesday. and this is a mee and erg, slow storm. it's gaining strength because of that warm water off the coastline. and it is going to make that impact in terms of the water rising and accumulating over several days. the winds also an issue. what we're showing you right here is that category 3 storm making landfall right around 1 o'clock in the morning. if you notice that red area, that's that hurricane force winlds. up to 120-mile-per-hour possible within this area as it moves over land. and niece yellow areas are those tropical storm winlds. 85-mile-per-hour as well. weakening but still in effect all the way through tuesday so we really need a steering

mechanism to move this storm along and it's just not to go to happen for several days. this is going to be a life throat eng event. take a look at what we've got here in terms of gufrsz. 85-mile-per-hour as we head into landfall tonight. again, looking at some strong dangerous wind. what can that do? knock over trees, power lines. also damage homes and make that debris in the water fly. there's a lot of things that we're watching for here in this storm and we cannot say it enough. this may be a life-threatening situation if things aren't taken care of right now to prepare. >> shon that, do you have any insight into how long this evacuation order is in place? i mean, you're talking about a storm that looks like it's just going to land and as you say hover for days. obviously it's want safe if the water is still rising for people to go back. are those the sorts of alerts that people can look to get throughout the storm? >> you know, we're not emphasizing how dangerous this storm is going to be. again, several days of this rain, the wind, the storm surge as well. that's going to make it

dangerous for even rescuers that come in and help you out. if you are still stuck in your home. that's why they tell you to get out there now and we're several hours away from that window of time that you do have to get out. if you can do that now we have to tell you to do it because it is going to be a situation situation with all the wind and rain happening. it looks like it's getting lowser and closer and stronger as it does. >> thank you so much. i know you're doing double triple time. rev, these are some of the most tense political times, certainly in my career. i wonder if it's the same in yours. >> very, very tense. i mean, i've not seen it more tense. and i think the reason that i would say that it's more than i've seen is i've never seen it really being generated out of the oval office. usually you have tension in the oval office that's trying to get their arms around it. he is the tension. >> so let me ask you to square that against the image we just saw of this storm as it appears from space with hurricane

katrina as it appeared from space. >> i think -- >> this is a massive event. >> i think that it is a massive event. we're not seeing as we did in katrina people so far and i hope we don't that are suffering. and i would hope that this president does not add fuel to the fire by start tweeting and doing other things irresponsibleel. i disagreed with president bush in terms of fema and all, but that was an institutional neglect. and we're trying about levies and all. we're talking about here a person's kind of behavior that i hope doesn't get in the way and i hope government works. and i hope that president trump shows the leadership we need at this point. this is not a time for people to be taking pot shots at each other. >> and he certainly appointed the kinds of people in brock long and elaine duke and tom boss sert that have experience in dealing with storms. we wish health, safety pour people to heed their local officials at this dangerous

time. my thanks to the reverend al, to jeffrey pollack, everyone that joined us during our hour. that does it for us. i'm nicolle wallace. "mtp daily" starts right now. >> well, if it's friday, president trump is facing two storms. tonight irreconcilable differences. who wince in the president's parent divorce from his party and whose party is it any way? plus, tracking hurricane harvey. >> texas is about to have a very significant disaster. >> we'll have the latest forecast as the biggest storm to hit the u.s. in more than a decade barrels towards the texas coast. and lessons from katrina. we'll talk to former fema director michael brown about the potential pitfalls of disaster response. >> what everyone is focused on right now is ensuring that we do all we can to protect life. >> this is "mtp daily," and it starts right