in texas. the eye of the storm hitting the ought eastern tip of texas just before midnight eastern time. it continued to strengthen and has since been downgraded to a category one. an entire building reportedly collapsed, trapping residents and sending others to nearby hospitals. president trump declared hurricane harvey a federal disaster late into the evening. we'll have a live report on that later in the hour. back in texas, lawmakers are urging resident toes evacuate, warning those who remain will be subjected to the storms around for days. here is governor greg abbott.

>> we are concerned not enough people have evacuated and we are still urging people if you are in low-lying areas, if you are in zones, where evacuation orders have been placed, there may still be time for you to get out. >> morning, bill. you have called this an ultra marathon with so many facets. >> maybe we've had 500,000, 500 million done so far. like, we have only this much into this much of the event. this is a natural feeling of landfall has occurred. oh, that's the worst of it, the winds are coming down. all day today we're like, now

it's going to be a tropical storm at like 11:00 a.m. but that's not the story. the story is going to be the rainfall and the story is going to be what happens in all of our rivers in the days ahead. the projections for the rivers are all off the charts. they're all up there from a record crest from san antonio to houston all the way down to corpus christi. it's a huge geographical area and we're talking record floods lasting tuesday into wednesday. we're going to give you the pictures today of what happened in rockport. we know that was the worst of the damage. but we didn't think the wind damage would cause that much concern compared to the flooding. >> and then there's still the threat of tornados in addition to all of that. >> it looks like we had about two tornados at least last night that did do some damage. this is, of course, in the houston area. so the houston area has to deal with the flash flooding and they have to go through a risk of tornados as we go through the morning. let me take you through some of the updated maps. when we start to give you these pictures where the surge was the

worst, we'll show you that damage because that is going to be extreme, too. this event is just beginning as far as the extreme part.. the part that is going to make this historic is just the beginning. that's the radar over there that shows you the wide view of the storm. i mentioned the houston area. look at that feeder band coming down off the coast here from new york, galveston, out towards the osha yap. this is going to whip up all day long. the center of the circulation will spin near victoria all day long. it will weaken as we go through wrought the day. this is the satellite imagery. we're starting to lose the eye and there it goes. that was the well defined eye at landfall, satellite imagery. as expected, it's over land. we'll watch that fill. again, it's not the wind any more. we always put so much emphasis on the wind, the categories of these storms are dependent on the wind. a tropical storm and a cat 5 hurricane can drop the same amount of rain. it doesn't have anything to do with the categories with the rainfall.

usually the categories only have to do with what the max wind speeds that have occurred. notice the important thing here, the drift to the northwest at only 6 miles per hour. so it's not moving quickly. here is a closer view of our radar and we also have our watch box on here. notice it's not even where the center is. the tornado watch box is this pink line that includes all areas up towards houston and towards beaumont, texas. this is a huge area that we have the potential of dealing with the storms like that. the actual center into the eye here when we go a little closer, this is where kerry sanders is located near victoria, we're kind of loogz that eye feature. but the strongest winds out there, we're getting gusts to 60 to 80 miles per hour. power could still be locked out and it would be in this general vicinity here. as we head up here towards the houston area, this is where we have the potential to get these tornado bands. this is some torrential rain. when you start to deal with the pink and the reds in here, this is heavy rainfall. thankfully, it's moving quickly enough that we get the heavy rain. it's not sitting over the same

areas. that's when we'll get some concerns. as far as that tornado warning goes, here is liberty, texas. we'll see if we get any smaller cities in here. it's this cell right here. this is possibly showing some rotation. if we have a tornado, this is the area where it is and if you have your device at your house it's going off in this region for the potential of a tornado. usually the tornados that we get in hurricanes are the weaker variety of tornados, but they're still strong enough to knock your roof off your house and to cause bodily harm. they're not like the ef-4 and 5 we'll get in the central plains, but they can still do damage. this is our flash flood watch map. the green shows you who is in the watch. that is in excess of 12 million people. areas of the bride red, that's why we're under flash flood warnings. that's where flash floods are imminent. that's the entire city of houston and down here towards koshus christy. the heavy rains are just now arriving at austin, san antonio.

and as far as the path goes, again, the only reason we really care about the path now is because that's going to be where the storm goes is where the heaviest rainfall will be associated. and over the next seven days, it's still this triangle from san antonio to corpus christi to houston and for that reason, francis, that's where all the heaviest rainfall is going to be, too. the rainfall predictions are still in excess of 20 inches and that triangle and then someone has the possibility of still 40 inches of rain. and the rumor forecast, we'll be bringing you through the morning. it looks dire. the people in victoria, their big issue is the river that goes through the middle of their city as we go through monday. >> this is just the start of it and we'll be watching it here. bill, thank you. we know in less than an hour, the sun will start to rise in that area along the texas coast and we'll get our first look at the work of hurricane harvey. i want to bring in mya rodriguez in corpus christi. mya, what are you seeing right

now as far as the damage? >> well, you know, as you mentioned, we are expecting sunrise to come shortly and hopefully help illuminate some of what we're seeing. all we can see right now is through our headlights. obviously power is out for a number of people in koshus christy. we are seeing a lot of downed palm fronds. we will we have not seen structural damage yet in town. but it's difficult to see these things. sometimes there's damage on the roof and you can't quite see that from the ground level when it is so dark. this is a challenge that city officials are having to deal with, as well. they try to make their way around town. you know, we still do have, at the very least, tropical storm force winds consistently going on right now, kind of rocking the vehicle as we make our way. and so what, you know, this is something that, again, city officials will have to deal with as they try to ascertain exactly what happened here, exactly what

kind of damage we saw from hurricane harvey and these category four winds. because, again, we have been talking about the rain, the potential for flooding, but those are very strong winds. and, of course, what you would expect to find would be some blown out windows or maybe some fruit damage. again, hard to see at this point. have not been able to see that personally, but we do have quite a bit of education, bushes, palm fronds, those obstacles in the roads as you make your way around. >> mya, what have you been hearing from first responders, from emergency personnel? i know in other communities, slvb reports of fires that may have been started by lightning strikes and other people and residents calling for help. have you heard anything about that or are most people in the community either at shelters or at home hunkered down? >> most people decided to hunker down here and that's partially because there was not a mandatory evacuation here. it was a voluntary evacuation. there was a fire on south padre

island. unclear at this point what might have caused that fire. again, that's one of the islander he's and a lot of the people who live in the barrier islands and those communities did choose to evacuate because they are the most vulnerable because they are technically off the coast here. so what exactly caused that fire? not clear. it's not clear if anybody was even in the home at the time or even in that community at the time. possibly it could have been started by a lightning strike, but at this point, we simply don't know. >> a lot will be determined and a lot we'll know more in less than an hour when daybreak is there in corpus christi. thank you so much, mya rodriguez, we'll check back with you in a bit. i'm joined by mary jane mud, director of communications for the texas gulf coast region of the american red cross. mary jane, thank you for your time this had morning. i know we spoke with one of your representatives earlier and they

said there are many, many shelters and many more that could be used. what do you want to convey toss people who need your help the most right now? >> well, we do absolutely have -- we've had trailers for the last few days coming in with food and cots and blanks to help more than 20,000 people. and our focus right now in the texas gulf coast and surrounding areas is just spacing. we've been saying for days be sure you prepare for this hurricane. be sure that you have an emergency kit that you heed evacuation, that your kids know where to go. it was about safety and please to call us if the they feel they need help. >> talk to in me about researchers in doing that. i know you have your number there, but some people don't have power, phone lines may be down, self-service may not be available. what is the best way, especially knowing this is a crucial time right now because it is dark,

most of the area in the gulf coast and people are being told to stay in until at least day breaks before they start to try and get help. what can you say to them? >> yes. definitely if if they are being told they need to stay inside, they need to stay inside because of safety reasons and you see it watching all night. we will, the american red cross does have emergency response vehicles. we do some mapping and -- that's what we do. we do mapping and we determine where the needs are. we go out and we provide services, food, hygiene products and so forth. so stay where you are right now if you're in a position where you cannot get out. if you can get out, and if you have any friends or family that have the ability to take a look at a website, redcross.org has every single shelter listed and obviously emergency responders that we worked with will be able to send our way, as well, and to other shelters that are available.

>> how do you pry orr advertise that as bill karins put it, just mile five of this marathon of a storm? how do you prioritize what areas, what communities, what people need the most help at this point given the fact it is still dark, given the fact that the entirety of the damage and destruction hasn't really been determined yet? >> you know, the american red cross prepares for things like that, terrible things like this, you know, all year long. and we -- because we've done this before, we tend to know, you know, what people are going to need. you're going need food, they're going to need shelter. comfort, including mental health services. because we've done this before, we do know what the different items will be. blankets and so forth. we also have partners up and down the texas gulf coast and really around the country the to be able to open up shelters. these things are thought of well in advance and work with our

partners to reach out to those who need them. >> i'm sure with that planning, there was a consideration, too, that this is going to be a hurricane that hits, that makes landfall, it winds down. but when it's stalling and what we're hearing as far as flooding and the potential of the next few days and as late as thursday, how ready are you with that with the preparedness knowing it is going to go into next week? >> oh, absolutely. we've known for a long time. we've been watching the weather model and the red cross is truly there for the long haul. none of us plan on going home any more soon. in houston, there's a disaster response operation that will be home for the next two to three weeks and probably far after because they will be involved with recovery and hoping to get people on their feet. this is what we do. >> all right. well, we'll let you go .do your thing. mary jane mudd with the american red cross, we appreciate the work that you do and we also appreciate the time this morning as we continue. >> thank you. thank you.

>> so much. >> 13 after the hour and we are continuing our msnbc coverage of hurricane harvey. want to go now to victoria, texas, a small community along the gulf coast where nbc's kerry sanders has been, really, battered into the night. and as you can see right there, having trouble with his shot. kerry, if you can hear me wab since we last saw you, it appears like things have gotten a little bit -- if not more worse there for you. >> yeah, it has. the wind is picking up. you know, what happens is in a hurricane you have the sustained winds and then you have the gusts. so the national hurricane center tells us this is a category one now. so the top winds of 90 odd some miles per hour. but we're getting gusts at times of 100 to 110 miles per hour. here in victoria, as you can see, it's completely dark because we have power outages. most of the city has lost power. those who were in the shelters are reporting that the buildings have held so people are safe

that went with with the shelters. the police and the fire have had a very, very busy night because of lightning strikes. at least one lightning strike that hit an apartment complex sparked a fire and then that fire grew very quickly very fast. and the -- very large. and by the time the fire department got there, there was very little they could do to contain its growth. and that apartment complex burned to the ground. fortunately, that apartment complex had been abandoned. we also know of a fire at a house from a lightning strike reportedly. no reports of any injuries there. the story, as you know, francis is going to see that harvey is going to sit and not move, sit in this area possibly for days. even if it becomes a tropical storm, you see in the foreground here all of this rain. the rain becomes the story because it leads to a flood.

it's estimated we could see somewhere between 37 and 40 inches of rain and, of course, if we see that much pertain rain, we have flooding problems, it would be a historic amount of rain in this area. and, you know, as much as everybody would like to think that hurricanes are typical, that they hit, they pass through and move on, harvey is going to defy that norm and really become a nuisance with a lot of wind and rain and the rain and the flooding is going to be the real final story here in this community. francis. >> a lot more ahead for the people there. i know you had mentioned that there were two shelters where a lot of people, a lot of families have taken advantage of those shelters, as well. any indication that there will still be room in those shelters in the next couple of days for those people who haven't yet? >> they were actually at capacity. in fact, they turned people away. i haven't really seen that before. they were so at capacity, they turned people away telling them,

look, you're too late, we're full, you have to find another place. so in many cases, they either headed out, but these are last-minute arrivals. so it's hard to head out with a hurricane coming in had. so they just went back home. we're not going to know, really, for hours once the sunlight comes up and the damage assessments start coming in of whether there have been injuries or death associated with this storm here. all i know is there's a lot of misery here this morning and anxiety. it's hard to be in the dark, to hear what's going on outside and not really know what's happening. >> and that's under the cover of darkness and that's the anxiety and frustration from that. you can imagine when people start to assess and see the damage and the work of hurricane harvey once the sun does come up. they may give them even more reason to worry and be anxious. i want to ask you, also, about the emergency personnel. you said that they were already stretched thin into the night working those fires and other

emergency responses, as well. i know a lot of their work will be cut out for them when they can actually get out there once daybreaks. how are they working those resources knowing they're not just one and done working this hurricane and moving on? it will be long into next week. >> well, i think that the thing to recognize is, you know, these first responders also have families themselves that they have let me tell behind, that they are out working, leaving their families in the care of either one parenter or the other with their children or staying with friends as they're working. so first of all, heros and hats off to them. second of all, they're working incredibly long hours and because of those long hours, it can actually bust the budget of a city -- that's a real gust there. the president signed the request by the governor here for the declaration of emergency and so with that order signed, there will be money flowing to the city. so at least the budgets will not be busted by harvey because the

federal government will capture back those expenses for overnight. an exhausted firefighter and exhausted policemen is just like you and men when they're exhausted. they have to pace themselves. some of them have experience, but many of them don't. it's been years since we've seen a hurricane like this make landfall in had this area. for many of them, it's a new experience. >> as the experience corresponded, there you are standing. we'll check back in with you. we'll hear from you a little bit later on. kerry, thank you. i want to turn now to gabe gutierrez in taft, texas. gabe, it doesn't seem like you have too many winds whipping around like kerry, but certainly the rain. >> hi there, francis. yeah, actually, we moved from taft, texas, where we were a short time ago. we wanted to move inland for

safety because of high water near taft, texas. we were trying to make our way to rockport, texas, near where this eye made landfall, but there was high water there. so storm surge is obviously a concern. right now, we are getting pelted with some heavy rains. and look at this damage here. this is a brick structure. you can see how much damage is inside. this was all boarded up. the winds came in here and practically destroyed the inside of the structure. thankfully, no one was inside. this town, again, sinton, texas, everyone seems to have evacuated. the power is out here. we have seen a couple of police officers that have blocked off some of the roads. but throughout this part of the texas, there's debris throughout much of these roads. power lines are down. more than 200,000 people around this area are without power. and, really, we started the night in corpus christi and were hit with heavy rains and the wind late last night. things intensified overnight and

then corpus christi, things calmed down a bit there. but obviously, as the storm moves more, we still get these heavy gusts sometimes. it's clear that the this is not just a wind event, but a rain event. and as this rain continues to fall, there is a huge concern of flooding. but, again, right here where we are in sinton, texas, it seems to be quite dark here. there are police officers making sure people are off the roads. it has been a harrowing experience throughout the night to drive through this part of texas. >> we're about 30 minutes away from daybreak there in texas. can you give us some perspective, gabe, where you are. is this a strip mall where you are, is this an isolated business? >> yeah. no, it's a relatively small town, francis. this is actually the main street if we can look around. you're not going to see much. it's pretty dark here. here is our suv. you see just a little further

down, we saw a police officer. there is one other vehicle right there. you can see the wind still kicking up here and, really, some of the things we've been seeing all evening. it's slightly better now than it was a short time ago. actually, that is a police vehicle right there making sure that most people are off the roads. we -- this is a safe area compared to -- you know, we saw as we were trying to drive to rockport, we ran into high water, really unexpectedly, and quickly made the decision to turn around and head further inland. so we were in a neighborhood in taft, texas. there were power lines down there and trees were down there. we had to be very careful to dodge that. and we wanted to make our way further inland in order to stay safe. but as you can see, this is a sturdy structure, a brick structure completely boarded up. the winds came in here overnight and thankfully no one was inside. it's unclear in this part of texas how many people really heeded those calls to evacuate. especially corpus christi where

there were voluntary evacuations. local officials have some people wondering why they didn't just order a mandatory evacuations. they tried to say very strongly that people should evacuate. didn't want to make it mandatory. some of the low-lying areas there, those were mandatory evacuations. a lot of people here are waiting for did -- extensive damage is. communications are sketchy in many parts of texas right now. >> i cannot imagine your experience overnight as you're driving through corpus christi through rockport and there where you are and what you saw. essential saying that you were driving around and realizing that -- >> i'm sorry, i couldn't -- if you're still with me, i couldn't hear what you asked. can you repeat that question? >> absolutely. i'm asking in your drive from corpus christi -- >> i'm sorry, my ear piece is cutting in and out. it's obviously very windy here, francis. all i can say is what has been a very harrowing experience throughout the evening, we tried

to stay as safe as possible, but unfortunately some areas like rockport, texas, near where the eye made landfall, we're hearing reports of extensive damage there. the injuries are still being assessed. back to you. >> as you join us here this morning, you hear from dave himself as they try to make their way further inland from corpus christi to rockport, what they encountered with the unexpected high waters. the storm surge, the wind there and, of course, the rain. we'll continue our coverage here on msnbc on this historic storm and be with you again after the break. just like the people who own them, every business is different. but every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. whether it be help starting your business, vendor contracts or employment agreements. legalzoom's network of attorneys can help you every step of the way so you can focus on what you do.

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continuing coverage of hurricane harvey. i want to turn now to nbc's joe friar live in galveston, texas. and the threat of the danger there, joe, isn't necessarily thou with hurricane harvey but in the days to come with the rain and flooding. >> yeah, exactly. a little bit ago on our phones, we expect to get a lot of those in the coming days and we can tell you just in the last few minutes here, the wind has picked up again and we are getting a little bit more of this sideways rain, which we've been seeing off and on over the past 24 hours. still in the storm hit, there were some pretty strong winds like this. there were some storm surge. nothing as bad as what we saw a little farther down the coast where the real heavy damage from the hurricane was. but they knew all along here that this was going to be more of a tropical storm situation and the real worry here in galveston is the fact that this system is supposed to settle way and just continue to dump a lot of rain over this region over the next few days. people here know what can happen

in a tropical storm or a hurricane. still, ike caused a lot of flooding when the storm surge came in. it didn't just come from the gulf side, but it wrapped around this narrow island and came around the back bay side. that's where a lot of the flooding happened and we were driving through gals have to be last night. we could see some water levels throughout this area start to go rise pretty quickly. that's why people who were in low-lying areas are pretty concerned. not many people chose to evacuate galveston because they weren't as worried about the winds and things like that. but they are worried about the flooding. they want to keep an eye on their homes. people were shuttering in. they have generators ready. we also talked to some homeowners who say if the flooding gets too bad, they can't stay in their homes. on top of everything else, as if the wind and the rain and the

storm surge weren't enough, we've been experiencing tornado warnings off and on over the last 15, 20 hours or so. so that is keeping people on edge because those tornados pop out of the sky pretty quickly .cause a lot of damage. that's another thing that people have been worried about here, francis. >> even more scared for people without any power or warnings to get that information, too. joe, thank you. >> for more now on the strength of the hurricane, i want to bring in michael brennen, chief hurricane specialist for the oceanic administration in miami. thank you for being with us this morning. fwifs the perspective as far as the impact here of hurricane harvey now. >> well, harvey is continuing the to move inland along the middle texas coast. its forward motion is beginning to slow which is unfortunately what we've expected and that is going to exacerbate that heavy rain threat.