go pro with crest mouthwash. checkup? nailed it hello, everyone. i'm richard liu at msnbc headquarters in new york city. we're tracking tropical storm harvey as the system continues to lurk over houston and dump tons of water. part of that area have already received 17 inches of rain and the national weather service say some areas of the city could see a historic 26 inches by the end of the week. the city has received more than 2,000 rescue calls and rescue and emergency crews are working around the clock to help those in need. cities around the texas coast have been devastated by harvey. rockport, for instance, looks like this. demolished when it was hit with the full force of the storm and massive amounts of flooding have now left communities completely under water.

flash flood emergencies still in effect for multiple counties in southeast texas as the storm attempts to dump another 7 inches of rain each hour. joining me on the phone is houston's mayor sylvester turner. mayor, i know it's tough going for you right now. we've been getting reports from all over the city. tell us what you've just learned in the last couple of hours. >> we're expecting probably between 4 to 8 inches of rain before the day is over. we'll continue to get rain through tomorrow and probably through thursday. so this event, this storm will be around for several more days. of course, last yesterday, last night starting at about 7:30, over an eight-hour period, there was certain portions of the city that received as much as 20 inches. quite a bit of rain yesterday. all of our bayous have exceeded its banks, so there's flooding all throughout the city, all throughout the county. there are a number of homes

where there is water and people have had to be evacuated. houston police department, the fire department and first responders had to respond to about 3,700 calls, so it's quite a number. and so now we are going throughout the city of houston using high water rescue vehicles, high water rescue boats, getting people off roofs in some cases. some people went to their attics. we don't advise people to do that. and some people are stranded in their homes. so we're trying to get to as many of them before it gets dark, and we've set up a number of shelters throughout the city, one specifically in the downtown area at the georgia brown convention center so people can have places to go. >> how is electricity so far? just outside of houston alone, we have over 300,000 folks without power? what about houston metro itself? >> in houston in the metro area,

we're doing fairly well. our electricity providers indicated that about 98% of the customers are operating with power. so we're doing fine. our water system is fine. water is good, water is sound. operating at 100% meeting all of our needs so we're fine with that. the major thing is that the roads are still very much impassable. there is a lot of water everywhere. we are encouraging people to stay off the roads. we had one fatality last night because someone ventured out in the road and ended up getting drowned. up to this point, there are now three fatalities in the houston area. one on the road, there was one in the home, and i think there was one in the elevator shaft. so there is a lot of rain, a lot of flooding. water has exceeded the banks, but we are -- i cannot stress enough the importance of people staying at home, staying off the

road. we think that's the safest place for you. and then we're responding to a lot of 911 calls. >> mr. mayor, as this happens, do you have concerns about water supply, whether it's potable water that folks will have, number one. number two, is that the waters that are out in the streets are contaminated. this is obviously houston. this is an area that is certainly used to understanding the significance of petro chemicals. >> right. but at this point our water supply is sound. we are operating at 100%. the water quality is good. and so i feel very confident that in terms of our water system, we will meet our needs and it will be -- the quality will be excellent. so i'm fine with that. what's concerning me is making sure that we respond to the needs of seniors, for example, who may be living in homes or apartments by themselves and may

not be letting people know that they're in distress. i'm concerned with people who are disabled, again, who may be living by themselves. we want to make sure we meet their needs. i'm concerned about individuals, low-income persons, who may be living in communities, for example, that are prone to floods. we opened up one of the shelters very close to one of those communities last night before the massive rainfall came, and that worked out extremely, extremely well, learning from an event that took place a year ago. so my major concern is trying to reach as many people as i can, as we can. those who are on rooftops or those who are in attics and those who are in homes before night fa nightfall comes, because you don't want them staying out there for too long, especially at night. i do want to give a lot of credit to our first responders, police and fire. they have done an exceptional,

exemplary job. i also want to give credit to a lot of you houstonians who have just stepped up, people in the communities who have stepped up. i cannot say enough for the city coming together in this moment of crisis. but look, this is just day two for us. there will be day three, day four and day five, so we'll get a lot of rain over the next several days. but, you know, we'll take it one day at a time. >> a lot of rain in the coming days. mr. mayor, you had suggested, you had asked all residents of houston in the houston metro area to stay in place, do not leave their residence. do you still believe that was the right strategy here? >> without question. as you can recall, when this storm was forming and there was still a tropical depression, went to a tropical storm and then became a hurricane, nobody really knew the direction in which it was going. even after it landed, nobody knew the direction it was going to go. you cannot evacuate -- in this

case when you include the city and the county of 6.5 million people, you can't evacuate them when you don't know where the danger is. the city of houston and harris county were not in the direct path of the hurricane. when it did form and we knew it was going to land around the rockport/victoria/corpus christi area. so we were never in the direct path once we had a better sense of where it was going. for us it was always going to be a rain maker. with that being the case, we had to prepare before. we asked people to get their food, their medicine, their water. stock up all the things they needed so they could hunker down. most people, and 99% of the people did that. i'm very thankful for that. we knew this was going to be a rainmaker over several days and we asked people to exercise a great deal of patience. they have done that. but we are continuing to say to people, do not venture out. you have a small percentage of people who are venturing out,

and as a result they're getting stranded and we have to respond to them with the 911 calls. but there is no question, no doubt in my mind, that the best decision and the right decision was to tell houstonians and people in harris county, don't get on the road. don't try to evacuate. you can't put 6.5 million people on the road a day or two ahead of the storm without making it more dangerous for them. so without hesitation or doubt, i would make the same decision if we had it to do again. >> one of the top five largest cities in our country. you have a lot to govern there, mr. mayor. sylvester turner, thank you for the update and hopefully we're getting word to folks in your area in terms of what you would like them to do. >> thank you. let's bring out more on tropical storm harvey. where it might be going. getting close to houston again with more rain. shawn mendiola our meteorologist. shawn, what's the latest? >> i want to point out this

video. the roads, the freeways inundated with water. it doesn't take much to get swept away. this is why the mayor says stay in place, this is why the national weather service says don't go anywhere, just stay in place. it only takes one foot of water to push a small car possibly out of the neighborhood and get into accidents here. what we're looking at right now with this storm is just a lot of rain happening in the next few days. we've been repeating this over and over because it's not moving at all. it is stuck in place because, again, that blocking high to the west and to the east coast is just sandwiching it right over texas. southeast texas looking at many bands getting fed in by the gulf of mexico. a lot of that moisture producing possible thunderstorms as well and maybe even tornadoes tonight. we are watching that threat. but 40 inches of rain likely is what we're going for here. houston looking at 15 to 25 inches by the time this might be over additionally to what they've got on the ground.

so every single day, although we are expecting the rain to go down and not be as severe in the next few days, it's going to add to what's on the ground as well. looking at those flash flood warnings in place for houston, galveston, bay city. up in will you pleaseton, it appears we cou -- it looks like we could be seeing this through friday now. the reason why it's not going to turn into a low with this new track is because it's driving over the water and it's going to feel the storm. we're going to see it turn left at houston. unfortunately, that's where we see most of the rain right now and we see it move up north and possibly move out by the time we get to the end of the week. again, several days ahead. friday still probably going to be a wet day ahead for houston, and i know they feel like this might not be over ever, but crossing our fingers that everyone just stays in place and

stays safe. >> when will tornadoes not be a threat there? will it be a threat through this entire storm? >> it appears to be so as long as the circulation is right over the water. that's where we're getting it, right off the gulf. as long as it stays over water, we'll continue to have threats and those tornado watches remain in place. >> thank you, shawn. we continue to watch harvey as it dumps tons of rain down there in texas and louisiana. president trump's decision to pardon former sheriff joe arpaio remains a hot topic. the move to grant clemency to the lawman prompted a quote, will this blow over in a few days or will this come back to haunt mr. trump? here is tom bossert with his take on the pardon. >> i think there is a clemency argument that can be made for the long history of service both in the united states military

and law enforcement for the sheriff. i think the president was pretty straightforward that he believes that long history of service merits this clemency, and he's acted accordingly. >> joining us now, our assistant prosecutor linyninda and nick valdez. nick, we'll start with you. when you look at the pardon, many have said this is lawful but just not typical of what has been done previously by other presidents. is there anything that could have been done to stop this pardon? >> i don't think there's anything that could have been done to stop this president to keep from pardoning joe arpaio. i think this entire pardon is totally outrageous, undermines our legal system, our judicial system, and essentially shows that what president trump did with respect to the charlottesville demonstration, basically equating the white nationalists with the

counter-demonstrators, really shows that he is our bigot in chief. if you look at the two pieces of our criminal justice system, why do we have it? we have it for punishment and deterrence. in this particular case, the punishment obviously was going to fit the crime. this was a situation where joe arpaio, a sheriff, a law enforcement officer who was sworn to uphold the law and the constitution of the united states, was going out and arresting people just because they were latinos. putting in people who were american citizens, putting them under arrest. he had no probable cause to arrest people for immigration violations. in fact, the court, the arizona federal district court judge, found that there was no basis and directly ordered arpaio not to arrest people based on this racial profiling.

instead what he did was to violate, willfully and knowingly violate that court order. you had one judge who found it was a problem, ordered him not to do it, and then you found another judge who basically found that he was guilty. if ever there was a situation where someone should be punished, this was it. this pardon did not go through the normal process. it did not have the normal approvals of the department of justice. in fact, as reports this morning in the paper showed, this was all a preplanned by the president to try and get joe arpaio off the entire case. in addition, one of the prime reasons why we go ahead and prosecute certain cases over other cases is the deterrence. the idea that you want to deter people from certain activity. here the activity of violating people of their constitutional rights, arresting them for no

good reason just because of the way they look, because of their national origin, is just totally unamerican. that's why you want to deter people from doing that. what the president has done is just the opposite. >> right. >> he has basically set it up so that now people should be incentivized to do this because they're not going to have to pay the consequences. and that's what i find outrageous. and what's even more outrageous -- >> nick, i want to get linda into this conversation, too. i know your engine was moving there, but just keep it at idle for a second here. linda, i want to get you in on this because your paper published an op-ed in part saying, what does this pardon say to latino americans, especially in the midst of all the racial turmoil surrounding the recent events in charlottesville? that's really the question. but this is that particular editorial board comment. what's your reflection on what this pardon means?

>> well, i think it clearly means that the president has given his seal of approval for law enforcement to racially profile people. and he's also shown great contempt for the judicial system, and if there was any doubt about what his message was after the charlottesville violence, that doubt has been erased. it's clearly an insult to latinos, but it's also an insult to all americans, because the constitution guarantees equal protection. and joe arpaio was a law enforcement officer who was not providing that. he had policies, official policies, that racially profiled people, and these were not all undocumented people. there were u.s. citizens and legal residents who were detained and harassed by his policies. and by -- the president also short-circuited the legal process. the trial was a long process. he had recently been found

guilty of criminal contempt for ignoring the federal judge's orders to stop his policies, and the sentencing was due to come in october. the president did not even wait for that process to work its way through the system, and i think that's really -- that sends a very frightening message, particularly at this time when the administration is trying to engage local law enforcement in enforcing immigration laws. this is like a green light to profile whomever looks latino. that's very dangerous. it's a very dangerous statement. >> nick, as you were alluding to, and quickly if you can here, the "washington post" reporting that the president in early spring had approached the attorney general to discuss basically dismissing this case against joe arpaio. you put that together with then later on the pardon. what might be thought of here for special counsel mueller?

might he do something with that? >> again, it all goes to the president's intent. his intent to obstruct the legal system, his intent to obstruct justice as he did here. and let me just say, to follow up on what linda said, this is an issue that doesn't just involve latinos. this announcement was made in the middle of this hurricane purposely to detract people's attention from an issue that is extremely important and that affects not only latinos but every single american in this country. and even though we should all be concerned about this hurricane, we should also be concerned about our constitutional rights and our right to go about our business as citizens without being arrested on the spot and having a president who condones that activity. >> linda, what's your sense of the president's thought right now, and what has been the response from latino-americans as they have been very clear in the latino-american community

overall, saying this is not good. the president saying, well, i wanted to do this because he served the country for so long, he's in his 80s, this man deserves this. that's basically what we've been hearing from the administration. put those two together for us, linda. >> i think for all of us who wanted justice for arpaio, there was a feeling of betrayal and a feeling that the system was short-circuited. they used the legal process to try to stop him from what he was doing, and that was short-circuited. joe arpaio has a long history of service. but much of what he did as sheriff of maricopa county, he ignored hundreds of cases of sexual assault, including against children, so that he could focus on his immigration enforcement. he cost the county, maricopa county, more than $150 million in legal fees. he was not a good administrator. he was not a good sheriff. but the fact that he's old and

the fact that he may have provided good service to the country at some point in time does not excuse his behavior as sheriff. he was a law enforcement agent. he was an official with power, and he abused that power. that's just a fact. you don't just ignore that and say, oh, well, he did some good things in his life. that isn't the way it works. >> all right. linda valdez, thank you so much. nick ackerman, really bringing it today. i thank you both for help on this topic. assessing the damage after harvey. we're going to return to that breaking story. fema says it could take years to recover. we go live to victoria, texas where residents are without power and water. re you related o jennifer?" kind of joking with him. and my dad was so proud to tell her, "as a matter of fact, she is my middle daughter". so now dad has the venture card, he's earning his double miles,

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they made a life decision protecting their lives knowing they can always go back and rebuild. >> that was texas governor greg abbott in the last half hour reassuring the people of houston that the city will rebuild when the storm is past. we go to victoria, texas, looking at the devastation there. as you and i were talking about the last hour, the storm is about to hit where you're at again in the coming hours, and it's been tough for folks trying to get simple things like gas. >> reporter: that's right. there is actually a line. this is the only gas station open in victoria right now. there are at least 100 cars trying to get in here. people carrying as many gas cans as they can carry, people getting it for their generators and their cars. there is a lot of worry at this

point, people worrying, am i going to be okay with this second round of storms? one of those people particularly worried is robert sasky. you are a small business owner here in victoria, and you lost everything in 2008. >> 1998. >> sorry, '98. what are you feeling right now? >> i'm really worried. they're talking about the flood being as bad as it was in '98 -- and in '98 we had over almost two feet of water going through my shop. i'm a taxidermist, and we didn't have any way to get -- i had a bunch of my brother's crew to come in, because we found out at 9:00 that morning that houses were floating. i was at work, we didn't even know. it was a quick deal because all the rain fell in san antonio at one time. it was just a fluke. my brother showed up with a bunch of cattle trailers and his whole plant shift, and we shoved as much as we could into them,

but we had to get out because the water was already through. >> reporter: and you're worried this is going to happen again. >> yes. i've only had six hours of sleep in three days because we're preparing for it and fixing our house. we're in the middle of remodeling and construction at our house, and we had to hurry and get the windows boarded up. >> reporter: you told me you had six children. >> six children. we lost one in 2001. my daughter was five. >> reporter: you've had devastation after devastation. >> yes. i lost my mom, my dad and my daughter in a year and a half's time after the flood, and it's just one thing after another. i own the building there close to the river, but i'm trying to relocate my business and i've been slowly trying to work on that every time we get some money. >> reporter: if this river floods, which it possibly could, what is that going to mean for you? >> i could lose a lot.

skpil ha and i'll have a lot of customers that are really going to be upset, but, you know, this hurricane is something else. one minute you don't know if you're going to live through it or your house is going to fall on you or whatever. we rode it out so we could try and stay in town. last night we were up there real late. we moved up three freezers and i've got six more to go. >> reporter: when you have a family the size of yours, you must just be in a constant state of terror, just worrying about if everyone is going to be okay. now your livelihood is on the line. >> livelihood and friends i'm doing business for, you know. i really don't want to let them down but i'm doing the best i can. and our family is just behind me and we've been sticking together. like i said, we rode the storm out and we live in a little area outside of town on my mother-in-law's land. >> reporter: you've been in victoria your whole life.

>> my whole life. i'm 55 years old and the flood of '98 was probably one of the hardest things that hit victoria for as long as i can remember. the river was six miles wide and flooded out a lot of people and devastation. i was really fortunate that all i lost was a business, you know, at the time, but i never thought i would have to go through that again. and now it looks like it could happen again. that's why i've been trying to relocate. we started building a shop in my house. i've been working on it but we just didn't get through in time. >> reporter: now you're here getting gas to try and keep things going. >> right. i got a bunch of generators. i'm taking generators to my shop to try to pump juice into the freezers that i haven't been able to move yet. the power has been off probably since midnight the night the storm hit. we didn't lose power in the mission valley area until 4:00 a.m.

i got freezers at my house, i got my mother-in-law coming over. >> reporter: roger, you're juggling a lot and we know you're going through it. hang in there and thanks. >> the main thing is we all made it through the storm, you know. material things don't mean nothing when you go through this. not as much -- you know. i just hope people understand. >> reporter: thank you very much for sharing your story with us and a powerful one it is. we wish you the best. >> thanks. >> reporter: thank you. this is just one example of the folks standing out here, richard, who are really feeling emotional at this point. >> yeah, and katie, as he needs to know, there are americans all across the country thinking about him, listening to him and certainly wanting to help him in what he's going through. and that is the difficulty. that is the real emotion with no sleep with very few reresources. those stories you've heard so far in your coverage and you'll

continue to hear near houston, texas. thank you for telling us what has happened in a city that harvey went through once and will be going through again. katie beck, thank you so much. also getting this in from kerry sanders, what will be happening. the president will travel to texas on tuesday. she is also saying we are coordinating logistics with state and local officials, and once details are finalized, we will let you know. again, this is coming from the press secretary. she goes on to say, we continue to keep all of those affected in our thoughts and prayers just like roger saski, who we were just listening to. we'll be right back.

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between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators. the role is to create a plan and create disaster action. mike is at the town hall. mike, what have you heard about ideas that can make things better for them? >> reporter: not so much ideas but demands from the citizens of charlottesville. about 300 have come here for an afternoon at a charlottesville high school to talk to city members. this is put on by the department of justice, of all places, in washington. the mayor sheeis here, the poli chief is here, the city manager is here, but they're all up in the crowd. there has been an amount of frustration from a number of people who came here expecting something different. in terms of what those demands are, we saw those images frightening to many of militia members aligned with white supremacists two weeks ago

yesterday on the streets of charlottesville carrying automatic and semi-automatic weapons through the streets, protecting the white supremacist marchers, many people here demanding those open carry laws go away. many people are critical of the police response in charlottesville. the police department here, many people felt as though they stayed on the sidelines while the melee, the fighting and ultimately the murder of one individual by that automobile in the streets of charlottesville happened as they stood by. the police have sharply defended their conduct. but what the stated goal here is is healing. one by one as these members of the audience step to the microphones, that's been the theme that the organizers have tried to put forward. i spoke with several of the attendees before going in. here's what one of them had to say. >> i think we were used kind of like as a testing ground to see how their movement could go further. and we're all here because of the aftermath of just the vile,

disgusting, deep-rooted ugliness here that now it's time -- it's time for healing for everybody. >> reporter: and despite the calls for healing, richard, there is a lot of acrimony and finger pointing from the top people here, from the city mayor, to the police chief. meanwhile, those controversial statues of robert e. lee and stonewall jackson have been covered with tarp. that's how they remain in charlottesville this sunday. >> mike, it's just great they got together and there was a calm dissension. more dramatic pictures still coming out of houston. police using river boats to make rescues in floodwaters in the houston area. this is becoming more common as the hours wear on in the

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now, moments ago the white house confirms now that the president will travel to texas on tuesday to survey the damage caused by tropical storm harvey. catastrophic flooding in houston, the city already seeing as much as 17 inches of rainfall is one of the things he'll see. as you can see in some areas, the problem here, according to the national weather service, is that parts of the city could see a historic 50 inches by the end of the week. search and rescue efforts are under way across the southeast region as we speak. texas governor greg abbott has activated 3,000 members of the national coast guard to help those in need. more than 300,000 people without power across the state. this doesn't include, by the way, houston which is 6.5 million people. this as residents are being told to shelter in place.

don't go anywhere and stay off the roads. coming up, rex tillerson seeking distance from president trump in the wake of charlottesville. coming up, my colleague tom roberts will have conversation with tom costello over tropical storm harvey. we'll be right back.

we've got some new reaction today from secretary of state rex tillerson, appearing to distance himself and the state department from president trump for the way he responded to the racially charged violence we saw in charlottesville two weeks ago. take a listen. >> i don't believe anyone doubts the american people's values or the commitment of the american government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values. >> and the president's values? >> the president speaks for himself, chris. >> are you separating yourself from that, sir? >> i've made my own comments as to our values as well in the speech i gave to the state department this past week. >> with me now, christina bel

bellatoni from the los angeles times. from roll call jonathan allen and carrie lucas, president of independent women's forum. let's start with you on this, christine. what do you make of this secretary's comments? >> well, they speak for themselves, right, just as he said. government is trying to function amid all of the chaos that's coming from within the white house, and as we're seeing right now, the importance of responding to the hurricane, everybody that's in government has to kind of keep focused. and there are a lot of distractions. i think you've heard similar messages from republicans who are trying to put their nose down and not respond to every single thing the president is saying or doing. >> jonathan, is he saying, i'm going the other way? is he indicating they're not necessarily singing from the same sheet of music on some serious issues? >> i think what secretary tillerson is trying to do there is to distance himself on this

particular issue so that he has more credibility on other ones. i thought the most fascinating piece of this was his effort to distance the values of the american people from those of the president of the united states. it's telegraphed to the rest of the world and of course the domestic audience that he believes the american values are different than what donald trump's are. that's pretty amazing. you couple that with what gary cohn said to the financial times the other day, the president's economic adviser, distancing himself on some of these issues. these guys are either getting license to say what they want to say, or they are in a position where they feel like it's more risky to be silent than to risk angering the president, either that's because he doesn't have the leverage to fire them or they're just not as worried about their jobs as they are about their own reputations. >> and really building on that here, carrie, is to what degree in not only his own administration but other key

republicans, right? as we take a look at the hill in congress as president trump creates a rift with his own party. the latest, in addition to what we already discussed, the decision to pardon former arizona sheriff joe arpaio. we got that information on friday. he's receiving criticism from some key gop members. you've seen the comments. senator john mccain saying it undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law. there was also a critical tweet from senator jeff flake, also arizona. does the president simply here, in your view when you look at this, not care, carrie, about the party's view, especially those key leaders from the gop? >> well, certainly. this is a president and congress that haven't always had the best relations. there is a lot of different interests. it's interesting, as much as we talk about the president's struggles in terms of public opinion, a lot of members of congress actually have lower favorability ratings than the

president does. he can get away, he has a base that will support him through thick and thin. not all members of congress have that. so they're doing kind of a delicate dance here. but i think it's kind of interesting to always focus on kind of the drama between all these key players, but that's not what the american people want to think about. i think for republicans in the white house and congress, they need to start delivering the goods. it doesn't matter if they get along, it doesn't matter who said what about whom. they need to get something like tax reform done so the american people and their voters and base can see they make progress together. at the end of the day, that's what's going to matter for their prospects. >> it's only a matter of weeks before they'll start having to tackle those key issues of tax reform. we're looking at money issues like budget and the debt ceiling. christina, if he's coming at them right now -- he hasn't been shy about mitch mcconnell. another example, right? how is he going to get this done? >> we're talking about terms

like his own party. president trump doesn't talk about it that way. he talks about me and he talks about them. even though that is his same party. we know that during the republican primary, there was a lot of opportunity for some of these same republican leaders to speak out then on some of the issues, and trump was pretty clear how he felt about joe arpaio back during the campaign. trump was very clear about his immigration policy and how he felt about a number of policy issues that he has implemented in the white house. those republicans chose to kind of stand aside, to stay quiet, even at times where they said they wouldn't stand by him, they ultimately said they would vote for their party's nominee. they're having it both ways in a lot of ways, and they do have these major issues facing them in congress. but right now anything the president really threatens doesn't come with a lot of teamwork or the ability to come together on something. and this could be a big issue with the debt ceiling. we've seen a government shutdown in 2013 that everybody thought would hurt republicans at the polls. they ended up winning back the

senate. so there is a lot of that political consequence here. carrie was mentioning that base for the president is very different than the base for a lot of these members of congress, and particularly here in california. we've got several house republicans who are considered vulnerable in the midterms and if they are less popular than president trump with their base it's going to be a problem for them. >> jonathan, is he looking at that reality that congress has a lower favorability rating and he's playing that against them? >> absolutely. he loves nothing better than a feud, if he can do it on twitter or television all the ber. i think christina makes an important point. we should not assume that the president is as most establishment presidents are very concerned about the prospect of a government shutdown. his pace likes the idea of disrupting governor. ted cruz who forced that shutdown that christina spoke about in 2013 ended up giving donald trump as good a run for his money in the republican contest as anybody else. the idea that donald trump is

going to give easily because of sproekt tif shutdown may not be operative. >> kerry louis. i owe you one. we'll get you next time and i appreciate your time. jonathan allen as well. have take good sunday. >> you too. our harvey coverage continues on the latest with rescue efforts as residents prepare to be inundated for days. live report from smithville, texas. (boy) sorry. (dad) don't worry about it. (mom) honey, honey, honey, honey! (vo) at our house, we need things that are built to last. that's why we got a subaru. (avo) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. get 0% apr financing for 63 months on all new 2017 legacys. ends august 31st. this inot this john smith.smith. or this john smith. or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are

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just getting in to msnbc within the last hour, president trump will now travel on tuesday to texas to survey the damage from tropical storm harvey as the storm continues to bring historic rains to that state. chris bruin is in that state in smithville, texas, right outside the austin area with more on what he's seeing there. hey, chris. >> reporter: hey, richard. it is coming down. we're still seeing tropical storm force winds. you can get an idea of the flooding that's going on in this

street behind me. several hours ago was completely flooded and the water actually went inside of several of these homes and again it's really been a story of neighbors helping neighbors. this is rainfall just excess drainage. we've had 20 inches of rain in such a short amount of time. the city has put out pump to put the water in this abandoned cotton field across the street. the water has gone down to the pumps but again this is what happens when you get too much rain in such a short amount of time. we have the colorado river just to our north and it's already at moderate flood stage and expected to get higher. the rains continuing to come down here and this could be another two, three days before things finally start to let up. now, there has been a shelter here in smithville about 60 people there and there's been numerous reports around town of flooded homes, washed out roads,

even a washed out bridge. schools here are also closed tomorrow. the rain's coming down. still getting gusts, 40, 50 miles per hour and it is just relentless. our thoughts and prayers with everyone here. that's the latest from smithville, texas. >> it's going to be like that for days up until friday and some estimation. it's hard to believe that towns like that, like smithville will have to see that. chris bruin, thank you so much, my friend for that report. give us a sense of all of that weather from the weather channel for us. that does it for us this hour. i'm richard louis. my colleague thomas roberts is next and he'll be interviewing texas governor with the latest on harvey and what they can expect in the next week. have a great night. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. when we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. flonase helps block 6. most allergy pills only block one

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flooding as this storm remains at a standstill over the texas coast. boats are navigating through houston highways as water swrus continue across the area. first responders asking residents to help answer the call. >> those of you who have boats and high water vehicles that can be used in neighborhoods to help move people out of harms way, we need your help. >> so days of rain is expected in the forecast. texas governor greg abbott is going to join us one on one coming up to talk about the enormous challenge in responding to this historic rainfall for his state and this as president trump just announced he will travel to texas. he'll be coming to the lone star state on tuesday. the commander in chief faces fallout after his own party of the pardon of former arizona joe arpaio. we'll break down the pli storms now surrounding the administration because a lot