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 of news broke on friday but all

eyes have been on texas because of harvey and we did just get this news moments ago with the white house confirming the president will travel to texas on tuesday to get on the ground, survey the damage himself that's been left behind of this historic storm. we know that harvey at this hour still lingering over the houston area have already placed the fourng largest city in america underwater. people on rafts being escorted waist high waters as people are fleeing their homes. this makes it the city's worst storm on record. thousands of homes have taken in water and hundreds of people they are stranded. parts of houston have already received as much as 17 inches of rain and the national weather service says parts of the city could see a historic 50 inches by the ends of this coming week. city officials say the 911 system is at capacity after an overwhelming number of emergency calls. so far more than 2,000. now more than 300,000 people are without power across the state as residents are being told to

shelter in place and to stay off the roads. we'll go to victoria, texas, that's where nbc's catie beck is joining us with the very latest from there. i know you've been in this area for a while and you've been watching this storm system checking in on how neighbors are dealing with it. explain the situation right now as people have to prepare for a week's worth of harvey. >> reporter: that's right. the situation is really desperate here in victoria, texas, because people have been without power now for two days. they don't have gasoline and are running out of food and another round is on the way. they are bracing themselves for the second round of this. we were just at a gas station that had a hundred car line of people trying to get gas, trying to fill as many as canisters that they can to fill generates and their car and things get hostile and emotional because people just aren't sure where they're going to get their supplies at this point as this next round makes its way in to

victoria. >> you could lose a lot and i have a lot of customers that 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 will fall on you or whatever. >> reporter: so that was actually a gentleman we spoke to at the pump. he is a father of six children, a small business owner and said if floods as it's expected to do he could potentially lose everything. so he is in a state of panic. just to give you an idea of where we are, we're in the parking lot of the barbecue restaurant that's been here for many years. some roof damage behind me. let me give you a good look what's going on behind me. while the business is obviously closed for now, they have opened up a mobile food truck for the people here that have been starving for days dying to get a hot meal. you can see that line of people over there at the food truck waiting to get some barbecue and as i said, people -- they're

coming out of their homes now while the rain is letting up for a minute but this is not going to last, obviously more weather headed this way. folks really excited about getting some decent food in their belly. as we saw at the gas station, long lines and people eager to just feel a little bit normal. >> i was going to say that yearning for normalcy. catie beck in victoria, texas. thanks so much. i want to get a full update on the path of harvey. shawna, we talked about tornadoes that could happen overnight. we're approaching night fall for residents in texas as the storm system continues to stall out. is that still part of the factor with this storm? >> absolutely. we're looking at the possibility just because the position of the storm, again, is right over that warm gulf water and it's giving it that fuel it needs to really pump those severe storms into areas like houston, galveston, areas out toward the east.

as we continue to watch the path of this track, we've got a lot of energy and no movement in the storm. we're tracking it right now with your futurecast showing from now until monday morning. a lot of heavy rain off and on for houston, a lot of inundation for rain happening all day. it's not going away. the positioning is staying the same. it's always because the jet stream is not pushing it along. it needs that push to get out of here. it's trapped of the water's not going anywhere for several days from now through friday we'll continue to see a lot of rain. we have got the high to the west and east blocking harvey in place. no upper level jet stream winds to push it along. we've got those things keeping it in place and until it starts to move along we've got rain in excess of 50 or more inches of rain possible which could be record breaking. the most is 52 in one of those storms. we are looking at about 24 inches. we got rain totals going up and

up. this is since friday. those numbers expected to go up maybe 15 to 25 inches by the time thg this is all over and it feels like there's no end in sight as we continue to watch these rain totals again. harvey is done more than allison has done in half the time. that's just showing you how much this storm has done. a lot of damage possible and the rain to come in the next few days is what we're watching. the latest update with the track of the hurricane shows it going offcoast turning into a tropical storm again not really weakening for several days maybe up until friday. >> thank you very much. we'll talk more in this hour. we do have new images that are also coming in. these rescues attempts taking place all throughout texas right now. here we have folks that were rescued from their home. you can see them of traveling on roadways via boat. the coast guard is performing rescues. they asked people who have boats to help, to go out in different low lying areas in and around

the city so they could get folks who are stranded. they expect flooding to continue. our catie beck was in victoria. she saw folks in line at a food truck trying to get a hot meal. we'll go back to katie, i i was curious. have they heard the news that president trump will come to texas on tuesday to survey the damage. is that welcomed news and what would they like to see from our federal government? >> reporter: we actually have someone standing by that will be willing to answer that for us. this is paul and paul you're here in victoria, lifelong resident. what has this been like for you? >> we were blessed, first of all. no injuries to the family and friends and no major property damage. so we were very fortunate. but it has been tough getting a hot meal. it's been one of the things we saw this on social media and decided to come out and load up on some hot food. we've been eating canned foods

with little to no heat. my dad finally -- we pulled our resources and my dad has -- we fired up the barbecue grill earlier and made breakfast this morning. >> reporter: you guys are sitting in the dark with no air-conditioning in texas. >> this is southeast texas and it's pretty muggy, pretty humid, so. >> reporter: have you heard the news that president trump is going to be making a trip to texas? >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: and is that welcome news to you? >> absolutely. it's good to know that the powers that be are paying attention to this part of the world and that we will be receiving some aid, so. >> reporter: we were speaking to people at the gas station just down the street from here, they were really emotional. this is really -- it gets to a point where it sort of breaks you a little bit. >> yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am. again, like i said i was very fortunate. we had family here and pulling our resources. we may be more fortunate than others in the way we've handled the situation. i do know some people who have lost a lot and i feel for them,

but i can't put myself in their shoes, so. >> reporter: got to stay positive. >> yes, ma'am, absolutely. >> reporter: you have another round of weather on the way they're worried about the river flooding. >> that's a huge concern. i guess -- i wasn't here in '98 when the big flood came but they're anticipating that this is going to probably be bigger than that and it is a concern. i do have family towards the river and it is a huge concern. it's going to set us back for quite some time. >> reporter: yeah. we're glad that you're safe and glad your family's safe and we don't want to impede you from getting a hot meal. >> we've been in line for a little over an hour. >> reporter: thank you. appreciate it. so thomas, the answer to your question, yes, he is very much looking forward to the president's visit and it feels this area needs a lot of attention and help. >> i know obviously the storm system, the way harvey progresses the track of this storm over the next 24-48 hours all we'll go into how the presidential team coordinates with the governor for this

visit. i know paul just referenced the flooding of 1998 and katie this storm has already beaten the records of tropical storm allison in 2001 which effected the same area. at that time the damage was more than $6.9 billion. that's in today's estimate. at least 41 fatalities. paul was saying there he knew a lot of people that have lost a lost things but do you think for most of the folks that you chatted with that they are prepared for the long haul when it comes to what this storm really means, not just the days of harvey but the months and years to come from its devastation? >> reporter: i think they're as prepared as they he can be. if this river floods and that is the big if at this point, if this rainfall continues as it's expected and the guadeloupe river floods, the entire downtown will be underwater and that is really what is driving the anxiety at this point. that is what explains the long lines at the gas station and the

long lines at this barbecue restaurant is that people know this is not over and that there could be potential flooding that puts everybody out of business for weeks even months. i think they're as prepared as they can be but not oblivious to what's coming. >> the governor has asked for more counties to be included into the presidential disaster declaration so that makes over 50 counties that are ones that would be added to this seeking assistance from fema. what you've seen on the ground in terms of resources, not just neighbors in action or good samaritans in action but what are the resources and the stage assets been like that you've seen? >> reporter: well, from our perspective, just last night we were watching a hospital here that had not had water for two days evacuate 18 critical patients to austin. so there are some critical situations here in victoria that needed response right away. we did notice in the downtown

area today there were some military vehicles for the first time seeing some tanks and some heavy lifting in terms of swrus is what they expect. but there is going to be, if there is flooding the response is going to need to be a lot more. downed trees and downed power lines right now are one thing, but what's coming could be less manageable. >> we have information on the confirmed fatalities but also the fact that folks are using whatever they can to get out through their roofs if they're stuck in their home. this is very reminiscent of what happened in katrina. if they were sheltering in place and trying to get out and we don't have a really good handle on exactly how many people in different rural parts of texas that might be effected by this. we'll have governor abbott on later to talk to him specifically about that. they've enacted 3,000 national guard troops that is roughly 1,200 more than yesterday.

so i'm going to ask you to stand by. we'll check in with you over the next couple hours. i want to bring into our conversation state representative todd hunter, and, sir, explain what you understand about the additional counties that have been added for the presidential disaster declaration taking it to over 50 counties in the state of texas that need federal assistance? >> right now because of not only the flooding but the category 4 winds they're adding more and more counties, texas has not seen anything like this for many, many years. i just left one of the surrounding communities aransas pass who is on the eye area of the storm. you can see trucks all over the place with power lines down, you can't get around without small cars. i was just at a hospital where they had to bring volunteers in where trees had fallen on the hospital. the only hospital that services that whole area.

so you're going to see a lot more areas added to the declaration because of not only the flooding that's occurred but the wind. it's quite an impact. >> we know that aran stas county has been added to this new declaration. when it comes to what the lingering effects of harvey mean, the way that this storm system is going to camp out for the next several days, how do you think that systems in place because of the way storms have hit texas before existing systems are holding up against this type of pressure to get water away from low lying areas especially in major city like houston that's only 80 feet above sea level? >> right now i can tell you the coastal depends in the south of houston they're doing a pretty good job because they've been able to see what's happened in shof the other states. so in the south texas up to houston area, i can tell you from the wind standpoint and the flooding area they're doing a good job. there's just some things they

can't reach. now what's happening is you're seeing houston get this torrential water flooding and what happens is we're in the middle of the event. the key is going to be as soon as the event basically dies down, what is the devastation and then we'll have to see what the emergency response is. i can tell you this, it is quite an event. it is something everybody needs to watch. i do have faith that the emergency management teams will be able to handle it. however, it's going to mean texas is going to have a big interruption over the next several weeks. >> sir, the president announced he's going to come to texas on tuesday. do you support that visit? >> absolutely. i encourage not only the president, i encourage the governor, the u.s. senator, they've all reached out, they're coming to texas. i think the more education and alertness we bring to natural disasters will help everybody. >> representative todd hunter of the state of texas. thank you very much i appreciate your time.

>> thank you. i want to bring in as we continue to monitor this storm talking about rescue operations that we've seen the video, good samaritans going out on their boats trying to help people encouraged by city officials to do so. look at this. the city of houston submerged in over two feet of rain and these catastrophic flooding events that are happening in low lying neighborhoods. people using rafts, whatever they can to float with specific belongings trying to get to higher ground wading through waist deep water. worse weather is expected which is the bad news here adding insult to injury. so far in harris county the estimates have been up to 2,000 high water rescues since harvey crashed into texas. the sheriff county shows him assisting with the different rescue efforts they've been having. jeff, explain what type of

flooding that harris county, the people living in and around the rural areas of houston really need to prepare for this storm now already beating allison in its water totals from 2001? >> right now we are having an unprecedented disaster in this county and region. this is something that we have never faced before and it has stretched everything to the absolute limits right now and we have water levels that are going into the second story of structures. we have water levels that are going over roofs and levies that we are concerned about. there is just tremendous, tremendous flooding and we have, you know -- you mentioned the rescues, that's probably a very conservative number of rescues easily several thousand rescues have been ongoing and there are several thousand more rescues to

be done. i want to talk directly to the people in houston right now who have water in their home. we are dealing with record water levels on many of our 22 bayous and creeks in this county and the rain continues to fall. we could expect another eight to 12 inches so what that means it's going to get dark here and all of you who have water in your homes now are most likely going to still have water in your homes tonight when it gets dark and we're talking about tens of thousands of homes with water in them. so the gravity of the situation we have right now in houston is one of the most severe and catastrophic event that we certainly ever witnessed in this area. >> from what you're looking at forecast models, when do you expect the flooding to peak? >> in some locations the flood waters have peaked and they have receded, in other locations especially in the north and west part of the county and into some of our river systems to the

southwest of the county, those are going to continue to rise and what the information we're working very closely with the national weather service, who are doing an awesome job right now predicting these water levels. what we are seeing is we're exceeding record water levels on some of our bayous and creeks by not a half foot but by three, four, five, six feet which is absolutely incredible. just to give you an idea of how much rain has fallen in the last 24 hours, 419 billion gallons of water have fallen just on harris county in the last 24 hours. >> so jeff when we think about what people have lived through already and what's to come, do people have the right information in terms of either getting out or sheltering in place when it comes to what harvey could bring? what is the recommendation that's currently facing certainly for the area under your purview for harris county?

>> so the recommendation that we are giving people right now is if you have water -- if you do not have water in your house, you're fine stay where you're at. do not leave your home. if you have water in your house and your life is not threatened, stay where you are. okay? you're safer in your house even with water in your house, you're safer in your house than going outside and potentially being swept away by the water. if you have water in your house and it is getting to levels where you feel unsafe, meaning it is getting too high. you need to get on top of your roof, okay? do not go into your attic. get on top of your roof and if you feel like your life is in imminent danger, calling 911 and we're asking people to stay on the line when they call 911, it may take a while for the call to go through because of the volume of calls we're having, but they underline and you'll eventually get through, but please, please only use 911 if it's an emergency situation. clearly it is overwhelmed right

now and just to give you an idea. we have had first responders now working for almost 24 hours and so at some point you start to have to get into this fatigue factor with first responders. we literally cannot get any help into this area. we have no way of getting anything in here. aircraft, we cannot get vehicles in here. the only thing we can get in here is some boats in certain areas. there is help that is stranded just outside of our area that we just can't get in here. >> jeff, we know also with the governor asking for people that do have boats to go on those good samaritans patrols to help out their neighbors, i appreciate your advice. certainly with the instructions that you have for people that may be confused about what to do and what to expect. jeff lind nor who is the meteorologist for the harris county flood control district i appreciate it. president trump has been talking about the fema response,

the federal response to harvey announcing that he's going to be going to texas on tuesday but also tweeting about building a wall. so, you know, potentially government shutdown. are we getting the wall built with mexico after the break? we'll talk about the president's priorities from his controversial -- he'll take you back to texas with the ongoing harvey coverage. coming up in our 6:00 p.m. hour. we'll talk to governor greg abbott one on one as his state is dealing with its most historic natural disaster in decades. back in a moment. or discomfort and diarrhea. i tried lifestyle changes and over-the-counter treatments, but my symptoms keep coming back. it turns out i have irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, or ibs-d. a condition that's really frustrating. that's why i talked to my doctor about viberzi... ...a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day

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so lot to cover when it comes to politics and growing backlash from both sides of the aisle. that continues over president trump's pardon of former arizona sheriff joe arpaio. here's john kasich responding to this earlier today. >> i wouldn't have done it this way. it's not -- it is absolutely

should be out of bounds for somebody to use that as some sort of a political wedge. it appears as though that's what it was. >> his reaction coming in the hours after a washington post report revealed the president reportedly asked attorney general jeff sessions if it was possible to drop the federal case against arpaio, that request was in the spring. the ag said that would be inappropriate. so the report says the commander was advised later that that would be wrong and here's the president's homeland security adviser this morning with his thoughts about the arpaio pardon. >> i think there's a clem mensy argument that could be made for the long history of service both in the united states military and in law enforcement for the sheriff. i think the president's been pretty clear, it's pretty straightforward that he believes that long history of service mer its this clemensy and he's acted accordingly. >> i want to bring in our political panel to talk about this. joining us katherine

manningleward, charlie psychs and victoria defrancesco. victoria i know you were on with me last night when we got the first reporting on the air what the washington post deep dived about time lining out this went down. some would say this is strictly a political move but is this something that really is going to serve the president well when it comes to what he wants to do with his base, which is keep them engaged, keep them excited about the fact that he's a disrupter? >> let's look at the bigger picture. right now president trump is enmeshed with the russia scandal, the investigation, the economy isn't going as well as he'd like it to go, troubles with health care, tax reform is stalled. he's coming back to his immigration safe space. he knows that this is a topic that revs up his base. he can really dig into it and

folks applaud it. he knows that he can do this and he knows that he doesn't have to answer to democrats on this because he's only speaking to a base of about 30 to 35% of the population. this is kb digging in his heels and not a bigger picture of political strategy of figuring out how you're going to get the big bills passed. >> is there any political capital being spent here by president trump in doing this? i know we had speaker ryan give a reaction last night. certain republicans have come out with their own negative reactions to doing so, john kasich saying he wouldn't have done it this way. but the president has legal authority to do it. >> absolutely, he does have the legal authority to do it and the political capital he's spending is to shore up his base just like we've heard. this was the week where it became obvious that he's going to cave on the building the wall and having mexico pay for it. this is clearly red meat for the base.

the larger picture is this president's attitude toward the rule of law. he used his pardon authority to pardon someone who broke the law to violate people's constitutional rights. that is an extraordinary act and for republicans who are outraged about bill clinton's mark rich pardon i don't know how comfortable they ought to be with this because it sends a message to other folks that this president is capable of political pardons of pardoning his crownies of using what is essentially unchecked power and the story that he actually brought the attorney general in and asked him to intervene in this case, again, reveals what this president thinks about his power and about the independence of the justice department and of this judicial process. think about this, here's a president who is facing real questions about obstruction of justice and it appears that he actually does think that as president of the united states he can decide which of his

friends get prosecuted which of his friends get a break. >> it is weaponizing the government in unprecedented ways. we know last night when i had on jack willen check representing arpaio and he instructed him to accept the pardon, jack said that part of the justification is this is his quote, i say it saves everybody time and money. it's the right thing to do because i asked him if arpaio thinks he's innocent and wrongly convicted by this judge and didn't stand trial in front of a jury, then fight it. but he said because he's 85 years old and the fact that it would just waste time and money that it was easier to accept this pardon which carries with it the idea carlos that this is an admission of guilt. pardons mean admission of guilt. he was convicted which is already established by the judge, but this is arpaio saying, okay, i'll accept it but i want it to be clean in not

terms of having to serve any jail time. >> thomas, couple interesting things here. clearly arpaio certainly was happy to get this news and clearly the president sent a message to his base but two other things i saw really made this significant. number one, you had jeff flake the senator from arizona where arpaio is who opposed trump earlier on part of the never trump crew who not only pushed back against the arpaio pardon but more significantly raised the inspector of a 2020 primary challenge against trump. lots of democrats have talked about that but to hear republican talk about it out loud even a never trumper i think was significant. the other thing that was interesting on the flip side if you're trump this was good news, while speaker paul ryan opposed it, said it was wrong, he did so through his press operation instead of coming out and saying it himself. suggesting that republicans while may be a little frustrated, while wanting to send a message for republicans like mcconnell and bob corker

for republicans even the speaker paul ryan still scared to really go head to head against president trump even where they think he's gone off base and potentially set a dangerous precedent. >> we did hear from the former vice president joe biden he wrote today in the atlantic about the pardon prompting this quote from him saying we're living through a of the soul of this nation and calling on americans to defend the constitution. do you think, katherine, this is really going to blow over in a few days because president trump is on his way to texas to deal with harvey and the catastrophic damage of this storm? congress is coming back after recess, this falls through the cracks. >> it does and this is the glory of the friday news drop. this is exactly what he intended. that's a real shame because not only does this republican pushback even if it's limited, even if it's from jeff flake who was never a fan of trump, it is significant and i think it's going to grow. at the same time i hate that

what's being obscured here is arpaio who has been covering for decades truly one of the worst sheriff's in america. a lot of his practices are not all that uncommon. so people who are learning about arpaio now and hearing that he shackled women in labor to the bed, his aggressive use of stun guns, overcrowding in his prison, racial profiling on the streets, arpaio didn't invent any of those practices and i would hate for other law men to be embolden in doing those because of this pardon. >> he was shameless about talking that he had his own concentration camps. >> utterly unapologetic, probably hundreds of thousands defending the guy. >> he's got a press conference coming up. victoria, does this pardon while criminally gets him off the hook, does this open him up to civil lawsuits because when he was quicked by a judge and

accepted a pardon from the president, which judicial scholars could argue is just an admission of guilt, could he be civilly liable? >> thomas, i'm going to leave that one to the legal scholars and keep my political scientist head on and focus a little bit more on what this means for the electoralit and look at the potential silver lining because in following joe arpaio, former sheriff, he is done a magnificent job of mobilizing the latino community. so at least the good news out of all of this pardon is i think this is going to further push the growing latino community in arizona to go out and vote. >> we know arpaio was voted out after a long time being sheriff. he has talked potentially of getting back into political life. we'll see what the 85-year-old does. thank you so much. thank you all so much. we know that the governor of texas has enacted 3,000 national guard troops ready to respond

and the situation in texas. he roughly has 10,000 of his disposal. we'll talk to the nechls governor, greg abbott about the state, the strategy moving forward as it coordinates with federal resources and has to deal with the unpredictability of mother nature and harvey. we're also tracking this storm and just how long will it stay over texas. it was just initiated a little while ago about a three hour flash flood warning that is in effect for the houston area right now. back with more in a moment. the first survivor of alzheimer's disease is out there.

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welcome back. look at these aerials that are coming in from houston. the harvey effect is being felt far and wide but you can see the amount of water the saturation that was already on ground and then the unrelenting bans of rain that has continued. we've got this coming in to us from the united states coast guard. they've been performing thousands of rescue operations today in coordination with good samaritans have the governor has asked people with boats to assist in rescue efforts because they don't have the people power

to get to certain areas that they need to get. now there are assets in place just outside of where the storm system is coming down but they're having problems getting that support. those staged assets in place. mira rodriguez is joining us by phone. mya is in houston. there's a three hour flash flood warning that's in effect right now as the sun is about to set on day two of the effects of harvey, what have you been seeing? >> well, you heard that plea from officials about wanting people to bring their personal boats to rescue others who are trapped basically on the roofs of their home. they've been working to pluck people that have been waiting since early this morning. we were in one houston suburb where 150 people have already been rescued and other 200 were waiting. fire officials were going to be working through the night trying to get all of these people off their homes. that's when we saw neighbors stepping in bringing their

personal water crafts, anything they had, we saw people with canoes launching into creeks to try to get to these people who needed their help. as you can imagine the rain here has been relentless. it's been raining continuously for hours upon hours. you can see the creeks rising, you can see water rushing over the roads, moving very, very quickly in some places and it doesn't take much to move a car just about six inches of water. it's hard to even get across just how many roads are completely impassable because of the water at this point. we're talking major thorough fares, arteries, small streets. we've been on awfully those today and there is so much water on so many of them and what's worse is that we know it is going to get worse because there is so much more rain expected in this area anchsz we look back over time and compare this to what the most recently happened in terms of tropical systems and hurricanes with tropical storm allison, from june of 2001, this

is basically beaten that mya in water totals. the average rain has exceeded that former storm in half the time and this is five days of expected rain. i know that the city of dallas has just tweeted that they're preparing to open their mega shelter to receive what they say coastal guests and the city plans to have it open by tuesday morning. as we think about that, mya, that's another 48 -- less than 48 hours to go. from what you're seeing, do you think people can with stand waiting to try to get to the mega shelter in dallas from what you're seeing on the ground? >> i think people were just caught very unaware by this. they went to bed last night thinking, okay, it's going to take a couple of days for all of this to play out, these huge numbers that we were hearing of rainfall coming and then, you know, they woke up in the middle of the night and there's water right at their doorstep and rising. so i think that sort of jarred them in the sense of we thought

we had more time when, in fact, turns out they didn't. so whether they can withstand it, i don't know. you were talking about all those measurements a second ago, anecdotally people are saying i've lived here my entire life, i've lived through allison and it was nothing like this. they're expecting so much more here. so how much people can withstand is going to be a test for this community. >> is that a brain trigger for people thinking about hurricane harvey, just the dedication of semantics here with the cat 4 storm as opposed to the downgrade of tropical storm harvey, thinking that it's better than it actually is and not realizing about this amount of water and not realizing about a saturation of ground and certain systems that can't handle the amount of water in such a short period of time? >> i think it's a lot easier for people to wrap their heads around wind speeds and category.

we've gotten so used to that when we talk about hurricane winds. when it comes to things like water, i think it's a little trickier because water effects different places differently. the wind can be 145 miles an hour across a huge section, right, but not everybody necessarily is going to flood. so i think some people think, well, maybe i'm safe here when, in fact, it turns out they're not. >> we know the president is announced that he's going to be coming to texas on tuesday. we will see exactly what happens over the next several days, if that calculation will change. the next hour we'll have an opportunity to speak with texas governor greg abbott whose going to be joining us. mya rodriguez reporting for us in houston. thank you very much. we'll be back with much more after this. shawn evans: it's 6 am.

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millions that have been effected by this storm. shawna, explain what people are seeing as this storm still doesn't have anywhere to go. it is just being pushed right in this spot where it's been over corpus christi to houston. >> you can tell it's spinning in the same general direction. it's been doing this for the last 24 hours with really just a movement of 2 miles an hour going southeast. that's slower than the speed of someone walking down the street. basically seeing this rain over and over again drying that moisture from the gulf and getting a will the of lightning as well with those bands. tornado warnings right off the coastline as that's the source of the moisture. flash flood warning at this hour. it'll be in effect from now will 8:00 p.m. everyone else looking at a flash flood watch which will last through about wednesday. it's not over. once we see this pass, we'll continue to see flooding for the next several days even up to friday now as we watch those

models, texas flooding, everyone's at least in a minor flooding stage. some even at major. we'll take you over to houston where we're seeing the buffalo bayou already past record flood stage about 68.9 feet there and the number goes up tomorrow. you can see that that flood rain is continuing to grow. finally see it recede around thursday when it goes down below flood stage. there's a lot of rain coming from the sky and it's accumulating and where's that rain going to go? it has nowhere to go. we'll have to watch that as that's a major threat. the flooding, also the wind isn't going to be a problem or the storm surge as we saw when we were initially watching this storm. the flood saying problem and if you don't need to leave, if you're in a safe spot right now, national weather service all the way up to these emergency responders are telling you to stay in place because you don't want to be caught in the water. >> there's just been a tornado warning for chamber and liberty counties in texas. tornado threats still remains a major concern, shanna, exactly

what they were living through last night and this is because the system itself is just spawning off in little pockets. >> there's enough energy embedded in the system, even though there's no day time heating, we have a lot of that moisture from the gulf is warm water and that's fueling these storms. >> thank you very much. still ahead, we're having more stories coming in to us, the harrowing res excuse and this is a first account of this video fresh to us of what the city streets look like in and around houston. amazing stories of survival. we've seen homes submerged, cars literally submerged where the water goes over the rooftop and people have been trying to flee using rafts or anything that will float to take the belongings that they have and find safe shelter. >> back with more in a moment.

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let's get straight to our gabe gutierrez, joining us from bel air, texas. gabe, tell us what you've seen on the ground and have been witnessing. >> reporter: hi there, thomas. this is actually right outside the houston suburbs. there is a lot of water, residents say some homes have five, six feet of water. there are water rescues going on right now. we saw two elderly residents being pulled from the water and taken over there. we're going to walk over there, we'll be very careful. there's only a few inches of water where i'm standing but there's a lot of activity here. i'll ask jimmy, my cameraman, to show how many volunteers from around the country are trying to

help residents here. there's a person here from utah. there's volunteers here from california. that woman appears to have just been pulled out from her home. we're going to walk over here, and bear with me, we'll have to jump this median. we're on the 610 loop in houston. that's actually -- hold on one second, while way carefully walk through here -- the 610 loop in houston at beech-nut. as you can see, there's a lot of activity here. some of these people are being taken over here. traffic is obviously blocked off here on this interstate. this is something that we've been seeing as we've been coming into houston. these neighbors that typical see some water, these residents tell me they have seen some water before, but never anything like this. we just spoke with one of them who said he's been leaving here 20 years, into while he's seen water come up in his front yard, now it's into his home. i've spoken with one other

resident earlier, she allowed us to interview her. of course some of these folks have lost all their hometowns, a difficult time, devastating for many of these communities. again, we're in bel air, texas, just outside of houston. this woman over here told me a few moments ago she's lost her home. ma'am, what's your name? >> cheryl. >> reporter: tell me, how do you feel? i'm sorry, ma'am, it's okay. how are you doing? >> i'm fine. >> reporter: how high did the water come up? >> it was up to here in my house. >> reporter: have you ever seen something like this? >> no. >> reporter: and how long have you lived in the area? >> 22 years. >> reporter: did you expect this much water? the warnings were saying it was going to be a huge rainmaker, but you weren't expecting this much? >> no, i didn't expect it. i thought there would be a little flooding but nothing like this. >> reporter: when did you realize things were getting out

of hand? >> at 3:00 this morning, water continued to build. >> reporter: how long before you were able to be rescued? >> they came about 3:00. >> reporter: about 3:00. what goes through your head as you see that water creeping up on your house? >> i was thinking of writing my social security number on my arm. >> reporter: that series? >> thank you. >> reporter: thank you very much, ma'am. i'm gabe with msnbc. thank you so much and good luck to you. we're seeing people who have lost everything and lost their homes. the water rescues are ongoing. volunteers tell us they've been here, they've had hundreds of rescues already. back to you, thomas. >> gabe gutierrez reporting from bel air. gabe, i know this is one of the our hardest jobs, to tell these stories from out in the field and make sure everybody knows what's going on. having to ask those hard questions in tough times, please thank cheryl for allowing us to

have a brief glimpse of what they're going through right now. think about that, to write your social security number on your arm, which was what was recommended for people. coming up in the next hour, we'll have texas governor greg abbott, as harvey prepares to drop more rain on already flooded areas of texas. back in a moment. don't let dust and allergens get between you and life's beautiful moments. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. it helps block 6 key inflammatory substances that cause symptoms.

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we continue our coverage of the situation in texas with harvey. and coming up, i'll have the opportunity to speak with the governor, greg abbott. to give you an example of what's taking place, we had gabe gutierrez speaking to a woman considering writing her social security number on her arm, because of the high floodwaters in her area. she's been evacuated to safety along the 610 loop. but this is what it is like for people in and around houston today, using whatever theca