people in shelters. i thank him for that as well as additional assistance. that's coming from the mayors as well. in terms of reaching us, 911, there have been a number of observations about 911 so i want joe to come and give us a status report where we are. placing a high priority, making sure when they call they reach us. once they reach us, we need to respond to them. >> thank you, mayor. i'm with the houston emergency center. as of 9:00 this morning we received approximately 75,000 calls we did process as well. we've gotten our queue numbers down to 10, meaning those are calls pending. that's a huge difference from yesterday. there were probably 120 to 250 down to 10 to 15 on queue today. we're receiving tre amount of calls, extreme emergency for everyone, the whole region, of course. we are encouraging citizens to call, when they do call 911 to

stay on the line. do not hang up, because that just expands our trunk system, which overloads it and puts on hold the number of people we can't get to. so stay on the line. what we also initiated last night what's a voice activated system that notifies people if they do call 911, their call is being processed. that's significant. it what we were experiencing earlier was a constant rain and thinking our system was down. our system hasn't been down, just the long way to call, so stay on the line. we're also encouraging citizens if they receive any calls from relatives, if they have contacted 911 previously, do not follow up with that. do not test 911 right now. we are just experiencing an abundance of calling. we do have a good grasp on that. we are encouraging people if they do need help, please call 911 and we will process that

call. [ inaudible ]. >> extreme emergencies. status reports is not life threatening, okay, so we discourage those types of calls. we really want to keep those lines open for life threatening situations. do not follow up with it. but we are receiving all types of messages from all around the region. we're processing them. we're putting in the lines. this is an extreme emergency. we understand where everyone is coming from. but we do hope citizens do understand that we are processing the calls and hopefully help will be under way. we want to go ahead and get the right information from the callers to provide the right resources. but for right now, we are doing a tremendous job for the first responders, and we are processing those calls. we are asking patience. we're trying to do huge amounts on a regular basis. we process 8 or 9,000 calls. as mentioned, we are about to

75,000 calls this morning, processed and served. >> so big emphasis on 911. we want to assure people we will respond to them. do not hang up. if you hang up, you go back to the bottom. so don't hang up. we will get to you. so the calls are coming in through 911. whatever staffing we need to do to make sure we're operating at full capacity, we want to make sure we do that. once they come in, they are in the queue. they are forwarded then to houston fire department or police department or whatever the department is to deal with them, then we'll work through that. again, on the rescue portion. especially seniors, those with disabilities, those in life threatening situations, that is the focus. the goal is to get to them before the day is out. i want to also talk about -- let

me talk about the situation. barker. they are releasing as of an hour ago 2600 cubic feet per second and 20 hundred cubic feet from barker, 5,000 feet. that was about an hour. they are going to gradually increase that up to about 8,000 cubic feet, which will go up to about noon. the reason is the amount of money behind them, if they don't release it, then it will go around. specifically addicts. when it's released, it will come

downstream. it's going to add water to the buffalo bayou. right now the flood level is coming down. the water along beautiful bayou in all probability will increase. when i asked this morning from flood control distance can he quantify how much that means, how much water? they are still doing modeling and could not specify at that time. but the water in the beautiful bayou is not going to be going down soon. right now it's steady, even with the release. but the more they release, it could go up. and so it could create even additional problem, additional flooding. i'm asking them to quantify to give me additional information on that. we are scheduled to talk again somewhere around noon or

afternoon. so i do want to highlight that situation. they are releasing water but it's a gradual release. what they are indicating is if they don't do it, say they hold back the water and it builds up, then it will be forced, it will go around addicks and the situation will be exponentially worse. this is a gradual release. steve, do you want to speak to it more? >> steve costello. >> thank you, mayor. yes, we were advised yesterday by the corps they were going to start discharging out of both addicks and barker. generally before a flood what happens is the gates are closed so they can contain the water coming in upstream so downstream flooding can continue. so the issue here has to be the fact that they are getting a lot of water in the watershed upstream of the dams and concerned about the water levels rising very, very quickly. so what they are doing now is what we call a controlled

release rate. at the same time while they are releasing the water out of the reservoir realtime monitoring water in buffalo bayou. as the mayor said they are going to try to maintain what's happening. a gradual decrease in buffalo bayou, current level today. if we get more rain downstream or more water upstream, that's probably going to change. we're not anticipating any increase in flooding down buffalo bayou. there was a comment some of the residents don't really know where they live, next to what bayou. if you live next to a major stream between i-10 and west, that's buffalo bayou. those are the neighborhoods challenged over the next couple of hours and next couple of days. thanks, mayor. >> thanks, steve. let me say this to you. this is a dynamic situation. things could change. they could change by the hour. they can change literally by the day. it's very dynamic. but as we get information, what

i will tell you is we will provide that information to you. i asked them to quantify after they do their modeling. after 12:00 if there's a need to increase more, i want them to tell me they are going to increase more. if they increase more, i want them to tell me is that going to raise the level in buffalo bayou, whether or not there's going to be more flooding of homes in the area. this is what we know at this time but this is a very dynamic situation and things literally change day by day. then i want to talk about the northeast water plant. because as of 6:00 p.m. yesterday, well, tributaries flowing into lake houston. as you know, the waters continue to rise. more water is flowing into lake houston, more than can exit out of lake houston into the gulf. as of 6:00 p.m. yesterday, the northeast water plant was completely submerged.

what that means is that we're trying to pump it out. we're working on pumping it out. i'll have a better sense over the next couple of hours. i know public works is work ongoing it, working with others to try to pump it out so it doesn't cause northeast water plant to go down. but as of 6:00 p.m. yesterday, because more water flowing into lake houston, get out northeast water plant was submerged. now we're working to get that out. if we can't get that out, get the pumps in, it will have an impact on our system. but i can speak to that a lot better in the next couple of hours. howard -- is howard here? is there anything else? >> i think you covered it all. i think that's a good example of how dynamic the situation is. >> because the reality is that water is continuing to rise. we were impacted throughout the entire region. it's not just the city of houston but throughout the entire region. no problems with respect to the

other plants, southeast is operating at 5% production. the northeast plant yesterday was fine. now as of 6:00 p.m. it is totally submerged, working to see if we can get it out. it doesn't have to shut down. i won't know that until another couple of hours then i'll let you know what the impact can be. with respect to the number of people that are in our shelters. as of now -- as of the time i came out, that number was about 5500. all of our shelters, all of our shelters. and so i suspect that number is going to rise. so we have been talking with the red cross, our partners. where is my red cross partner? i don't see him. he's not here. >> he's working. >> he's working. okay. he's getting more cots. that's the other thing the mayor

of boston is sending in. he's sending more cots. the number right now 5500. i suspect by the end of the day that number will rise exponentially. some people just need him to come in from their homes for the night, for example. some came in from the area for the night. and are getting back to their home or some other place, with relatives. 5500 now, expected to rise. we're working with red cross and our other partners to make sure we have the supplies, the food. people are needing clothing. literally people are coming in and they are coming in wet. they are needing clothing, clothing. we've asked some of our business partners for things like diapers, baby formula, things of that nature. we've got kids, babies, we've got all the way up to senior citizens, and they are needing everything. so they are needing clothing.

we're needing a number of partners, volunteers, brown, campbell, so we're needing that. things are dynamic. people who may not have been in a crisis state yesterday, they find themselves in a crisis state today. what we want to do is make it shelters available for them so they can come out of their crisis situation as they transition through this particular crisis. i think that's all to cover this morning. >> mayor, talk about harvey relief fund? >> the hurricane harvey disaster

relief fund that's available. similar to when wef we had the storm last year set up the houston relief fund. we've now set that up. hurricane harvey disaster relief fund that will be needed. after the storm has passed, the needs for people and families will continue. certainly they will be making requests on fema, agencies, what we discovered last year, you have to have immediate concerns, whether housing, clothing, transportation, you name it. houstonians and others stepped up in a major way last time. the fund has been started. that will ab tremendous need. i want to thank people like clay walker and others who reached out to me and said, look, we're available. i want to thank people like kevin hart asking people to give. there are a number -- whether it's exxon, shell, all have

indicated, some contributed to red cross, tremendous need there. some contribute k ing to hurric disaster relief fund, houston and that area. so that's set up. yes, sir? >> i want to know, i know we have a lot of people stranded and spanish people calling 911. do we have enough translators? this is a diverse city and we speak more than 100 languages. do we have all the personnel needed to respond to those individuals that probably cannot communicate english. >> we always need assistance. i've been calling with officials, meeting with them on a regular basis and asking them to speak to people in their respective district, city council districts, senatorial districts, you name it.

i'm hesitant to say you have enough, especially when you're dealing with a dynamic situation that literally can change by the hour, by the day. maybe they won't mine. my spanish is pretty good but everyone i have to call on someone for added assistance. let me ask chief aceveda. [ speaking spanish ] [ speaking spanish ] >> we are monitoring a chilling, chilling news conference that had been led by mayor sylvester turner from houston but had the fire and police chief there. they are warning water continues to rise in houston. there is not anticipated tab break in the rain until thursday night. it is monday morning.

they are expecting rain until thursday night. let me give you some numbers. they fielded 75,000 911 calls, conducted at least 10,000 rescues on 911. they are pleading with people if you are in touch with anybody in houston that once they call 911, do not hang up. that is causing a whole new raft of problems for them. they are saying about 10 calls in queue. people reduce the number from 120 in queue to about 10 calls in queue. if you call 911 you are not going to get a response immediately but they say please do not hang up because it takes up personnel to continue to call back. there are 185 critical rescues pending. 185 critical rescues that need to be made right now this they are unable to make right now because of the inability to get access. we were showing you video, and it may show up again in the corners next to me, boxes next to me, of a fire at a building in downtown houston.

and they are releasing water from two key reservoirs 20 miles west of downtown houston. the addicks reservoir and barker, straight north of sugarland, west of houston. the danger is these reservoirs are going to bust their limits and flood areas. they find it's going to be easier to release that water. that's going to cause a lot more flooding by noon houston time, 1:00 p.m. eastern time they are going to be releasing water at a rate of 8,000 cubic feet per second. 8,000 cubic feet per second. 8,450 coast guard rescues that have taken place already. they are in dire need in shelters of clothing, diapers, urban rescue teams heading from around the country to houston. so far we have confirmation new york, massachusetts and new jersey have sent urban search and rescue teams. there are 18 helicopters undergoing right now.

nine flood teams. flood teams have flat bottom boats trying to rescue people. this is a very serious situation in houston. let's go straight to stephanie gosk who is covering this. she's at the barker dam. stephanie. >> how are you? let me start by explaining where i am. i am standing on a bridge. we were here saturday morning. this bridge when things are normal is about 10 feet above the reservoir. you can see where i'm standing right now on the bridge is a couple feet up. that was obviously a fire truck that rolled into our shot. let me explain what you're looking at. you have the barker dam in the background. you'll see there are some builders up there, construction equipment up there. that equipment is up there because they are in the process of a $75 million project to replace this dam, the barker dam and also the addicks dam nearby.

these are the two major dams that protect downtown houston from upstream. they release into the buffalo bayou. the beautiful bayou runs through the center of town. it is already flooded. let me give you perspective on why the release of this water is so significant. we spoke with the safety manager of this staff on saturday morning. he told me specifically they were not going to open the gates of this dam throughout the storm because they wanted to give flooding a chance to recede downstream because of the rain. they obviously needed to alter that plan. the water came up so quickly, there was so much of it, they are in the process now of these measured releases. that water is going to just add to all of this rain, and it is still pouring here. ali. >> stephanie gosk at the barker

reservoirs southwest of the addicks reservoir. both roughly 20 miles west of houston, directly north of sugarland if you know the area. the danger here is as you can see where stephanie is, this is overflowing its banks, or it's going to, and it's going to flood a nearby area, so a control release seems to be a better idea. they are going to get up to 8,000 cubic feet per second. right now they are at about 2500 cubic feet per second they are releasing into houston. remember that there's still rain. there's rain that's going to be coming down into houston until thursday night. so this is the problem that we're facing. in fact, stephanie is going to have to get out of there soon because as they continue to get rain the bridge she's on just over the banks is going to be surpassed. the water level is going to be surpassed. this the problem houston is deali dealing with. they have 185 critical rescues to be made and there's more water not less water right now.

they have conducted about 2,000 rescues already since friday. bill karins is with me. he has been following this very closely. bill, this is your job telling us how much it's going to rain. my rudimentary look at this says straight through. >> yeah. here is the issue, buffalo bayou. i tried to grab a google image here to show you downtown houston area. i'll try to do animations on this to let you know exactly what we're dealing w first thing can you look at, this is major hyper, hyper 10 as it rolls through the area. this is where the addicks damage is located, right in this general vicinity, right in here. we're going to continue to watch that area. that's where they are releasing the water already. the bakers dam also flows in here. continue here, weather producer with nbc weather unit. this squiggly line, follow my finger, the buffalo bayou, this snakes east to population

centers and into and through the downtown houston area. this is downtown houston area where my fingers where all the big buildings are. all the water released in addicks damage tomorrow and it's all going to flow into this river. piney point villages is located right about here. they saw 67 foot high water level on the buffalo bayou. that was 6 feet higher than previous record right here. they are predicting that to be at 3 feet, 6 feet higher than sunday. that water is going to continue to expand and spread throughout this area. it's going to get even worse than what we had before. that's what they were talking about at the press conference. they were still tweaking their models, working on it, trying to figure out exactly how high it's going to get. that crest predicted 1:00 a.m. wednesday morning. they have two days, kind of, a day and a half now, to get a good estimate how high the water is going to get. new evacuations, tell new people

to get out of the way so they don't have new water. all that water will flow towards downtown houston as we go through wednesday and thursday. >> all right. this is taking into account, there is any likelihood that the weather forecast can get better, there's going to be less rain. as it stands looks like rain -- >> that's a good point. the hydrologist that works at the national weather office takes two things into account. they have to figure out how much rain is going to fall, then adding in the amount of cubic feet flowing into the river from those dam releases. they add those toegs when the crest -- how high the crests will be. what can change? the amount of rainfall could be less than expected, or could be possibly more, which would make it more, or the amount of the release from the dam is decreased or maybe it's even increased making it worse. i can show you the radar image here. the heavier rain we're expecting in the houston area has now began to flood into the region. these heavy rain bands are now focusing right over houston.

this is what we're afraid of. this is why we said another 10 to 20 inches of rain. center of the storm 100 miles south of them. these rain bands setting up and focusing on the region. they may continue on and off all day long. ali, we don't like these forecasts, don't want more destruction, more devastation, more rescues but as far as buffalo bayou, only the one that flows through the downtown, other bayous lowering, that's the one we're focusing on. sounds like in the press conference that's the one city managers focusing on also. >> thanks very much. bring in phillip, live on the phone driving through northwest houston looking for evacuees. that is by the way not faa far from the reservoirs we're talking about, addicks and barker. phillip, you've live indeed area a long time. what are you finding? >> right now, first of all the rain is coming down pretty hard now. had some release a little while, a couple of hours in the morning

and now it's coming down again. as we've spoken about, last thing we needed, more rain hitting us. yeah, we are -- the goal is to head down to the brown convention center in downtown houston where they are holding thousands of these evacuees. that's also where -- houston just held super bowl a few months ago and that was the hub. that was the center of the whole experience. so now it's being used to house these thousands of evacuees that are coming in in droves. >> all right. what are -- i don't know if you heard the press conference but they are saying 185 critical rescues pending. they have flat bottom boats out there to respect could you. they have got helicopters. how are most people who need to get out of their houses getting out of their houses? >> well, just anecdotal evidence i have, i did hear the portion of the press conference where there was 2,000 rescues.

those were the ones documented, from search and rescue teams. those were from uniformed, trained responders. my experience with these sort of rescues, the majority of them come from neighbors. you heard that call yesterday for anybody who has a boat that can help, please do so. so any time this is happening, you don't have time necessarily to wait to call 911. sometimes you can't even go through or busy or in the situation like this, it becomes gridlocked, the rescues. a lot of the people we were seeing, they were getting rescued just by neighbors, by good samaritans coming to help out out of the goodness of their heart. >> phillip, we're going to stay in close touch with you over the next little while as you are making your way around northwest houston. phillip mena. also with me on the phone lieutenant commander shaun white. we learned the coast guard alone has rescued more than 1450

people since harvey made landfall. you are taking on a big role in this rescue. tell me what's going on with the coast guard right now. >> good morning, sir. the coast guard is actively searching and working with local state and federal responders who are assisting in response efforts in the greater houston, galveston region. coast guard currently has 18 helicopters as well as nine teams of different flood response out there. rescue at this time, as you heard from other interviews, there are people who need evacuations. there's a critical shortage of rescue assets. a lot of good samaritans out there doing the right thing. one thing we want to get across to people who are in distress is to stay away from the addicks. a lot of phone calls coming in people going to addicks. we want to discourage that. do not go into you your attic. remain calm and stay out of your

attic. the rope is rescuers cannot find you if you're in the attic. we're working with partners to effect search and rescue efforts throughout the region. >> you said you had a critical shortage of rescue assets. i do understand there are coast guard personnel and assets coming in from around the country. tell me a little about that and are there ways people can provide rescue assets you need. >> spoke a little bit there. not critical short. we have assets from all across the nation, both the coast guard as well as our partners in customs and border protection and state and local as you heard earlier with urban search teams coming from other states. when it comes to our local volunteers, there is a volunteer phone line, which is 713-881-3100. we encourage persons who have a shallow water boat to call that number and get a coordinated effort to effect a response out here. it's a team effort.

everyone is in the same boat, no pun intended here, to effect life safety. want to urge persons to call 911 if they are in trouble. and we know 911 has been inundated with phone calls. people make sure if you're calling you're in distress. a life threatening emergency. i know it's scary but make sure it's life threatening to call 911 so we can truly help people in desperate need of it. >> that is something mayor and police chief and fire chief pointed out. there's a queue when you call 911. you're not going to get through immediately. stay on the line. don't hang up. then the dispatchers have to find you. they have 185 critical responses in queue. those critical responses, how do they determine what the fire department gets, coast guard, fema, how do you dispatch to rescue people. >> sir, one of the hardest things we deal with is use our

best judgment of the situation. we'll look at it and see is there a medical emergency. what is it? is somebody diabetic without medicine going into diabetic shock. elderly people, children, young people in particular. the situation if water is in the house, extremely highs place ahead of a house with 6 inches of water. obviously that's important, too. we kroo our judgment. we take phone calls coast guard command center as well. that's mainly what the coast guard has been working through, the calls in the command center. we are triaging those, prioritizing them but working in cooperation with state and local partners to effect the rescues. >> lieutenant commander shaun white, thank you and all the members of the coast guard helping save people in texas right now. we're going to give you this look at incredible rescue of a stranded driver last night in

katy texas just west. the driver was forced to crawl to the back of the truck and wait outside for help. harris county firefighters drove their boat right up to the suv and pulled that man to safety. coming up next we'll hear more harrowing stories including this one. i'll speak with the heroic deputy, that man that carried those children. stay with us, watching "velshi & ruhle" live on msnbc. let's see, there are the wildcats 'til we die weekenders. the watch me let if fly. this i gotta try weekenders. then we've got the bendy... ... spendy weekenders. the tranquility awaits. hanging with our mates weekenders and the it's been quite a day... ...so glad we got away weekenders. whatever kind of weekender you are, there's a hilton for you. book your weekend break direct at hilton.com and join the weekenders.

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>> people were carrying babies on their shoulders. all i could grab was my wallet and my phone. that's all i knew to grab. >> i'm here. water and air rescue right now. >> here we are. we're getting this gentleman into the boat right now. >> i was thinking of writing my social security number on my arm. >> it's destroyed.

>> we prayed a lot. we praise god. we were rescued so we're very thankful. >> i was positioning of writing -- thinking of writing my social security on my arm. >> urban search and rescue teams from all across the country descending on houston to help out. police and other emergency workers every major city and state has them. new jersey september them, massachusetts, new york, l.a., salt lake city. we've got a lot of that going on. we have another big issue going on. that is the rain is not going to stop. the buffalo bayou river basically, "wall street" to east of housto -- west to east-of-houstooeeas expected to crest. looking around, our weather guys are developing a good graphic and we're watching that live. houston, katy texas to the left

where addicks and baker rece video. stephanie gosk at the baker reservoir -- barker reservoir. we're calling it baker, it's barker reservoir, stephanie. >> that's right, alex. i'm at the barker reservoir. they are going to release more water at 11:00 a.m. while we were standing here joseph was running across. his car is on the other side of all this water. joseph, what's going on with your family in that neighborhood? >> they are good. my daughter, son-in-law and three grandkids, now i've got them in a hotel room up the road. they are out now. we've got about 18 inches of water and the car is lost. >> how quickly did the water rise this morning? >> we were fighting it all night. at 5:55 it reached the house. i think it was a result maybe of the release. but i understand they have got to do that. >> at what point did you realize we need to get out of here and move to higher ground. >> as soon as it got daylight. we didn't want to move in the

middle of the night. as soon as it got daylight we realized it was a lost cause. >> how did you get out. >> we walked. it was waist deep. we're not sure what we're going to do. >> ali, just one of the stories. we're told this new release at 11:00 a.m., this is going to mean that water is going to rise. we're at the top of the buffalo bayou. if you look beyond that sign on the other side of those trees you have neighborhoods. those neighborhoods are going to flood just like joseph's neighborhood, and they are going to be in a situation here where they are going to have to do -- if someone stayed in the homes, emergency rescue like the one we talked about. ali. >> thank you. we're going to come back to you shortly. this is something happening now. they are releasing water from the rece sores, barker and addicks and will continue for the next several hours and houston will flood more. the police chief announced 2,000 people rescued from the flooding. 2,000 more requests they

describe as critical are pending. unlike the gentleman they were talking to, these are people who can't walk outside their house, either because the water is too high or they have some other impediment. among those hero first responders is this manohares county depp difficult carrying two children through the floodwaters surrounding their home in the houston suburb of katy, texas. carrying those children to safety. de deputy joins us by skype. deputy, thank you for being here and thank you for the rescue you undertook. tell me about it. >> in the picture you see i was going through the black waters neighborhood. the houses in the area are flooded. it's a pretty bad area as far as floods are concerned. when i was going through the neighborhood i was going house to house to make sure everybody was out, safe or if they wanted to come to us. safety was the biggest concern.

when i came past this house the mother came to the door and she advised she wanted to get aboard the truck. we have a military grade and we go through the neighborhoods and rescue individuals. when i went to the house. she was in there getting her kids ready. i told her to focus on things like money, credit cards, identification, not to worry about property and i would take her kids for her. that's pretty much what happened. i got the kids. keep focus on other things in the serious nature that it was. made a couple of jokes with them. got the kids in the vehicle, came back in the house, rescued the dog. the mother and the father, everybody got out of the neighborhood. everyone out of the neighborhood, getting individuals out of the naibds

neighborhood. my self and co-workers, we want to let people know safety is our concern. we're calling from the westlake fire department. we have guys in here like deputy collins, water, shawn harris doing 16 hour shifts. they have been staying here because they can't get to their home. so the picture itself speaks volumes, speaks unity. we're jest here to help out with the community. >> the mayor has said don't give up -- police chief says don't give up on us. says none of us are going to give up. that includes you and your colleagues out there. how is your family doing? >> my family is okay. last i checked floodwaters haven't reached the house yet. they are okay. the rest of my family is out of state. they were able to get out before the floods came in. >> are you going -- are you responding to calls where you are or still going house to house and trying to rescue

people in areas that have been inundated. >> as of now, still tasked going house to house, an area west of here. the houses out there under water. a lot of trailer homes out there as well. so shortly after i finish the interview i'll be going back out there to help out with the rescues. >> deputy, thank you very much, electric a grateful nation and citizens around houston, we count across the country on people like you who put their own lives in danger to save people. thank you, sir. >> yes, sir. thank you for having me. >> joining me now live on the phone is houston's fire chief sam pena, who just spoke. you heard him a little earlier at the briefing by houston's mayor. chief, we heard the mayor saying you still have around 200, 185 critical rescues. you still have holds with people calling 911. how are rescues getting dispatched? how does your department get it

versus coast guard versus other rescuers. >> good morning, ali, i would like to mention still a dynamic situation. the demand is steady. it's increasing at some point depending how much water we get and rainwater and flooding we get here. i can tell you the houston fire department in the last 24 hours, we responded to over 5500 calls for service just in 24 hours. >> wow. >> over 4,000 of those have been water related issues. our firefighters performed heroically and admirably since the operation began. just in the last 12 hours they responded to 290 water rescues. those are actual rescues that they have effected. we have right now in the queue approximately 1,000 calls that are waiting still to be

serviced. we just had additional units from the state texas task force one. we have fema search and rescue task forces on scene now, which increased our deployment profile. with additional 350 personnel on scene, we're going to put them right to work because there's still plenty of work to do. still if the rescue mode at this point. but we're getting a hold of the situation as far as our commanders in the field are doing incredible work. doing incredible work managing resources and deploying them to most needed. >> let me ask you a few things. have you about 10 calls in queue. that's what it's been reduced to, which means if you call 911 you're not going to get through. you've asked people not to hang up. you have 1,000 waiting to be serviced, which means those people have gotten through an told dispatchers what the problem is. trying to figure out what resource and assets you'll deploy to help them. >> correct.

correct. the geographical area we're having to service and the damage that the city has received as far as huge. so having the deployment of resources, getting resources to several areas has been challenging in some instances because the roads are impassable or whatever the situations present themselves to be. we've managed to deploy task force-type teams. it's a task force approach. we're resourcing each of the forward command areas with rescue boats, high water vehicles, with rescue divers and additional firefighters to be table it deploy from a forward position to better address the needs and the demand in certain areas. >> all right. so we expect buffalo bayou to crest at 1:00 a.m. on wednesday. that's of course an inexact science based on how much rain

falls and what happens. you guys in the fire department are ready to go until at least thursday and that's when the rain hopefully by thursday night may stop. you have had no injuries that you know of to firefighters as of now? >> no major injuries to our firefighters at this point. i can tell you i couldn't be prouder of the work the men and women are doing out there every day. most of them are going after 36 hours and some of them on their 48th hour of work. we're working. again, the challenge is getting them rotated and the logistics of that. that's something that is our primary focus, the health and safety of our firefighters. thankfully we haven't had any major injuries and we hope that continues because certainly the community depends on us being available and ready. >> we need every last one of you. you're not the only one proud, the nation is proud of the work

your department is going and we are grateful to you, sir. thank you very much for all the work you're doing. we'll stay in close touch. >> thank you, god bless. >> police chief sam pena leading an amazing band of heroes going in some places door to door responding. the message to houstonians stay online. if you call 911, call if you need critical help. stay online. there's about a 10 call queue. don't hang up. there are about 1,000 calls waiting to be serviced where dispatchers do know there's a problem. they have your location. they know who you are and they are waiting to get out there. with each passing minute while those waters rise, more people are coming into houston to help. you've got urban search-and-rescue teams making their way, by the way, with their own food and water to sustain themselves for a few days. they are coming in to help. help is on the way to everybody that needs it in houston. we will pray with you. we heard about hospital evacuations in and around houston. this is a serious matter.

houston has a lot of hospitals and hospital beds. let's talk to the person who knows more than pretty much anyone about the situation at the hospitals. the president and ceo of texas medical center. it is the largest medical complex in the world." it's got 59 member institutions, 23 of which are hospitals. it's a lot to keep track of as harvey rolls through. sir, let's discuss where you are right now. what's going on and where are you? >> sure. i'm in my office, which is at the heart of the texas medical center. we've been fully operational, all of our hospitals. we did have an issue at ben taub hospital, which is still serving patients but had a waterline bre break. the rest are fine. the streets are finally clear from water. our 120,000 employees -- we are

ready -- our greater texas. >> all right. unfortunately we're going to have to try and establish a better connection. we don't have a very clear connection there. but i did get news that the hospitals, with the exception of ben taub, are working properly and they are all fixing the situation at ben taub hospital. just to remind you one more time how truly haunting this situation is, let me show you a photo from a nursing home in dickinson, texas. several elderly people just sitting in waist deep water holding onto their belongings. i think we're going to get you that photo in a second. they are sitting there holding onto their belongings. that is water. that is water around them they are sitting in. it is a powerful photo. you'll be happy to find out the picture in that picture are

okay. 15 elderly people saved just hours after it exploded online. emergency coordinator told galveston daily news, quote, we were airlifting grandmother's and grandfather's. for that grandmothers and grandfathers. the public information office for the texas military department that is helping the search and rescue operations. we have been talking about the firefighters, we have been talking about the coast guard, the texas military department also oversees the national guard, how many people have you got out there? here nearly at 3,000 right now and that number is almost certainly going to increase. >> those of us who were not involved in these rescues, it seems very coordinated. how does this all get -- how do the rescues get distributed around so that the national guard knows what's going on in rescues and keeping peace and

making sure there's order. >> one thing we didn't have in ike is a centralized coordination center that's coordinating all the communications, so that's helping the federal, state and local agencies where they need it. >> do you have as many national guards members as you need? i know that the state of emergency allowed you to call them up. are you calling more up or are you satisfied with what you have? >> we're definitely going to be bringing in more people, i don't have an exact number right now, we're still looking at what the exact need is going to be. but we're approaching 3,000 right now and that number is going to increase. >> boats and helicopters are taking a lot of the lead, certainly around houston right now. you have access to, i believe some helicopters including some blackhawks? >> yes, we have 14 helicopters that are on 24/7 ops right now, we're talking about pulling

people off roofs, rescuing people with broken legs, diabetics that have passed owl those kinds of things, we are working around the clock with texas task force 1, we apply the helicopters, they lower themselves down, put people on hoists and lift them up. >> we have been getting a whole lot of reports from experts around the country, do they have some role with the military? >> we're seeing those other urban search and rescue teams, they're not assigned us to and we're not assigned to them directly. whatever the federal agencies are requesting from us, we're seeing several different contingencies, but we're focusing on our own research and rescue operations. >> there are between 125 and 200 critical rescues that are in the queue, they are priappl priorit

you have a role in those, hey, we're giving this one to the texas military or this one goes to the coast guard? >> we're getting all your queues in the local and state agencies, and they're feeding those to us where the texas search and rescue teams, they assign them first and wherever there's a need for us and we're nearby they send it to us, so we're part of the whole operation that's getting assigned out as they need ill. >> thank you so much for your service, sir. >> thank you. >> our breaking news coverage of the deadly after math from harvey continues next and right now there's an immediate need for food, shelter, baby diapers and other essentials, for people who escaped with not much more than the clothes on their backs, we have a special website with

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disaster is going to be far greater than the-we need for tex texans to be involved. you could not draw this forecast up. >> i saw a guy right here, he was hanging on to a telephone pole and i got a rope behind him, he was out there for about 30 minutes. >> we have nothing left. by 1:00, it was just terrible. i was crying, i was on my knees praying that we made it. >> reporter: why didn't you evacuate? >> we just didn't have the money. >> if we had gone out three days before and said we want 4 million people to leave harris county, that would have been a totally nonsensical thing to do, we didn't know where it was going to flood, and if we had told people to do that, they probably would have laughed at us or ignored it.

>> it has hiimpacted the entire state. >> if you think the situation right now is bad, you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare. >> all i heard was screaming and beating, and when i opened it more water just rushed in. >> one of the great things about this community is neighbors help neighbors. >> all right, thanks for watching this hour of msnbc, velshi and ruhle. jansing the g down the fort. >> we have the breaking news, america's fourth largest city, inundated with water, the likes of which they haven't seen in decades, emergency services are stretched thin, neighbors are helping neighbors, but the bad news is the rains won't stop any time soon. >> this is a life safety, life sustaining mission.

>> and the rain continues to fall. there's a lot of fear and an anxiety here. >> it was more than five feet in our house, we barely made it out. i'm just so grateful they came. >> if the storm had ended, there wou would -- >> i don't think they need to shelter in prays. the water is moving like a river back there. and if you can't walk through it, you die. >> hundreds of evacuations here in the houston area. >> what did you just go through back there? >> hell. >> reporter: we're all seeing this together, we're all dealing with this together, but we'll all recover together as well. >> we're hearing words like hell, the apocalypse. good day, i'm chris jansing, continuing