>> 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 coverage of the rain

in texas, where millions of people in the southeastern part of the state are bracing for two more days of storms. some estimates put the expected total rainfall at an unprecedented 50 inches of rain or more, that's what hine residents are used to seeing in an entire year. those communities struggling in harvey's wake, there is a flash flood watch in effect for 11 million people. at least five people are dead. 2,000 have been rescued. rescue and recovery teams from across the country are heading to houston now to help residents navigate that rainfall and get to dry, safe spaces. >> a lot of people are fr frustrated, they don't understand why when we send trucks and we can't get to you, unfortunately, trucks can only

go so far into the water. please don't give up on us and none of us are going to give up. >> please don't give up on us, president donald trump has approved disaster declarations for both texas and louisiana. he will travel with the first lady to a location inland from the storm. we also expect to hear from the dallas mayor this hour. they're preparing to house thousands of texans who don't know where they're going or what they'll do when they get there. >> reporter: we're outside of the barker dam, there are two major dams outside of houston. what we are being told, right as we speak right now, they are in the process of what's called a controlled release from this dam

and just so you have an idea historically of how important that is, this dam has been here since 1945, they have never had to do a controlled release in the middle of a storm before. here's what the army corps of engineers told me last night, he said that the water is coming in so fast, it's rising so quickly, that they're worried that this dam and the attics dam will be overflowing it's capacity, so it's better to have these controlled releases rather than the uncontrolled releases. that would have water spilling into neighborhoods. you have the reservoir flowing into a neighborhood nearby here, there are emergency rescues going on, we're told, we talked to a resident who told his family he watched the water rise two feet in his home and decided it was time to get out. and the rain keeps falling here, the water has its released is

going to go into the buffalo bayou and the beautiful bayou is the bayou that runs right through downtown houston. that compounds the problem, you have this water coming through and the rain that won't stop. >> tell us what you see? besides obviously you have made a friend. >> reporter: hi, chris, well, yes, i think he's better friends with my beef jerky, i think i'm going to name him harvey, but this is one of the storm victims right here. this looks like a stray dog that made its way to the heb parking lot, we have let them know that he's here and we got him some dog food. hey, you want something to eat? there you go. we're in the heb parking lot, where people are lined up trying to get groceries, folks here

have been without power, without groceries for several days now, one of those people who has been in line to get some groceries, this is marimaria, you've lived victoria, texas your whole life. >> not my whole life, but for the last 30 years. >> reporter: you have a tree on your house right now? >> yes, we don't have no water or electricity, so i'm looking for something, but i've been going to walmart and there's a lot of empty shelves, nothing that we can pick up to buy or something. >> right, right. it gets a little nerve-racking, right, to not have anything. >> yes, ma'am. >> reporter: and you have saying before, this is really hard for this community because people don't have the means to get themselves out of it? >> there's a lot of devastation, i live in a little city and

supportive community and everybody's out of the houses. but they have a lot of damage also. and we live close to a school, but i don't know if the school has any damage. i know there are a lot of the schools have damages. and i also work for visd. >> reporter: so now the real concern for victoria is whether or not that river will flood, it did in 1998, are you concerned that the city will get hit again? >> yes, ma'am, there's a lot of concern about that because we had it before and unfortunately, they have, you know, we just a lot of water. there's too much rain. >> reporter: right, it's hard for a small community to rebound when you've been put under. how are you holding up emotionally? are you okay? >> i have a lot of stress for now. >> reporter: lots of people do, we were speaking to one man yesterday at the grass pump who

just burst into tears. >> we don't have no gasoline either, so we were trying to get something that we can turn on our electricity, but we didn't find anything, everything is closed. >> reporter: right, well we're going to let you get in the store and get your groceries, good luck, maria with everything, take care. chris, that's just one example of someone who's really in need and definitely is worried about wh what's still to come here. >> rescues are continuing and long-term people are concerned as we mentioned at the to of the show, go back to stephanie gosk about what they might find when they do get to go back, what have you been hearing from people you've been talking to? >> reporter: the people we have been talking to in this immediate area, these people here by the parker dam, they have watched that water rise overnight. we just talked to a man who said

there was two feet of water in his house, and we spoked with the owner of this car lot and he said when he was here last night, this was completely dry, and he went to bed, he woke up in the morning and this is what greeted him. we talked to him for a little bit and this is what he had to say. >> reporter: when you went to bed last night, there was no water in your car lot? >> yes, we were dry yesterday. >> reporter: but you concerned that you might be under water? >> this is the first time it's happened like this. >> reporter: this is the first time you have ever experienced any flooding here? >> no, never any flooding here. >> reporter: that gives you some perspective in an unparalleled disaster. a city that floods all the time. this area, that car lot, that

the owner was telling us about. it never had a flood, and look at it today, chris? >> unbelievable, stephanie gosk, katie beck, thanks to both of you, they have been out in it reporting throughout. i want to get a look at what the houston area is facing over the next couple of days, we just got this, greg abbott, obviously the governor of texas has activated all the texas national guard, that's about 12,000 people ready to help with the harvey recovery. >> people are going to need people to bring them food and water and all sorts of needs. this is the barker reservoir, this whole big green section here, she was standing right in here, near where the water was exiting, that's near where the car dealership was too, the reason they have never had water there before is they have never

released water from that reservoir, they are doubling the highest they have ever done before. that's why they're flooding because they don't want this to come laps. this darker reservoir and the addicks reservoir, this is buffalo bayou, they don't want to flood downtown houston any more, but if these were to collapse or be compromised, that would send this huge wall of water, epic flooding, deadly flooding and flood half of the city of houston, they said. that's why they do this controlled release, but unfortunately, people like that car dealer owner, that's the casualties that exist. the storm itself is still only

about 100 miles south of houston. this is our visible satellite imagery. you can see the building cloud tops here, these are all new showers and thunderstorms near that circulation center down by the coast and we have seen the additional rainfall piling up. around the houston area, we were afraid we would get the heaviest rain training back into houston today. this map shows us how much rain has fallen, storm totals. you remember, we were thinking when it starrted we were saying two to three feet, it seemed outlandish to say two to three feet of rainfall. so we continue with this epic amounts of rain, we still have a lot of bad weather up here in louisiana and north of houston too where there have been some evacuations there? finally here's our forecast math path, it's not until thursday at

around 7:00 a.m. when this rain gets up into louisiana that the rain will stop, so we have 2 1/2 three days to go before we can call it quits. >> i want to show another picture that really tells the story of what we're seeing and what texas residents are experiencing. this is the national weather service tweelting out today. the darkest section surrounding houston is where we have seen so much destruction and flooding, and as you just heard from bill, at the storm prediction center, he will be joining is us throughout the day. and the nws has been updating the color chart. let's start with what you see on the horizon and your biggest concern about how this storm is going to move? >> yeah, it's been incredibly stressful here but nowhere near

southeast texas and southwest louisiana. we just saw some clouds redeveloping, and that storm activity is very concerning because it will move up across the houston area and we're expecting another perhaps 15 to 20 inches of rainfall, it's hard to imagine that we're seeing that on top of nearly 40 inches of rain already. we have been essentially saying we may see a maximum value out of this storm of about 50 inches and that would be a maximum rainfall total for the state of texas, simply unprecedented. >> how long do you think before th there's a better sense of, a, when this will recede, and people will start to be able to come back, but the stress is not knowing what happened to my house, not knowing when i can go and assess the damage, not being

able to know what i'm going to do with what i find. what do you see in terms of people being able to do those assessments. >> unfortunately, that landscape there is relatively flat so you don't see the water running out of there, and we're going to have to see this rain end and see that water drain off, at lea least -- in addition to these unprecedented magnitudes, we are talking that this is a prolonged flooding event. this is going to be over a period of days and it's going to take quite some time before the rainfall recedes and stops. >> you guy thank you so much, w appreciate it, our best to everybody there. >> thanks to you and thanks for getting the word out.

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. today we have completed the rescue of 2,000 houstonians and members of our community and as of this moment, as of this press conference, we have approximately 185 critical rescue requests that are still pending. >> that was just a short time ago, houston's police chief describing the challenges his forces face. joining me now on the phone, retired admiral thad allen, who conducted the response to hurricane katrina in 2005. thanks for being with us, i'm sure you've been following this closely, the texas governor greg abbott said today this is an unprecedented challenge. do you think there are comparisons to katrina, how does it compare and what is your thought as you watch all of this unfold with the rest of us? >> i think we have some similarities, but they are two

very different events. katrina actually passed in 24 hours, and we were able to concentrate on getting the water out and getting the levees repaired. but this situation goes on. while there are some similarities, the scale and the scope of this event are pretty extraordinary. >> what lessons that you learned from katrina that might help texas deal with this truly overwhelming situation more effectively? >> i think there's two basic things that have to occur to bring everybody together to create -- how they make decisions on life saving efforts and resource allocations and work with each other and their citizenry. and the vertical piece of this starts with the individual and

how prepared they were. but you want to make sure there's no gaps in the resources, everybody's been trying to anticipate that, but with a storm of this magnitude, it's very difficult to do that. >> the mayor of houston has gotten a lot of criticism for not calling for an evacuation ahead of the storm. that it would have created a worse nightmare. now people are doing this bel e belated evacuation. is this a situation that you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. >> one thing is you can't predict the magnitude of what's going to happen. and you do your best to prepare, but in -- people actually having problems on the road. so it's a very tough choice for leaders to make. i think at the bottom of everything, individualses have to be prepared to help themselves, people have to be able to stay in their residence

for 72 hours with food, water and medical supplies. there will be a lot of second guessing about what could have happened here, but i think the real focus is safety of life and getting the unified effort on the ground. >> we heard from one woman who was waiting in line to try to get some food and when she was asked why she didn't leave, why other people didn't leave, she said, couldn't afford it. they did obviously have situations where they had buss for people, they were trying to facilitate people that didn't have the means as we saw in new orleans to get out, and there are going to be people who just won't leave, as you well know. but the mayor of dallas, mike rawlings is preparing a megashelter for the people who are evacuating and need a place to stay. i just want to play a little sound of what he said at a press

conference just a moment ago. >> we're getting in front of it, but we may have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of more individuals that will even get bigger than this convention center. i'm not saying it's going to happen. but we have been asked to prepare for numbers that could be up in the tens of thousands. >> if i can go back, admiral to katrina, because obviously you have the immediate threat, which is to life. and you have sort of the every day just got to get by, meaning people could go to a shelter, they need a blanket, they need a place to lay their head, they need food, they need sanitary facilities. but from what you know about katrina, what did you learn about dealing with the trauma of this, the emotional trauma that every one of these people we're looking at are going to have to deal with for days and weeks and maybe months to come?

>> it puts an extraordinary burden on populations and individuals themselves. it could be underserved minority communities, it could be income driven and lack of access and ability to move around. what we found out is that people won't evacuate because they don't think they can, or they think it just won't be possible given their conditions, but you have to work through that and put faith in the fact that if you're going to help yourself, you pretty much have to get out. a week later when i came down to new orleans to relieve mike brown, we were taking 500 people a day out of new orleans that refused to stay because of the conditions. and so you're right and you're going to have people that weren't able to leave over the next few days. and coming up, congressman al green who represents most of

the southwestern part of houston, he says a lot of his constituents are still in harm's way, we'll get the latest on him next on andrew mitchell reports only on msnbc. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,... ...isn't it time to let the real you shine through? maybe it's time for otezla (apremilast). otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable after just 4 months,... ...with reduced redness,... ...thickness, and scaliness of plaques. and the otezla prescribing information has... ...no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. otezla may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. tell your doctor if these occur. otezla is associated with an increased...

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what did you just go through back there? >> hell. >> reporter: how much water is in your house? >> their house is covered. it was more than we could imagine. >> that was one resident of houston that said she is going through hell, surrounded by her family. this is heart wrenching, this is

devastating, some of the water levels we're seeing throughout your district, i can't even put into words, nor has anyone else. what can you tell us about your constituents and how you're navigating this possible situation? >> thank you very much for calling this to the attention of our country, because this is a time for our country to coming to and do what we can to assist. >> constituents are working hard together. and i have seen and you have seen much of that evidence. people have realized that if the government can't get to them, they have to pitch in and help each other. and we have seen a lot of that, but that can't be the final solution. but this is what the government is for. amount currently, mayor turner

has daindicated that rescuing people, saving people, indeed saving lives is the number one priority and to get as manies a s -- as many assets as possible. it's difficult to get to people, because the people who have the vehicles to get in is hampered because of the depth of the water, this is unprecedented. we have never seen anything like it before, the system has been overwhelmed, the response has been overwhelmed, and we have to do the best that we can to get to everyone as quickly as we can. >> we just saw from greg abbott that he's activated the texas national guard, about 12,000 who obviously have a big job ahead of them. how confident are you that the state, the federal response, added to locals and individuals who are pitching in will be enough? >> well, we had 3,000 national guardsmen on duty in and around

the area. that was not enough. and i'm pleased that the governor has activated more. my hope is that there will be a coordinated effort between the state, the locals and the federal government. as you know, fema sends things to the state government, and then the state takes those items of drink and food and other things and they district them to the people who need them. there has to be a well coordinated team effort. i'm trying to do my part by calling state and federal officials and by the way, i have received positive responses from state officials when i talked to them about some of the things that we need. the problem is quite frankly getting to people under the circumstances that exist. but we have to, we have no choice and we will do it. it may take us a little longer than we want, a lot longer than we want, but we have to do it. >> congressman al green, thank

you again, our thoughts and prayers are with you in the houston area, everyone affected by harvey, we appreciate your time, sir. >> thank you very much and my prayers are with our people, and let's pitch in and help each other, we can do a lot for ourselves, but we still need the government to do a lot for us as well. >> again, we appreciate it congressman, one of the places where help came because of social media was dickenson, texas. the picture that went out there and you saw older people in a nursing facility, an assisted living facility, where some of the residents were sitting in up to their waists in water. this is an area what obviously helped get a lot of attention, both of the wider country, to the world to the tragedy that was unfolding there, but also physically got help to the

people who were inside that assisted living facility? >> reporter: krae, the assisted living facility got a lot of attention because thanks to social media, people's attention were drawn to those 15 people trapped inside the nursing home. first of all, it's raining hard again, which is the last thing that folk want, as you look over here, you can see the streets are still quite flooded. we're standing on i-45 which is closed because it's flooded. there's some trucks working their way through, some cars that are stuck, there are kayaks, boats, many of whom heard the call and came out here in boats to try and bring people to safety. just not long ago, we ran into three young men who are doing that, they were able to rescue a

woman who was trapped in her house for a few days, and delivered her her to daughter and sister. take a look. >> god is amassing. got is good, we been stuck for two days. god is good, y'all, god is amazing, he would never fail you, trust and believe me, god is good. my baby kept me alive. >> a powerful moment there from michelle pleasant who was visiting her cousin, got trapped by the storm. feari ining for their life for entire period, finally decided they would get of where they were and start walking. in the end, they were able to stumble upon that boat of three young men, who brought them in, took them in, they were able to communicate with their family

that they were coming ashore and deliver them to their family, which was a very, very powerful moment. you can see that more vehicles are going out and more boats are going out to try and rescue people. there is a fan boat that's going out here. there are people searching to see if there are people trapped out there. just a few moments ago, they have passed along now, but we saw the texas army national guard, who came in to two what they could with their high vehicles that can go through the water. back to you, chris. >> thank you, chris, we thank you for all the reporting you're doing. coming up, blow back, back to politics, republicans slam president trump's decision to pardon sheriff arpiao. the exper. rethink your allergy pills.

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so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. rates are competitive, and they're the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. remember - these plans let you apply all year round. so call today. because now's the perfect time to learn more. go long. well, this is an unprecedented challenge that we have faced with the horrific rains that we have suffered and of course it is on top of the hurricane that hit land just a couple of days ago. >> that was texas governor greg abbott on the historic flooding his state is facing, as we continue to monitor hurricane harvey, we're also following a political storm out of the white house, republicans slamming president trump for his decision to pardon sheriff joe arpiao

late on friday, and two of the top cabinet officials distancing themselveses fr themselves from the commander in chief. we will hear from the president at the press conference at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. we want to break it all down with our panel, white house correspondent and nbc politic contributors. lots to talk about, but glenn i want to talk to you because kwerp tweyou were tweeting over the weekend how president trump would act if president if another president trump -- a lot of times he was

critical of president obama was this a political miscalculation on his part? >> this is a humanitarian disaster that appears to be unprecedented. >> epic proportions, there's no doubt about it. so the notion and this is a point i think people really have to internalize. everything, we're kind of in this trump distortion field, so that everybody that happens in the world tends to get filtered through donald trump. one of the things that bothers me about it just as an american, this is bigger than donald trump so the political implications in terms of donald trump's position to me are incredibly subsidiary to the actual well-being -- health and well-being of people in the region. that said, donald trump is a private citizen, even as a candidate, as a president, has beenunrestrained in the

way he criticized president obama. he certainly would have criticized president obama. i personally couldn't care less if he's getting updates at camp david or the white house. but this is a president who's criticized other presidents. >> there's also the reality of whether or not people feel at a time of crisis that he is focused on this one thing, you have millions of people in harm's way, you have people who are risking their own lives to rescue people who are trapped in a life threatening situation, so the reality of it is also on top of the optics, isn't it? >> it is, and i'll echo what glenn said, my wife is from houston, my mother-in-law and father-in-law are from houston and live in houston. >> are they okay. >> reporter: they r they're

probably at my house watching here in washington. but this is a tough situation for the president, because there's not much a president can do, because the president can be the kind of captain of state and local and federal resources, he can get updates, but a lot of this is out of his hands, if he didn't go to texas tomorrow, he would get flack, if he does go to texas -- it's a really tough situation for any leader because so much of this is out of his control. he did appear to be focused over the weekend. he tweeted about claire mccaskell, who he's going to meet. but it's all very tricky in a situation like this, that a catastrophic flood that he can't control, can't do anything about and he has to be the public face of all this. >> while with it's just hours

away, you would expect he's going to be focused on it. and how to avoid another katrina, i mean he decides that he is going to do this major nice dump, including pardoning sheriff joe arpiao, who was convicted of racially profiling latinos, so the president campaigned being the law and order president. and then he pardons sheriff joe. is there a disconnect there? >> there's a disconnect in that obviously the country is focused on the well-being of the people in texas, i just did a story out of galveston, texas doing a story on how working class and poor people are the main people who are left behind during a

catastrophe. so you would think he would be focused on saying, do people have the right resources, do we have enough boats, he would be retweeting state and local governments all across texas, our main focus as a country should be on thinking about these people, praying for these people, donating to organizations to help them. instead what he did was use a lot of his political capital which is waning by the day, saying i'm going to pardon sheriff arpiaos who i became friends with when i questioned whether president obama was a citizen of this country. but i think in pardoning sheriff arpiao, what he's doing is in some ways pardoning himself, he's pardoning himself that you can go and racially profile people in being the president of law and order which means you're

going to treat immigrants unfairly. >> it's not just the media who's talking about this, certainly the conservatives, republicans have questioned this decision, we saw editorials, we saw articles in the washington examiner and "the wall street journal" questioning all of this, and teresa, you detailed last week, pardoning joe arpiao condones violating human rights. what's behind this? >> we have been working in arizona for the last seven years, what we found was that the tensions he created, he himself called them concentration camps. so by pardoning joe arpiao, right after charlottesville, you're saying it does not matter if you profile someone based on the color of their skin. the fact that he didn't even allow joe arpiao to serve his

sentence, proves that he doesn't care about judges orders, as long as a person who's supposed to be abiding bie ining by the long as they stand next to president donald trump, they're okay. instead of talking about again the resources where people can donate or to volunteer, he has decided that he was going to promote sheriff clark's new book, he decided that it was a great idea to dust off what happened during the 2016 election, he went after this idea that mechanicxico was goin pay for the wall. when texans were under water, a natural disaster, this was not presidential, he was basically saying i know there's national attention on me and i'm going to promote what i want to promote. >> i think you interviewed sheriff joe again last year, he had told nbc news last week that he was open, if he was pardoned, he was open to running for office now.

and we have not confirmed this, but the washington examiner is reporting that he's considering running against jeff flake, who would have said he would honor the judicial process, would it surprise you if joe arpiao ran against jeff flake? >> when i spoke with him last year, joe arpiao, actually i believe i was with him on his 84th birthday, which he shares with donald trump. >> he shares the birthday, not the age. >> right, he shares the birthday, not the age. exactly. at that point, he was really kind of depressed because i met him while he was in office. it wasarou around noon and dona trump had yet to send him a birthday message. so that relationship with joe

arpiao is tritt -- the guy couldn't get re-elected in maricopa county, he's 85 years old. he's clearly on the back necessary to run an in a state as expensive at arizona. >> you guys are all great. thank you so much for taking the time today. we do want to go back to the coverage of harvey, because nbc's phillip mina has made his way to the convention center in houston. what's the situation on the ground there, phillip? >> reporter: well, chris, we just arrived at the george r. brown convention center. there are nearly 3,000 vaccees brought here and many more that i want to introduce you to. mia wattler. she is not staying here, but you came to get some supplies. tell us how it is you came to be here. >> so i left my house at, like, 5:00 a.m. on a boat from the fire department.

and they rescued in their boat and took us to the highway where we got in a dump truck. and we drove in the dump truck for about an hour and a half in the freezing cold rain. and then we got to a shelter, but that shelter was already full. so they had to take us back to the fire department with them, where we stayed all day. we couldn't leave. and we left the fire department actually in a fire truck. and got on a metro bus to come here to the shelter that was full. >> and you live in an area that's very hard hit. they're up to streetlights, right? >> yeah. i mean, there was 8 feet of standing water outside of my house. inside of my house, there's probably 5 to 6 feet, so everything is just devastated. >> reporter: how did you know it was time to go. take me through that. >> i was waiting in my house until i really thought it was completely destroyed. and i saw a green light in the street that was actually the boat flashing at me. and i went out to the window and showed them that i was still in the house. i woke my dad up, he went back

to bed. we just got in the boat. all we had time to do was just bring ourselves. none of our -- nothing we owned. everything we owned had to stay behind. >> reporter: everything. you were telling me you didn't even have your shoes on. >> i didn't even have my shoes on. we had to run out of the house with nothing on. just clothes we were wearing and that's it. >> reporter: that must have been just such a frightening experience to in a flash you have to leave your entire life behind. >> yeah. you just kind of think about the things you would have brought with you. and there's nothing that -- i mean, we have our lives and we're healthy and that's all that really matters at this point. >> reporter: and so you're not actually staying at the shelter but coming here every day. >> correct. we are getting shoes and clothing from here, because it's our friends and family can't real get to us now. so this is our family. everyone in houston has been so helpful to us. >> reporter: what has it been like here as you're spending the days in here? >> it's just been really crazy here. there's a lot of people. everyone is trying to get the help they need. and the red cross and all the volunteers have been so helpful with getting us everything we needed, and they're really -- we're really grateful for it. >> reporter: and you're no

stranger to these floods. that area is so flood-prone. every time it rains regularly, much less something like this. >> our house has been hit two other times. this was the third. memorial day tax day and now this one. this one was by far the worst. i've never seen anything like this. couldn't imagine it. it is at the roofs of some of our friends' homes. i mean, it's -- i mean, i don't know how we're going to be able to go back in the house and see things after this. >> reporter: yeah. i don't know if they have the picture over there they might be showing right now. but you can just describe where the waterline was to your home. >> yeah. it was all the way up to the top. there's nothing that can be salvaged from that house after this. i mean, literally the clothes that we have on right now are what we're going to have to move on with. and you just take one step at a time and you have to move oranges you know? >> reporter: just looking at the pictures, how it's almost to the roof, you got out in the nick of time. this is a life-threatening situation. >> yeah. i mean, people -- there have already been a few casualties, as i know. and, i mean, we're happy to be alive. we're happy to be healthy.

we're here. and that's really all that matters. >> reporter: when you look at the picture and see what's left of your house or what's not left of your house, what goes through your mind? >> i just think about, you know, like, we could have been there. and, like, thank god we got out when we did, because we could have still been there. who knows how long it would have taken for rescue teams to come get us at that point. we got out when we needed to. >> reporter: i'm so glad you were able to get out with your mother. this is just one of thousands of stories like this. people just getting out on a moment's notice. not knowing, cover of darkness, too. this happened in an instant. people went to bed on saturday, woke up, and it was -- that's the way it was. they just had to rush out. so, again, there are people that are coming here just to get supplies. there are some people who will call this home for the foreseeable future. but the situation here is pretty dire. although people seem to be pretty upbeat. just based on the camaraderie of all being in the same situation. but the red cross does need as much help as they can get.

there are 3,000 people that are here and i think they have a capacity to hold a couple thousand more, and from there, they'll be also shipping -- sending people up north to dallas. in all, i believe mayor turner said they had 5,500 in all, and that number is only going to rise. chris? >> i have to say a couple things. one, how composed mia is . and how she points out so rightly how many people have been out there through all of this, rescuing people, donating their time, donating their efforts. can you just, phillip, show us around a little more, what you're seeing inside of the convention center there, and exactly what's going on? we saw for a second, for example a man who you might not have seen. there was a man in a wheelchair going by you, behind you. >> reporter: yeah. we have seen several people in wheelchairs, and we think that -- they seem like they're

getting the care they need. haven't had a chance to go over and speak with them just yet, since with he did arrive. but we have seen so many responders, so many people helping. it seems like there's almost as many volunteers as people. i know that's not the exact number, but they have, you know, these stickers on. and you can't really -- you can't really understate how -- you can't really overstate how the camaraderie and the way that people have just come together. and this is their community. and from all parts of houston, they're all congregating here. they all have that one thing in common. and they needed help, and when they needed help, they got it from people who are their neighbors. people here are volunteers. but we have people coming and going, people getting food. i don't know if we can pan around here to see the stack of clothes that are over here. i don't know, are we able to swing all the way around over here and check out. there you go. right here, that is where people are picking up clothes that are being donated, and they're

picking them up and taking them away as needed. and as you heard mia talk about, a lot of these people, they just had to get what they had on their backs and go. if that. they didn't even have time to just grab a few of their belongings. they had to get out because it was a life or death situation. so now they're here getting the help they need. but, again, just as quickly as it's going -- just as quickly as all these clothes are coming in, they're also going. so they're going to continue to need help for the coming days, if not weeks. >> yeah, you have somebody who obviously had to leave without even a pair of shoes on her feet. it tells you how desperate the situation was. phillip, thank you for that. i want to bring in texas congressman blake fairenhold. i don't know if you had a chance to listen to mia, but presumably there are many, many people who are in this situation now that she got out of.

obviously desperate. got out of the house with basically a few things on her back, and no shoes on her feet. how are the folks in rockport and corpus christi holding up, and what are your main concerns there? >> fortunately, corpus christi dodged the brunt of it, but a few miles away, port aransas and rockport, are devastated. the national guards have roadways blocked off, only letting residents in. even further up the coast in port lavaca, dire situation. many communities, no water, no sewage, no electricity. slowly electricity is coming back on. in corpus christi, we've got over half the residents in corpus christi back with power. but i'm really worried about some of my constituents further up north. been talking to the mayor of rockport, he's concerned. port aransas. we're going to do a helicopter flyover of that soon. i've seen some pictures from the

previous flyover, all of the boats in the harbor sunk. popular restaurants -- my family and i frequented, just gone. >> you know, there are people who have raised concerns about the president coming at this time, when obviously there are still so many people who find themselves in desperate situations where the efforts of every single person who knows how to respond in a time like this, whether it's the police or the first responders or the national guard, that some of those resources might be diverted away from where they're needed most. do you have that concern, congressman? >> a little bit. but we've really -- started getting -- we're well on the way to recovery in corpus christi. there shouldn't be a significant burden on corpus christi. though i haven't seen the complete itinerary yet. in conversations, my folks working with the white house have had. one of their specific goals was to let the presidency what was going on so we could marshal the

resources to help and they specifically said we don't want to be in the way. show us what you can show us where we don't become a burden. >> so are you confident of the resources you have now, or do you believe that there still needs to be more coordination, more effort, more people and whether it's food, clothing, medical supplies, or just people brought in? >> again, in corpus christi, some of our grocery stores, half our grocery stores are reopened. you get up into port lavaca, some of these other communities. there isn't a store around, there is no power to open the store. you're relying on truckloads of ice and water to get to the folks. so there is definitely still some need going on. fortunately, fema prepositioned a lot of equipment in sa gene, texas, halfway between