the water was up to here. >> i walked out and i was just like screaming. i seen somebody leave -- they tried to put us on air mattresses it didn't work. they had to put the babies on air mattresses. people were carrying babies on their shoulders. >> from water evacuations of every sort, air lifting stranded people and their pets to safety, seeking help in makeshift shelters, and even herd of cattle making their way down a city street seeking higher ground. overnight daring rescues continued in debris laden streets with rescuers doing whatever necessary to reach victims. and there's 15 to 25 more inches of rain yet to fall in the area by friday. president trump tweeted all

weekend about the storm. plans to visit texas tuesday, but that's not all he's been up to. and last night's mtv video music a weaawards had its share politics, eye popping performances and much more. "early today" starts right now. good monday morning to you. i'm frances ra very a. my co-anchor is in texas right now covering tropical storm harvey and the devastation following the record setting hurricane. he'll join us just in a moment. right now, the waterlogged city of houston is bracing for even more catastrophic flooding from harvey after the nation's fourth largest city was pummelled with up to 2 feet of rain. an unprecedented 50 inches of rain could hit several areas by storm's end. and the situation could not be more dire as the national weather service puts out several tornado and flash flood warnings overnight. five to ten more inches of rain could hit the area in just the next several hours. and right now the army corps of engineers has begun releasing the waters of two nearby dams in an effort to stem some of the flooding. overnight voluntary

evacuations have been ordered for some houston neighborhoods as police urged the public to stay safe. there have been over a thousand water rescues in the last 72 hours, with more rescues certain as the rain persists. bill karins forecast is just ahead. first let's to my co-anchor phillip mena who is in houston right now. what have you experienced so far? >> hey, frances, good morning. i was hoping to talk to you in front of a camera this morning, but the road closures from all of this flooding made that impossible to meet up with the crew. so, right now i am in the northwest part of town. i was coming from dallas taking the main freeway which is the i-45 and by the time we got to houston, roads were closed in all directions so essentially whatever part of houston you're in is quickly becoming an island as the waters continue to just wreak havoc on the roadways here. that is to speak nothing of like what you saw the rescues that have been going on.

25 inches of rain in certain parts here, just over the weekend, has just completely drowned out the city. you mentioned the dams at the beginning of the show. that is the major concern right now. there are two major dams that protect the city of houston. they flow through the city. and the army corps of engineers has decided to release them, control release some of that water to alleviate the pressure because if that breaks that could leave half of houston under water and obviously they do not want that. so, they are going to release these waters, it's going to come at the expense of the several thousand homes that are right along those dams. but they're really left with no other choice right now. so, that is the main situation right now, trying to get some of those people evacuated as they start this controlled release of the dam. >> unbelievable to watch these images. all right, philip, we'll check back in with you in a little bit. thank you. victoria, texas is still

reeling from tropical storm harvey. the city of 85,000 people was put under mandatory evacuation order when harvey first hit, slamming the area with extreme winds and rain. now residents are being warned not to return unless they bring enough food, water and gas to last three to four days. local officials call the damage devastating and said residents could be without electricity for several days or even weeks. nbc's kerry sanders is in victoria, texas this morning. what is the latest on the rescue and recovery efforts there? >> reporter: well, good morning, frances. as you can see over my shoulder, there are electrical trucks here. that means there are power crews that have made their way to this city now which is a good sign. the power crews have started work, in some cases the power has returned to a portion of downtown. primarily in an area where the authorities who are conducting now the direction of the recovery efforts have based themselves. the shelters that are here in town are beginning to close.

that's a good sign. it means things that people are going to have a sign of going home and maybe reestablishing what semblance of a normal life they can without power and without food. but in some cases as you can see here, when people left the shelters that are closing, they wound up finding that they had nowhere to go. and this is because of a fire that burned down an apartment complex. the apartment complex catching fire during the hurricane, the suspicion is that there was perhaps a lightning bolt that caused the fire. as you noted, the people are being told that if they return home, they need to have food. well, yesterday the largest grocery chain here in town, heb, that's across the state actually, decided they would try to do their best to get food to people. so, they brought in their disaster kitchen to start feeding people. at the same time, brought in 15 trucks from san antonio, texas where they were able to restock a good portion of the grocery

store. the power company has some power in there. they even had the credit card swipe machines working so people were able to get some food. but the real concern here is as you can note, it's still raining here and the river, that is the guadalupe river is still swelling and they believe by wednesday we may actually see what appears to be a flood along the guadalupe river. frances? >> wow, all right. kerry sanders for us with that update. kerry, thank you. the mandatory evacuation was never issued for several parts of texas so scenes like this were widely seen across the state as troops and helicopters pulled people from danger, lifting them to safety. overnight one traffic camera in katie texas saw this dramatic rescue a driver engulfed in their vehicle. thankfully they made it out alive. nbc's jacob rascone now brings us more. >> reporter: it is a colossal rescue effort. thousands stranded, taken by boat and helicopter. >> water so high boats are going

over the top of cars. >> reporter: saved using anything that floats. their faces tell the story of anguish, anxiety and fear. >> the water was up to here. i walked out and i was just like screaming. i seen somebody -- they tried to put us on air mattresses, it didn't work. they had to put babe ids on air mattresses. people were carrying babies on their shoulders. >> reporter: with emergency responders overwhelmed, the mayor is asking people to call 911 only if their life is in danger because he defended his decision not to issue a mandatory evacuation order. >> i want to thank those thousands, thousands, in fact, millions of houstonians who heeded the advice and did not get on the road. >> reporter: the city has now opened its convention center for evacuees as rescue teams plead for the public's help. >> 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. >> reporter: and houstonians have responded en masse. >> if they need my help i'm going to do what i can. >> reporter: back in southeast houston, frank pena woke up surrounded by water. >> the beds, everything, trying to clear. all gone. >> all gone, everything is gone. >> reporter: he moved into this apartment just three days ago. his neighbor upstairs took him and three other families in. >> are you going to stay until the water goes away? >> might. proschably not if they come get us. we need help. whole bunch of families displaced. they've lost everything. >> reporter: the morales family lost everything, including their stove and much of their food. >> you can't eat your food? >> no. >> reporter: this bayou is usually nearly empty. within at matter of hours it's 30 feet over flowing into these apartments and all these people are trapped. while scrambling to save her mom

from flood waters in a nearby city, samantha caught on a flooded interstate herself, climbing to safety. >> my ma said there is water going in there, 30 inches deep. i didn't think it was that deep. >> reporter: america's fourth largest city fighting to survive a still unfolding calamity. frances, the community here is incredible. you see people coming and going. they have been rescued from back in the neighborhoods by boats that belong to the residents. they believe they have rescued four, 5 or even 600 people since midnight last night. frances? >> all right, jacob, thank you. certainly it will be a scene in the days to come. want to check back in with philip mena who is in houston right now. so, philip, it's one thing to have this storm come and go, but with the rains expected, how is it out there right now? >> well, mercyfully the rain has slowed to a drizzle. it is such a welcome relief. for the moment, because it was pouring all night.

i'm talking about blinding rain at times. so, we are not expecting this lull to last very much longer, but for a look at how the rest of this region is looking let's go to meteorologist bill karins. good morning, bill. >> good morning to you, philip. that is exactly the case. in houston it poured for a short period of time. that has moved out and now towards the bow mont area. of course the flash flood warnings and the emergency flash flood emergency still continues through the region. from lake charles almost to san antonio under flash flood warnings and that heavy band around 10:00 p.m. last night right over the top of houston, now it has shifted over the bow mont area. unfortunately it is not moving. it is just sitting over the same location there. there's beau mont right there. you can see the thunderstorms coming in. those areas have had 20 inches of rain. 4 inches per hour. in some of these bands. if we're going to have horrific new flooding it's going in that band to the east. our short range computer model predicts it's going to stick around that area around beau mont just about all day with hit and miss showers around houston

and galveston area. short term computer models as far as the rainfall in the next 36 hours has that 10 inches still around houston to galveston. look at the beau mont area, 10 to 20 inches in the area near louisiana, texas board. that wil x6 ahead on this

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being finalized, this comes as the administration prepares to announce plans to resume the transfer of surplus military equipment to police departments across the country. a practice restricted by an obama era executive order. nbc's tracy potts joins us now with more. tracy, what do we know about the reversal? >> reporter: well, we are expecting attorney general jeff sessions will announce it at a fraternal order of police convention in nashville this morning. it is something the police union has pushed for and president trump promised during his campaign. some military equipment that had been given, essentially, to police departments, they only had to pay for the shipping, was restricted by the obama administration after the michael brown incident in ferguson where lots of military-type vehicles were pointed at protesters. armor also being used by those local police departments. but the president says there is evidence that it actually protects officers in situations

like florida, the pulse night club shooting, and in san bernardino. so, it looks like they're going to revive that. the president also dealing with the response to hurricane harvey. his fema director and others saying that this is going to be a prolonged, a very quick response, but also a prolonged response that could take years. frances? >> all right, tracy potts, thank you. just ahead, a troubling new storm churning off the south carolina coast. and the most outrageous and inspiring moments from last night's video music awards. bies. ...we run marathons... ...companies... ...solve problems. how? we eat. we eat almonds... ...strawberries... ...quinoa. and yeah...we eat chocolate. ♪ we eat in sweatpants... ...in skirts. we eat alone... ...and together. women are strong. we eat, and we own it. special k.

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so many horrific scenes out of the greater houston area from harvey. we still expect 10 to 15, maybe 20 inches of additional rainfall in the region. all the destruction has not been done yet. there will be some new stuff. we are also watching the possibility of a tropical storm i remember irma the. this area will see some large waves, gusty winds and also heavy rainfall but we do not expect a lot of damage in from this storm. more of an inconvenience and danger only if you're right down by the water and the beeches. possibility of 2 to 3 inches on the coast. we'll give you more updates on that in the next 24 to 48 hours. we'll be right back here. stay tuned, "early today." peopl.

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tand, our adulte children are here. so, we save by using tide. which means we use less. three generations of clothes cleaned in one wash. those are moms. anybody seen my pants? nothing cleans better. put those on dad! it's got to be tide. it's very tough to watch your city get hit by such a bad storm and not be there to help. houston is a great city. we're going to come out of this stronger than ever, but we're going to need a lot of money to help these people rebuild. >> that's houston texan star j.j. watt announcing a fund-raiser to assist with recovery efforts in the houston area and asking fans to donate if they can. watts is contributing $100,000. so far more than $250,000 has been donated.

the 2017 mtv video music awards, the night's big winner was kendrick lamarr who took home six moon people including one for video of the year. ed sheeran won the first ever artist of the year a war created when mtv eliminated character this year. pink was presented with this year's vanguard award. she opened up being bullied for her looks, something her 6-year-old daughter faces as well. >> do you see me changing my body? no, mama. do you see me changing the way i present myself to the world? no, mama. do you see me selling out arenas all over the world? yes, mama. [cheering and applauding] >> okay. so, baby girl, we don't change. we take the gravel in the shell and we make a pearl and you, my darling girl, are beautiful. and i love you. [cheering and applauding] >> that also got political, six transgender military service members walked the red carpet

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rising waters. breaking this morning. harvey continues dropping rain and devastation in houston. on going effort to save people from the floodwaters. answering calls, rush towards the disaster in houston. helping those most in need. targeting police cars. finding a way to get officers around after a man goes on a tire slashing spree. a lot to get to this morning. good morning. nbc 10 first look at four. i'm tracey davidson. >> i'm katy zachary. let's get right to bill henley. good morning. cool start this morning with clear skies. dropped into the 50s and 60s.

low 50s for the suburbs. philadelphia is at 61 degrees. a lot of sunshine to starlet with. afternoon to see high cluouds moving in. 55 now in the lehigh valley. 50s also for delaware. warm into the 70s this afternoon. upper 70s. the sky is becoming partly sunny late in the day for delaware and new jersey. mostly sunny sky ifs r the suburbs and philadelphia. break it down when i come back. first, jessica boyington has first alert traffic. to start, on the schuylkill expressway. here's the camera from the westbound side actually from the boulevard's camera that's zoomed in on city line avenue. see the lane restrictions up here. city line avenue exit is open. lanes are closed. dealing with that there. this is the westbound side here. westbound side too has construction so anywhere in between city line avenue and conshohock conshohocken, we are seeing restrictions.

typically cleared around 5:00. at least another hour or so still there. still get by the scene, just may be slower than normal. construction on the vine street expressway. it's open. in between broad and schuylkill we're open there not dealing with construction this morning. end at the 42 freeway over in new jersey northbound from walt whitman bridge. it is 4:00 a.m., breaking overnight, tropical storm harvey continues to batter houston and texas. water continues to arrive. reaching those in need is getting more difficult as hundreds of roads are shutdown. the worst is yet to come. the storm remains spinning over the hard hit area and rain is expected to continue for days. nbc 10 matt delucia joins us live in the studio. >> katie and tracey, rain continue this is morning in the