with the wrath of harvey. tonight houston is still struggling to stay above rising flood waters as the rain continues there. more than 2,000 rescues have happened. first responders are using any available vehicle. the coast guard is using helicopters to lift people from the danger. and regular people are just jumping in to help. >> rescue people came and took us. >> we didn't know this was going to get this bad. >> here is what we know right now. six people confirmed dead. the latest victim was a woman killed when a tree fell on her trailer home. officials believe the death toll to rise. thousands are hunkered in shelters. in all 30,000 are expected to need to stay in shelters. harvey is drenching louisiana with rain but not expected to cause quite as much damage there as it is right now in texas.

nbc 10 has a team of reporters in houston to show you the devastation and others here at home with how the storm is impacting our area and our army of meteorologists tracking where harvey is right now. we begin with ted greenberg talking with two people who survived hurricane sandy in new jersey and are now living through harvey's devastation in houston. >> it's just surreal. >> reporter: gina trying her best to stay calm as harvey keeps pounding houston. >> it's unbelievable that the rain is still coming down. it amazes me. >> reporter: she, her husband and 4-year-old son moved to houston from new jersey just months after a 60 foot oak tree toppled on to their old house during hurricane sandy. missing the couple by mere inches. >> i can't believe now four years later we are dealing with something like this.

>> it's crazy. >> reporter: caldwell, new jersey native lives in this neighborhood just outside houston. his grandmother's house also damaged by sandy. >> it feels like it is almost following me in these big events. but it really prepared me dramatically for this event. everything i can get elevated in my apartment is elevated. i have a safe place to stay. >> really bad. >> reporter: a new jersey native, during sandy she had family to help provide support. that's not the case this time. >> we made friends in the area but they have their own families and dealing with their own issues from harvey. >> reporter: her street spared from flooding so far but others nearby are filled with high water as this already soaked city gets hammered by more rain. ted greenberg, nbc 10 news.

texas won't be free of harvey for the next several days. you can see it on first alert radar. >> kind of just spinning in place and expected to come back over texas, bring in more rain. let's bring in glenn "hurricane" schwartz tracking the storm's movements. >> and the center of the storm has gone back out over the gulf of mexico and you can see there is just a tremendous amount of rain still associated with this system. and this is the center of it. pretty clearly out in the gulf this is the low pressure center at the surface but we have the thunderstorms closer to the coast. so it's not quite symmetrical yet. if it does have the center at the surface right underneath this would become a new eye wall and you can see even more development of the rain. look at the gigantic area of

rain. if you take the track of the storm in this direction and you see the heavy rain on this side all the time while it's traveling up here you are still going to be in the heavy rain area. so they are not close to getting out of this thing. the wind has increased to 45 miles per hour. it's only moving about three miles per hour. it's going to take quite a while. there is tomorrow afternoon and it's still pretty close to where it is now. there it is wednesday and then finally thursday. so it is really going to take several more days before they finally get the rain out of there so that they can really start cleaning up. president trump will visit texas tomorrow.

>> the people of texas as you know have really persevered. when you watch the spirit and enthusiasm and helping each other it is something for people to decide. >> the president said he may visit louisiana saturday depending on what happens there. after superstorm sandy two top lawmakers from texas voted against a crucial emergency relief backage. those same lawmakers are asking for -- new jersey governor was asking if he thinks they are hypocrites? >> absolutely. sure. the congressional members in texas are hypocrites. >> the package was ultimately voted on and approved after sandy. christie said he will urge new jersey lawmakers to approve aid for texas. houston's two major airports remain closed. the faa says the george bush

airport will be shut down until thursday. that's getting people from getting home. the native and her daughter came to our area for a birthday party before the storm hit. she has no idea what is happening to her house or her friends and has no idea when she will be able to return to the houston suburb where she lives. roads in the neighborhood are flooded and homes already torn apart. >> it's never been as bad. never been flooded in my neighborhood. had no idea we would not be able to get back. >> the family is looking on the bright side. so far they have heard of few injuries in their hometown and of course they hope it stays that way. tonight philadelphia churches are sending help for harvey victims. >> think how you would feel if you woke up with the -- what

would you want people from around the country to do for you? >> besides collecting donations also organizing mission trips. volunteers will help harvey victims rebuild their lives. host a hurricane relief drive happening thursday from 5:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. you will be able to call, text and go to the website to help those impacted. nbc 10 will provide updates on tv, online and on social networks throughout the day. you can help victims with just a quick text. all you have to do is text harvey to 90999 to make an instant $10 donation. coverage of harvey's destruction continues on the free nbc 10 app. you can get instant updates and scroll through photos of people pulled from the flooding. we will hear from him coming up in just a few minutes. now to breaking news out of

north korea. that country fired its latest ballistic missile into the sea. north korea reignited tensions with the u.s. this weekend by firing three ballistic missiles. tonight some south jersey officers are trying to keep neighbors safe without half of their police cruisers. someone slashed the tires of several police cars. we are joined live at an auto repair shop. what could this mean for safety? >> i can tell you -- this is the car in texas like eight others this police cruiser. you can see the damage on the tires. this is one tire. the back tire over here all four tires on the police car damaged. that's what people at that auto repair shop are dealing with.

they are looking for the guy right now. he remains on the run tonight. >> if somebody couldn't get to them the chief admits it could have been catastrophic if there was a major emergency. investigators say there are mutual aid agreements with neighboring towns. >> god forbid something were to happen we would have been out of luck. >> reporter: nine of the 14 front line vehicles in the fleet were hit and the others were considered in service. fire marshall says the guy slashed tires on one of his two work suvs. workers in his unit will drive their own cars to emergency calls. >> we can go a couple of days with just one vehicle. so the police it's a big deal.

everything will be all right. >> reporter: investigators believe this guy caught on surveillance early sunday morning is behind the damage. 52 tires slashed in all still on the run this afternoon. they say he was also spotted shortly after at a nearby wawa less than a mile away. >> did you think there was possibly less patrols knowing so many cars were damaged? >> no. last night there was a cop car coming down the street all night long. >> reporter: so we are told this guy caused about $10,000 worth of damage. there is some good news. just about 4:00 this afternoon this auto repair shop received a shipment of about 38 tires for all of these police cruisers. that is good news. these cars should be back in service sometime tomorrow afternoon. >> up next all new at 6:00 an nbc 10 exclusive. a father's plea deal in his

3-year-old son's death. only we get new insight into why he took the plea even though he says he didn't kill the toddler. hurricane harvey still flooding texas tonight. tropical rain may be headed our way. what it means for your tuesday in my first alert neighborhood forecast.

we continue to track the devastation left by the storm that was hurricane harvey. houston police have now rescued 2,000 people from flooding in the city. the governor of texas today activated the entire texas national guard. late this afternoon president trump pledged rapid federal aid to those hit by harvey. the president travels to texas tomorrow. nbc 10 reporter flew into austin today. he is on his way to houston. he joins us live from texas about 30 miles outside of houston. and so much flooding that you are seeing already there. >> reporter: how things have changed. we were on the road coming in and pulled off here because the highway was closed. take a look at the water on the baseline of 290 heading into houston. you can see a lot of these people have boats coming from

all over with boats, volunteers to head into neighborhoods. one of these volunteers. you guys are from austin, texas. what brings you out here? tell me what is the plan with the boats? >> try to help as many people as we can. get water to people who don't want to leave. houston, i have a ton of friends and family here. >> reporter: you have a friend who lives in this neighborhood. you are hoping to get them some water. >> get them out of there if possible. >> i can tell you it started raining significantly harder. we are about to back this boat up into the highway that is covered with water. we are going to check in on people. oo few others on the neighborhood. we were planning to head into houston. the highway was completely closed. full of water. right now we hitch a ride with these guys on the boat. i recommend you check back with us. we will drop off water in the neighborhood here outside of

houston. >> the adventure begins for you and your crew. stay safe and we will look for your reports coming up again at 11:00. the remnants of harvey could impact our area. another system with tropical rain is heading our way. glen is tracking both weather threats in just a moment. now to an nbc 10 exclusive on a toddler's killing that riveted south jersey. we are getting new insight into why the 3-year-old boy's father bleed guilty. he will spend at least ten years in prison. his attorney is answering to the public's anger over the sentence. >> the people who were not there for the trial who certainly don't know the facts and are calling for heads and saying that it is a slap on the wrist i think don't know enough about what happened. >> reporter: south jersey bureau reporter cydney long sat down with the attorney for this one-on-one interview. after maintaining innocence he

now admits his recklessness caused his son's death. on wednesday morning he said yes to a plea deal offered by prosecutors. he answered questions admitting he died from a lack of oxygen but didn't have to say how. >> i am not convinced that he did what the prosecution says that he did. >> which is suffocating. people say he killed his son you say he didn't. >> he did not plead guilty to murder. he pleaded guilty to recklessly causing the situation that caused his son's death. >> reporter: his tarn maintains he still doesn't know what happened that night. >> i believe in his wondering what happened and desire to find out. >> reporter: the official charge is first degree manslaughter carrying minimum of ten years to maximum 30 year sentence. with time served he could be out of jail in six years.

defense attorney says he didn't want to risk another trial. he says no motive is entered on the record and he has definite remorse. >> he does feel a great deal of remorse and guilt for the fact that his son did die. >> reporter: a majority of residents feel as though he had beaten the system, his first trial ending in a dead lock and now a plea deal that leaves very little time behind the bars so we asked has justice been served? >> if an innocent person spends the rest of his life in jail that is not justice. if a guilty person walks away free it is not justice. >> cydney long, nbc 10 news. >> the judge has discretion to add additional time but he has not seen that happen in the past. a warning for swimmers,

dangerous conditions in the ocean. rip current risk is high through late tonight. swimming prohibited in long beach town ship. jersey shore could be hit with tropical rain tomorrow as a storm heads our way. glenn "hurricane" schwartz is tracking that storm as well as tropical storm harvey that keeps dumping rain over texas. a live look at harvey on first alert radar. this rain is relentless. it's hard to imagine that it is far from over. >> we are talking about hundreds of miles worth of rain. it is flooding in new orleans 400 miles away from the center of the storm. there will be more flooding in new orleans before this is over. not just the houston issue. you can see wave after wave of heavy rain in houston. a little bit drier air in galveston. you can see the swirl right there off the texas coast which is right there.

these thunderstorms right near the coast if they start wrapping around the center in any way that means trouble and going to strengthen. it already strengthened some. there are some reports of stronger winds southwest of the center. it could be showing signs of at least some strengthening. 45 miles per hour winds. biggest problem is it is still not moving much. tomorrow afternoon it's still near galveston. houston can still be getting pounded with rain. then it starts to move up to the northeast. new orleans could still be in the path of some pretty strong bans. you can see the track, a lot of agreement in the computer models not only going northeast but some of that moisture spinning up this way as we head towards the weekend. this is the thing offshore. it's not a tropical storm. can't find a defined center. there is a lot of wind and

causing problems and so it's going to track offshore. it's not coming straight up the coast. there is enough wind, enough waves and enough rain to effect us as we go into tomorrow. that's why we issued a first alert for jersey shore and southern delaware for tomorrow, for rain and wind and dangerous surf again. temperatures near 70 right now. it's been a pretty cool day. it's going to be even cooler and look at the wind gusts tomorrow gusting up into the 40s over parts of south jersey. we'll be right back.

back now to live coverage of the impact of harvey. randy flew into austin. >> he is stopped by flooding on his way to houston. you are about 30 miles outside of houston aboard a boat with a have the m volunteer. >> reporter: they have jet skis, boats and other pontoons. look at this crew trying to get our boat into the water. we are on the highway so it is not real easy to get a boat with a propeller toon the highway. we have a large group of people helping us out. there is a neighborhood that way that is stranded. they need water so we have bottles and bauottles of water. i was told the pontoon boat tried to deget there and flippe over and needed to be rescued. you can see over here we have even more boats coming.

we will keep following along and get back with you guys at 11:00 tonight. the effort still underway, days of rain here in houston, texas. back to you guys. >> just how high that water is really getting up there on those. >> dangerous work. thanks, randy. we'll be right back.

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team coverage of the after math of harvey continues. mendoza joining us live at the houston convention center. thousands of people sheltering there. >> reporter: that's right. about 4,500 people at this time and expected about 5,000 people by the end of the night coming in here. 8,000 people being sheltered and medical services being provided, food, clothes. the word is still out because streets are still flooded and everybody is hoping for the best. >> that could be their home for

a few days. >> up next nbc nightly news with lester holt. we'll see you back here tonight at 11:00. tonight, a deepening flood disaster here in texas. a rising toll, a family feared dead while trying to escape. also a race against time to save people trapped in their homes. dramatic rescues on live television as the nation's fourth-largest city is paralyzed. >> this is a landmark event for texas. texas has never seen event like this. >> the entire texas national guard now activated. with no end in sight, an epic storm expected to make landfall again bringing a massive amount of rain on top of already historic devastation. >> the house is flooding and it's raising way too fast. >> and tonight, banding together. the worst of times bringing out the best of humanity deep in the heart of texas. "nightly news" begins right now.