[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> the water came up so fast. it was incredible. >> we ne

evacuate people. get people here now before they die. maureen: so far 2,000 water rescues, more than 5,500 people in shelters but officials estimate that number will rise drastically. we're going to head out to houston right now. our maggie brings us the very latest. maggy. maggie: with only more bands of heavy rain expected adding to a catastrophic situation. the country's fourth largest city remains underwater. with more heavy rain expected, the city could be soaked with up to 50 inches. >> this is a landmark event. we have not seen an event like this. you could not draw this forecast up. you could not dream this forecast up. maggie: today a new problem. officials say city dams built to protect downtown houston for a 1,000-year event is at

capacity. the water is rising more than four inches an hour. >> we have experts monitoring these structures 24/7. maggie: to control the flodding, the army corps of eng ears are releasing the dam. >> those in the neighborhoods will be challenged in the next couple of hours and days. maggie: floodwaters are forcing entire apartment buildings to flee to the roof. >> there's about 30 of us on the roof. across the street, the building is caving in. it's water everywhere. we have nowhere to go. maggie: half of the country's coast guard helicopters are in texas, and they've rescued more than 2,000 people already. fema has at least 900 search and rescue operators on the ground but still they're calling on cities to help their neighbors. >> people were screaming out, help, help, help. we'll come back for you. next thing you know there are 20 different people to be rescued. maggie: with nor bands of heavy rain expected over the next

to rely on each other once again. officials say harvey has already affected about a quarter of texas. nearly seven million people, and it's those same communities like here in houston that are expected to get hit again. abc news, houston, texas. back to you guys. maureen: maggie, thank you. we are tracking some rain headed our way, but it won't be anything compared to what texas is seeing. chief meteorologist doug hill is here now with the forecast details. doug. doug: let's start with the big weather story, harvey, getting closer to the spinning circulation back over the waters of the gulf. let's get over to the big picture and share the details. mentioned at the top of the cast that the heavyiest rain bands have shifted well east of houston but what may happen and the fear is as this center of circulation gets over the open waters it will re-energize, the flow of moist air. you can see these new feeder

moving to the northeast. so they will be back in the houston area we think later this afternoon as the torrential rains coming across the louisiana coast. so the storm speed 50-mile-per-hour gust, 40 sustained. moving now to the southeast at 5 miles per hour but will turn to the northeast pretty quick liefer the next 48 hours and eventually turn into a low pressure center. the rainfall potential is incredible. another 15 to 25 inches on spots we already had. and now we have this curious blob. not quite a tropical storm. the air force will investigate. it will cause gusty winds and waves along the coast. too early to tell whether any rain will get into our area but it's certainly a possibility. talk about that in the next 10 days. >> ok, we will see you in a few. thank you. a task force from maryland and another from northern virginia are racing to texas to help the flood victims there. our cameras were rolling yesterday as the first responders quickly packed up. at 3:00 p.m., the

the maryland team to head out. that team was gone in just three hours. >> we want to get there. remove o be able to someone trapped in an attic, a roof. what we are doing is save lives. >> maryland's task force one is taking two big rigs packed with essential. you see them here. it is taking six rescue boats. the maryland team is expected to arrive in texas later today. and houston's two major airports remain closed at this hour. cancellations across the country have soared to 5,000 since harvey started to wreak havoc and now many passengers remain in limbo. we caught up with some of them who were diverted to dulles. >> he we didn't have any bargaining chips. they said this is the one option. we got a hotel and $30 for meals. >> all the big u.s. airlines are waving change fees for travelers. the houston airports could remain closed for the next few

days. president trump heads to texas tomorrow in the midst of tropical storm harvey but right now he's facing a lawsuit over his trend gender military ban. the aclu filed a suit in maryland on behalf of six service members. they claim the ban is based on uninformed miscalculations. he targeted trans people and gave the pentagon the choice to decide on the future of those already deserving. well, it's back to the books for students in northern virginia. nearly 270,000 kids headed back to school today, and so did our john gonzalez. he has more now from fairfax county. >> i mean, i'm kind of excited for school but i wish summer was longer. john: it's back to school for the largest school system in the d.c. area. nearly 200,000 students here in fairfax county returning to class earlier than ever. before labor day. >> we usually go on vacation this week because it's a nice week to go and everybody else

week. >> the new superintendent said it's a chance to get more work in before the winter break. >> i had this opportunity at another district in virginia and they loved it. more time for instruction before end of the year assessments at the state and national level. john: at robinson secondary, the day started with a pep rally. students greeted by the ram cheerleaders and drum line. the school theme this year simply put, dude, be nice. >> this is actually our third year doing this. we just think school has to be a balance. it should be fun, a place you want to come. so we want you know we want you here. what way to do it than a pep raley right? john: the 10th largest school district in the county is dealing with a school bus driver shortage. over 1,600 of these buses in fairfax county but only 1,200 drivers. >> finding bus drivers in virginia is hard. john: many dropped little ones near m

ville. >> one word to describe the school year, doctor? >> the dynamic. it's got to be a dynamic school year. melanie: butterflies in the stomaches today. and we want to see your back-to-school photos this is -year-old jalen and 4-year-old jemaiah. they are dressed alike with the same hairstyle as they head to class in d.c. so cute. make sure you send us your pictures. go to burst.com/wjla and we can get as many as we can on the air. right now more than 1,000 religious leaders are rallying at the martin luther king jr. memorial before marching to the department of justice all to mark the 54th anniversary of the historic march on washington and the "i have a dream" speech. our ryan hughes is live on what the demonstrators are hoping to convey today. ryan.

yeah, right now this crowd is going to start marching into the streets. behind me you see them getting ready. the banner is set. you see all the cameras glinggoing. this crowd getting ready to step foot any second. more than 1,000 ministers from all across the country, from all denominations. the march is getting ready to take place from the martin luther king memorial here and they are going to be walking down to the department of justice. of as you mentioned, this comes on the 54th anniversary of the march on washington for jobs and freedom when martin luther king delivered his "i have a dream" speech. today this crowd will honor king but also send a strong message to president trump and his administration, holding him accountable for the rise in hate crimes and discrimination. you can see they are now starting to move right now. reverend al sharpton says this march today takes on even new meaning since the tragic events in charlottesville two weeks ago. and at the front of the line is

jesse jackson. we caught up with him calling out president trump and white nationalists. take a listen. >> this is a revolution, period. and america must show acts of resistance. ryan: and back live. as you can see this crowd has started moving. they are making their way down to the department of justice and pennsylvania avenue where there will be another rally starting at 1:00. live on the national mall, ryan hughes, abc 7 news. melanie: ryan, thanks. well, long anticipated projects finally under way. we're going to take you to the groundbreaking ceremony for the purple line. straight ahead. and all eyes on harvey. the unprecedented system wreaking havoc in houston as emergency crews scramble to save lives. we will get an update from texas after

eric: it will be a pretty quiet midday. an incident on 395 southbound at exit 9-a. boundary channel drive. you can see the right shoulder is partially blocked. a bit of a mernled ramp is block. coming down to the 14th street bridge a little bit of a slowdown but for the most part a distraction. further down on 395, looking south at duke street. a pretty smooth ride there. the capital beltway is good for both directions below the 270 spur. no complaints passed colesville road. you are in pretty good shape so far this afternoon. stay with us for more news after the mom

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life looks good.

melanie: here is another live look at the situation in houston as the rescue efforts continue after hurricane harvey left most of the city underwater. officials say at least 2,000 people have been rescued from the flooding so far, but there are still 185 critical rescue requests. more than 2,600 people taking shelter right now at the george r. brown convention center, and that number is expected to rise. and we got breaking news coming in right now from houston. the abc station there just posted this video to twitter. an explosion started a fire in a building in downtown houston. this is at the lone star legal aid offices. no word on what caused that explosion or if it has any connection to the hurricane damage. we'll stay on top of it for you and bring you any new developments. right now some new developments

the remains of all 10 missing sailors have now been recovered. among the victims, kevin of gaithersburg and timothy eackles of manchester, maryland. the destroyer collided with an oil tanker a week ago off the coast of singapore. divers searched the flooded compartments for days looking for those missing service members. and this is the fourth accident involving a navy war ship this year. a woodbridge is in court. ronald hamilton allegedly killed his wife and then shot three police officers who responded. one of the officers, ashley was killed. the others wounded. police say hamilton admitted to the crimes immediately after the officers stormed his house. his lawyers say he may have been mentally unstable. they want the judge to suppress his confession. and happening now, rescues under way in texas as roads turn into rivers.

troom harvey has claimed several lives and caused damage. omar jimenez is live near houston. he's got the latest on this. omar, what are you seeing right now? omar: well, we just got word from texas governor greg abbott who is activating the entire texas national guard in response to what we've been seeing from hurricane harvey. that brings the total of national guardsmen to about 12,000 deployed just in response to what the national weather service is calling an unprecedented amount of flooding with rain unlike anything they've experienced before. now, on the city level, we do know there are about 5,500 people that are sheltering in place here in houston just from last night, midnight central time into this morning, we are told that 290 people have been rescued, bringing the total to about 2,000. that's a trend officials hope to conti

i mentioned the national guardsmen. they will be assisting. state officials as well down to the local and i should say hyper local officials as well. what i mean by that, just neighbors helping neighbors, pulling up on anything they can, using anything that floats, whether they are rafts, kayaks or motorized boats pulling up to these homes and helping people evacuate. the situation is now that there are many people still at home, stranded in homes that are now islands and essentially just waiting for people to come and rescue them. they can't go anywhere in their cars. they may be at risk to walk to a destination they may not even know. so at this point search and rescue is the goal. it's the priority and the mayor says that their goal is to get to everyone that needs it by today. melanie: omar, we can see it's raining lightly behind you. the rain has been coming in bands, right? when is the next round of heavy rain

omar: well, it's been tough to predict throughout the day. it's come in and out. i can tell you we've been out here since about 5:00 a.m. this morning local time and there have been stretches where it's just been misting and we haven't felt anything and then just a few minutes later it comes pouring down. it does not make the job any easier for any of the officials trying to get this city back to some sense of normalcy, but it does give them a sense what they are going to be in for for the rest of the week. more rain expected. we could see a total of about 50 inches by the time it's all said and done. melanie: hard to even imagine that kind of rain. omar live for us in houston. thanks so much for the very latest. stay safe out there. let's head over to doug hill right now for more on the big storm. doug. doug: this is the latest official track information and update from the national hurricane center in miami. top winds now 40 miles per hour since the 11:00ed a advisory.

now the center is moving back to the southeast a little bit. and because of that, it's going to be able to generate even more rain over the next couple of days. more of those heavy bands and they'll tend to migrate from south to north and then eventually move off more to the east and the northeast as we get through the next couple of days for you. let me switch off for just a second and change clickers here so i can continue the weather story. as it rm will weaken heads to the east and northeast. there is a possibility some of that rain will make it into the tennessee valley and maybe eventually into our area by the end of this upcoming weekend. lots of things for this very slow-moving, very, very historic storm center. so here's the numbers for you as we go through the next couple of days. according to hurricane center, as it tracks the northeast it will first regain a little circulation over the gulf of mexico by tomorrow morning. not going to increase wind speeds a lot but continue to be

it's a question where those heavyiest bands set up and how they move through southeast texas. eventually diminishing but still has a circulation and still able to produce a lot of rain and some of that rain might make it in our direction, again, by the weekend. for now not much to see out there. just cloudy skies. cool temperatures. the rainfall future for us, uncertain, because we don't know how much this east coast storm will develop but we do know down south another 15 to 25 inches of rain is expected here before the circulation moves totally out of the texas area and as a result more problems with flooding just incalculateable the amount. 76 degrees today. cloudy and cool. easterly winds five to 10 miles per hour in our area and little glimpses of sunshine. here's the little storm, not quite tropical. it doesn't have the potential to be a big storm but it does have some winds and some rirk circulation we're waiting to see develop that will cause rain and gusty winds along the gulf coast but will speed out to sea and that will be that.

let's look forward to our futurecast. we'll give you a glimpse what the computers have in mind. there will be on-shore flow and thunderstorms along the carolinas and some of the rain could be in parts of our area tomorrow morning. the rain will remain south and east of washington. we'll check out the weekend and detail the next 10 days coming

>> helping texas overcome this disaster will be far greater than fema coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. we need citizens to be involved. melanie: the coast guard has stepped in to help with tropical storm harvey. they're using helicopters to rescue flood victims.

one chopper pulled several people from a southeast houston neighborhood after heavy rain slammed the area. and facebook has activated its safety check feature for the harvey zone in houston. people can mark themselves safe so friends and family on the social network can see they're ok. they can also visit the local community help page to see what people need or offer things like housing, food or transportation. well, it's official, ground has been broken for the long-awaited purple line. a ceremony just wrapped up a short time ago. when it's completed, the 16-mile light rain will go from bethesda to new carrollton. it's scheduled to open in 2022. well, harvey still hammering texas. take a live look here. this is the houston area submerged in water.

melanie: well, i know you are watching rain that might move our way. doug: we have rain south and east of the city and by sunday maybe showers from the leftovers of harvey if harvey keeps moving -- starts moving again which they think it will. rain chances tomorrow. clear now for the end of the week. good saturday. maybe-run sunday. right now labor day -- maybe rain sunday. right now labor day looks terrific. melanie: be sure to watch abc 7

>> welcome to whiz kids week on "who wants to be a millionaire." all week, we're playing with some very bright young people who are hoping to turn their book smarts into cold, hard cash. so don't move. it's time to play "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] ♪ hey, everybody, welcome to the show. it's whiz kids week here on "millionaire." [cheers and applause] love this week. incredible kids. and how about this one. with an iq in the 99th percentile, today's whiz kid uses her intelligence to crack codes and has conquered 20 escape rooms all over the u.s. hoping to escape with $1 million today, please welcome 14-year-old sarah schwartz. [cheers and applause]