captioning funded by cbs it's monday, august 28th, 2017. this is the "cbs morning news." >> got to be a 500 year flood or thousand year flood, something ridiculous. >> harvey flooding disaster. rain continues to pound parts of texas as floodwaters rise. thousands of people are evacuated, and rescue crews go into overdrive. and a television reporter becomes the news as she jumps into action to save a truck driver trapped by floodwaters. good morningm

57 newsroom at cbs news headquarters in new york. good to be with you. i'm anne-marie green. the damage to a large part of southeast texas from harvey is in the words of the national weather service unprecedented and beyond anything experienced. houston, the nation's fourth largest city is all but under water. the mayor says most major roads are impassable. it is estimated that a quarter of the texas population is affected. and at least two deaths are blamed on the storm at this point. parts of texas are expected to get nearly 50 inches of rain. a massive rescue operation is now under way. thousands have been forced to evacuate. the head of fema says the recovery effort could take years and president trump plans to visit the state tomorrow. tropical storm harvey is stalled now, near the coast. still pounding the houston area with heavy rain, which is expected to last through friday. don champion is in houston.

>> reporter: good morning, anne-marie. this region is still very much paralyzed. behind me, that might easily look like a river, but 16 feet below or so is actually a normally busy parkway here near downtown. and the flooding is only expected to get worse. the coast guard spent the last 24 hours pulling people off roofs in houston, as harvey left many residents with no way to go but up to safety. thousands are leaving their homes and everything behind. >> it is all just materialistic stuff that is always kept in your mind and is always going to be there in your mind, so it is good. but it is just hard. >> reporter: these are residents at the assistant living facility, who waited for help in waist deep water. this trucker was saved on live tv. this man realized too late exactly why officials are

circumstances. nerves are frayed as many of the city's shelters where neighbors have little else but each other. >> they're completely soaked. i mean, i don't even know what to say. they're not my kids, but i love them like they're my own. i don't know them from adam. >> reporter: initial predictions that the storm's worst would dump 40 inches of rain has been scrapped. that number now 50 inches as harvey is expected to still rain down for at least two more days. cities and towns have been left almost unrecognizable. this used to be a bridge. this used to be a baseball field. this used to be arlene's backyard. now it is home to two alligators. with countless more still in need of help, 4,000 national and state guard troops are being brought in for relief and recovery efforts. there is

a controlled release started this morning at two reservoirs in this region. it could flood several neighborhoods even more, but anne-marie, officials say the move was needed to protect critical dams. >> tough decisions being made here. don champion in houston, thank you so much. up to 1200 people had to be rescued just in galveston county, southeast of houston. when harvey blew ashore, it devastated low lying homes and caused unprecedented flooding. another 10 to 15 inches of rain is expected there. city officials are asking for volunteers to help staff rescue shelters. late last night, texas governor greg abbott ordered another 1,000 national guard troops to the houston area. he's declared more than 50 texas counties disaster areas. >> well, the state of things is a state of emergency where we're responding to these needs of the people. in houston as well as around the entire state of texas, by making

that does is it triggers the resources from fema. we have been in constant contact with fema officials and the full resources of fema are coming to texas to respond to the challenges you're seeing and also with regard to the challenges we're going to have in rebuilding houston and the entire coastal region. >> evacuees fleeing the coast need shelter. tomorrow the city of dallas plans to open a megashelter in the kay bailey hutchison convention center. the city is preparing to house some 5,000 people there. other emergency shelters in dallas and san antonio are already full. now, more than 4,000 national guard and state guard troops have been deployed to assist in the recovery efforts. so many people needed help that the rescue crews could not keep up. more search and rescue teams are on the way. maria villerreal reports. >> reporter: rescue crews from around the country are converging in san antonio at the

friedman coliseum. the facility is best known for hosting the city's rodeo, but now more than 900 cots are set up behind me. these cots are for the first responders, bus drivers, the military. they'll come here, regroup and head out to battle hurricane harvey. and more than 900 people from the corpus christi bay side and rockport area were evacuated to shelters in the san antonio area. many of them now are getting word they may not have homes to return to. these are families being told by authorities it will be days before they can head back in to town. right now we know that bear county with san antonio, they're coordinating efforts on every level. so far, 2,000 first responders have come through this facility and they are expecting more. they're also expecting about 200 buses to start here and head to houston to pick up evacuaees, bringing them back to the alamo city for safety. >> maria villerreal reporting there. the red cross is also preparin s

antonio to host evacuees from houston and elsewhere. meteorologist jeff jamison from our dallas station ktvt has the latest than catastrophic storm. good morning, jeff. >> good morning. we're looking at the center of harvey, off to the southwest of the houston area. the heaviest of the rain early this morning has shifted east of houston, but there are still showers developing in and around the city. and that's going to continue to cause problems throughout the day today as rescue officials and other folks trying to get to folks who are in need. the heaviest rain is to the east of the houston area over toward beaumont. the movement will be slow. what has already fallen is almost historic at this point, 20, 25 inches of rain reported in southeast texas. additional rainfall throughout the day today and really for the rest of the week. you can see by tomorrow, or into wednesday, we're looking at an additional seven inches of rain in the houston area and by friday we're talking about almost an additional 1

that's on top of what has already fallen there in southeast texas with this catastrophic flood as harvey slowly actually works its way back out to the water and curves back to the northeast through east texas and louisiana. as we get through the weekend. and by the weekend, we're finally saying good-bye to harvey here in texas. but not after -- not until we see these incredible rainfall amounts in southeast texas. now, at the same time as we're keeping an eye on harvey here in texas, we already have tropical storm watches posted now in the other side of the country on the east coast, from coastal south carolina all the way through the outer banks. tropical storm watch right now because tropical storm irma is developing out there as well. you see it here off the coast of florida. it will slowly but surely push its way to the northeast and more than likely make landfall somewhere in the outer banks tuesday morning there in north carolina as a tropical storm with winds as high as 40 or 45 miles per hour. then it will make its way into

of the week. but two tropical systems we're keeping an eye on. harvey has been horrible here for texas. and then we'll watch what irma does to the east coast later on this week. anne-marie. >> a long haul for a lot of people. meteorologist jeff jamison in dallas, thank you so much, jeff. many texas families are struggling to keep their pets and animals safe. a horse got trapped in high water yesterday in college station. firefighters were able to rescue the horse and are attempting to locate its owner. ahead on "cbs this morning" , norah o'donnell is in houston to see how people are trying to cope with the destruction of hurricane harvey. coming up, roadside rescue, we'll hear from a tv reporter in houston who helped a truck drivdrive er stranded in floodwaters. this is the "cbs morning news."

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people to flee from rising floodwaters in texas. and some children trapped in flooded homes in houston had the rides of their lives. an adult used an air bed to float the children to safety. now, five kids are seen here. but another four were rescued later. with millions in harvey's path, watching for vital information, the storm's catastrophic impact forced our houston station, khou, to evacuate. water filled the building, creeping into the studio during sunday morning's wall to wall coverage. khou's employees posted video on social media of the flooded lobby and newsroom. eventually the station's signal was knocked off the air. minutes before losing their signal, correspondent brandy smith and photographer mario sandoval spotted a driver trapped in his tractor trailer underneath a houston highway. smith and sandoval jumped into action. >> here we go. we have a boat coming. we have a boat coming. i'm going to flag -- i'm going to flag these guys

see -- hold on just a sec. are you guys -- are you guys headed down to the truck right here? there is a truck driver stuck here in about ten feet of water. thank you. the air boat for the harris county sheriff's office now approaching the semi that has been stalled here and here he comes. i feel like i can finally breathe. kind of a sigh of relief that he's okay. sir, thank god you're okay. how does it feel to be on land? >> wonderful. wonderful. >> what went through your mind when you saw that water? >> lord help me. lord help me. lord help me. just get me out of here safe. >> i'm so glad these guys were on

direct them to you. did they tell you this is the same spot a year ago where another driver died? >> most definitely. most definitely. i thank god that you guys were right here to get me, put me back on land safe. i appreciate you. >> can i hug you? i'm so happy you're okay. thank you so much. >> the crew caught up with that reporter last night in houston. here is how she described keeping her cool. >> i didn't want to be panicked. i'm a mom. so i kind of know how to handle panic situations where you keep it to yourself and try to get all of you through it. i had promised him that help was on the way and i wasn't going to break that promise. so i just kept a close eye on them, watching their progress, letting him know how they were doing, how close they were, if they were on their way. and we had a great end result.

interview ahead on "cbs this morning." still ahead, getting aid to storm victims. we'll look at the challenges that relief organizations are facing in the flood zone. a week i let her play sheriff so i can wash it. i use tide to get out those week old stains and downy to get it fresh and soft. you are free to go. tide and downy together. they declare love dogs dat first sniff.to get. dogs love more, because they are more. let's treat them that way. milk-bone. doing more for dogs since 1908. is more than one thing. with floral fusion oil it's soft skin and fine fragrance.

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a photo of a resourceful dog in the aftermath of harvey has gone viral. the german shepard mix named otis is carrying around a big bag of dog food through the streets of fenton, texas. otis got loose friday night and the owner snapped the picture saturday morning. otis is back at home, he's safe and he's also well fed. american red cross volunteers from across the country are traveling to southeast texas to help provide food and shelter for storm victims.afranca reports from houston. >> reporter: the floodwaters keep rising because of the nonstop rain. that's creating a problem for relief workers who are trying to set up new shelters. this caravan belongs to the american red cross, loaded with cots and blankets and even a blood supply that is in there. but it is stranded here. they cannot move. they have to wait for the u.s.

make sure the supplies and the volunteers get to the shelter safely. food is also a major need in the shelters. red cross workers have been loading pallets of snacks, water, and ready to eat meals for what is expected to be thousands of evacuees. the red cross has been working with local authorities to find a safe and dry path to the shelters. but it is such a volatile situation here that that changes every time it rains. going a short of a distance as four miles can take several hours, but the main goal is to get there safely. >> to help people affected by harv harvey, you can visit red cross.org or text the word harvey to 90999 to make a $10 donation. still to come, the impact on air travel. we'll see how travelers are coping with airport shutdowns in the aftermath of harvey. but i've been taking osteo bi-flex ease.

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here's a look at today's forecast in some cities around the country. more dramatic images are emerging from the houston area where the coast guard rescued hundreds of people stranded by the rising floodwaters. the work is nearly nonstop. rescuers are urging those still trapped to get to rooftops or higher ground where they can be spotted from the air. and the remnants of hurricane harvey having a major impact on air travel. most of houston's major airports, george bush intercontinental and hobby, are closed this morning. bush intercontinental is expected to reopen this afternoon. but floodwaters cover the runways at hobby. and roads into and out of the airports are shut down due to the flooding.

aimlessly and sleeping. a lot of people sleeping on benches and there is a lot of little kids here. there is 800 to a thousand people including employees out here. >> the main airport in corpus christi is opening today after being shut since friday. nearly 1500 flights nationwide have been canceled today. most into and out of houston. most major airlines are waving change of flight fees. the storm has shut down key oil and gas facilities along the gulf, and that means higher gas and energy prices. harvey hit at the heart of the u.s. energy industry. oil production could be offline for week. flooding knocked out 11% of u.s. refining capacity and a quarter of oil production. early today gasoline futures jumped as much as 7%, their highest level in more than two years. and coming up on "cbs this morning," full coverage of the storm disaster. norah o'donnell is in houston for the latest and she'll spe

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. at least five people are dead, more than a now people have been rescued as tropical storm harvey continues its path of destruction. >> we're going the keep you updated on the storm throughout the morning. first, let's set

those poor people in houston. reporter: harvey is proving to be just as dangerous as we predicted and more so. we do see this big band east of houston, which looks like houston might have a chance to dry out but actually, it's going to move farther to the south and bring more rain to the houston area. in is how much rain they've seen since it started and literally, it's off the chart. we're talking over 2 feet of rain here, well over 20 inches for some areas. the scale, i ran out of colors but the scale will go back to a couple of inches once we're well over that 24-inch mark. how big is this? to put this into perspective. the edge, from east of austin all the way over to the texas/louisiana

the size of iowa. we'll talk about when we'll see rain from a different tropical disturbance coming up. >> definitely not an easy day on the roads. we have three closures, if you're headingnorthbound on 95 u you're going to see -- you're going to see this closure northbound. i do have traffic lane cameras there but they're not showing much. they're routeing traffic around 95. you might want to take route 1. it looks okay. the second closure up on route 1 in maryland. this is around cherry hill road. this is construction they've closed it down. and then edmondson, we have a closure.

. this is what the streets near galveston, texas look like right now. residents and rescue crews forced to use kayaks and boats to get out. good morning. it's also the first day of school for students. we're going to have more on that later. first, let's get back to harvey because it's been a rough last 48 hours for those living in the houston area. at least five people have died, thousands have been rescued as tropical storm harvey has left neighborhoods completely under water with and also a path of destruction. there's been a lot of tornadoes in the area. the rain is expected to continue. some areas could receive as much as 40 inches by the time this is over. don champion is in houston with the latest. reporter: the coast guard spent the last 24 hours pulling people off roofs

harvey left many residents with no place to go but up for safety. thousands are leaving their homes and things besunday, it's just materialistic stuff that you can leave behind. reporter: these are residents at an assisted living facility who waited on help in waist deep water. this man was saved on live tv. this manage realized why officials are telling people not to drive under any circumstances. >> they're completely soaked. i mean, i don't even know what to say. they're not my kids, but i tell you what, i love them like my own and i don't know them from adam. reporter: initial

storm would dump 40-inches of rain now slashed. that number now 50 inches as harvey is set to rain for two more days. cities and towns have been left unrecognizable. this used to be a bridge. this used to be a baseball field. this used to be arlene's backyard. now it's home to two alligators. with countless more in need of help, more national guard troops are being brought in for relief. >> it is crazy when you look at that video. president trump in a tweet says his administration is handling its responsibilities well and he plans to be on the ground in texas tuesday. allison, a lot of people are wondering how much longer harvey will stick around over that area? >>