this is air station houston. what's the biggest challenge for you as a pilot? challenge the weather right now. fly low to the ground. a lot of us are familiar with the area. where the antennae are. power lines. >> how risky is it? >> very risky. >> the captain is the incident commander in charge of running this entire operation. >> they're operating invisibility, less than a mile in some cases. winds gusting over 30 miles an hour. it is very dangerous. >> but the risks and rescues continue. >> how would you describe the situation out there. >> i would say a lot of people in trouble. >> the rescue swimmer and his team helped save a family of three on sunday. but first they had to get them to the only safe place to land this highway. >> we had to cut through a chain link fence to get out to the highway. about 30 minutes we were able to get to the highway and get her loaded on to the hebl. >> for some, this is a crisis thats literally hits home. >> well have a coast guard members impacted by the storm as well. some of them have had, been flooded out of their homes

currently we have four aircraft at ellington at the air station houston an additional flight crews to support flight operations. >> people know about houston and galveston that they have a lot of refineries along the coast, can you speak to flood preparations your offices having with those in are we concerned that this weather and system which will take a couple of days might cause danger with leaks, spells, or any other hazards? >> prior to us in the gulf we work closely with our partners in industry. we monitor the track of the storm. upwards of 72 hours out we will start working to identify if the houston, galveston area is that risk of being impacted. at that time we start working with them to identify which ships are going to be departing and we start with conditions and making notifications they can plan. the facilities take preparations to ensure their cargo line and tanks are prepared for storms. then as the storm approaches we sent conditions which allows them to plan for example on wednesday, excuse me on thursday we restricted deep draft vessel traffic to one-way outbound s

this is air station houston where they are working around the clock to keep the helicopters running. as a pilot? >> i think the biggest challenge would be the weather right now. you know, we have to fly a really low to the ground. a lot of us aren't familiar with the area. we don't know where there's power lines. >> how risky is it? >> it's very risky. >> captain oditt is the incident commander in charge of running this entire operation. >> it's very dangerous. >> reporter: but the risks and the rescues continue. >> how would you describe the situation out there? >> i would say there's a lot of people in trouble. >> rescue swimmer and his team helped save a family of three on sunday. but they had to get them to the only safe place to land, this highway. >> we had to cut through a chain link fence to get out to the highway and in about 30 minutes we were able to get her loaded on to the helicopter. >> this is a crisis that literally hits home. >> we have coast guard members that have been impacted by the storm as well. some of them have been flooded out of their homes. and my home as

also brought in i believe currently we have four additional aircraft at ellington at our air station in houston. as well as additional flight crews to support flight operations. >> people know about this part of the country have a lot of refineries along the coast. can you speak to what prepare operations and communications your office is having with those refineries and are you concerned that this weather and this really strong system will take a couple days at least in this area and my cause any dangers of leaks or spills or any other hazards? >> that's a good question. so prior to a storm arriving or as it was forming in the gulf, we work closely with our port partners and industry and we monitor the track of this storm. so upwards of 72 hours out, we will start working with them to identify if houston/galveston area is at risk of being impacted by a storm. at that time we start working with them to identify which ships are going to be departing port and we start placing conditions on them as well or making notifications so they can plan. and the facilities here, they take preparations to en

air. go ahead. >> yes, sir. nasae reports to counterintelligence, spaced out of -- stationed out of johnson in houston, here texas. and i believe that nasa needs to advise american people that we alone. we have never been alone. and that there is alien technology available to move us into outer space. >> that's kenneth. >> kenneth. kenneth. dickinson, texas. thanks for your call. thanks for all your calls this afternoon. that our coverage monday of the solar eclipse will eastern. way at 7 a.m. washington journal, live from spaceflight center in maryland. all those questions about solar eclipse watching, monday morning yourur time to get questions answered, 7 until 10. we'll simulcast beginning at noon eastern on monday. all of that live, all of it here c-span. next up, from earlier this summer, back in june, vice pence, who heads the recently reconstituted space council welcomed the new class astronauts to the johnson space center in houston. [applause]

air. go ahead. >> yes, sir. nasae reports to counterintelligence, spaced out of -- stationed out of johnson in houston, here texas. and i believe that nasa needs to advise american people that we alone. we have never been alone. and that there is alien technology available to move us into outer space. >> that's kenneth. >> kenneth. kenneth. dickinson, texas. thanks for your call. thanks for all your calls this afternoon. that our coverage monday of the solar eclipse will eastern. way at 7 a.m. washington journal, live from spaceflight center in maryland. all those questions about solar eclipse watching, monday morning yourur time to get questions answered, 7 until 10. we'll simulcast beginning at noon eastern on monday. all of that live, all of it here c-span. next up, from earlier this summer, back in june, vice pence, who heads the recently reconstituted space council welcomed the new class of

>> that's correct, right now i'm still currently in houston operating out of the air station here.een flying rescue missions since the storm hit landfall. >> based on the tallies from yesterday, the coast guard has made more than 4500 water rescues in the entire region. tell us about the situation in beaumont right now? >> i know we definitely do have crews out in beaumont responding air and surface and other assets. right now i'm specipersonally f rescue missions and will continue to provide coverage for areas that need our help. >> can we expect more reinforcements to get people out in beaumont and port arthur. they are having a complete hospital evacuation right now, need a lot of support. >> absolutely. this is the kind of event we train for, pretty much our entire careers. so i can assure you everyone in the coast guard is ready to go and we're getting as many people on scene as we can. >> we yesterday just saw constant movement, at some point it was helicopter and port arthur and beaumont, weren't seeing boats out yet. it seems constant that boats are coming in. sometimes it'

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 houstonighway. 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

guard releasing video showing the mother and infant in college station being air lifted onto a helicopter. meanwhile, on sunday in houstonhbors coming together helping a woman in labor by forming a human chain. originally the woman was ready to have the baby inside of her apartment, but the flooding was so bad they had to come up with another plan. that's when her neighbors came to the rescue successfully getting her to a truck and then to a hospital. thank goodness. now let's bring in shepherd smith live from the fox newsdesk. >> this historic storm makes its way north and east into the state of louisiana, mississippi, forecasters are warning that catastrophic and life threatening flooding will continue in the state of texas. this is beaumont, where they just have had a whale of a time over the last day. tens of thousands of homes already destroyed. this video shows the rescues in beaumont one after another after another. that coastal city east of houston experiencing some of the worst of the storms today. harvey's already dumped more than 50 inches of rain in parts of houston. the most from a single storm in the histor

courtney fisher from our sister station in houston found a family floating on an air mattress near thereservoir. since harvey hit the city 911 has received more than 75,000 calls. >>> the mayor of houston is continuing to defend his decision not to order the evacuation of the city before harvey made landfall. now he told the public today that the storm's unpredictability the fact that houston was not in the storm's projected path and the shear effort and planning that it would take to move 6.5 million people would have made it nearly impossible. >> providing fuel and all those other things and turning the lanes to counter flow and all of that it's just very, very difficult. the best thing was to tell people to stay in place and to make the necessary preparation for food and medicine supplies and things of that -- and things of that nature. >> well, texas senator ted cruz says he won't second guess the decision not to evacuate the city ahead of the storm. he added there will be plenty of time to examine what can be done better in the future once this emergency is over. >> all right, sha

near houston, laura anthony, "abc 7 news" >>> one easy way to help is through abc's day of giving tomorrow. abc stations nationwide will be fundraising on air online all day long with money going to those people that need it most in texas because of harvey. you can also donate to the red cross any time by texting the word harvey to 90999. that will make a $10 donation to the red cross. >> well, here in the bay area we are preparing for some very hot weather. >> incredibly hot actually. meteorologist sandhya patel is here with the forecast. >> yeah, dan and ama, get ready for sweltering heat. we have excessive heat coming up, 105 to 112 for the hottest spots with isolated areas up to 114. heat illnesses are possible, high fire danger. heat advisory and an excessive heat warning in effect tomorrow for the hills and the valley also. so be careful. exercise caution. friday through monday most of the bay area will go under the excessive heat warning, and we have a heat advisory for the san francisco and the coastline for saturday. so you know that the warmth will be felt there as well. low humidity, gusty winds bringing high fire dang er. we hav

near houston, laura anthony, "abc 7 news" >>> one easy way to help is through abc's day of giving tomorrow. abc stations nationwide will be fundraising on airine all day long with money going to those people that need it most in texas because of harvey. you can also donate to the red cross any time by texting the word harvey to 90999. that will make a $10 donation to the red cross. >> well, here in the bay area we are preparing for some very hot weather. >> incredibly hot actually. meteorologist sandhya patel is here with the forecast. >> yeah, dan and ama, get ready for sweltering heat. we have excessive heat coming up, 105 to 112 for the hottest spots with isolated areas up to 114. heat illnesses are possible, high fire danger. heat advisory and an excessive heat warning in effect tomorrow for the hills and the valley also. so be careful. exercise caution. friday through monday most of the bay area will go under the excessive heat warning, and we have a heat advisory for the san francisco and the coastline for saturday. so you know that the warmth will be felt there as well. low humidity, gusty winds bringing high fire dang er. we have a

air. they are asking for more resources. media note here, one of the television stations in houston, cbs affiliate khou, has had to evacuate. you can see this video. floodwaters from the bayou have come over into the station. khou has dealt with floodwaters before but not to this extent. the station had to evacuate. we will show you live pictures from khou as we get them in. essentially what's happened is one reporter in the field has taken over while the rest of the staff actually evacuates and moved to higher ground. we are seeing other evacuations in houston as well. in many parts of the city, many parts of the metro area. keep in mind, many millions of people live in and around houston. we are seeing flooding to the north and to the south. neighborhoods like pasadena, deer park, out to the gulf, farther south to league city, dickinson. reports of people trapped in their homes in all of the parts of south texas. we are seeing that in southwest pars of the houston metro area. neighborhoods that are also inundated. there are reports of people moving to their attic. local officials said, don't do that unless you have an ax.

air and water rescues. >>> the depth of the floodwaters are making it difficult for rescuers to reach people. >> massive dump trucks made several runs in one neighborhood, carrying dozens of people to safety. our houston station, ktrk, was there, as people made it to dry land. days old. he and his wife just had her. so, we're waiting on them to get in. we're trying to get them as fast as they can before anything happens to her. >> oh, my gosh. i was telling you about the little baby. let's not wake her. that might be a tow truck of some sort. that's a front end loader. how long have you been operating this thing? >> all day. around 10:00 a.m. this morning. start to help the people. >> what's it like back there? how many people are still back there? >> there's a lot of people. they're not getting enough help. they're calling for help. not getting enough help. we saw it firsthand. somehow you have to get bigger units out there. army trucks are needed. a lot of people don't want to risk their boats. >> someone said virtually every intersection as you drive back there, there's groups of people waiting. we had people that wanted to climb the truck while it was moving. people are panicking. it's late. it's raining.

houston all week, helping out our sister station. ktrk. one easy way to help is through abc's day of giving. today, abc stations across the country will be fund-raising on air and online all day long with money going to neighbors most impacted by harvey. you can also donate to the red cross any time by texting on your phone the word harvey to 90999. that will make an automatic $10 donation to the red cross that will appear on your cell phone bill. >> we have developing news in the north bay where there's no other way to put it, it's going to be crazy hot. especially if you don't have ac. >> hundreds of kids in elementary schools do not. abc7 news reporter amy hollyfield is live in novato this morning. good morning, amy. >> reporter: hi, natasha. eight schools in novato do not have air conditioning. all of elementary school is one of them. and according to our media countydent journal, some parents have complained and expressed concern about the upcoming heat wave. one parented she's meeting with the prince pal today on ways to cool the classroom. the district says recess will be moved inside during this heat wave. teachers will be keeping the blinds drawn a

houston's largest stations. >> those are the kind of circumstances we're dealing with. catastrophic, dire, life-threatening. >> smith remained on the airherself. her camera was rolling as rescuers pulled the truckdriver out through a window. >> i feel like i can finally breathe. kind of a sigh of relief. >> i don't know if i could have lived with any other outcome, so i am so grateful that the sheriff's deputies came along when they did. >> i thank god that you guys was right here to get me and put me back on land state of. i appreciate you. >> can i hug you. >> for smith it was like nothing she had ever experienced when live shot may have actually helped save a life. >> so really brandi did such an incredible job trying to report the situation here in houston but first and for most concerned about the lives of other houstonians and able to get him the help that he needed. >> nora, what an amazing story. >> i don't think that was weird at all. they were on the air with facebook live. that's why she was able to say. that's not weird at all. it's human to human connection. >> heart pounding. >> go brandi smith. >> i have a feel they'll s

station has flood gates around the building. >> and here is a look from the air. at just how extensive the flooding is in houston.rom late saturday night through sunday morning, the city received more than 56,000, 911 calls. that's seven times what they usually get in a regular day. senator john cornyn are expected to tour the region to survey storm damage later monday. >> that's right. earlier, the governor spoke with anna cabrera about the rescue efforts there. listen. >> you must be proud of the citizens of your state right now. >> texans are the best. i'm so proud of my fellow texans and the way they are responding. so thankful for our first responders and the terrific work they've been doing. we've been working to aid them by deploying about 3,000 national guard members as well as providing about 200 or so boats and helicopters for emergency rescues. it is the first responders who are making life and death decisions. helping so many people live and rescue these people. i'm so very proud of them and what they are doing. >> rosemary, you pointed this out. more than 1,000 people so far have been rescues from fl

stations in your area can even open? >> i guess if you pull a handful of ten in the air, identify two. it's just kind of shoe lacing, for example, interstate ten between beaumont and houston is frankly closed, although you can divert and got enough guts to take some two laners north or south, you might get there so the interstate chain of stores and truck stops is very ham strung right now >> and so, once again, you don't really have a good sense of when any of these refiners are going to come back online? at this point we're sort of assessing all the damage at various plants, you're just waiting to hear until some of that supply reaches the terminal >> exactly i can tell you and i've spoken to every one of our refiner reps this morning from about 5:00 a.m. to now, and every refiner is poised and ready to reactivate, certainly from corpus christi coming forward. there's three big refiners, refineries in that town. you've got three big refineries in port arthur, texas, the pasadena port region is mainly products terminals that supply houston north and south. and it's just a fact of this weather finally getting on board land and getting out of the gulf and the water rising