ch 41 in baytown.ith more than 6,000 rescues and counting, shelters are overflowing. >> i tried to get everyone in the hotel, but they're full. >> reporter: there are at least 9,000 people here, but only 5,000 cots. officials are working to get flood victims everything they need. >> we have a fully operational pharmaceutical facility. we have doctors on site. people are getting their needs met. we have an emergency room. >> reporter: harvey is still a tropical storm as it spins off the gulf coast. authorities say it could make a second landfall, bringing more misery to a region already suffering. while the convention center is filled beyond capacity, they are still letting people inside. many of them sleeping on the floor with a few things they were able to reporting live in houston, i'm kenneth craig. back to you. >> it's important on the reason you may be hearing conflicting reports on the deaths from harvey. that's because some have not been confirmed from storm related. we've seen reports of 9 dead

every shot, we were somewhere else we drove north to baytown, where the exxon refinery is. there is one road that you can take to get from here to there and there are six or seven refineries along that road that's why we went we were literally visually inspecting them. tle a they are so bad. i don't know how anybody is going to get to work in the near term that may clear out in a few days or weeks gas stations under water that's not the worst of it the worst of it, we can't get to there have been some reports that the exxon baytown facility may have a little bit of flooding, unconfirmed. i think it is the journal or reuters that is reporting that if they have actual flooding, water damage rather than labor damage, it could longer to finally restart those refineries once you get water in these refineries they are miles long. they are incredibly large. there is a huge amount of safety checks that need to be done. i'm guessing that these refineries are not going to be opened up for a while, if anything, just because people that run them can't get to work and are taking care of

back to you. >> gadi schwartz in baytown. we just saw the president of the united states, donald trump, enter the room there in corpus christi, texas. he is set to get a briefing from fema officials flanked by texas goc nor greg abbott as well. let's listen in if we can. >> welcome to president of the united states to great state of texas. i want to express my gratitude for our fellow texans and especially the people of corpus christi for giving the president such a warm welcome on his ride over here. showing the gratitude that we all have for the president. i want to express my deep gratitude to the president for him and his entire cabinet and staff for what they have done in the past couple weeks. a lot of people see what happens in front of the camera. i want to reveal in just one minute what's been going on behind the scenes, behind the counter for the past two weeks. about ten days in ood vanadvance hurricane even coming into the corpus christi area. members of the president's cabinet and the president himself were in co

>> reporter: a quick update from baytown.s one of the last boats getting ready to pull out of the water. basically move the entire flotilla down the road 10 minutes away. there is an area where they put out an all call for people to come help save people who are stranded in their homes. the area behind us is pretty clear. earlier it was a critical situation. there was one area that had been evacuated. it was an area that everyone moved to higher ground in the elementary school. they were sheltering in place but that place was taken over by water. so they brought everybody here to dry land and now there is another place in need of assistance so we'll make our way over there. >> gadi schwartz in baytown. i do want to remind you all. i don't want to lose sight of the fact that there have been so many rescuers working to help families and pets and kids get out there. coast guard. urban search and rescue teams. houston fire, ems workers and the houston police and the houston police have lost an officer. sergeant steve pÉrez, age 6

one, exxonmobil's baytown refinery. one-third of the refineries on the texas coast. the closures take 2.2 million barrels of oil a day off line. that disruption means higher gas prices. futures hitting a two-year high, up 7%. gas prices could rise 5 to 15 cents over the next week especially in the south, southeast, mid-atlantic u.s. higher gas prices just one of the potential costs of harvey. the storm also threatened the economy in texas. the state's unemployment rate just started to fall after spiking last year. remember there was a crash in oil prices that hurt the texas economy and unemployment rate there. extended oil closures could hurt the state's progress. so could rebuilding. property damage forecasted at $40 billion. $20 billion worth in houston alone. these are early days. these forecasts may well rise and be revised. it's one of the most densely populated areas in the u.s. it is literally under water. >> all right. >>> the storm poses a major test, as you know, for president trump. set to fly to texas tomorrow. what does everyone make to the response to t

so far, more than 4 feet of rain in friendswood, 43 inches in south houston, and 41 in baytown. with more than 6000 rescues and counting, shelters are overflowing. >> i tried to get into the hilton hotel but they are already full. >> reporter: the largest hotel is at the convention center. there are at least 9000 people here, but only 5000 cotts. officials are working to give flood victims everything they need. >> we have pharmaceutical facilities, doctor zahn sites. people are getting their needs met. we have an emergency room and that can handle emergency needs. >> reporter: even though the shelter is far beyond capacity, they are not stopping evacuees from coming inside. many of them are sleeping on floors. really they just have the clothes on their back. >> kenneth, you have been spending a lot of time with evacuees. what have they been saying? >> reporter: i talked to a man a little while ago who asked me for a ride out of town. he lives in maryland. he is a truck driver. he parked it overnight saturday into sunday and said he woke up with floodwaters coming into his cab. h

she was on her way to baytown. that's how we ended up stuck out here. he thought that we were all going the same place but we weren't. it was a miscommunication and we ended up stuck out here. me and isis and nao are trying to get back closer to the family. >> who else was trapped? >> sir? >> is there somebody else there who was trapped? >> yeah. >> who is that? >> my name is danese. >> my name is linda record. the way we got rescued was a volunteer just around the neighborhood seen us screaming at hollering because the rescue truck drove past us. water was up to my kneecaps and it was pitch black, no electricity. but the time i could run out to the street and flag my arms and scream and yell, they were past me and the engine was so loud that they couldn't hear us. >> so. >> i got stuck in my house for two days till a volunteer came and got us. >> can i ask you something? >> yes. >> so i want to ask you -- how many people were around you that were still stuck when you guys were rescued? were there a lot of people? >> it was people on the front street. i

this massive complex in baytown is under water. chevron shut down the facility sunday night. and exxon mobile and royal dutch shell halted operations at their facilities near houston. >> and we heard lanna talking about this. now western louisiana is bracing for harvey's third landfall. >> it is pack winds of 50 miles per hour. the strongest activity is right along the texas/louisiana border. >> new orleans has already had some street flooding. >> let's check in with accuweather's justin povick for the latest forecast. good morning, justin, how's it looking? >> we'll check with justin a little later. you can see the images coming out of there. already devastating and they haven't been hit fully by this storm. >> there's also a massive effort under way in texas to rescue animals. miles from galveston bay wrote on facebook that the water was rising but wouldn't leave without the animals. thankfully sheriff's deputies were able to rescue them all with an air boat. >> a modern-day cowboy freed a horse from a corral, as floodwaters rose. look at this scene, a man and his friend re

28 inches in north houston, nearly 30 for many parts you can see the highest amount on that map, baytown, 34 inches, which as of right now is, again, dealing with the heavy rainfall. we're talking anywhere from 10 to 20 more inches of rain. and by the time this system is over, which by the way, isn't for a couple more days, we will have reached record-breaking historic levels of rainfall, talking 50 inches of rain here as we go through the next couple of days. so still flood watches, flood warnings, of course, and those tornado watches in effect for the next couple of days and a system that we're going to have to continue to watch through midweek. sara, back over to you. >> all right, no letup angie, thank you joining us now, former fema deputy administrator from the obama administration, rick serra serracertai cerino thank you for joining us given the fact this is pouring rain and angie outlined, flood and tornado warnings galore. >> good morning. it's very difficult to continue doing the rescues while it's still raining, while the search-and-rescue is still going on and one thing i've

video shows the chevron phillips complex in baytown flooded. one of the largest chemical campuses and was undergoing a renovation when it was shut down over the weekend. exxonmobil and royal dutch shell have also halted operations at thei g >>> and harvey's also dumping torrential rain on southwestern louisiana. schools and government offices will be closed from baton rouge to the texas state line. although they will be open in new orleans today. engineers in new orleans have been working feverishly to get all of the city's pumping stations online and that promised a prankster to put this banner on one of those stations. the banner says, i think i can. i think i can. a little pumping station that could. let's check in on that forecast and what else we can expect. here's accuweather's justin povick. justin. >> diane and kendis, thanks. good morning to you. again, tracking harvey as the system making landfall as we go throughout the morning hours, but what has been and what will continue to be the biggest impact will be the precipitation. the hea

new video showing the chevron phillips complex underwater in baytown. take a look at that.t down on sunday as flooding overwhelmed the houston area. and stunning estimates about the number of vehicles destroyed by harvey. so many vehicles left underwater in front of homes, on streets and highways, it's believed between 300,500,000 cars and trucks have been lost to the flooding. >>> when we come back, the couple who lost everything. tonight, their reason to smile. i didn't know where i was from ethnically. so we sent that sample off to ancestry. my ancestry dna results are that i am 26% nigerian. i am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture. i put the gele on my head and i looked into the mirror and i was trying not to cry. because it's a hat, but it's like the most important hat i've ever owned. discover the story only your dna can tell. order your kit now at ancestrydna.com. patrick woke up with a sore back. but he's got work to do. so he took aleve this morning. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to

this chevron plant in baytown, texas, inundated. 15 gulf coast refineries, including motiva, the largeste country now shuttered. tom, they are changing these prices at this pump as we speak. hiking them and this price spike is expected to last another two to three weeks, tom. >> so many with road trips planned ahead. all right, rebaek ka. thank you. >>> when we come back, the breaking story at this hour. the gunfight erupting at a hotel. three police officers shot and wounded. the details coming in. stay with us. they sure did! guy-who-used-to-ask-if-you-could -hear-him-now-with-verizon? ...or just paul. we've been up here for ages. you should switch to sprint like i did. you're not paying a ton for unlimited or overages. thanks, paul. works for me! daddy, can we switch to sprint? i don't feel too good. don't get hooked by verizon and let a 1% difference in network reliability cost you twice as much. switch to sprint unlimited $22.50 per month per line for four lines. for people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay.com i kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. i though

including the exxon mobile refinery in baytown, texas, america's second largest, typically producingls daily. gas prices are 4 cents nationally already. >> labor day will be more expensive. >> anticipated prices would go up 5 cents around the country. 10 cents or hire. >> triple a expects those places to include hard hit gulf states. >> a lot yet to be noechblt in terms of damage. if refiners are down for an extended period of time we could see higher gas prices upward of 20 cents. 30 cents. >> when katrina devastated new orleans, gas prices spiked nationally by 46 cents. any increase in energy costs from harvey could extend beyond >> people will see higher prices, trickle through. not just higher gas prices but also perhaps higher price for fruits, vegetables, costs more to get them to market. and, a higher price for the airline ticket to visit your mother at christmas time. >> gas price spikes after a hurricane are not uncommon. they're typically short-lived. assuming the refineries are able to get back on line quickly. the longer they say offline, the larger the price increase, lo

they should be back on line in a few weeks and houston-area refineries, with the exception of exxon baytownooding, expect them to restart in the next two weeks to three +++ i am concerned about the beaumont-port arthur area where a press release was issued, saying it will take them two weeks to assess the damage. vonnie: arkema chemical plant explosion, should we expect more of those types of events in the next few days? >> it is difficult to say whether that was a one-off situation but one would have to be concerned about a similar type event and beaumont-port arthur where there is so much water. and the loss of the external utilities could cause a similar type event. mark: can we talk prices? gasoline surging above two dollars a barrel in new york and today you have the brent, wti spread at almost five dollars. give me some prices in the next week for gasoline for that spread for the oil price. ,> starting on gasoline prices we have seen the wholesale gasoline price in the pipeline market, it is up $.50 per gallon compared to 10 days ago. as far as the retail consumer goes, they have only

did.in the town of katy, one man used an inflatable swan to save himself and his pets.east of houston, baytownlood victims were ferried to safety through waist=high water.what do you think about these firefighters getting out here to get to people?i think it's lovely. it's so nice. and such a surprise. we had no idea (chokes up) that we would have that kind of help and support. gratitude also at the houston evavuation center, where one refugee says she feels like she's in the best place in the country. there's all races, all ethnic groups and you know everyone's just helping each other." (steve) hurrican harvey is probably the most expensive event in u-s history... that's according to a statement president trump made at while visiting an emergency operations center in austin today. so far... the most catastrophic hurricane was katrina in 2005-- causing 160- billion dollars in damage. that's more than double 20- 12's hurricane sandy, which cost just over 70-billion dollars. hurricane andrew is third -- it caused nearly 48-billion dollars in damages when it make landfall in south florida in 19-9

including the exxon mobile refinery in baytown, texas. it's america's second largest, typically producing 560,000 barrels daily. gas prices are up four cents nationally already. labor day will be more expensive for drivers now. >> we already anticipated that prices will go up about five cents around the country, now maybe even ten cents or higher. >> reporter: tamara johnson expects those places to include hard hit gulf states. >> a lot is yet to be known in terms of refinery damage. if refiners are down for an extended period of time we could see the higher gas prices upwards of 20 to 30 percent. >> reporter: when katrina definitely stated new orleans gas prices spike nationally. any increase of energy costs from harvey could extend beyond pain at the pump. >> people will see higher prices trickle through. not just higher gas prices but also perhaps higher prices for fruits and vegetables as it costs more to get them to market. and a higher price for the airline ticket to go visit your mother at christmas time. >> reporter: gas price spi

this is in baytown, texas just east of houston.le all across the bay area are helping the people in texas with donations to the red cross.( mark ) kron 4's will tran is live at lucky's store in oakland where they are collecting red cross donations to help those in need in texas. will. ( will ) lucky's begins taking donations for red cross relief efforts in texas. the store opens at 6:00. american red cross regional chief executive officer trevor riggen says his bay area team is in constant contact with those on the ground. diapers, food, clothes, toothpaste, formula, warm blankets - again, riggen says all items they those impacted need and they are in the process of getting those items to houston residents. tony garcia/oakland resident-- you have to help. it's so sad what's happening in houston. it's not much for us to donate but it could really help them out. i understand we live in a very expensive place in the world but it easily could be us that needs help. so please donate. and honey if you're watching, i took your credit card

this follows on the heels of the baytown refinery. baytown was second largest in the u.s. beaumont i believe is close to the largest. it has refining capacity now hinders what is coming out of that region, the gulf region, now north of three million barrels a day, or more than 16% of u.s. oil capacity is shuttered for this neck of the woods. maybe for quite some time to come. we'll have more after this. it's time to rethink what's possible. rethink the experience. rethink your allergy pills. flonase sensimist allergy relief uses unique mistpro technology and helps block 6 key inflammatory substances with a gentle mist. most allergy pills only block one. and 6 is greater than one. rethink your allergy relief. flonase sensimist. ♪ won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. switch and you could save $782 on home and auto in

floods and rain forcing it to close its baytown refinery. that is the second largest refinery in the country. united airlines is encouraging its customers to give, rewarding members up to three million bonus miles in exchange for donations. united is also matching the first $100,000 raised. >>> "early start" continues right now with the latest projections for hurricane-now tropical storm harvey. >>> this likely is going to be an historic rainfall, if not an all-time record. >> 50 inches of rain. some parts of texas already under water. face a devastating few days of rainfa rainfall. months if not years of cleanup ahead for the folks in southeast texas, in particular houston. we have lorchive coverage of th damage, rescues, and what lies in store. welcome back to a special "early start," i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. the fourth largest city in the united states is mostly under water, and more rain is coming. the national weather service calls the flooding unprecedented and "beyond anything experienced before." the catastrophic flo

places like baytown, port arthur, those are areas we haven't really focused on and they are seen as pickeringow. houston is any trying out pattern which is a great news. i've got friends and family that live in houston as well and thank you to our first responders. in terms of historic properties here, we here at the highest you can be. 51, almost 52 inches. that was placed as the latest tropical system in history. if we get to 52 inches plus, don't make it the wettest tropical system ever recorded. that goes to a hurricane in hawaii in 1950 that dumped over 52 inches. we will probably get there with us. houston can be you are almost out of this. we are seeing a third of landfall at the texas, louisiana border and potential for more heavy rainfall in the next 12 to 18 hours and finally is beginning to thursday, friday, the storm will move north in the story. texas, louisiana towards arkansas, mississippi river valley could see over a foot of rain fall until the storm is out. train to a third landfall, janice? >> yeah, a barrier island and then went and blend into texas and now we are doing th

. >> jamie's boyfriend, chuck crews, then 24, says right after the murder he took off to baytown, texass hometown. >> about the only thing that i remember her father asking me is, when are you coming down? so i got some stuff together and drove down as soon as i could. and i spent most of the next week with them, mourning with the family and then acting as a pallbearer for her funeral. . back in college station, detective kenny elliott was working the case. >> anytime you have a killer out on the run, it's frustrating. you want to catch the person responsible. >> one possible suspect, that male friend jamie visited the night of her murder. he'd refused to give police a dna sample for testing. that's kind of odd if he had nothing to hide. >> a lot of people will not give up dna. too much tv. >> but the detective had snagged a sample from a beer mug, and when the dna finally came back, he was not a match. you felt confident that you could rule him out based on -- >> yes. >> -- the dna not matching? >> yes. >> but even before the dna test cleared jamie's friend, the detective was already l

earlier this week, a company called, american grain, announced it purchased baytown for $5 million in san bernardino county near the nevada border. the cannabis company says it intends to turn this town into a modern energy independent paradise. the unofficial mayor says if big money comes in, so will big change. >> if it is sold, i hope they keep me here. hopefully i make a good enough impression and -- i could make a good poster child. >> can't argue with that. a representative for the current owner says the sale is not a done deal quite yet. a representative says other buyers have come and gone over the years but nothing there has ever really changed. >>> coming up, a creamery powered by gas. when you're clocking out. i'm the one clocking in & sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. there. i can even warm these to help you fall asleep faster. does your bed do that? oh. i don't actually talk. though i'm smart enough to. i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store. did you know slow internet can act

a very dangerous night for houston proper, pasadena, baytown, cady. i don't care where you are. the entire metro area of houston is under a big threat tonight. >> hunker down, stay safe. chad myer, you are the guy we want to listen to. we'll come back to you in just a little bit. >>> coming up here, as harvey pummels the state of texas and devastation is just beginning as chad pointed out for a number of families. we'll talk to one woman who says she has lost everything. meantime, president trump says he wants to travel to texas as soon as possible, but his response to harvey is being overshadowed by several major moves within the administration. we have those details for you ahead. and north korea launching three short-range ballistic missiles. will it reignite tensions that flared up earlier this month between president trump and kim jong-un? cnn has the only western journalist in north korea. we'll have a live report for you coming up. you're watching cnn's special coverage on a saturday inight. and carbon fiber. raw elements made exhilarating... by lexus. experience uncompro

amy: workers at exxonmobil's oil refinery in baytown said the facility "partially sank" after it floodednd that exxon was authorized by state environmental officials to release excess emissions while it shut down. in beaumont, flooding at another exxon refinery damaged equipment that captures sulfur dioxide, causing it to release amounts that far exceed the company's permits. this comes as state officialals shut off air quality monitors to protect t them from storm-relatd damage, , and are rerelying on facilities to self-report any toxic fumes they release. in april, a federal judge ordered exxon to pay nearly $20 million in penalties for releasing about 10 million popounds of toxixic substances e benzene. meananwhile, auththorities ha evacuauated memes near a c cheml plant in crosby, texas, over rising fears the plant could explode. the plant was flooded by the storm and lost power. for more we go to houston where we're joined by bryan parras, organizer with the sierra club's beyond dirty fuels campaign and tejas, texas environmental justice advocacy services. bryan, we spoke to you mon

a little bit north and east of that is the number two refinery in the united states and that's in baytown and they're having big problems there they even had to report to the texas environmental quality folks they've had a spill that's not sure what it is but it really reeks and this is a plant that's known for having some problems in the past now a new few years ago they had a twenty million dollar fine so exxon mobil during this circumstance not looking too good others are up just a little bit marathon valero philip sixty six but again it depends where you are and what you know the impact of this hurricane on your refining capabilities as you say depending on where you are with some of the these are for. shutdown eleven gasoline price should people be going out to fill up their cars and trucks right now i would i did i mean this is a normal thing at this time of year right labor day weekend people will go and fill up but even now more than ever like i said the average cost nationwide is two dollars and thirty seven cents that's up four cents in a week but it's one of the larger price su

baytown, quebec numbers there. we think and of everyone and now louisiana as the storm continues to move. future radar doesn't move much, doesn't budge for the next 18, 24 hours. still bringing the potential for showers and thunderstorms in louisiana. new orleans, we've had a couple of tornado storms. there is wednesday and as we get into thursday, friday, finally will start to see this thing move, but the damage is done, catastrophic. it is a still life learning, obviously. we have flash flood warnings in effect. major flooding on all of the river gauges. storm totals they have never, ever seen before. it's going moment by moment. any inch of rain is not welcome in this region. tropical storm harvey, still a tropical storm, expecting it to be so over the next 6-12 hours. eventually thursday, it is going to start to move. it will get picked up in a cold front, something we hoped for over the last will of days and finally we will see that on thursday, friday, saturday across the ohio river valley. the problem is we

exxonmobils, baytown refinery, second largest in the country shut down. texas gulf has a third of the oil refineries. this disruption means higher gas prices. u.s. gas future spiking 7% overnight to two-year high. experts say gas prices will raise 5 to 15 cents over the next week. especially in the south. southeast and mid-atlantic u.s. higher gas prices just one of the potential economic costs from harvey. the storm threatening texas's recoverying economy. just falling after spiking last year when oil prices fell and extended oil closures could hurt texas progress. as could the cost to rebuild which estimates put at $40 billion. that includes 200,000 homes hit by the storm. more than $20 billion of real estate in houston alone. one of the most densely populated areas in the u.s. look at the pictures of all that water. we have seen this again and again with all this flooding. when eventually that water recedes, in some cases, there will be no road left. >> we won't know the true devastation of the storm for several days. the latest on hurricane harvey. >>

this is the baytown location. the company closed the headquarters until next tuesday.lso the largest oil refinery in the country is also shut down. the port arthur refinery won't open until floodwaters recede. we want to check in with doug. talking about the waters receding. so many people waiting for that. but a lot of the rivers are waiting for them to crest. doug: it will take a long time for water level to go down. this part of the country is flat and kind of swampy to begin with. it has to get to the gulf of mexico eventually but it's a long process. but the mud and the water drains out, a long way to go. long way to go. here, we have nothing to complain about. michelle: gorgeous out there. no humidity. doug: none. it's perfect. we may get the rain from harvey remnants by saturday. we'll see what happens. get you a proper escort to the studio. you go that way. turn left, then right. you're there. no problem. nats are playing another game. strasburg on the mound. second inning. the weather is just about ideal for baby or anything else. we see numbers drop through t

it is near baytown, near one of the largest refineries in the country owned by exxon. there is also chevron down the road. this bayou, the san jacinto ofou, is just another vein water that pushes out into galveston bay. there was this old legacy pollutants from a paper mill that has sort of just left their toxins in the ground. eventually, it was flooded. and there it remains. the epa and other agencies are in the process of cleaning that up. but as they go through their long, lengthy process of doing that, you know, we have had several rain events. and each time we have a rain event, this contamination is being spread into communities, homes, neighborhoods, and further exposing more and more people. and we know that we have elevated levels of cancers all along these areas. there have been many reports to show increased rate of childhood leukemia if you live within the houston ship channel, for example. the information is out there. we know these chemicals are causing cancers and other life debilitating ailments to the people who live adjacent to them. you have lived t

dayton 39.72-inches of rain. 34-inches of rain there in walter, south houston 30.32-inches and in baytown 27.32, houston at intercontinental airport you picked up more than 2 feet of rain and there's more moisture to come. in fact as you look at the accumulated rainfall we've seen since friday, now this storm system made landfall just to the north of corpus christi in an area close to rockport but if you look at the rain, we've seen about 15 to 20-inches just to the north of houston and the purple shaded areas there, about eight to 15-inches of rain in the white shaded locations. here's the very latest with tropical storm harvey its about 45 miles east of port o'connor so this storm system once again sitting and spinning and meandering across the coast. it's not until thursday afternoon that we'll start to find some progress to the north and east with this storm starting to pull away. so, what we can expect with the impact of this storm, 10 to 20 additional inches of rain, some spots could pick up an isolated total of 50-inches, major river flooding is going on right now. this will be the

second largest refinery in baytown in particular, that is shut down. the storm passes over the weekend to get the refineries back up and running. >> really depend how much flooding they suffered from and how much they were able to make changes in layouts of refineries since we learned from hurricane rita what flooding does in a refinery. go back a few years. all of the electronics and electricals were basically ground-based. many refineries have lifted them up to about 12 or 15 feet off the ground in the period between rita back, in 2006. and in the present time. so, it won't take them much longer than a week to 10 days to get back up and running, if they have not suffered too much flooding. cheryl: obviously companies want to make sure their personnel are safe and they can go into refineries to get things going. talk about overall supply issues that can affect the east coast in particular. gas prices, petrochemicals, all will be side-effect of this. how long do you think we'll sustain these higher prices throughout the nation in the wake of hurricane

. >> reporter: in baytown east of houston, hunter lumberg thanked his neighbors for rescuing his mother in a dump truck. more than half have gone to shelters in the houston area and more are coming. in brazoria county, a levee was breached which could worsen the flooding there. and addicks reservoir in houston began flooding today. it will continue to flood many homes and keep rising. >> streets will continue to flood, new homes will continue to flood. >> reporter: flooding along the gulf coast now stretches from galveston, texas to lake charles, louisiana and beyond. and, of course, rescue efforts are complicated by the fact that authorities don't seem to have an accurate count of how many people are still stranded. cnn has pressed officials in several jurisdictions about that. they have not been able to give us estimates, brianna, because, of course, calls keep coming in. the situation keeps changing and the rescue efforts keep evolving. it is a very rapid-moving situation. hard to get those estimates of those still stranded, brianna. >> brian todd in houston. thank you for that repor

let's go to gadi schwartz who's in baytown texas. we've been watching rescues all day. >> there's a lot of stuff going on. you are trying to get out of the way, there's boats coming out of the water. this neighborhood behind me where the bayou came up has been cleared from what they can tell. you're seeing these boats, in fact a lot of these kboets are moving to different places. i'm going to wait for this boat to swivel around. >> i think we're having a little trouble with his mike there. he went probably too far from the camera, it seems to have cut. he's interviewing a gentleman who has his own boat. looks like he's search and rescue. underscoring how everybody is trying to do what they can out there to save as many people as possible. in the meantime, let's go to msnbc's garek hak who is in corpus christi texas. when are the president and first lady expected to tour the damage? >> well, touring the damage isn't really a part of this trip. they're headed back here to the airport right now. i just heard them fire up the engines of

that includes exxon's baytown facility. that is the second largest refinery in the united states.he ten plants collectively. they have the capacity to refine about 2 million barrels of oil a day. how is all of this impacting the price that you pay at the gas pump? let's go to the floor of the cme. we've got todd and phil standing by. give you each 20 seconds here. phil, what do you make of the oil market today? >> you know, i think really they were focused on the refineries being out and demand destruction and oil prices are down. but we are getting good news. there's two refineries in galveston that are going to attempt to restart. and we've actually seen production come back in the gulf of mexico. so the u.s. energy industry is amazing. we look at this devastation, and they're already planning a come back. >> and todd, futures spiking today. >> yeah. we did get that spike earlier this morning. we saw a little bit of a retracement. but i think ultimately it's about getting those refineries back online, a lot of the data we're getting is still very skewed and unclear. however, if

sentimental possessions that they really hope survived the amount of water that has flooded into baytown. this is right on cedar bayou. and as you can see, that water just rushed in all around these homes, really causing folks here a lot of panic. one of those people is jane. you've been dealing with this. you said the waters in your house got six feet high. >> yeah, six feet high. and it's down to about waist-high now. so it's gone down a little bit. but it came up so fast, we didn't know until we got up in the middle of the night at 3:00, the night before, and we stepped into water. we have never had flooding in 20 years here. never once has it even gotten close to the house. >> reporter: and you were describing, your appliances were flipped upside down. >> appliances are floating. everything downstairs -- everything downstairs is under water. every drawer. because we didn't have time to get anything out, other than run the pictures and home videos upstairs. thank you, god that it didn't get upstairs. we thought it would. we thought it would go upstairs too. >> reporter: you've been wa

the track along the baytown, beaumont louisiana border with the biggest threat to the refining complex in that area. i don't think it's been downgraded to a tropical storm and this will likely disperse. we will see that infrastructure pipeline that already has been showing. >> it's not just the colonial which is the biggest pipeline in terms of gasoline with fuel up and down the east coast. we also saw the export pipeline shut its mainline from houston to tulsa, one of the pipelines owned by kinder morgan that starts in louisiana. that one has remained fully operational from louisiana into the washington d.c. area. if there's flooding in that part of louisiana, that can impact the pipeline as well. >> is the human element. a lot of the core members themselves have been impacted. also another story where there's a huge epicenter of refining capacity in the u.s. gulf coast, but their advantage refiners. holy frontier, for instance to benefit in 2011 through 2013. they'll be increasing and deliver and gasoline. dagen: i don't believe pauly has any facilities along the gulf coast at all. i