they release into the buffalo bayou. the beautiful bayou runs through the center of town. it is already flooded. let me give you perspective on why the release of this water is so significant. we spoke with the safety manager of this staff on saturday morning. he told me specifically they were not going to open the gates of this dam throughout the storm because they wanted to give flooding a chance to recede downstream because of the rain. they obviously needed to alter that plan. the water came up so quickly, there was so much of it, they are in the process now of these measured releases. that water is going to just add to all of this rain, and it is still pouring here. ali. >> stephanie gosk at the barker reservoirs southwest of the addicks reservoir. both roughly 20 miles west of houston, directly north of sugarland if you know the area. the danger here is as you can see where stephanie is, this is overflowing its banks, or it's going to, and it's going to flood a nearby area, so a control release seems to be a better idea. they are going to get up to 8,000 cubic feet p

he is trying to find another way across the bayou.e you might be able to cross here, but it gets dark. it gets deep. thankfully he did not try to make it across. just now when i was speaking with him again, he is telling me how he is trying to get to the other side of the. >> later in the show. julia back for us live. thank you. >> a lot of questions on how this was going to play out from a weather perspective over the next couple of days. let's bring in meter ols bill karins. >> around halfway or past halfway through the event, and then we still have some left. the worst of it, i believe, has happened. we're still going to have some additional damage. we still have warnings this is how much has fallen since the beginning of the storm. downtown houston to the airport, again, a little less, but to the north of town, 28, 27. south houston, almost 31 inches. bay town, 34 inches of rain. that's the highest total i've seen yet. it's widespread. it's not just in one little area here. like allison was really bad just in the northeast side of

every bayou went over its banks. you cannot put in the city of houston 2.3 million people on the road. that is dangerous. for houston, harris county. harris county got a lot of rain. a lot of flooding. combine houston and harris county you literally cannot put 6.5 million people on the road. if you think the situation right now is bad, you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare. especially when it's not planned. and many of us in this city remember when the evacuation order was ordered before and learned our lesson from that. has to be very well coordinated all the way from houston to the destination point. you have to make sure that you have proper gas stations, make sure you have the proper lanes that are flowing in the right direction. it has to be coordinated. if you do it or attempt to do it and it's not coordinated, not done right, you are literally putting people in harm's way, and you are creating a far worse situation. in this particular case, the hurricane, we were not in the direct line. i

and now we are living downtown right between both the wide oak bayou and the buffalo bayou. so i was fully aware we were at risks of rising waters. but this was beyond anything we could imagine. each day we'd get up and see that both of the bayous were rising and i could hardly keep up with the days, but certainly by saturday morning we could see it was getting serious. my wife didn't comprehend how quickly the waters were going to rise or to what degree. by sunday it was very evident that this thing was getting out of control. >> deion tell us about the work you've been doing, helping people who have been in similar situations. >> we're a little bit south of pike which is on the houston area known as the heights, and it's named so because it didn't flood or most of it didn't. but, we went out every day to just check on things and monitor what was going on with the rising waters and we carried around hopes and life jackets and extra supplies in case we did run into anybody that needed help. and throughout all of it, i took photographs and little video clips and you can see t

buffalo bayou goes right through houston. the blue line there, that's the top of the spillway the purple line, even though they started releasing the water just not doing the job. we'll have water flooded new areas on the northwest reservoir and the other story today and developing, the river, the forecast is still 59 feet, that's about five feet higher than the previous record. that goes right through friday. that's painful for those people in the shelters waiting to see if their houses g hot, high temperature about 115 in palm springs. we'll talk more about how much more rain is to come with this foreca forecast. >>> >> bill, thank you. >>> we do have other stories to tell you about. north korea has fired an unidentified ballistic missile through japanese airspace. just before 6:00 a.m. local time this morning. japanese prime minister shinzo abe described it as a significant threat. >>> spanish researchers found drinking four cups of coffee a day can low er your risk of death. >>> and apple is expected to unveil three devic

the back of our neighborhood is right on the bayou.were panicked, there was water in their house, they didn't know what to do. they decided to go to a neighbor's house and assess the situation, as did a lot of people. they thought the waters would recede. they said, well, let's just wait for the waters to go down. and it just kept getting worse all day. as time went on, the water just kept rising, and more and more of these bands of rain would come through, and there was a sense of panic in our neighborhood. by the time people started waking up and realizing what was going on in the back of the neighborhood along this bayou, it was need to see the neighborhood come together and people started bringing rafts and kayaks and blow-up air ma mattresses to help get people out. one story that comes to mind, there was a 93-year-old woman, we went and knocked on her door and begged and pleaded for her to come out. she said no, i'm staying here. she locked us out. wouldn't let us in her house. it took two hours of neighbors pleading for her to c

you live between i ten and west herman, that is buffalo bayou. those will be the neighborhood's challenge in the next couple of days. thank you, mayor. >> let me just say to you that this is a dynamic situation, and things could change, they could change by the hour, they could change literally by the day, this very dynamic, but as we get information, but i will tell you is that we will provide that information to you. i've asked them to quantify it. they do their modeling, and if at 12:00 there is a need to increase more, i want them to tell me that they are going to increase more. if they increase more, i want them to tell me if they are going to raise the level and buffalo bayou and get something whether or not there will be more flooding, homes in the area. so this is what we know at this time, but this is a very dynamic situation. things literally change day by day. then i want to talk about the northeast water plant. because as of 6:00 p.m. on yesterday you have triple tories that are flowing into lake houston. and as you know, the water co

houston is a bayou city.ayous are designed to flush the water out of the gulf, out of the city and into the gulf of mexico. right now, they are burdened by all of this water. they are being tested by all of this water that surrounds the entire downtown area. i want to take you on a 360 look here. you can see that everywhere you look, and i walked multiple blocks in this direction, and every single street looks like what you're looking at right now. it really feels like we're on an island that keeps on creeping closer and closer and tighter and tighter as the water creeps closer and closer. earlier, fred, we were able to walk beyond the cones and we can't do it anymore, again, because the water keeps creeping up. the governor mentioned and local officials mentioned they have resources placed all over the city. strategically placed all over the city to rescue people, if need be, and we know that the 911 call center has been overwhelmed, because so many people are seeing what you're seeing here, except where the

as long as we don't see the fire hoseover them, hopefully the water levels in those bayous won't rise. this is over the next 12 hours. the hurricane center has it coming back over the water this morning and staying out there. it may increase about five to ten miles per hour with the winds. that's inconsequential. the path, wins we start take it north will be better. we will see rain into arkansas. that's an area a little drier. we'll continue with updates throughout the morning. back to you. >> we'll be checking in with bill. bill karins for us. some of the video we've been getting in from people experiencing the def stabs station firsthand. this is video from someone who flew a drone around the hughes on area. it shows the breadth of the flooding, at least one case water lapping at the bottom of the overpass. the governor says at least 250 roads completely covered in that state and have been closed. unbelievable footage of the highways that look like lakes and rivers. the only way you can see it's a highway is because of the exit side. >> sometimes when you see pictures of vehicles d

i'm just on the other side of town by buffalo bayou, john. you heard first responders and city leaders talking about how water from that reservoir just west of us is getting released. well, that water is going to be coming down buffalo bayou, what you see behind me. now, here is the incredible, amazing thing about how water flows and how water rises and recedes and how quickly here in the city of houston. just yesterday i would have been completely submerged underwater if i were standing at this exact location, because this entire area, all the way to the street, was completely submerged in water, and right now you can see, this buffalo bayou is a raging river. it's way over its banks. but it is flowing in the right direction, john. in the way it's supposed to flow, towards the gulf of mexico. of course, the flow of this bayou, hope for people, the rain that's falling, not so much. because like you mentioned. we're expecting another 15 to 20 inches of rain. the ground is completely saturated. and, of course, bayous like these, even though i'm

buffalo bayou one of the main artery flooding its banks.r being released from these two reservoirs in houston in order to relieve pressure on the dams. this is the effect we're seeing. the rain has stopped. and the sun is out. but now we're seeing the effects of what's happening here. some of these residents like john here who has been so kind to give us some of his time. this is the first time he's going to see his house. seeing live pictures there. another boat coming in and more people trying to check on their neighbors. john, really amazing to see. >> definitely is. >> thank you so much for sharing your time with us. i'll let you get to work and check on your neighbors and i hope, can you come back with us and tell us how your house is. >> yep. >> that would be awesome. thank you, john. appreciate your time. look at that. something we're going to see over and over again today we expect. it's getting warmer here. yesterday was rather chilly sometimes because, you know, we hadn't really seen any sun for days. this has been a storm that's

this is buffalo bayou. and i am surrounded by water. i don't know if you can see this, chris, but behind me, this is normally a walkway. this is normally a river, but it is about 1/5 the size of what you see now it has swollen to. the there's supposed to be an interstate and highway around me. it's closed. you can't see it, but there is a tree lying across the highway because that's how high this bayou had gotten. it brought trees with it. there's just no better illustration of what downtown houston is facing than all of this water. this is the area where the reservoirs are let out into. so they are trying to keep up with the more than 50 inches of rain, chris, that has fallen in this area. and as you can see, they can't keep up with. it has swollen over and bled onto highways and on ramps. those reservoirs are being emptied into buffalo bayou. we're watching. you can't see it right now but a city bus has been immobilized trying to cross the water and is bei being towed away by a tow truck. there are three mega shelters open in h the ci

every bayou went over its banks. you cannot put, in the city of houston, 2.3 million people on the road. that is dangerous. >> reporter: texas governor greg abbott says he's activated 3,000 national and state guard troops and deployed 600 boats to protect human life. he also warned houston is not the only city at risk. >> i realize there's a lot of focus on houston right now. it's important not to forget the challenges that people in the counties outside and around houston because of the immense rainfall. >> reporter: the federal emergency management agency, fema, coordinated relief efforts from its regional center in denton, near dallas. in an interview today, fema administrator brock long said nearly 5,000 federal government workers are involved in the response. >> we are already pushing forward recovery housing teams, we are already pushing forward forces to be on the ground to implement national flood insurance program policies as well. and doing the inspections that we need. so we are setting up and gearing up f

buffalo bayou, let's ststart there. oft is the iconic bayou houston, texas. it c crosses from the westide of hohouston to the east side of houston. and then becomeseshe housston shipip channel as i it empties t into galveston bay in the gulf of mexico. butt we have s seen already extensive flooding along the bayou on the west side. and my concern -- where i live on the eastside, because of the many, many federal chemical facilities, storage tanks, and other hazardous sites that line that same bayou for 30 or 40 miles. renee: thank you for joining us from houston. you, i was ask news director there for many years, endearing hurricane katrina and rita. i know you been documenting for a long time the pollution thatt comes s from these refineries in normal circumstances. you get a toxic tour of some of these refineries. now you have been shooting video of some of the releases they may have been making since the storm began on frfriday. you shotot footage that showed some of this release on friday. maybe you can describe what you shot and what you're seeing. is th

before the rain stopped, cedar bayou received 52 inches. record for the continental u.s.t the storm moved east towards the louisiana border. we have reports from anna werner and michelle miller. first here is anna. >> demarco, we were on our way to beaumont. we had to stop here some 20 miles out. because the highway we were traveling on, now ends right here in what looks like a lake. and from high up above it is easy to see why rescuers are into this area. 100 miles east of houston, tropical storm harvey unleashed high winds rain and flash floods on the towns of beaumont and port arthur last night. >> every highway is closed. so we can't get out any more. we can't evacuate. >> the coast guard plucked like this mother and baby off their rooftops in college station, texas. in pine island bayou, civilians threw a life line who a man who clung to a tree in floodwaters five hours. >> we were screaming, hollering at him. we really thought we lost him. he hollered out. grabbed vines on a tree. we drove the bolt fast as we could into the treats. >> rising waters forced staffers a

buffalo bayou is all the way down there, and this is all water that is spilling from buffalo bayou allreally gives you a picture the seriousness of this flooding. yes, the rain has moved on to the east. places like beaumont, texas, are being slammed, getting more than 24 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. and other areas in louisiana are gonna get slammed with rain today. the sun is still out but the danger is still very present here in houston as we expect more water rescues. as you mentioned, more than 18,000 water rescues so far in the houston area. chris, it's just incredible. >> just watching the water, otherwise it would look beautiful with the sun shining off of it. the speed of that water, you're right, is incredible, which has to be difficult for the rescuers. are the people who are being rescued now being rescued by locals? are those coast guard? are they official rescue teams? >> all we're seeing right now, and we've been here for several hours, we spoke with several residents that have come here and they are asking -- actually we spoke with several volunteers that have sho

and it's not just that bayou.s across houston, stretching down to corpus christi, because not just do we have the concern of the storm surge that brought all of that water in, you also have all of the rain that fell from the sky. mcfadden over a foot of rain and now you have to factor in how much more rain is going to fall an top of it. widespread, the purple, the red, even the white areas, talking 6 to 12 inches of extra rain and that bull's-eye, that white pocket, talking an i diggs nal 20 inches of rain. for obvious reasons you have flood watches and flashflood warnings. this is the long-term threat, river floods. right now we have over 50 rivers at major flood stage and it will stay that way for a month. here's why. the first week, this next week, you're going to have to deal with all the rain that falls. it takes an additional week after that before the rivers finally crest. then it will be two weeks after that before the rivers get back to normal. this is not just a short-term threat. this will be a month-lo

how much water will that increase in buffalo bayou. they were still doing modelling and could not specify at that time, but the water is -- water in buffalo bayou is not going to go down soon. right now, it's steady, even with the release. the more they release, it could go up and could create additional problems, additional flooding. i'm asking them to quantify to give me additional information on that. we are scheduled to talk somewhere around noon. i do want to highlight that situation. they are releasing water, but it's a gradual release. they are indicating if they don't do it, if they hold back the water and it builds up, then it will be forced, it will go around attics and the situation will be exponentially worse. this is a gradual release. steve, you are more familiar, you want to speak to it more? >> thank you, mayor. yes, we were advised yesterday, they were going to discharge the water. generally, before a flood, what happens is the gates are closed so they can contain the water coming from upstream so the downstream floodi

they think it's from the buffalo bayou overflowing. some of the scenes over here, that this -- a lot of the neighborhoods are still heavily flood and not out of the woods yet. >> an important lesson. they thought they had seen the worst of it. then the water started to rise overnight after the rain stopped. brian todd in houston, give our guest to that family. we'll be right back. >>> the donations are pouring in to help those affected by hurricane harvey. andy scholes with the latest. >> j.j. watt wanted to raise $200,000. more than 50,000 people donating to his houston fund relief fund, now topping $5 million. the new goal is $6 million. >> over 50,000 people have donated to this thing. it's rising by the minute. every time you refresh the link, it goes up and up and up. thank you so much to everybody who has donated, to everybody who spread the word. it's incredible. the most difficult times seem to bring out the best in humanity. that's showing through right now so much. keep sharing. keep donating. whatever you can do, $5, $500, a

here i am next to buffalo bayou, as you mentioned this. is where these reservoirs, two big ones when they overflow, this is where they are dumped, and this river has swollen to five times its regular size. and the clip at which these rushing flood waters are running is really striking. i mean you can -- i don't know if you can see the current. it's really fast. of the i didn't get how fast it was until i saw the debris floating down. this is a walkway, normally. heaven forbid -- i will be safe don't worry. i'm hanging on here but to try to cross this general walkway to try to get out of danger, you would instantly be sort of he waist deep in these rushing waters. le another striking image is what is looked like yesterday. these are two bridges. i'm about to show you here. the this is interstate 45, the first one and you can see on top of it a tree has been depos zitded. there's only one way for that to have gotten there and is that is that the flood waters brought it there. in other words, just 24 hours ago the flood waters were what? 40?

, along that road that i was on, parallel to it is the buffalo bayou. has created the most difficult -- according to our volunteer boat captain -- the most difficult area as i described earlier to get into. so perhaps, you know, knowing that when they crested and just to note -- eric: grif, we're up against the clock. >> reporter: every single bayou and -- back to you. arthel: thank you. we have to take a break. we'll be back. as king midas, i expect a lifetime guarantee. and so should you. on struts, brakes, shocks. does he turn everything to gold? not everything. at midas we're always a touch better. book an appointment at midas.com . needles. essential for him, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr. a once daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal

buffalo bayou, this bayou that you see behind me, except it's completely overflowed now, flows through that area, where that station is. i'm glad that our colleagues there are taking shelter, going to higher ground. you can see, brian, how this water has turned into raging rivers. the streets in downtown houston have turned into raging rivers there these particular areas. you can see the street signs are submerged in water. that's how much water has accumulated. of course, the concern is that there's still more rain coming. brian? >> possibly more feet of rain. what is the beeping dou ining s? are those car alarms? >> we have been -- i believe it's an alarm for a building that's over here to my right. i wish i could walk over and show you. we have been hearing these alarms as these buildings are being submerged by water. like i was mentioning, this is literally probably about i would say maybe 25, 30 feet below -- or deep, i should say. it's a parking lot that kind of rolls down and there's a hill that rolls down into the banks of buffalo bayou that right now, of course, you can't see

the buffalo bayou is the main waterway that stretches through downtown. and those reservoirs unleashed the water into buffalo bay ou. they made the decision to start releasing that water. and increasing water level. basically saying in essence, the rain that is coming down, it is so much that us releasing this water really isn't going to make that huge of a difference comparatively but the alternative is having these da s s compromised in some ways or having the reservoir, some sort of failure. that's what they are trying to avoid but as we've been saying, we -- we're now at 108 feet, it was the capacity and it's just spilling over on the north side and officials admit they don't know what's going to happen here. >> they don't know -- >> just to explain to our viewers, the idea of releasing that water flow is it with go in the direction of the buffalo bayou while it was going towards downtown houston. it was not ideal but they had a sense if they release it into an existing waterway they estimate. you just interrupt when you have something going on there.

tonight green's bayou is a sea of floodwaters. search crews clinging to hope as they wade through so much loss. miguel almaguer, nbc news, houston. >>> incredibly, harvey which is back out over the gulf as a tropical storm, is set to make landfall for a third time overnight. this time, closing in on louisiana. evoking haunting memories of hurricane katrina, which also made landfall there exactly 12 years ago today. new orleans could see as much as six inches of rain through thursday, and flash flood watches are in effect for most of the state. for more now on the threat, we turn to nbc meteorologist dylan drier. >> we're still dealing with the tropical storm at this time. winds up to about 50 miles per hour right now. the storm is on the move. we have the back edge of rain moving through the houston area. that's why the sun is starting to break out. today most of the rain is falling across beau -- beaumont, texas which reported a foot of rainfall whereas houston picked up two to three inches of rain. the storm will make that third

nearly 52 inches in cedar bayou, texas, and rising. more than 6,000 people have been rescued from the historic flooding in the houston area. the rescues continue at this very hour. cbs news reports tonight, at least nine people have died from the storm. "the washington post" puts that number closer to 16. those numbers expected to rise. >>> the death toll includes a houston city police officer. sergeant steve perez, a 34 year veteran left his home on sunday morning in heavy rain. he spent more than two hours, trying to get to his command post trapped in heavy flood waters. he never made it. >> we couldn't find him, and once our dive team got there, it was too treacherous to go under and look for him. >> perez's body was recovered yesterday morning. he was just 61st birthday. >>> meanwhile, the rain still falling in houston tonight. rescue workers continue to try around the clock to bring more evacuees to safety. >> there's no way in, and out. our neighborhoods can't get food. no electricity. about a day now. >> a levee near houston als

into the buffalo bayou. up here this is addicks and it's kw combined. but back here is a backside levy at about 101 feet above sea level. these neighborhoods are around 97 feet above sea level. now, let's move you in. i'll show you the neighborhoods in trouble later today. they have to be out. this is what the water will look like. now the roof tops will still be there, but back out to the west where it aslightly higher, think about this neighborhood. the houses are built high, streets are low. all the streets will be flooded but the houses will still be fine. but obviously they want people out of there anyway because they don't want you driving through the streets or walking or whatever else is in that water because it's just a mucky mess. >> all right, chad myers for us helping us understand visually. rosa flores back in the barker reservoir right now. up next to it to give us a sense of what's going on. the equipment in order, hard to work in these conditions. >>reporter: yes. our hard wire this time. hopefully it works, john. the toer here this morn

a city riddled with rivers and bayous. every red dot, a spot where water has spilled over the banks. here's rob marciano on why houston is under special risk. torrential rains engulfing america's fourth largest city. with an exploding population that defines urban sprawl. extra prone to flooding. this sinkhole, the result of a trickling creek turned into a torrent. the culvert, unable to handle that volume of water. not helping is this. concrete, a lot of it southwest of houston and it does not absorb water. in league city, southeast of houston, an astounding 30 inches has fallen, and over 2 feet recorded around the metro area. that's enough rain to fill up 448 superdomes. an event of this magnitude, rare to say the least, odds of a flood this bad? 1 in 500. and the geography here doesn't help. rainwater is forced onto the streets, then into small bayous, easily overwhelmed in heavy downpours. buffalo bayou runs through the middle of the city. right now it looks like this. 15 feet over flood stage. a level never been seen

we are going to to one more look at the bayou. >> my gosh. you just feel that woman's fear for her daughter and for her grandchildren. this is what is happening that was just literally a couple of second ago. they are in houston. harris county, texas, sheriff ed gonzalez has been tweeting live throughout the night and he is with us now. >> our thanks to kprc for bringing that interview to us. sheriff, is this severe flooding where we are seeing water up to chest high and shoulder high? is it centralized or one area or several areas across the houston area where the water is that deep? >> no, this is widespread across the entire houston region. hours ago, i started reporting that some areas were already seeing as much as six feet of water at that time. and so it's only continued to grow in some place. we have a lot of people that are stranded and some folks that are sheltering in place in their homes that, obviously, want to get out. just shared some information about a young toddler that apparently need a respirator and they are out of electr

an area known as, subdivision called bayou chantilly. into this neighborhood, we had to use a boat yesterday. the water is still rather high, but you can get a little closer, but sense there, a quick look inside that neighborhood. people are launching boats into this neighborhood. this is where we reported from quite a bit extensively yesterday, jim. you can see here. this gives a better indication of the amount of water from these water systems that just continues to make it impossible to get through. with these trucks and this convoy, this national guard convoy, we'll be able to make it a bigger distance. not clear exactly if we're going to a rescue situation, soldiers going house to house or find people already evacuated and move those people to higher ground, jim. >> ed, we should point out to viewers now you're on the back of a truck there with this rescue team live on the air now. rolling through a community much more under water than it is right now. i suppose as these teams go in there, there's just no telling what they'll find a

buffalo bayou runs through the middle of the city. right now it looks like this. 15 feet over flood stage. a level never been seen before. >> unlike other floods that we've experienced, the sheer volume of water that has fallen is going to take time to run off. >> rob is live in west houston. part of the legacy of the storm will be how much it didn't move. is there a track tonight, and any relief for the people of houston? >> reporter: the short-term relief, lighter rainfall periods like we're getting now. the rainfall rates have been absolutely staggering. and also the tornado risk, a tornado watch out for this area and southern louisiana through tonight. and it's going to spiral in more bands. tomorrow afternoon, another pulse of heavy rain for houston. the center of harvey gets over water, maybe strengthening before tomorrow. we expect the rain to be done by then. and another 20 inches of rainfall, on top of the 20 or 30 we already got, in a city that has nowhere else to put the water. >> this rain is relentless. >> rob, thank you.

so we'll watch some of those bayous coming down. we're already seeing it in some of the pictures but that one main one that goes through downtown, that will take a long time. that's not supposed to crest until tuesday night around midnight. >> let's hope the folks who are being evacuated now heed those evacuations so that the first responders don't have to put themselves in harm's way rescuing them in another day or two. bill karins, we'll keep checking with you. thank you very much. >>> up next, the white house response to the storm as the president makes plans to head to texas tomorrow. but could his visit while we're seeing this storm lingering and thousands left homeless hamper efforts to help the victims? 'member that accident i got in, with the pole, and i had to make a claim and all that? is that whole thing still draggin' on? no, i took some pics with the app and filed a claim, but, you know how they send you money to cover repairs and - -they took forever to pay you, right? no, i got paid right away, but, at the very end of

bayous, buffalo bayou is at record stajts. norts are considering and they actually overnight release thor from two reservoirs. that will continue to increase the water levels in houston. we see hundreds of water help. authorities in houston are defending their decision not to issue a mandatory evacuation order ahead of the storm. the mayor has said it would have been incredibly dangerous to send millions of people evacuating at the same time. because of a previous experience they had back in 2005 with hurricane rita, where millions of people got into the roadways at the same time and more than half of the deaths reported from hurricane rita were attributed to that evacuation. however, this is a threat that is not going away. we're expecting more rain today. other cities around houston are expecting record levels of rain and the water is continuing to rise. savannah, this is a desperate situation here in this major american city. >> i have to say. i got a chill when i read that houston authorities were asking people if they had

the hi the highest rainfall total almost 62 inches in cedar bayou. already a record in the continental u.s. for any tropical system. >> right now houston is under curfew until 5:00 a.m. central time. part of an effort to stop looting businesses and homes. 14 people have been arrested for looting in t

just to give you an idea, we already saw some of the bayous having some trouble in houston. this is buffalo bayou expected to get to a 65-foot record tomorrow. >> more than 10 feet above the flood stage. that's incredible. ginger, thank you. as ginger mentioned, harvey tonight with houston in the crosshairs, and several reported tornadoes in texas and louisiana already. on top of that, houston is also bracing for the possibility of an additional 2 feet of rain. abc's victor oquendo is there. >> reporter: houston in the firing line again. this coming after the first wave of twisters striking early this morning. >> my camper is on its side. i'm basically homeless. >> reporter: we're standing in front of what's left of a storage facility in katy, texas, and just take a look around here. torn up wood, mangled metal, all over the place here. if you take a look around, there's a number of items. what's left of a chair. that's an old tv, but here's the thing. this didn't all come from inside the storage facility. it came from across the street. >> we were out here yesterday with sa

that is coming, those bayous overflowing, coming into these neighborhoods. and you can see this is just one example of just how dangerous these floodwaters are, and how significant the water levels are at this time aside from seeing scenes like this, we have see cars abandoned, we have see people struggling to get help in some instances, but all in all, people know that they need to stay inside, it is very dangerous out here. and of course, we already know this is just the beginning, houston is expected to receive even more rain, so we can imagine what this will look like when it's all said and done. >> strassman: jericka, thanks. scott padgett is chief meteorologist at ktvt, our cbs station in dallas/fort worth. scott, we've still got a long way to go with harvey. >> we look at what's happening. harvey is still a tropical storm. i see dry area pulled into this storm, feed are bands pulled in. my concern is overnight tonight, into tomorrow, getting closer to open water and the latest forecast has that out over open water strengthening a little bit, houston w

one of the bayous that all the water goes into is the buffalo bayou.ston. they said the water will rise four to six inches per hour until they can lower the dams enough to stop the outflow of water. the river predictions, yesterday we hit 67 feet. the previous record was 61 feet. that's why the pictures look the way they do. we were six feet above the highest anyone has ever seen it. the new predictions through tuesday into wednesday morning are for it to go to 73 feet. water that we saw yesterday, picture that up six feet higher than that. they're saying thousands of additional homes are going to get flooded. they're telling thousands of additional people to leave their homes. at this point they've been dry. and they need to go somewhere safe because they are going to get flooded out in the days ahead. it's an incredible story. the rainfall is also going to be one of the issues. we're still watching tremendous amounts of rain. these are predictions. we're hoping they don't happen. so far the heaviest rain has been around the louisiana, texas border. t

these bayous tend to swell. i want to show you what we are experiencing right now because you can see that this walkway which is normally used by runners to run through the downtown area, is completely submerged in water. now, we haven't even seen heavy rains yet here in houston. we have had some rain, as you can see, but these bayous are already swelling. i want to show you, want to measure here very quickly to give you a sense. we haven't seen the heavy rains yet. you can see, though, that the swelling of this particular bayou where we are is at about 25, 26 inches. you can see that it is running right now in that direction which is actually good news, because this means that it's actually rushing towards the gulf of mexico. during major storms, i have seen these bayous actually run the opposite direction, inland. but that's only when storm surge is happening. now, because of where the storm is right now, we are not expecting that. but officials here are expecting between 15 to 25 inches of rain and in isolate

and you can see right now this is buffalo bayou. and normally it is a normal bayou, it is not gushing like it is right now. right now it looks more like a raging river than anything else. and on these trees as well you can see how the water level is still pretty high. and this is what city leaders here are warning people about, the conditions can change very rapidly. flash flooding happens in houston very quickly. and so there are dips and valleys in some of these interstates in this city that people can be in a lot of danger if they try to drive through or even walk through. take a look over here. this is a walkway, normally you'd be able to walk through there. it's very lovely on a normal day. right now it's very dangerous and treacherous because of these raging waters that continue to flow out. the good news, ana, is that they are flowing in the direction of the gulf of mexico. these bayous are designed to drain water out into the gulf of mexico. but of course the concern is we are expecting more rain, 15 to 25 inches here in the

the by u-- bayous, you can't jut walk in the water. there are water moccasins, snakes, sometimes gators in the water. >>> an incredible 62 counties under a disaster declaration. rockport especially hard hit. emergency officials saying the area totally void of any functioning infrastructure. with communications systems hobbled, sewer system issues, and no running water, martin savidge has more. >> reporter: good morning. the people of houston are struggling with their dlilemma, and rockport is devastated. it's been two days since the category-four storm roared ashore. they're trying to wrap their heads around what's happened to their community. look at the storefront -- magnify that across an entire community. even then you probably can't get a full sense of how many homes, how many businesses, and how much damage has been done. there is debris electricity. no running water, clean water to drink, or sewage. they're limited, trying to bring cell phone service on line. then there's the search that still goes on. you can see all of this de

and buffalo bayou is one of the many bayous in the houston area that funnel the water into the gulf oferwhelmed buffalo bayou is. it's just over here to my left, completely overflowed. you can see what it's doing to the thoroughfare here. we were told this driver of this 18 wheeler saw these other two vehicles were stranded, she tried to make it through, and had a really close call there. we heard the governor say earlier today, that 250 plus highways throughout the state were shut down. we experienced that trying to get from dallas down here, trying to get around some interstates, route 45, a major highway was closed 25 miles north of houston. 24rz a neighborhood here to my left to see who's being rescued here. a peril for motorists. that 18 wheeler got stuck here a few hours ago. the driver got out okay. >> i saw on the other side of your shoulder, it looked like a lot of emergency lights. any idea what kind of activity is occurring over there? is it serving as a barricade? what's going on? >> i think they're trying to get through to the other side where maybe they can pass through t

there's multiple points here across the buffalo bayou.he gauges, all that water from the reservoir is coming downstream. putting us in record territory. unfortunately by just nature of the volume of water, how it moves downstream, jim, it will take at least a couple of weeks just to get out of the major flood stage essentially into the modern flood stage. even if the sun comes out in the next couple of days, which we hope it will. this is the water doing its thing. slow motion disaster. >> thanks for the update. appreciate it. >>> congressman randy weber is on the line representing the 14th district, south and east of houston. it has been a very hard-hit area. congressman, just talking about this area in columbia lakes. the levee there has been breached. what more can you tell us? >> well, jim, our emergency response team had gone out two days ago asking everybody to leave that area, because we knew the floodwater is coming at urr. and now those who didn't leave, first responders making sure absolutely they know what's happened and are ge

. >> we're next to a bayou, and you can see what happens when the bayou gets flooded.t has now seeped into this neighborhood, homes pretty much full right now. you can see the water reaches the halfway mark on that door, and i can't even get into this street much past here. that's because down there i can't even see where the water stops. between here skband the bayou, we're right next to an apartment complex. all the cars under water. some are pushing them out. some of the people have gotten out of these apartments through windows. that's how bad the situation is, and as you can see, the rain continues falling. i'm ray valleda. back to you. >>> i'm first alert meteorologist erika martin. we do have very active weather not only in texas but we're also tracking potentially tropical storm 10 right around the -- i say right off of florida just to the north and east right off the coast of georgia. this is what we're tracking for you right now and how this could affect us in the upcoming days. a wider perspective, this is our regional image. you can see the purples and the

that will cause the bayou to rise almost half a foot. there is now word now on how many neighborhoods could be impacted. and we say it all the time in weather events like this, "turn around, don't drown." this is why. take a look at this water rescue, caught on camera in katy, texas. flood waters, totally overtaking this suv. a boat arrives just in the time to pull the driver to safety. we're learning more about the events preceding president trump's pardon of former arizona sheriff joe arpaio . the president asked attorney general jeff sessions this past spring whether it would be possible to drop the case against arpaio. that's what sources tell "the washington post." they say, sessions told him it would be inappropriate to interfere. decided to let the case go to trial. and he planned to pardon arpaio if the former sheriff was convicted. arpaio faced up to six-months in prison. he was convicted of faced up to six-months in prison. he was convicted of ignoring a judge's order, halting his traffic-stop program. a judge ruled the program

take a look at this bayou. buffalo bayou. normally it's a normal 234rflow bayou. right now it looks more like a raging river. and you can see debris on the bayou. and we've seen tree logs on this and the tree logs raging through this water. thousand, we just saw that an alert went out to all of the residents on the west side of houston for people not to be alarmedd, we just saw that an alert went out to all of the residents on the west side of houston for people not to be alarmed they will see a lot of emergency vehicles, military vehicles headed that way. according to the office of emergency management, they say that they are staging that area for possible rescues later on. so just an alert for people if they do see that in the west side of houston, not to be alarmed, it's only a staging hear. now, again, the situation here, the concern in houston is flooding, flash flooding, how waters can rise very, very quickly. so what leaders are recommending is for people to be very vigilant, be aware of the conditions around their home because again, there is no evacuation