iashia nelson waited and waited and waited and finally all of that waiting paid ofand the rescue cameago look at that. she reunited with her rescuer and iashia is going to join us live again with her rescuer in just a moment but first, we want to take a look at what happened. as the hours pass after this emotional plea -- >> please help us. i'm scared. >> reporter: iashia nelson's situation grew increasingly desperate. >> we don't have no food. i haven't ate in two days. no water. i'm praying that they get us because if they don't get us soon, they're not going to get us at all. >> reporter: the 36-year-old mother of three remaining trapped in a houston apartment building with about 30 other people watching the floodwaters rise and live streaming the grim details across social media. >> we need help. we need help right now. they got a whole family out there in the water. and people is drowning. i seen three dead bodies. lord, please help us. >> reporter: these videos shared hundreds of times across facebook until finally -- >> put on a life jacket. >> reporter: volunteer rescuers arri

. >> reporter: iashia nelson stranded with her children on her roof. >> there's water everywhere. we have nowhere to go. i have all my children, i lost everything. i have nothing but the clothes on my back. please help us. i'm scared. >> reporter: hours later, finally rescued. to give you an idea of how paralyzed houston is right now, look at this. the public transportation system is frozen. it stretches as far as you can see behind me, and all the way in front of us. >> reporter: the texas governor activating all 12,000 members of the national guard. emergency responder frequencies overwhelmed. >> there are two adolescent boys in kayaks that are missing that cannot swim. >> reporter: citizens are stepping in to help save each other. under this overpass and around the corner. along the highway, we met a driver who took us to a flooded out neighborhood where a woman was stuck in her home. the ceiling starting to buckle. her family asking for help on social media. >> the house with the roof collapsed. >> reporter: we saw the roof starting to cave in. the woman displaced by hurricane

iashia nelson/rescued from floodwaters:"when we were on that roof sunday and monday, that water was coming in so fast...and then we got rescued on that bridge. they tell us that bridge has collapsed since. so, i know it was nothing but god."tens of thousands in shelters ... amid catastrophic flooding brought by record rain fall.dawn coles/flooding evacuee at houston convention center:"i had to grab my baby, diapers, what i could ... and try to swim ... and hope that we could be picked up."many more ... still waiting to be rescued ... as emergency crews and volunteers race against time to reach those still trapped in their homes. mos/volunteer: "eat something and just dry out a little bit -- get a little bit of energy and a little bit of coffee in our system and we're back out." harvey has soaked some areas around houston with more than 50 inches of rain... mos/resident: "didn't expect this much water to fall...this is houston -- we're used to weather like this. but, i believe this is a little more than we expected."harris county's flood district meteorologist says that enough water has fal

and joining us now is iashia nelson along with her sister melissa nelson and their murphy. g with us and, iashia, when we last spoke to you 24 hours ago, you were desperate. tell me how you and your family are doing now. >> we are grateful. we are grateful that we was able to get out of that water. i wouldn't wish that on nobody. >> it was so scary because you just didn't know when help was coming. and finally help came in the form of james right there so, james, tell me what happened. how you came upon iashia and what the rescue was like. >> well, basically the water in order to get to them, we tried a few boats. boats, very dangerous. the currents were strong as you can see in the videos. it was a big risk and we just wanted to basically get them to safe grounds. first we had to screen the entire property to know what we were working with. so with that being said, though, currents is just strong out there. i want to just wish anyone that's in this water to be safe and be aware of the currents. the currents are very strong out here. >> yeah, you can see that in the video ju

iashia nelson/rescued from floodwaters:"when we were on that roof sunday and monday, that water was coming in so fast...and then we got rescued on that bridge. they tell us that bridge has collapsed since. so, i know it was nothing but god."tens of thousands in shelters ... amid catastrophic flooding brought by record rain fall.dawn coles/flooding evacuee at houston convention center:"i had to grab my baby, diapers, what i could ... and try to swim ... and hope that we could be picked up."many more ... still waiting to be rescued ... as emergency crews and volunteers race against time to reach those still trapped in their homes. mos/volunteer: "eat something and just dry out a little bit -- get a little bit of energy and a little bit of coffee in our system and we're back out." harvey has soaked some areas around houston with more than 50 inches of rain... mos/resident: "didn't expect this much water to fall...this is houston -- we're used to weather like this. but, i believe this is a little more than we expected."harris county's flood district meteorologist says that enough water has fal

<iashia nelson/rescued from floodwaters:> "when we were on that roof sunday and water was coming in soand then we got rescued on that bridge. they (grant) it's all hands on deck at the american red cross. thousands of volunteers are on the ground in south texas and more are on the way. red cross volunteers in the bay area are on stand by because of the coming heat wave and threat of wildfires... but they will be deployed to south texas sooner or later. in the meantime-- the red cross is using social media and other digital platforms to help with disaster relief. cynthia shaw is among scores of people who are providing digital support. (cynthia shaw/red cross): "...so we have people who are helping the local teams on the ground monitor their social media profiles and responding to the many messages and tweets and making sure that accurate and timely information gets to the people who need it...." thousands of red cross volunteers already on the ground in the disaster zone. like troops on the front line, they are only as good as their supply lines and support staff back home reinforcemen

. >> iashia nelson, we are glad you are safe. you saved a lot of lives in houston.pe you get the help you need, soon. thanks so much for being with us. >>> all right. minutes from now, we'll get an update from the mayor of houston about the situation in the city. the texas governor told me he thinks 1,000 people, maybe more are waiting to be rescued. stay with us. what did we do before phones? they save us from getting lost, getting hungry, and getting tired of places like this. phones changed everything - shouldn't the way pay for them change too? introducing xfinity mobile. where you can pay for data by the gig, and share it across all of your lines. no one else lets you do that. see how much you can save when you pay by the gig. xfinity mobile. it's a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com.

<iashia nelson/rescued from floodwaters:> "when we were on that roof sunday and monday, that water was coming in so fast...and then we got rescued on that bridge. they tell us that bridge has collapsed since."many more ... still waiting to be rescued emergency crews and volunteers race against those still their homes.long/fema administrator> "we're still in life sustaining mode (catherine) the flooding in port arthur has forced the closing of the nation's biggest oil refinery. this comes after exxon-mobil shut down the second biggest refinery in baytown, on sunday. a total of at least 12 refineries are now off-line.the result is likely to be higher gas prices across the country. grant and vicki? (grant) tropical storm harvey's center is now inland... however, torrential rain will continue to trigger major flooding in parts of texas and louisiana. (vicki) chief meteorologist brittney shipp - is tracking harvey... as it continues to deliver record- breaking rainfall. brit? .a significant warming trend is then forecast to begin tomorrow and continue into the upcoming weekend with oppressi