the story from cbs' janet shamlian. >> reporter: a raging pillar of fire spewing from the ground. >> people all over houston are able to see the smoke and the flames from the distance. a liquid pipeline explosion lighting the sky. just a couple hundred feet from a neighborhood in deer park, texas, near houston. >> talk about what it feels like out here right now? >> tense, stressful. >> reporter: a tornado of smoke, a children's playground burning, the radiating heat enough to set the closest homes ablaze. >> i understand nearby a refinery and pipelines, but i never expected it to be this bad. i'm still kind of like -- in shock. i might even have to get a hotel tonight because of this explosion. >> reporter: it's now been several hours since the fire started, it's still going strong. more firemen have arrived here, they're hosing down the homes in an effort to save them. mandatory evacuations for dozens, others were told to shelter in place. at one point, almost 1,000 customers were without power as temperatures soared into the mid-90s. this area has 12 companies operating pipelines

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in a region filled with petrochemical plants. >> norah: janet shamlian, thank you. now to life-threatening flooding along the north carolina coast. a state of emergency has been declared for parts of the state where more than a foot and a half of rain has fallen today swallowing roads and leaving drivers stranded in several feet of floodwater. lonnie quinn joins us now and what more can we expect from this storm? >> reporter: it has been moving inland but like you said this has been a huge rainmaker and it's a storm that doesn't get a name. look at the flooding out there i want to be clear about this. you are looking at carolina beach and everything on this picture -- the video shows you flooding that is not storm surge related to. that is all rainfall. i want to show you what we picked up in carolina beach. some of the facts here mind-boggling. 18.3 inches that is a one and a thousand year rainfall events. how much more rain are we going to be expecting? where does it go from here? it pushes inland and when you look at the projections now we focus inland to north c

janet shamlian is on the scene with the latest developments. >> fire spewing from the ground.ple all over houston are able to see the smoke in the flames from a distance. >> a liquid natural gas pipeline explosion lighting the sky, just a couple hundred feet from a neighborhood in deer park texas. >> talk about what it feels like out here right now. >> tense, stressful. >> a tornado of smoke, a children's playground burning. enough to set the closest home ablaze. >> i understand but i never expected it to be this bad. i might have to get a hotel tonight. >> it's now been several hours since the fire started and still going strong. more fire departents have arrived here, they are hosing down the homes in an effort to save them. >> mandatory evacuations for dozens others were told to shelter in place. at one point almost 1,000 customers were without power as temperatures soared into the mid-90s. this area has 12 companies operating pipelines. >> the fire started, -- >> there is a possibility. >> reporter: the pipeline has been shut down but it will be hours before the natural ga

cbs' janet shamlian reports from lafayette, louisiana. >> reporter: as francine heads their way, residentsrgan city, louisiana, are piling sandbags and boarding up storefronts. a state of emergency has been declared in portions of the baton rouge area. the powerful storm expected to make landfall on wednesday. across the state, people are filling their gas tanks and stock up on essentials. >> we got the generator. we got the gas. we're ready to go. >> sandwich meat and water and stuff like that. something quick. >> i am new in the area. so i'm taking my precautions. >> reporter: on tuesday, heavy rain brought flash flooding to parts of coastal texas. governor greg abbott warning texans to brace for possible power outages and dangerous storm surge. >> be careful when you're on the road. you may stall your vehicle out. you could be swept away. there is a simple saying that is always true, and that is turn around, don't drown. >> reporter: as it barrels toward the louisiana coast, francine is already pounding northern mexico. it is the sixth named storm of the atlantic hurricane season, and c

janet shamlian explains why this is so important. >> i had no idea. >> reporter: just four months afterogram, she started having pain and went back to her doctor. >> there's something there. and it was a four-centimeter tumor. >> reporter: and you thought? >> i went numb. i just started, i couldn't process it. >> reporter: paxton was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, after a more sensitive ultrasound test found the walnut-sized tumor. the texas teacher did not know she had dense breasts. like about half of women over 40. having them increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer and can mask cancer already there. why does having dense breasts make it harder to diagnose breast cancer? >> dense tissue looks white on a mammogram, and so does a cancer. so trying to find a cancer in dense ci dense tissue is like trying to find a snowman in a snowstorm. >> reporter: they must notify women in writing whether they have dense breasts. will that notification help detect more breast cancers? >> i think so. i think more assessments will be done. >> reporter: william with dense bre women

ja ja janet shamlian reports. >> reporter: restaurant manager melinda burton was among those preparinge we had the flat stuff in front of the building. it blows hard. >> reporter: its outer bands reached new orleans. >> stay inside. hunker down. now is the time. >> reporter: officials have been is working with fema for days, standing by, boats at the ready. >> we just want everybody to be safe. we've been prepping for the storm, getting different things together, chainsaws to clear off roads to get to people who need help. >> reporter: hurricane francine has just come ashore. there's an elevated risk of tornadoes, strong rip currents, flooding and storm surge. >> don't take a storm for granted. we've seen them spin up in a quick period of time. >> reporter: gulf port's mayor is expecting three to four feet. warning residents not to get complacent. gulf port, mississippi. >>> now to raging wildfires ravaging southern california. police arrested an arson suspect they believe sparked one of the three large blazes in the state, two of which have exploded in size in the last ten hours. doze

janet shamlian was there on the scene. >> reporter: fire spewing from the ground.e all over houston are able to see the smoke and flames. a liquid natural gas pipeline explosion in the sky a few miles from deer park, near houston. >> stressful. >> reporter: a children's playground burning, radiant heat setting the closest homes ablaze. others were told to shelter in place. almost 1,000 were without power as temperatures soared into the mid-90s. this area has 12 pipelines operating in the neighborhood. >> a lot of people saying that the fire started because of a car that hit the pipeline. >> there's a possibility. >> reporter: it's been shut down but it will be hours before the natural gas inside burns itself out. >> it's devastating to see this in the back of my yard. >> reporter: the pipeline is still on fire, it's located behind the homes on this street, one of about a dozen pipelines in this neighborhood, an area also filled with petrochemical plants. deer park, texas. >>> straight ahead on "cbs news roundup," interest rates could come down this week, but will i