maya rodriguez, can you hear me? all right. we're going to try to dial maya rodriguez back in. what i can tell you is that maya had a position, as anybody would, a reporter covering a rally like this. she and her cameraman were asked to leave that area because there were concerns for their safety. it's a very unruly crowd. we can also tell you that there have been some injuries. at least one person has been arrested and in terms of injuries, including a university of virginia police officer has been arrested. we don't know the severity of the injuries. there's been tear gas thrown and it's just, as you can see, tear gas there to the top right of your screen and things being pelted. baseball bats being used. i think we have maya rodriguez back on the phone with us. first off, you're in a safe location to even make this call, are you? >> reporter: yes, we are. we were able to pull back. things got a little hairy for us there about an hour ago. we did have some smoke bombs, tear gas being thrown towards the counter-protesters. we happened to be back behind them. some of those land

for the white nationalist cause on american soil. >> i think maya rodriguez interviewed that gentleman earlier and he explained the white substance on him. being caught in the middle of all this. mike, if you can confirm, it was maya who talked to him about what was on him. yes. but -- a terrorist attack. we know that virginia is you know, they have the death penalty in that state and this might exactly fall under the definition for these aggregating, aggrevating factors for it. with the president having spoken just a short time ago, do you think that they are going to have to return to the podium in bedminister to deal with in a more straight fforward fashion d not in a glib way where there's this moment with the president going over to shake hands of any moment of levity. this is not a time for levity. >> i think of this as a communications department and a general kelly has been empowered to change the way that this white house communicates with the american people, that they're going to have another moment at the podium where the president says more about what he thinks about this

that's where we find maya rodriguez. how are things on the ground this morning? >> reporter: overnight, things were very quiet. no major incidents reported. this is the intersection where 32-year-old heather heyer died after the car plowed into a crowd of people injuring 19 others. people have been leaving candles and flowers and tokens of remembrances. now, the driver of that car, 20-year-old james fields, is facing second degree murder charges. he is expected in court 10:00 a.m. this morning, via video conferencing. the first time we see him since that incident happened on saturday. now, he was in town for the unite the right rally taking place that day, that gathering of white nationalists. now, both the mayor of of virginia have placed the blame for the violence this weekend squarely on that rally, take a listen. >> i think it's clear a terrorist attacking with a car used as a weapon our hearts are grieving right now. >> my message is hatred has got to stop. we had many individuals come to our beautiful state. a vast majority were weapons tap. >> there was su

maya rodriguez is in corpus christi. maya, good morning to you. as we have light coming your way, what's it look like? how serious is the situation right now? >> reporter: right now we're seeing very strong winds, lots of rain, pretty much what we've been seeing for hours here. take a look at this. we have towned trees. this is the scene all over town. look at this, we have a line that is down flashing that stop light here, that red light. we've had a lot of reports of fires. we had one on a barrier island just off the coast of car pus christie here. firefighters had to go respond to a house fire there. not clear how that house fire started. they had to head over there in the middle of the category 4 hurricane to try to prevent that fire from spreading to other houses. we also had another fire on the peninsula. firefighters had to head there to handle that fire. first responders having to deal with these incredible winds, the driving rain we've seen. take a listen to what of the fire chiefs in rockport had to say about the situation. >> we had mul

nbc's maya rodriguez is on the scene right there as we await remarks in the president. at is the latest on the ground? charlottesville? >> reporter: well, i can tell you that we have seen a number of the counterprotesters moved out of here at this point. we did have police come down the street about an hour ago, just making sure that everybody would move along, and as you can see right now, there's actually a police officer inside one of the vehicles that was involved in this collision. there were about three cars involved in this collision that involved running people down, whether intentional or accidental, we're not sure at this point, but it's obviously an active crime scene here. we have choppers overhead kind of keeping an eye on everything, but right now, the police have sort of taken off a little bit to the side here, trying to get some shade. things have quieted down quite a bit since we were out here, and again, that investigation is ongoing. there was a crowd out here earlier, you know, just trying to figure out exactly how this could have happened, what led t

maya rodriguez of nbc news is back with us. m maya, i don't know if you heard what mark newton said from charlottesville and about the idea that his photographer may not even be able to show the pictures because of the gruesomeness of the nature of them. have you heard anything to that effect since we last spoke? >> reporter: okay. hey, jacob, we're being moved back from the scene where this happened. we're at 4th and waters streets here in charlottesville. this is where all of this happened. just a short time ago, there were at least a half dozen ambulances lined up here, picking people up, they were on the ground. some of them had to be loaded on to stretchers and into the ambulances. i did hear from one witness who said, listen, i saw my friend. he had a broken leg. i saw someone else who i was somewhat familiar with who -- okay, we're being moved again by police. they're trying to, it looks like, they're attempting to clear waters street right here. we're going to be careful in heading back this way. but what he said was he

let's go back to maya rodriguez joining us live from houston. what are you seeing where you are? >> well, actually, alex, i'm in a suburb of houston. what people have been doing is coming to this road, there's a creek here. they are literally dropping off their boats. this is an attempt to help police who are out rescuing people. we spoke to friends with police a couple hours ago. they told us they had been undergoing hundreds of rescues in this particular suburb of houston overnight and there was a need for boats so people in the public stepped up and are bringing their own personal water craft and launching from creeking ing ts to get to thes that are flooded. there's a bridge that goes over the creek. we encountered tons of standing water and as you can see it's raining torrentially. it's been this way for an hour since we got here. these people are trying to help those who might be in need. we've been getting reports of people who have been on their roofs, people that are being told do not go into your attic if the water is rising and, of cou

maya rodriguez, thank you very much. i know it's an ongoing situation. you've got a lot of work ahead of you, but we thank you for joining us and hope to see you again. appreciate that. we're going to take another short break here on msnbc. we'll be back with congressman denny heck to get his thoughts weighing in on what he's seeing and the extent to which there are people perhaps at 1600 pennsylvania avenue who may be held responsible for this behavior. we'll be right back. you don't let anything keep you sidelined. that's why you drink ensure. with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. for the strength and energy to get back to doing... ...what you love. ensure. always be you. so find a venus smooth that contours to curves, the smoother the skin, the more comfortable you are in it. flexes for comfort, and has a disposable made for you. skin smoothing venus razors. you could start your search at the all-new carfax.com that might help. show me the carfax? now the car you want and the history you need are easy to find. show me used minivans wit

maya rodriguez for us. thank you. >>> meanwhile, cities across the nation are protesting against racism including the town where suspect james fields lived most recently after leaving kentucky. in the a video of a peace rally held there yesterday. other cities rallied to urge local leaders to get rid of confederate monuments. demonstrators in durham, north carolina, took it upon themselves to topple the statue of a soldier. >>> president trump made his first return to his new york city residents since inauguration. he tweeted "feels good to be home after seven months, but the white house is very special. there's no place like it. and the u.s. is really my home." joining us now from washington deputy news editor from axios, alexy. great to have you with us. >> thank you for having me. >> axios and others are reporting that the fbi and dhs warned in may of a persistent lethal threat posed by white supremacists. we know that has been one of the biggest threats in this country for many yoerz. tell us why this m

>> maya rodriguez for us there in charlottesville. thanks to you. >>> cnbc's larry kudlow is here, and formal economic adviser to president trump. you've known the president for a long time. reverend al sharpton, host of "politics nation" on msnbc and president of the national action network. also known the president for a very long time. let me start with you. because heather's mother there in the memorial service called for righteous action. where do we go from here? >> i think we go to righteous action. i think that we have a moral obligation to make it very clear, this nation will not tolerate racism, naziism and violence that is associated with it. i think that we are seeing the mainstreaming of some of these hate groups, and i think we've got to stand up against it. and what is so appalling to many of us is that the statement that the mother of heather made today is what we would have expected a president of the united states to say. rather than trying to in some way equalize those that were protesting hate with those that went

maya rodriguez is stand big in houston. i believe we have maya. maya, are you there? if so, what do you see? >> reporter: hey, craig. yeah, we are near the addicks reservoir neighborhood called glen karin. as you can see, there is a ton of water here. people are coming out here with their private boats. we have the sheriff's office. we have national guard. everyone trying to get into this neighborhood, which is experiencing a severe amount of flooding. you can hear all the sirens in the background. people have been coming out here with their pets, with their belongings, any way that they can get out of here. a lot of the people have been coming here and basically walking out of the flood waters if they can after being dropped off. you can see over here in this parking lot, there's a makeshift area where people are being dropped off and boats are being launched. sorry. i'm a little out of breath because we had to run to kind of get over here. >> that's okay. that's okay. >> reporter: but the rain has been torrential. it's been raining here all morning long. so many of

let's go to you reporter on the ground in corpus christi, maya rodriguez.s you may have seen, steve sosa now re-adjusting where the track will be. it looks like corpus chris my not necessarily right in the heart of that double whammy we have been talking about up to this last half hour. >> reporter: still a lot of issues going on here, richard. right now, we are hearing from the city of corpus christi saying there are a number of active power lines down across the city. they are asking people, if they do choose to venture outside to please be careful. we still have very strong winds, probably category 2 and category 1 wind gusts that we're feeling personally right here at the moment. of course, again, we are expecting some rains here, maybe not the torrential and flash flooding that we were expecting, maybe a few hours ago, but again, there are still some outlying dangers here. one of those we saw on south padre island. we had corpus christi firefighters over there earlier this morning battling a massive house fire, trying to make sure that that fire would

. >> and maya rodriguez is live there. what are you seeing today?> reporter: things are slowly starting to get back to normal. at least superficially. they have been cleaning up emancipation park. as you can imagine, it's quite a mess. this is where the violence broke out and several hours after the violence had broken out, that's when we had the car plow into the crowd of people, killing the 32-year-old woman, heather heyer. several others were taken to the hospital stemming from the violence that took place here. the mayor of charlottesville spoke out today and he was highly critical of how president trump reacted to all of the events here yesterday. take a listen. >> look at the campaign he ran. look at the intentional courting of all of these white supremacist, anti-semitic groups and then the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, you know, put to bed all of those different efforts just like we saw yesterday. we just aren't seeing leadership from the white house. >> reporter: and speaking of people here in charlottesville who

we can tell you for a fact it has been since we got here. >> maya rodriguez in houston. thank you, maya. >>> clint, it strikes me -- struck me for several days now watching these pictures, the disparity between what we see, the effort being made on the ground and some of the language from washington, d.c., over the past several months, especially among elements like the freedom caucus, members of the republican party freedom caucus in the house about the need to pare down government. the only answer in houston is an enormous reach of government. >> what's curious about it is it's a state and local effort. ultimately, it seems like americans, when they are in tough positions, if you look at katrina, the boston bombing, now you look at houston, it ends up being in all these situations, whether it's sandy or out in houston. it is locals who come together and get this done. it is state and local officials who are making these things happen. when you look to the federal, you know, relief that comes, that's day three, day four. that's when the feds come in. that's when you star

maya rodriguez is live in charlottesville, virginia, where she's been for over the past 24 hours followingis story. maya, what more do we know about what we just watched take place just moments ago? >> reporter: well, jason kesler started his remarks by saying police didn't do enough, in his opinion, to sort of stop the violence that broke out yesterday. so he was laying some of the blame at the feet of police and city leaders here, but as you saw, the crowd very quickly drowned him out. what is not clear at this point is who were these people? it's not clear if they were residents of charlottesville or counterprotesters still in town or a combination of both. but you may be able to hear they were yelling out things like murderer and go home. the go home sentiment is something that was echoed by the governor of virginia. he spoke to our nbc's tom costello earlier today. take a listen. it does not sound like we have that audio, but you had the governor, governor terry mcauliffe basically saying he wanted to see these white nationalists, neo-nazis, not just out of the town, but out of the st

. >> maya rodriguez has been on this story from the very beginning, is live right now in charlottesville, virginia. maya, what more do we know about the commotion at the press conference just moments ago? >> reporter: right, so jason kesler, who's one of the organizers of the unite the right rally, decided to have a news conference just about 2:00 this afternoon at city hall just down the road from here. when he showed up, there was a large crowd there. he approached the podium, began saying a few words, but the crowd sort of surged forward at that point. some people going right up to the podium, they began yelling at him, saying go home, murderer, and then they started shoving him. at this point he started to sort of back away, run away from the podium, state police sort of came in to try to escort him out. someone actually managed to run up to him and tackle him into the bushes. police got involved at that point, kind of picked him up, started scurrying away down a street. we had photographers that were following him all the way down, they were attempting to get to his vehicle. it's no

i'm joined now by nbc's maya rodriguez just outside of houston. maya, we see all of that rain around you, obviously, with the forecast still calling for more. >> it is calling for more, and it has been raining like this literally for days now, steve. this is a neighborhood where people have been trapped in their homes, neighbors have been coming out to basically help them bringing their own personal boats to go and rescue people. joining us right now is susan. she has lived in this neighborhood for 40 years. have you ever seen anything like this? >> not ever. never. no. it's unbelievable. a nightmare. >> what is going through your mind as you see people ferrying others out of the neighborhood. >> that's what we are trying to decide. should we get out of here? just bunker down? we have a two-story. we could go upstairs but at this point we just don't know what to do. >> and that is a concern out here, steve. a lot of people have been asking themselves, should i evacuate, should i not evacuate, what is the water going to do again, next, because of al

maya rodriguez on duty in crosby, texas. stand by. we would like to come back to you later as well. >>> meanwhile, rescues of some of those folks trapped by flood waters continue to be carried out by military and other government agency helicopter crews. blake mccoy is on the phone in port arthur, texas where a number of the rescues and evacuations have been happening. deteriorating conditions on the ground in texas. blake, what's the situation like where you are? >> we're near the louisiana border. this is part of the state that was hit with the third landfall, the last part of the state to get hit. and there's a lot of water on the ground. sun is out, water is going down, we're talking about three feet, four feet in some places. people can't get back to their homes. people who chose not to evacuate are getting nervous, even though water is not going up, they've been stuck in their homes several days and are calling rescue crews to get them out. we have seen at least one military helicopter hover over an apartment complex, pull a hal

maya rodriguez from corpus christi w. rain bands, you think you are out of the woods. you are fought. >> let's talk about the good first. >> let's do that. >> landfall less than two hours ago. we haven't had any fatalities. >> that's great. >> that's a huge positive so far. landfall category 4. now, we haven't seen the pictures from the areas of rockport the coastal section, 20,000 people live there to the east. across the bay of corpus christi. when we get those pictures in, that's when you will see what it will do to structures. the other positive we saw there in the corpus christi area. they didn't go through the eyewall. so they are highly inconvienced, but their houses around destroyed, maybe they go a week or so without power. they will return to their normal live, once they get the power on there. they look to avoid the heaviest rain. >> that leads us to the heart breaking bad scenario that is now developing. the storm, itself, we lost the eye. we expect that to happen. we will pretty much ignore the fact that that will go down to a tropical storm. that's not th

alex. >> maya rodriguez, things have calmed down a bit allowing you to continue your reporting, thank you so much. i appreciate that. we'll certainly see you again. >>> on the heels of maya, let's bring in jim cavanaugh, msnbc law enforcement analyst. jim, with a welcome to you, so when the violence first broke out, police seemed rather slow to move in. can you tell me what the ideology would have been there or what kind of preparations they probably had, knowing this was going to be a well attended rally and it had the possibility of very heightened tensions? >> right. well, they're anticipating this level of angictivity, alex, whe you have the klan, neo-nazi groups and neofascist groups. they know what the activity will be like and it's just what the camera is showing you, spraying some mace back and forth, throwing water bottles, just kind of clashes and punches. they have staged their officers to be able to deal with that without trying to overly ramp it up. but now once they have declared the unlawful assembly, as you've noted earlier, they moved in more officers and troopers in

for more on how charlottesville is reacting this morning we go now to nbc's maya rodriguez on the ground. good morning, maya. >> reporter: good morning, phillip. well, it was quiet overnight in charlottesville and again this morning. we're at the intersection of fourth and water streets and this is where heather heyer was killed when that car plowed into a crowd injuring 19 other people. now, the driver of that car james fields is expected in court at 10:00 a.m. he'll be attending via video conferencing. he was here for the unite the right rally that was going on this weekend. 's something that the may -- it's something that the mayor of charlottesville and the governor of virginia have spoken out about. take a listen. >> i think it's clear a terrorism attack with a car used as a weapon our hearts are grieving. >> hatred and bigotry language has to stop. we had many individuals come to our state a vast majority with weapons. there's no place for it in our country. >> reporter: we have some good news. those 19 people who were injured the hospital that was treating them says nine have been

nbc's maya rodriguez is in the lakewood estates neighborhood of houston. maia, what are you seeing there right now? >> reporter: yeah, craig. we are seeing so many more water rescues. once again, i mean, you can see down this road -- right now seems like they're pushing this flat boat, people in it. we have seen dozens upon dozens of people carrying crates, rescuing pets. we have seen cats and dogs and puppies, all kinds of people bringing them out, trying to get them to a higher ground, to a safe area. we have seen people that are elderly in dump trucks, making their way down these flooded streets. it's incredible. i mean, the rain has stopped, and that is the good news, right? because it's been pouring it seems here for days, and it has. but the water is still rising. this was not like this yesterday. i mean, last night people in this neighborhood say they went to sleep, it was dry, they woke up, and they were encountering all of this. so this is water again that's coming from the addicks and barker reservoirs. we have another dump truck coming up the ro

. >>> want to take you back to texas where nbc's maya rodriguez is monitoring the efforts in houston.he latest there? >> hey, casey. we're at the brier forest drive intersection. we have people being brought out on a dump truck. this entire neighborhood is flooded back here. we have seen scores of people, frankly, just coming out, either walking out, coming out on boats, an air boat here that was being used earlier, the sheriff's office has a boat back in here. this is a neighborhood that people here are telling us did not have water last night. this is all floodwater from what we understand from law enforcement that is coming from the addicks reservoir. a lot of that water overtopping the reservoir, far more than they expected with all of this rainfall and hence all of the floodwaters that you're seeing right now, we see some elderly people who are up there right now in that dump truck, some more folks behind them, really they're using any kind of high water vehicle they can possibly use to get people out of these areas. it is far more flooded from where we are standing right here, f

. >> joining us now from charlottesville, virginia, nbc news correspondent maya rodriguez. good to have you with us. what more can you tell us about the investigation this morning, and the woman who lost her life in this deadly attack? >>> a senior -- they don't know if he trald to charlottesville specifically with the intent of attacking counter protesters or whether this was something that was more spur of the moment. they're trying to figure that out. in the meantime, the department of justice has opened a civil rights hate crime investigation into the car attack itself. now, this is the intersection where 32-year-old heather was killed during that attack. in an emotional interview her mother said that she loved heather. she spoke about her passion for social justice and what drew her to the counter protest this weekend. take a listen. >> her entire life has been passionate about justice for everyone and fairness and fair treatment, and you better be able to explain to her why something was true or not true, why it had to be that way. as a child, that could be maddening,

nbc's maya rodriguez is in charlottesville with more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, craig. this is the heart of today's rally. emancipation park. up until recently it was called robert e. lee park, his statue is still in the park and it's part of the ongoing fight here about removing confederate cmon mumts in speeches here. violence erupting overnight at the university of virginia with other protesters. fists flying. pepper pray in the air. pepper spray in the air. tensions running high on both sides over the planned removal of a confederate statue. it could get even more heated today with a rally that could be the largest public gathering of members of the alt-right, kkk, and white nationalists in a decade. jason kessler is an organizer. >> obviously a big part of it is going to be free speech at this point because of the case. it's also going to be preservation of the monument and the right for white people to be able to advocate for their own interests like any other group is able to do, free of stigma. >> reporter: thousan

maya rodriguez has more on where the wind and rain is starting to pick up and how's it looking over there, maya? >> reporter: well, phillip and frances, we have had a lot of rain and wind coming through. this is a taste of what hurricane harvey is expected to bring to corpus christi later today. it's not the only sign of a major storm approaching though. we have had people filling up their gas tanks, getting out of town. we have some of the courts that are closed here. garbage pickup has been suspended. right now we're under voluntary evacuations here in parts of corpus christi that are low lying. this is a very vulnerable spot, beyond that, we have a barrier island and beyond that island is the gulf of mexico. so again a very vulnerable spot for people who live in some of the low lying areas. take a listen to what the mayor had to say. >> we are going to in the strongest possible terms encourage the residents in the low lying areas as they say, get out of dodge. >> reporter: now, i'm not sure if you can hear m over that, but we have had lot of first responders just within the last ten se

maya rodriguez, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. >> want to turn back to seattle where another alt-right rally is planned. the organizer has asked followers not fight back should counterprotesters show up. nbc's steve patterson is there. what are you seeing on the ground there? >> reporter: yasmin, we are in the middle between two protests. right now we're in the middle of the counterprotesters and these are anti-fascist, anti-neo-nazi and antialt-right protesters who are marching down toward a park toward where the pro-trump protesters, pro-trump rights protesters have gathered. you can hear the crowd and there's a lot of anger and a lot of support for black lives matter as they continue to march to their destination. that destination may be something of a clash. we've seen a sizeable amount of seattle police on the streets in full riot gear. they have been ready for this event for some time. these two events were scheduled well before the events that occurred yesterday in virginia. so these are not reactionary to wh

. >>> maya rodriguez is live in corpus christi with the latest. maya, as you and i spoke about last night and bill has said, corpus christi dodged a bullet but it's still pretty bad. >> reporter: why, just when you think things are letting up a little bit, ali, suddenly the skies open up, you start getting rain like this and the wind picks up all over again. this isment so of the damage we've been seeing around town. might have spared much of corpus christi but this is one of the things that we've been seeing. we have trees down, branches down, like this one. it is massive. we've also had things sort of projectiles that we found all over the place. look at this. imagine if you were hit in the head at 100 miles an hour with something like this. this is why you don't want to be outside during a hurricane. joining us right now is texas state representative todd hunter. first of all thank you for joining us out here under these conditions. >> certainly. >> reporter: it looks like corpus christi has been spared the brunt of this. what have you been seei

maya rodriguez, an nbc news reporter. what are you seeing? basically at the interception of marcus street and second. this is basically the heart of the rally area. we're right at the corner near emancipation park. like i mentioned today, previously renamed from robert e. lee park and we saw earlier a confrontation from the alt right folks out here protesting and the people who came in as counterprotesters and basically met in the middle of the intersection. there was a skirmish. people began punching each other. there was some rushing of people, up against the barriers. we did not see the police move in at this point. they sort of held back. there was some yelling and screaming and at some point, it seemed to simmer down a little bit. but those crowds are beginning to reconverge in that exact same intersection once again. it's a very tense situation out here. talking all morning about what happened last night. starting to see some of those in motion kind of come to the fore here and we do again have lots of state police around monitoring the

maya rodriguez, for some it's the only health care they'll get all year. >> reporter: you're absolutely right. lot of haven't been to a doctor or dentist in years, that's years plural. now remote area medical is the organization that put up this whole clippic today. it's a pop-up clinic if you will inside of a high school here, they expect to treat several hundred people this weekend. more than 30 people getting dental care all people that are in need, people that are absolutely without health insurance, and we'll have more for you coming up in the next hour. we talked with the founder about this and what this means for people here in oklahoma. back to you. >> thanks so much. that's a wrap. "velshi and ruhle" next if you've got a life, you gotta swiffer how to win at business. step one. point decisively with your glasses. abracadabra! the stage is yours. step two. choose laquinta. where you'll feel like the king of the road. check out our summer rates now at lq.com. pcountries thatk mewe traveled,t what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dn

maya rodriguez near the chemical plant and msnbc's garrett haak is in houston. maya, i want to start with you, we heard from officials this morning there and we're now hearing there a roadway has been closed near the plant, what is the latest there? >> reporter: right, so we're near highway 2100, texas highway 2100 and highway 90. you see behind me, the on ramp to 90 is shut down. they're not letting people go in, go past this area, this is part of the one and a half mile evacuation zone that has been set up around the arkema plant here. you were talking about some of the ruptures that happened. what is inside the plant is organic oxides. their main power supply went off line during hurricane harvey. they have two backups. those backups also failed because of the flooding from hurricane harvey. those backup powers were cooling off the organic peroxides and they need to stay cool, or they become volatile and they basically catch fire. that's what happened last night. they started to heat up, there were two ruptures, a call came into the harris county office of eme

that's where we find nbc's maya rodriguez. maya, good morning to you.know we are already seeing a lot of people there this morning. talk about the kind of care folks are going to get. >> reporter: well, alex, we're talking about all kinds of health care. health, dental, vision, all made possible because of remote access medical clinic. that is also known as ram. they travel around the country treating thousands upon thousands of people, every year, for all kinds of different conditions. so far today, we've had 300 people registered here in ida bell, oklahoma. but they're expecting to treat hundreds upon hundreds of people before the weekend is out. and among the people that are here to get treatment are ashley and disusty sornnger. thank you so much for joining us. tell us why your out here. >> we're here to seek dental assistance. can't afford health insurance, so that's why we're here. >> reporter: dusty, what made you decide to come out here and how'd you hear about this? >> we heard about it through the facebook program. it's pretty marketed. we've

nbc's maya rodriguez is there for us. with a welcome back.w you talked to people this morning. many if not most don't have health insurance, to talk about the care they're getting today. we're talking about vision and dental, we're inside a makeshift dental office. 30 chairs here. they've got do this all morning long. 30 chairs with volunteers who have come in from across the country. this is something that ram has been doing for decades thanks to found are sam brock, who started this decades ago. thank you for joining us and talking about what you're doing here. how are things been going? >> sluptly excellent. we have a great crew of volunteers, a great group of patients, as always, in fact about 500 of them, when makes this an medium-sized event for us. it's the 873rd of these events. you've been doing they all over the world, here in the united states for a very long time. has the need increased? what changes have you seen? >> quite frankly we haven't even any change at all. haven't seen any changes in either the house or senate version. u

joining us from the scene is maya rodriguez. >> reporter: we are at the george r. brown convention center here in downtown houston. thousands upon thousands of people are seeking shelter from the rising flood waters. this is an area where people are coming in and being checked over. they're being able to get clothing and towels. they're literally being wiped down because they are soaking wet. people have been coming here with nothing but what was on their backs. when they evacuated from their homes, people are just scared. they're confused. they're unsure of what's going to happen next. and once they get through this little check point area, they're coming over here, registering with the american red cross. again, so many people have so many needs at this point. they're just trying to sort of get everybody's information and make sure everyone has their dugs in a row. of course you have people who have family members and kids and pets that are coming in here. this is another area over here where people are able to get some of those supplies. either for their childre

let's go to maya rodriguez. she's in corpus christi, texas. the largest population center in the immediate area. a place we were worried would take a direct hit. you got the outskirts of the hurricane tonight, maya. >> reporter: yeah. ali, in fact the eye of the hurricane passed just north of us. port aransas is just in that direction from where we're standing right now. i'm not sure if you can tell. we have a wall buffeting us. but the winds have been torrential out here as have the rains. right now we're in low tide. that's good news. we have been worried about a storm surge in corpus christi. we can see that it is low tide. of course, that could be changing. in the time that we've been out here, which is about an hour, the winds have shifted in direction. at one point they were coming from behind us, now from the west of us. of course, that's to be expected as the hurricane makes its way on to land. here in corpus christi, some of the areas are without power. right now, we're working on emergency power here at our hotel along the beach just

we want to check in with maya rodriguez, she's joining us in houston. explain to us what you are witne witnessing today. images coming out, in terms of people leaving by whatever they can or in terms of ira raft or whatever they can use. >> people coming by and plugging them off their rooftops and get them to safety. you saw coast guard helicopters going all over the place doing water rescues, they were landing in a parking lot right over here. that's because they're over here in the convention sercenter. this is the george brown center, people are there with their kids and they have their dogs outside, they're not allowed to bring their pets in it at this point. it is serving as a drop off point. also, residence coming to pick up their relatives here because they could not get to them with all the flooded highways and streets in the houston area. so it is sort of serving as a central meeting point if their relatives could get rescued a. it was an arduous journey just to get over here. it is a trip that would take 20 minutes on those interstates. those

>> maya rodriguez, thanks. >>> president trump condemned the violence there on saturday but he did notcifically speak to the white nationalism on display. one line of the president's in particular coming in for harsh criticism. nbc's kelly o'donnell is covering the president. kelly, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, willie. the president did denounce the violence in charlottesville and called for national unity, but some critics, including prominent republicans, say the president needed to do more, to assign blame to white supremacists and label this incident as domestic terrorism. the president also did not respond to questions, including one about the political support he enjoys among some white supremacists. >> we can dem in the -- condemn in the strongest terms this display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides. >> reporter: the president also praised law enforcement, but house speaker paul ryan tweeted more directly. he writes white supremacy is a scourge, this halt must be confronted and defeated. former rival hillary clinton write in sitement of ha

maya rodriguez is at a houston shelter, where thousands have gone. >> we're at the george r. convention center in downtown houston. it is the largest shelter set up in the city of houston. even at this late hour, people are still coming in and registeri registering here. this has a capacity of about 5,000 people. but they've breached that kpapt at this point. people are coming in, with their kids, with their pets. people trying to get a towel to dry off, because everyone who is coming in here is quite wet and cold. they're tired. some of them have been going for hours just trying to get to a place where they are safe and they can actually get here. want you guys to come with me over here as i talk to someone, who is in charge. david brady, with the american red cross joining us now. thank you for being here. tell us what it's like in here and what the situation is, with all these people that you have in here. >> well, what it's like, it's a situation where we've got a lot of people in this community that are out of their homes right now. and we've got a great community here t

i want to start first with nbc's maya rodriguez live in corpus christi where they are braces f -- bracing for a huge hit. ma maya, what are they doing that there? >> the time for preparation is nearly over. the window has been closing all morning long. we're along the seawall and the waves are picking up, some of the water rising up over the seawall. they are expecting a huge storm surge here. structural damage, some structures will not be inhabitable for weeks. that's according to the national weather service. what we of seen leading up to all of this, people in stores trying to buy essentials to last three, four, possibly five days, filling up their cars, trying to get out of town while they could. traffic leading out of here was very, very heavy last night. we saw a lot of people leaving town as we were heading in. even some babies in hospitals, some critically injured babies at a hospital in corpus christi flown out to fort worth to get out of the storm's path. but, again, that time for preparation nearly over, stephanie. we've been seeing torrential rain, the winds have been picking

nbc's maya rodriguez is in charlottesville with more on that.d morning. >> reporter: good morning, chanel. here in charlottesville, the mayor is asking state lawmakers to step in and help them remove the statue of robert e. lee. it comes as other communities with similar monuments grapple with the issue. a 21st century battle over a civil war ledge see. from baltimore -- [ applause ] -- to lexington, kentucky, to durham, north carolina. [ chrs cities this week in controversy after the proposal of statues from public spaces. after the plan to remove the robert e. lee statue, a comment after the violent protest. >> everything changed. shook me to my core. i think the statues have become touchstones for terrorism. >> reporter: the number of confederate statues around the country -- there are nearly 700 still standing, erected mostly between 1890 and 1920. >> it was a period when white supremacy reigned. sovereign governments, cities, states, put up monuments to reflect what they thought of as the past glory of the confederacy. >> reporter: accordin

. >> let's go tack to maya rodriguez, who is on the northeastern part of houston, which has seen a littlet more flooding because of the overtopping of this reservoir. it's just been nonstop, every time we come back to you something else is happening? >> reporter: absolutely, we have had sirens in the background, and helicopters overhead. and now we have seen so many of the boats out. now we have a personal water craft basically towing a flat boat right now, coming back in, but for now, all the boats appear to be out, in the neighborhood, trying to find people in need of rescue, we have ambulances that are being positioned over here behind us that appears to be an area where they are setting up, ambulances, first responders, fire trucks, right here at this intersection near sixth and clay, a little bit north of clay road. and this neighborhood, like you said, has just been getting hammered by rain and by the floodwaters and the people that are in this neighborhood are in need of help which is why so many people, the national guard, the first responders, the volunteers in all kinds of perso

from corpus chris christi, texas, where the eye of the storm is heading, nbc news correspondent maya rodriguez for us. i know you are on the ground for us. give us the lay of the land. how are the residents preparing for the storm? what are you seeing out there? >> well, just within the last hour the winds really started picking up here. we have one of the bands move through within the last hour, and that's not the only sign that a major storm is approaching here. we've seen people filling up their cars, getting out of town. as we were making our way into corporate yis christy last night, we saw a steady stream of cars and rv's getting out of this area. of course, we stopped at a store in houston on our way over here to get supplies ourselves, and we can tell you that there were a number of people stocking up on essential items for three, four, five days. also, no water in that store. now, here in corpus christi, they right now are under voluntary evacuations. you might be aware that corpus christi sits on a bay. there's a barrier island just to the east of here. right now those evacuations re

ma ma maya rodriguez at a shelter downtown where thousands have gone. >> we're at the george r.ion center in hufrt. the largest shelter set up in the city of houston. even at the late hour people are still coming in and registering here. the place has a capacity of 5,000 people. but of course they've breached that capacity at this point. people are coming in. we have kids with their parents. people bringing in pets. people trying to get you know a towel to dry off. because everyone coming in is wet and cold. they're tired some have been going for hours just trying to get to a place where they are safe and they can actually get here. i want you to guys come over here as i talk to someone in charge. david brady with the american rd cross thanks for being here. tell us what the situation is with all the people you have in here. >> well, what it's like is it's a -- it's a situation where we've got a lot of people in this community that are out of their homes right now. and we've got a great community here that's rallied behind them, rallied behind the entire city and they're welcomi

let's go now to nbc's maya rodriguez in houston for us. i want to add that moments ago, houston emergency officials made an appeal to boat owners. what can you tell us about that? >> well, i can tell you that right here where we're standing, tons of private boat owners have been coming for the last hour or so. dropping off their boat, going into these neighborhoods that are flooded, trying to rescue people. joining us are one of those boat owner, two of the boat owner, derek and jenny rowe. thanks for joining us under these conditions. you brought your 18-foot boat out. it's this one here. >> i had some buddies call me and they were stuck on the rooftop and wanted us to help them. we're here to see what we can do. >> we're talking about your mother, your mother is in that neighborhood too. >> my mom lives in the apartments back there by quaker's landing and it's supposed to be getting real high so we're going to see if we can get out there. >> 10 foot under water, people are on roofs. >> 10 feet under water? >> 10 feet, yes. >> you live he

maya rodriguez in charlottesville. lindsey graham. >> when people have driven trucks through crowds in europe, he's called it radical islamic terrorism. he should use this opportunity today to say this is terrorism, this is domestic terrorism, this is white nationalism and it has to stop. >> he missed an opportunity to be very explicit here. these groups seem to believe they have a friend in donald trump in the white house. i don't know why they believe that. they don't see me as a friend in the senate. i would urge the president to dissuade these groups that he's their friend. >> joining me now, ben jealous, former president of naacp. ben is currently running for the governor of maryland. always good to talk to you. i want to get right to your re, an. this emphatic reaction we arer haing from republicans. do you think this, above all the controversies the president has encountered, might be a tipping point for the republican party? >> certainly hope so. we have seen leaders so many times in our country's history turn