we are in northwest houston north of i-10 near clay road. so we're just north of i-10 and intersection of clay road. as we see another person coming here, with a back pack and she was taken out of her home. we'll see if we can -- she's willing to speak with us but this is northwest part of houston and hold on, let me walk over here. >> yep. hold on one second. let's stand back here and let the workers do their job here. it appears to be -- hi, how are you? where do you need to go? i don't really know. let's hold on. is your parents here? they are over there. >> reporter: let's get you to dry land over there. >> gabe, you help them out, i'll bring bill karins in for a second. bill, just tell us what's going on with these reservoirs, two massive reservoirs northwest of houston that have at least one of them has overtopped at this point. tell us more about this. >> if you take the graphic source, weather one just quickly. i'll show you where he's located here. you can see i've got the reservoir map up there, and the reservoir is completely full

in northwest houston, neighbors thought they were in the clear until this morning when the reservoir overflowed for the first time in history. now a massive mobilization of boats, coast guard choppers, even the national guard scooping up anybody who needs to get to shelter. >> just pick up as many people as we can. >> we find a retired texas judge with a spare boat ready to help avoiding sunken cars we take off into the neighborhood and arrive at this cul-de-sac we find three college student who is need a ride out. half their family is staying behind waving good-bye as the three girls are taken b to a high water truck, dropped off with volunteer firefighters and heading to higher ground. dozens of rescues just like this in one single subdivision back on dry land neighbors are convinced it's time to go. >> they are saying you need to get out now. luckily, i got out in time. >> reporter: what's this going to look like when you come home? >> i probably won't have a car. and it will probably just be an ocean. >> back here live, another boat coming out of this neighborhood with more peopl

at least here in northwest houston. but we do know there's still more rain to come and to get an idea though of how the rest of the region is looking, let's go to meteorologist bill karens for that. good morning, bill. >> good morning, phillip. the rain has been intermittent overnight thankfully and some of the heaviest stuff is headed to louisiana. some of the rainfall totals is astounding. this is a huge geographical area in and and houston has picked up two feet and the highest total is 34.32 inches. almost three feet in bay town. incredible stuff. someone has a chance of hitting 50 inches before this is all said and done. of course we have all the flash flood warnings and emergencies through the area, is the river gauges. because we're watching the river flow into the big rivers so we have numerous gauges headed to record flood stages. there was one spot, two reservoirs -- they started a controlled release. because the dams are too high. they don't want them to overflow. so this is buffalo bay you goes through downt

that tornado touched down in northwest houston near copperfield.counted so far 7 tornadoes in the last 24 hours in the houston area as a result of harvey. jesse: unbelievable they chase a hurricane with a tornado. i want to talk about people who try to take advantage of situations like this. there has been some gouging reported. i want to show you some footage of how foxians deal with gougers. >> you made it $3. it's $3. that's why nobody can find water because people like you are trying to make a profit off a crisis. >> people are struggling for water. jesse: there is reports of a looter who tried to intrude on someone's home, shot by the homeowner. >> looters won't live long in texas. the jefferson county sheriff instructed anyone who wanted to loot to take a ballpoint pen and write the name and phone number of their nearest kin, because the people would take care of themselves. we don't want the government telling us when, what and where to do. though we are grateful for the president signing that government order. but texans are self-reliant. w

. >> reporter: in northwest houston. randy gyllenhaal nbc10 news. >>> we have this just in. energy stadium in houston home of the texas is now opened as a second shelter. it will hold up to 10,000 people. meantime people in a town north of houston are being evacuated because fears a chemical plant there could explode. located in crosby. about 25 miles outside of houston. the company u.s. headquarters is right here in. the plant lost power early sunday morning in the back up generators failed. if temperatures there get too high, the chemicals could begin exploding. take a look. u.s. national guard carried out a mandatory evacuation in several towns around that chemical plan. they put out a statement which reads in part. at this time while we do not believe there's immeant danger. the potential for -- is real. president trump and first lady are back in washington tonight. after a day spent in texas assessing the damage from harvey. mr. trump and the first lady made stops in corpus christi and austin. president says harvey may require the most expensive disaster response effort

. >> reporter: we just rolled up with another crew who is going through this neighborhood in northwest houston. we're with jorge and his team. we have a chevy pickup truck that's completely under water. in this neighborhood, the water is definitely going into the first floor of homes. this is near the attics reservoir, which is overflowing its banks for the first time in history. without volunteers, a lot of people would be stuck in their homes. a desperate last-ditch effort piling sandbags in this neighborhood as flood waters rise. some here hoping they can stay put, but most know it's time to go. >> we have to leave. this is not safe anymore. >> helicopters and national guard trucks are joined by volunteer boats. this neighborhood is on the brink of total flood after a nearby reservoir overflowed. >> everybody wants out. >> what's the game plan? >> they follow along as they navigate submerged cars and waist deep water. some neighbors trying to swim out of their block but the family two young children needs a ride out. they hop into the boat with whatever belongings they can grab that the wat

bring in phillip, live on the phone driving through northwest houston looking for evacuees. that is by the way not faa far from the reservoirs we're talking about, addicks and barker. phillip, you've live indeed area a long time. what are you finding? >> right now, first of all the rain is coming down pretty hard now. had some release a little while, a couple of hours in the morning and now it's coming down again. as we've spoken about, last thing we needed, more rain hitting us. yeah, we are -- the goal is to head down to the brown convention center in downtown houston where they are holding thousands of these evacuees. that's also where -- houston just held super bowl a few months ago and that was the hub. that was the center of the whole experience. so now it's being used to house these thousands of evacuees that are coming in in droves. >> all right. what are -- i don't know if you heard the press conference but they are saying 185 critical rescues pending. they have flat bottom boats out there to respect could you. they have got helicopters. how are most people who need

far northwest houston and also nort east houston. both spots. the northwest, in my opinion is a much more difficult problematic spot. the other answer to your question is i didn't do it by myself. i have a boat partner in the front of the boat with me. i've got a team of guys from my neighborhood who are checking text messages, checking the maps. we've got three or four cars, when he bring people in from the boat they off-load them at that site, take them away. there's another team that watches my trailer and the car, because the waters will shift when you're out there and you have to be able to get out. and so, we had some close calls yesterday where we couldn't -- didn't think we were going to be able to get out. you have to have a team back there who can help you get out. that's another message to everybody who's thinking about doing this. the. >> andrew white, we know you want to get back out there and help even more people. we also do know you lost your father former governor mark white earlier this month and all we can say is we know he wou

at and were directly tied to the dam which are too large earthen levee structures that are in northwest houston that have protected the city of houston for the last 70 years. so, we are currently in 24 hour, seven day a week operations in those structures to ensure that they form as designed and they will continue to protect the citizens of houston. we also constructed a levee system around the lynchburg pump station that is now operated by the federal project that we turned over to the local government that protects the drinking water supply for the citizens of houston. mike: any damage to those love you so far? >> so, no damage to the levees so far. in the one in houston and the other ones that we constructed and transferred over to other sponsors in the city of freeport, texas and port arthur. to date we have had no impact in the structures that help protect the citizens of the state of texas. mike: colonel, any success stories? it seems that galveston has held up well so far. >> we have been fortunate here in galveston unlike the previous storms. we definitely feel for our fellow citizens a

houston, chad pradelli, channel 6 "action news." >> thank you. tonight president trump and the first lady are on the ground in texas. mr. trump flew into corpus christi this morning about 200 miles northwest of houston to get a briefing in texas governor, chris abbott. these are the result of close team work. >> they are telling me now your representatives have been in working together it's a real team. and we want to do it better than ever before. we want to be looked at in five years or ten years from now this is the way to do it. >> right now the president is in austin texas 150 miles northwest of houston. he has not visited with victims nor toured any heavily damaged areas. something that grew criticism on social media today. he is planning to return to the area on saturday. >> one of the confirmed dead in this flooding disaster was a houston police sergeant. 60-year-old sergeant steve perez was trying to get into work early sunday morning, unable to get to his station because of water on the roads and tried to head to another station instead. his body was discovered after hours of searching. >> we couldn't find him. and once our dive team got there it was too treacherous to go under

michael is life in cypress just northwest of houston. michael? michael: for folks who are able to get around it is difficult to navigate. we are off 90. five or ten minutes ago the folks started to go past the barricade to think they could get on the highway. the traffic is backed up. unclear if they encountered high water up there. we have seen law enforcement officers directing convoys of citizens. impromptu team of the boat with peoples turning around, trying to make it to those trapped. directing resources to the need in cypress, northwest of houston. >> put that there and wait. >> we just brought this for this. drove from austin, bought it in new brunfells and came to help. >> citizens outnumber first responders. >> we are supported by the harris county sheriff office. they brought a humvee and escort with us. >> there are annoy people stuck in the neighborhood. >> the rain won't let up. >> i'm grateful i have elec tisty and water and -- electricity and water but the rain keeps coming. >> four boats went out but they couldn't get very far. >

see the one tornado warning down northwest of houston. that's a there's a big storm. i meanyou've got rain in louisiana and you've got rain in central and east texas. and as far as the rain estimates this is only going back 48 hours. we're talking 3, 4, 5 inches of rain but when you get to the yellow and white, that's off the scale. in fact, i was looking at some of the numbers locally, 15 inches plus already between austin and houston. and this could go on for days and days. that's why we're thinking rain totals 15 to 235, locally 30 to 40. devastating catastrophic deadly flooding and could take a long time to recover in the areas. here's tropical storm harvey and the forecast track from the hurricane center. winds 65 gusting to 75 and just think about the tropical rains. remember when we have heavy rain you know? going to go on for days and days. we're talking it moves from here to here and little loop down, over the next six days. this thing is barely going anywhere. so this really is flooding of almost tropical satellite, focusing on florida. well, it doesn't look

at and were directly tied to the dam which are too large earthen levee structures that are in northwest houstonhave protected the city of houston for the last 70 years. so, we are currently in 24 hour, seven day a week operations in those structures to ensure that they form as designed and they will continue to protect the citizens of houston. we also constructed a levee system around the lynchburg pump station that is now operated by the federal project that we turned over to the local government that protects the drinking water supply for the citizens of houston. mike: any damage to those love you so far? >> so, no damage to the levees so far. in the one in houston and the other ones that we constructed and transferred over to other sponsors in the city of freeport, texas and port arthur. to date we have had no impact in the structures that help protect the citizens of the state of texas. mike: colonel, any success stories? it seems that galveston has held up well so far. >> we have been fortunate here in galveston unlike the previous storms. we definitely feel for our fellow citizens across

i'm in houston, northwest houston, where we had been diluted with rain for hour after hour. this is only the third time in history where we have had a flash flood emergency. that is what we are under right now. p every 15 minutes our bayous are filling up and when they overflow they create neighborhood flooding and they are in for potentially some of the worst flooding in the history of the city and that is saying something in a city that has flooded many times five lieutenant governor is so different from where you are in some of these other lower line areas which are smaller towns, rockport has about a population of 10000 people and we heard of those mandatory and some voluntary evacuations. you can't evacuate the entire city of houston. is this the very major disaster that you were warned about is that what the governor called it before it hit. >> yes, i've been on fox a number of times in last place and i've had the same refrain that is this potentially could be the worst storm we have ever seen because, harris, i have not seen a hurricane attached to the tropical storm

. >>> and northwest of houston officials say water keeps rising in the attics and barker reservoirs even as it flows over the dam's spillways. t thousands of homes now have between 3 and 5 feet of flood water in them. water isn't expected to stop flowing from the dam until mid september. >>> this morning there are nine confirmed deaths from harvey including a houston police officer 60-year-old sergeant steve perez. he drowned trying to get to work during the flooding. >> we couldn't find him and once our dive team got there it was too treacherous to go under and look for him. as much as we wanted to recover him last night, we could not put another -- more officers at risk. >> such a heart breaking story. more deaths are expected to be linked to the storm. among those now missing a family of six, four kids and their great grandparents believed to be washed away in a van. >> countless others still awaiting rescue. at least 9 to 10,000 people have been rescued in the houston area alone between police, fire and the coast guard. that includes this rescue that you're looking at right there, a

right now i have a house in northwest houston, one of the hardest-hit areas. that neighborhood jeff drove through looks like a lot of neighborhoods. in fact that looks better than a lost neighborhoods have doorways up to homes flooded in areas that have never flooded before. until the storm gets out of here on friday, we don't know, we don't know which areas get pelted with the most rain. we never had anything, trish, reich this. hurricane followed by a tropical storm. this is a texas-sized storm. we're putting forth a texas-sized effort. the white house and the president worked with the governor very closely. states are coming to our aid. trish: that is what he want to ask you as well, lieutenant governor. you say you're putting forth a texas-sized effort. do you feel the administration is doing enough, the federal government is doing enough? is there anything more you need to see from them? we know the president of course will be there in texas tomorrow? >> well, at this point, everybody all-in. every boat we can find is deemployed. every plane, whether it i

video stream from his mother's house in the northwest houston metro area, where he evacuated and is currentlyhere. ?re you flooded in right now at the convention center, there are more than 9000 people. can you talk about the concerns of the undocumented community, inwhich there are 10,000 houston, concerned if they might go to an official site, their papers could be checked, they can be detained, even though everyone come up to the governor, has said that won't be the case. >> the number one thing, thank you for having me. we have evacuated to the northwest part of town. we are flooded in so we're unable to leave, but we're monitoring the situation and trying to make sure our community gets utmost correct information and we quell people's fears. there has been a lot of talk and , unfortunately, a lot of rumors and calls we are receiving since we are in a mobile office right of of people with concerns going to shelters. we find it troubling that sometimes people call our office instead of calling 911 for help because they don't trust the emergency services. they either hear from their family

i'm in houston, northwest houston, where we had been diluted with rain for hour after hour. this is only the third time in history where we have had a flash flood emergency. that is what we are under right now. p every 15 minutes our bayous are filling up and when they overflow they create neighborhood flooding and they are in for potentially some of the worst flooding in the history of the city and that is saying something in a city that has flooded many times five lieutenant governor is so different from where you are in some of these other lower line areas which are smaller towns, rockport has about a population of 10000 people and we heard of those mandatory and some voluntary evacuations. you can't evacuate the entire city of houston. is this the very major disaster that you were warned about is that what the governor called it before it hit. >> yes, i've been on fox a number of times in last place and i've had the same refrain that is this potentially could be the worst storm we have ever seen because, harris, i have not seen a hurricane attached to the tropical storm

suz et, we wish you so much luck, and the neighbors in the subdivision where we are in northwest houston and northwest suburbs of this city. this rain has been torrential. it has been doing this all day long, steve. >> all right, nbc's maya rodriguez there in the houston area. obviously just so much devastation. we will have much more on that during the hour. >>> we will move on to other major stories. nbc news reporting that investigators led by special council robert mueller are looking into whether president trump attempted to hide the purpose of that june campaign meeting with russians at trump tower. last year, june 2016. specifically, mueller is looking into the president's role in crafting the initial public response for his son, donald trump, jr. while aboard air force one. quote a person familiar with mueller's strategy said that whether or not trump made a knowing statement is now among prosecutors. and whether the trump organization made a deal in moscow at the same time trump was running for president in 2015 and early 2016. this is after trump on multiple occasions denied an

>> well, this is pine mountain drive in northwest houston. this is as bad as it gets. step up to the front there. look at these houses off to the right. the water in this particular area has actually gotten deeper. in many areas of houston, the water has started to recede and recede significantly in this area because there is so much run off. they are doing controlled flooding and it is coming into this area. and you can see some of these houses the water goes right up to the top. rescuers have been through here many, many times. what they are finding now is that people who are in this neighborhood who refused to be rescued three, four times are now saying, yes, i'm ready to go because they now realize that this is not going to go away any time soon. the number of boats that are out here by private citizens. we are with one right now who has pulled dozens of people out of their homes. this is kenny and he is kind enough to let us go along on this little, what would be a pleasant ride on a nice afternoon in houston. but it is absolutely depressing to see these homes des

. >> northwest of houston officials say water keeps rising in the addicks and barker reservoirs even as it flows over the dam's spillways. thousands of homes in the area have between 3 and 5 feet of flood water in them. water is not expected to stop flowing from the addicks dam until mid september. >> right now houston is under curfew until 5:00 a.m. central time. 6:00 eastern. part of an effort to stem looting of businesses and homes. the harris county d.a. says 14 people have been arrested for looting in the past two hours. he says anyone in the disaster area faces extra punishment. >>> countless others still awaiting rescue. at least 9 to 10,000 people have been rescued in the houston area alone between police, fire and the coast guard. that includes this rescue of a mother and her baby. some dramatic video of course, that's all on top of the huge number of private rescues we've been reporting on. >> those working to save lives, they need rest and they need to recharge as well. here are exhausted texas national guards troops sacking out on brand new mattresses in a sleep store sho

this is cypress or addicks reservoir, northwest houston.hat rescuers are finding is that they are going back a third and fourth time to ask people who did not want to leave before if they want to leave now. the realization that this is going to take weeks before it goes down is forcing people into these boats, essentially, and getting out of here. so, there have been dozens and dozens of rescues today, bringing people out, putting them on buses and getting them to shelters. the coordination effort has been actually pretty impressive here. we're with a guy named kenny delgado. he and others have been going out for days now, rescuing people. check this out. this is like as normal a neighborhood as it gets, except for four or 5 feet of water. just a strip mall here in houston. there are thousands and thousands of homes in this area alone that are still inundated by water, and it will be weeks before they are able to get in there and figure out if there are either people staying there or perhaps some people have deceased in those homes. part of

>> i am in the northwest part of houston near jerseyville and jerseyville is northwest part.king up here and there throughout the morning. it was pouring last night when we came in. it's, you know, going sideways now and we're under an awning now and not getting completely pummeled but you can see how strong the winds are blowing the rain. this is such a problem because all the bayous and all the rivers and everything around here are just so full. there's no where else to go. we heard about those two dams that were being released. the controls release just to try to alleviate some of this pressure and they're sending the buffalo bayou to levels we've never seen before. bill karins was talking about that earlier. that cannot be understated. that is right down the middle of downtown houston. if they don't alleviate that, there is the potential of having, god forbid, the dam breaking and then you have half of houston, you know, that could be under water. it was not a good -- there's no easy decision when it comes to that. they are putting those homes near that dam in risk of imm

we're in northwest houston, north of i-10 near clay road. to the north of the addicks reservoir, one of the two that had basically been just about overflowing. this morning, just over topping and the concern was what that -- what happened. this community is to the north -- more communities to the south along buffalo bayou have these flooding concerns. as you can see, this is not letting up anytime soon, chris. we're talking about 9,000 people at the george r. brown convention center. that's one convention center. it is expected 5,000, but that one is overflowing. there are other shelters that are having to be opened all around the houston area in harris county and elsewhere. and frankly, this is not letting up anytime soon. chris, just heard from the mayor of houston and there was some, i guess, encouraging news, he was saying things may improve here and over the next 24 hours, and, chris, unfortunately, that's some of the concern here, some of the residents here that are just going through such a difficult time being taken out of their home

he's not in northwest houston. he's in the places that have born the brunt of this already and are in clean-up mode now. >> garrett haake in the briefing room at the white house for us. thank you very much. >>> want to see if we can bring back the live picture of houston where we expect the mayor to come out and give an update on what's happening there. you have been seeing the images from houston on msnbc. dramatic photos. people getting rescued even today. philip is there live in houston for us. philip, you are from this area. this is a place that you know. you've seen these kinds of storms, nothing like this, but at least flooding in the past. can you put this in context based on your personal experience? >> well, yeah, i lived here for several years and this is the most devastating flood out of all the ones that i've seen in recent years. i wasn't here in 2001 for allison, which to this point, had been the benchmark for the worst storm that this area had seen. but in terms of total rainfall, we've already surpa

this home video shows one twister touching down northwest of houston. houstonians are not under any mandatory evacuation orders. houston mayor sylvester turner defended that decision today. >> every neighborhood, every communities received water in the flooding. 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 forwa

houston. i want to go to lake wood for egs, texas. similarly situated to the northwest of houston. mia is standing by for us. it's still raining. it looks like it's raining are a little less at least. >> you know, it is a little less especially from what we saw a little bit earlier. it has not let up. as you can see in this neighborhood, there is water up and down the streets here. joining us right now is justin. he lives here in this neighborhood. first of all, thanks fork being out here and chatting with us. tell us a little about the situation further back in here. >> well, most of the homes are built about the same elevation, and they're a good bit of them about ten feet from taking on water. there's a few that are much lower and have already gotten water in their house. >> have you ever seen this kind of flooding back here before? >> no. actually i just moved here about four months ago. so welcome home, right. yeah, no, i lived in the heights and my house flooded down there, so i moved out here to get away from the flooding, and here i am again, so. >> what's going through you

hopefully they won't have the kind of problems that's happening in houston and northwest of houston buty rain there. we'll wait and see what happens. there will be flooding just hopefully not on the magnitude of obviously what we're seeing in houston. 50's, 60's before school its cool for the kiddos this morning out there. wake up. maybe that extra cool air will help you wake up a little bit morning. after school 74 to 79. we'll have kind of clouds and sun today, much like we've had the last couple of days this weekend but still no real hot temperatures coming, even on the seven-day forecast as well. it's 65 now. so we've dropped a little more here in town. lots of 50's. as a matter of fact mostly it's in the 50's out in suburbs. west of i-95 in the 50's. east of i-95, annapolis at 69, leonardtown is 61. quantico is 62 degrees. so, again, mostly fair skies. and it looks like it's going to be real, real nice. here's a quick look at your forecast for today. clouds, sun, more mild mild east at about five to 10 miles per hour and as you briefly look at the seven-day forecast, we're wet tomo

. >> 90 miles northwest of houston. just about 12 hours ago there was no water here.e, as people were sleeping, triggering evacuations in yet another part of southeast texas. this is the rushing colorado river. rapids now running right through la grange texas into homes and business like cottonwood in. the owner could'contain his grief. everything is gone? what do we have? >> reporter: he came to la grange, 20 years ago his motel never flooded. this its now. we found david perry helping others carry out their belongings. >> about 5:00 this morning. swung my feet to go out of bed. standing in water. well time to evacuate. >> reporter: the colorado river reaches flood stage here at 26. harvey's rains pushed the river to more than double that level. it hasn't looked like this in more than a century. >> we are going to hang a -- >> kim smith fled the waters in victoria, texas, closer to the coast, but find herself looking for higher ground. >> this hotel is in danger. they need to make sure they're watching out for themselves here. all these people here like us may need t

houston. in northwest washington, suzanne kennedy. adrianna: we are on your side with the latest help from home, prince george's county schools are donating 1000 backpacks to do and in houston. staffers will fill them with school supplies and send them to texas. they are hoping to also raise $130,000 to support the students in houston, about one dollar for every student in the prince george's district. and fairfax-based rescue foundation helping pets impacted by harvey. they are planning a trip to the gulf coast and collecting items like dog and cat food, kitty litter, so far, one donation drop-off location and 40 tales send them in the mail -- for details, send you can donate to the website online and 100% of the donations go to the animals affected by the hurricane. help hurricane victims right whichext harvey to 90999 > gets $10 to the red cross and they say every little bit helps. tomorrow, we team up with the salvation army with our parent company and is matching the first $100,000 in donations. new developments about the woman ca

we've got these feeder bands coming in, lots of flood warnings, a tornado warning on the northwest side of houston. the thunderstorms and these feeder bands rotate and there's so much moisture in the gulf here's another tornado warning west of port arthur and beaumont, so a real ugly situation tonight and another heavy rain band with 2 to 3- inch per hour rain total boom, right over houston once again. so the situation far from over and the heavy rains have moved into louisiana as well. that's a big tornado watch. as far as total rainfall since thursday, a lot of areas 10 inches plus when you get to the white, but this area from houston just east of austin here from these carb blue colors, that's 21 to 20 -- darker blue colors, that's 21 to 24 inches. harvey is now moving back to the east, southeast. these are tropical storm warnings extending into galveston bay. that's new on the 11:00 advisory from the hurricane center with winds of 30 miles an hour, expected to remain a tropical storm, hug the coast and head toward houston and galveston tuesday night. finally it will start to lift north here we

. >> reporter: about an hour northwest of galveston, houston with over two million residents could get 20 inches of rain over the next several days. >> hopefully, this is a wake-up call but it could become an absolute horror movie. >> reporter: jim blackburn is codirector of the storm prediction center. he says the infrastructure won't be able to take a hit from harvey. >> if we reach those levels, we could see the worst environmental disaster in united states history and would probably shut down and cause a major gap in gasoline. >> reporter: the storm has already impacted oil and gas production with at least 86 offshore oil platforms now shut down. fears of fuel shortages have resulted in spiking gas prices. hit a one-year high. anthony, the severe weather center here has another major concern. if the storm hits back out into the gulf and regains strength, that could mean a direct hit for galveston. >> mason: demarco morgan, thanks, demarco. scott padgett is chief meteorologist at our cbs station in dallas-fort worth, ktvt. scott. >> anthony, we are continuing to track hurricane harv

. >> northwest of houston officials say water keeps rising in the addicks and barker reservoirs.sands of homes in the area now have between three and five feet of flood water in them. water isn't expected to stop flowing from the addicks dam until mid-september. >> this morning there are nine confirmed deaths from harvey including a houston police officer. a 60-year-old sergeant steve perez. he drowned trying to get to work during the flood. >> we couldn't find him. and once our dive team got there it was too treacherous to go under and look for him as much as we wanted to recover him last night we could not put more officers at risk for what we knew in our hearts was going to be a recovery mission. >> heart breaking. more deaths are expected to be linked to this. now missing a family of six, four kids and great grandparents washed away in a van reported zbli countless others still awaiting rescue. officials say at least nine to ten thousand people rescued in the yust area alone between the police fire and coast guard. that include this is rescue of a mother and her baby. of cour

a northwest of houston has reportedly burst into flames as a result of what is now tropical depressionfacility has been without power and its backup generators since harvey struck. the loss of power left the plant without a cooling system for the chemicals. >> meanwhile the death toll from harvey now stands at 31. fox's doug luzader is live in houston now with the very latest. doug. >> reporter: good morning and i will start with that chemical plant. this is something that we knew was likely to happen. the company that runs the plant warned officials that if these chemicals were not kept cool, that they could actually explode saying it was just a matter of time. they evacuated the area around that plant and there are reports this morning of explosions. now, we don't know how big the explosions were, we don't know if anyone was injured, we don't know whether there will be additional evacuations but this had been a point of concern because they had lost power at this plant and backup generators had failed asel for, you know, emergency response teams to deal with here in the aftermath of

up in northwest of houston area, we were seeing tornadoes.gs on and off. flooding, that's really going to to be the big concern here. we saw a bunch of rain this morning. over or the next few days 15 to 0 inches, possibly up to 40 inches of rain in some areas, flooding streets. there was an area downtown galveston, a historic district which all of the streets were flooded. the drains were slowly getting rid of it, but the rain is supposed to hit us in another hour or two dropping another inch or two more tonight,3-5 inches tomorrow, so this area will definitely be dealing with that flooding. now folks here, this is how folks we have seen didn't seem so concerned about the flooding. we saw people outside driving through some of this 6-inch or more flood waters. we saw people walking their dogs through the flood waters. that is not advised. authorities here are asking people not to do that because they could get their cars stuck, obviously, they don't know what is in that water. folks should be very careful. now here in galveston tonight even t

houston. again, we're on the northwest side north of i-10 near the reservoir on the north side. the concern is on the south side of the reservoir, what is going to happen with those neighborhoods along buffalo bay yu. this is an unfolding disaster here. back to you. >> it's an unbelievable per spektdi inspective on the ground. those folks you talked to in the beginning, that woman who was with her pets, walking out with her family. saying the water is still flowing into her home. that seems to be the big issue, given that we're seeing for example that dam, that reservoir breaching its banks overflowing putting more people at risk. >> yeah, that's exactly right, hallie. i'm going to try to walk around here but i'm very careful to figure out where i can step. we see those evacuees right there. the woman we spoke with, she had 1 10 inches in her home and another neighborhood we were just at we had spoken with several residents debating whether or not to leave. that neighborhood was under a voluntary evacuation. many of them say this has never happened before. they say this is an ar

right now three texas prisons near houston, that's northwest of galveston, are evacuating in anticipationising floodwaters. the texas department of criminal justice is moving more than 4,000 inmates to facilities in east texas. and we're continuing to follow tropical storm harvey as it churns over south texas drenching parts of the state. texas governor abbott -- greg abbott has declared a disaster in 50 counties. and he says as of yet there are no fatalities from that monster storm. and on the ground we're hearing horror stories from the path of harvey. >> this is like 2:30 this morning and i just heard a loud noise. and i had my grandson. whatever he learned in school he was prepared because he ran into the closet and he had his hand above his head like this and he was in a fetal position. i'm so proud of him. and then we ran out and we went under the steps because there's a coat closet. >> it was crazy. it was like -- i was scared when i heard it outside. >> yeah, she was telling me sounded like who's out driving in this weather. i'm like, baby, ain't nobody driving out there. and then

main highway, highway 71 which cuts through town is shut down in parts because of the part northwest of houston, about 90 miles actually is that the forecast is expected to cooperate over the next several days. that is the rain is supposed to taper off, giving this possibly a chance to start to subside but the river is not expected to be below flood stage here until at least friday. >> incredible pictures there. thank you so much. >>> president trump is coming to texas in a few hours. he promised yesterday that storm victims will get all the help that they need. >> right now the single most important thing is the safety and security of those still in harm's way including the first responders protecting the lives of our people is my highest priority. every asset at my command is at the disposal of local officials. >> major garrett is at the white house with the president's plans for today's visit. major, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. president trump faces the first great natural disaster of his presidency, possibly one of the worst in american history and the multiple task of rescue o

spoke we did see a car trying to make a way down here down this neighborhood street on the northwest side of houstonhen pause and thought better of it. we were glad to see that because that's how so many people have gotten into trouble and how you see those high water rescues. especially in the overnight hours in the dark like right now. i can tell you just for us for my photographer and i to get to this spot we had to find another way when we would hit a barrier because there are so many roads that are impassable still because of these high water crossings here. you just don't know exactly where they're going to be or if you know whether something is shallow enough to cross. just a few blocks from us is the white oak bayou that has overflooded and that's cauove overflowed. you have heard so much about the rescues from the sheriff's office, but not oonl that, those numbers don't even count the regular folks who have just jumped in to their own boats. some people just got into neighborhoods to see where they could help in the past 12 hours we got into an inflatable boat with the man who said he just

this much where we have been, pretty much everywhere from just south of houston, we were in bay town which is slightly northwest of houston -- northeast of houston today to here. you're driving along, and there's a car in ten feet of water or a gas station under water. i showed those pictures earlier. i don't know where the people would go that's the problem the roads are getting blocked and if we're getting more rain like they say we're going to get and i hope we don't. it's not colleagues, sara, where all those people would go anywhere that's the problem the airports are close asked, and a lot of the roads are closed >> yeah. good point nobody expected the rainfall to be this relentless i think and to last this long. still not peaking. >> reporter: what did i hear -- >> we'll see you the next hour >> i was going to say houston airport got 16 inches of rain. the previous record was 8 inches, think about it doubled it. >> brian, outstanding stuff. thank you very much. brian sullivan for us in texas let's talk more about the impact on gasoline and also the refineries joining us now is anthony grisanti and on the

what we are watching near houston, northwest of there where there is lightning moving in is where we're but if you look at the radius of how big this is. we measured out to just be 150 miles so any direction from the storm, you will run into rain and this is not just tonight. we're looking at that for self days. so again looking at rainfall totals, because that is the only thing that has changed, positioning hasn't changed and the winds have gone down a little bit but really it is the rain totals that are going up as we speak. houston about four inches. for you in austwell, and victoria slammed and look as that to multiply into wednesday of this week. that is how much we're expecting in terms of the rain. so taking a look at some of the rain totals for you to get an idea of where we stand, in galveston from friday, about 7 inches of rain since yesterday. looking at -- since august 1st, the beginning of the month, at 10.61 inches and average rainfall annually about 50.76 so that means we are one fifth of the way already and in the next five days or so we might be close to the annual rain

from hurricane harvey spiking currently causing some issues with a power plant about 25 miles northwest of houston area and that's where we find scott cohen reported on this alarming development at the chemical factory what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, we are still monitoring this as you said, we're about 20, 30 miles outside of houston in the town of crosby as you can see, this is as close as they are allowing us to get to the arkema chemical plant what happened is that plant, that area flooded. they got a whole bunch of water which we'll show in a moment this is the view from above. what happens is when the power goes out the refrigeration goes out. if some of these chemicals and peroxides are not refridge rated, they will decompose and catch fire and potentially ultimately explode a couple of tanks have ruptured and all they can do, you look at the view from above. all they can do is let the fires burn themselves out. there were nine refridge rate ated containers in anticipation of the flooding, eight of the nine at last report have failed. ninth is likely to go any time soon that makes

houston area. there's the circulation. still going northwest of victoria. east of san antonio. barely moving. that's a big problem because we have a ban that is barely moving coming in west of galveston, right over houston. they have a flash flood emergency right now. some of the rain fall rates here have been 3, 4, 5 inches an hour. where these bands end up and go causing havoc. the rain, some of the heavy ones into louisiana, parts of south southwest louisiana had their an nualrain fall and it's late august. they don't have any room for anymore water. this rain fall, prolific. check out these numbers here. a lot of us had four, five, 10, 12, 17 inches of rain. it's off the chart here. i've been checking some of these numbers. between austin and houston. a foot and a half and those numbers could double. as far as harvey, 50-mile an hour winds right around the center. but the problem is, it's barely moving, east, northeast at 1 mile an hourment hour. i don't know how they measure that. and look at the forecast of this thing. it's going to drop south and then it's going to make a turn to the no

northwest, extremely slowly. only 6 miles per hour so it's crawling essential. right now situated 135 miles per hour southwest of houston, there's the center of circulation drifting off to the northwest. because there's no steering flow aloft the storm will sit here and spin for the next several days. some areas could pick up to 20 to 30 inches of rain with isolated heavier amounts up to 40 inches of rain. we'll give you an prospective of how much water there is, some areas could see an year's worth of rain from this storm. we see the cloud tops spike as high as 50,000 feet we're seeing the heaviest thunderstorms. we're seeing the eye close a little bit which is a sign the storm is weakening. the national hurricane center is using the word they use in 2005 when hurricane katrina struck new orleans. catastrophic flooding extended power outages and homes and neighborhoods could see roof and wall failures. neighborhoods could be uninhabitable for weeks if not months. when i come back i'll have more on hurricane harvey and the exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast. >> hurricane harvey has weakens since it hit south texas

houston. of course, we continue with fires in the west with a very dry, hot summer, and the smoke is a big issue today in the northweston area. that's where we have five inches of rain in at least one location last night. flash flood warning continues. mostly from the city west. anyone traveling this region, there's going to be a lot of water on the roadways. a slow morning commute. the northeast, we had the heavy rain yesterday. still leftover rain in between norfolk and virginia beach. that will be exiting. a lot of clouds early today, and then we'll clear the clouds out this afternoon for a nice finish to your tuesday. >>> i want you to notice seattle today. 88 degrees. now, so far this month seattle has been warmer than new orleans, and today they're going to be about even. we're going to seattle for a very impressive record today. there's about zero chance of rainfall, and you think of seattle, you think of cloudy, kind of rainy, cool days. well, this is going to be their 52nd day in a row with no rain recorded in the city. that breaks their old record of 51 days in a row, so very impressive stuff. not only is it