port arthur, texas. i understand that you almost were rescued then had to get back in there. you were in a second floor apartment with your neighbor for hours. tell me what happened. >> my husband john and his friend dennis had a pontoon boat they were trying to come back here and get as many as they could. we tried to put up the majority of the children on the boat and the boat wasn't able to take all of the people. so i got off the boat. my daughter and i -- my husband took my son in and a couple other children to safety off highway 73. >> where is the water in relation to where you are? how high is it? >> the water is about 4 to 5 feet high. however, the water is coming from a reservoir and ditch that is supposed to go to the pump house but all of it merged together and overflowed into the entire apartment complex. >> that's incredible. we're looking at video that you have sent us by the way. this is what it looks like. for people having trouble understanding. 4 to 5 feet of water, not just 4 to 5 fee

isht now, port arthur somewhat of a ghost town.he mayor has declared our area a disaster area and so has our governor. the federal government has also declared it a disaster area. there is a curfew in place. , on the 600 block of proctor street, near city hall. town here.st most of the neighborhood has been evacuated. people have been sent to various shelters, different churches, because the neighborhoods have been flooded. my own home has taken on at least two feet of water inside the home. outside my home, we have about four feet of water. it is devastating to witness so many people being impacted i this hurricane -- impacted by this hurricane. us while we slept and flooded our homes. we woke up having to step in four or five feet of water to make it to the door. many people were stuck in their homes. people had to climb on their roof. to a lot ofating these families and a lot of the elderly people that were trapped . some shelters that were open, particularly the civic center, it started to take on water. hundreds went there for

>> that's being coordinated by the port arthur emergency management office in port arthur, texas. they're spearheading that operation seeing that everybody gets out of the area. >> we're just seeing from the city's social media site that port arthur is asking for people with boats come help, a plea for help from port arthur. what do you want? >> yeah. if they have a boat, we want them to reach out and talk to the port arthur emergency management office and coordinate their resources with them so they can keep track of everybody. get them in the area of most needed first. >> is it still raining in port arthur? do you worry the floodwaters could still rise there? >> it's just about done raining. we're still getting some light showers and everything. hopefully, we're done with the rising water. but we're still getting runoff from the north and northwest from other areas. we may see our flood gauges go up some more. >> your message to the people of port arthur who may be listening? >> if you need assistance, call your 911, your emergency management office. try to get to a high elevati

america's largest oil refinery is here in port arthur. it's the only way in and out of port arthur is by boat. they closed their doors because of the insane flood conditions. they won't open back up until the floodwater recede which could be five weeks. the second largest refinery also took a hit. exxonmobil was forced to shut down. harvey put 12 refineries out of commission in texas knocking out a significant amount. smaller amount of crude oil can be refined in jet fuel. drivers will see higher prices at the pumps as there is a squeeze on supply. it can take weeks or months to get new electrical equipment and finish repairs. even if a plant is ready to be open, the houston ship channel is a critical vein shipping crude oil in and refined fuel out. there is a large fuel stockpile. enough to cover 23 days of demand. but officials say this water could take weeks to dissipate. if they run out of this stockpile, that could have a huge impact at the pump for consumers and the community as well. connell: it looks like a river where you are sta

that foot aage from the shelters from port arthur. a lot of the footage is electric po from port arthur. we have flooding. but our shelters are okay. the only problem we have is that they are almost at max capacity. logistical logistically, we're trying to work out another facility. now that the shelters in port arthur are taking water, everyone is looking to beaumont to assist. we're really strapped with trying to get our citizens to safety as well. >> officer, it's so sad to hear this information about one confirmed death in beaumont. a woman found with her toddler daughter clinging to her. the mother was lost. the little girl survived. what more can you tell us about the circumstances there and how the little girl is doing? >> we are now at two confirmed fatalities, unfortunately. we had another one this morning. we don't have a lot of detail on that one. yesterday, at 3:30, our officers responded to the southbound service road on i-10 in reference to a high water rescue where a vehicle was flooded out. the mother and child were sw

we begin in port arthur, texas. folks say the water came in in the dark of night, midnight to 3:00 a.m. and came in fast. this is live in a nursing home in port arthur. completely covered in water. let's listen. >> i cannot believe everything we're seeing here. it breaks my heart. >> i'm so sorry. are these your patients? they look critical. >> yeah, they're really nice. i'm not supposed to cry. i just love them. they don't deserve this. >> very difficult for them. this much water, water up to the baseboards in the hall where you work. >> it's the first time i've seen this before. i've never seen this much water. i never saw this before. >> a lot of these patients can't walk. how do you get them out? >> we usually get them up with a lift or whatever. >> very emotional right now. >> i'm ready to go. >> we have to go. i don't want -- we're moving. we're definitely moving. we're going to the halls over here. just to give you a tour of the nursing home and what it looks like away from the patients. a very sensitive situ

>> i live at 500 naches avenue in port arthur, texas. >> that's 500 n-e-c-h-e-s, neches avenue, port ur, texas. have you been able to see if you hang your head outside, are your neighbors also stranded in their second floors or their attics? can you see? >> no. i honestly didn't think the rain was going to get like this, but all my neighbors left. >> they did. >> all my neighbors that live around me, they all left. but i mean, like i said, i didn't think the water was going to rise like that. because we had went and got sandbags and because the day before, it came up to my garage a little bit, so we put a bunch of sandbags in the front and in the back of it, but like i said, it just came up from out of nowhere. i was standing in the kitchen getting ready to cook and i looked down because my feet got wet and i mean, water was just pouring in through the walls like crazy so i told the kids to hurry up and get upstairs, especially when i started noticing all the lights was on and it didn't take long for it to get up past the sockets. >> let's get you some help. >> i didn't want anybody t

coming to the beaumont port arthur area. where harvey hit overnight. at this point they are looking for any one who may need help. people have put, white towels, or white shirts by their house. in kafting th indicating they need help. we see, four, five, rescue helicopters, the coast guard, navy, other agencies here. that are trying to help who ever needs help. this right now, seems to be the hot spot for where there are a lot of residents. many of the roads in, we can't. they're really just nonexistent at this point. people that are coming, up, telling us the water is cold. that they have been sitting in, two to three feet of water for a very long time. one of the first rescues came up, an older woman. wasn't able to get her medication. but her son-in-law w rescued was able to grab her bible. he said, we're going to >>> in texas, residents within a mile and a half of the chemical plant have been told to stay away from their homes. the plant was swamped by six feet of water. the chief executive expects dangerous chemicals known as organic peroxides to

port arthur is a tiny town.hole lot of water on the ground even though the sun is out and we're a day past the rain. rescues are still going on. we hear the buzz of a coastguard helicopter over us and also just saw two coast guard boats go in. they don't know how much more people still need to be rescued. they did a lot of rescues yesterday but anyone withstanding water in their home and waiting in an attic for help is being told to hang a white sheet out the water to find them. another concern here, if you look past the water, you'll see a giant oil refinery. that is the motiva oil refinery, largest in north america by output. when we hear about gas prices going up, it's because it could be shut down for weeks as a result of this storm. that's the reason we heard the energy secretary today release the strategic reserve to help keep gas prices down. that's the refinery we're talking about. that's the big one that is shut down and port arthur is home to that refinery. a lot of rescues still going on and authoriti

a dire situation in port arthur, texas.als are 55,000 people have been evacuated. the death toll in the houston area 21. the death toll is expected to rise. potentially the costliest natural disaster in u.s. history. one estimate has it at $160 billion. we have connell mcshane with "making money." connell: tropical storm harvey is hammering the oil refining regions in beaumont and port arthur. it's a human tragedy as people have been evacuated in droves. the news came from the port arthur mayor saying the rescue teams can't even get to people in need. port arthur is home to one of the largest refineries in the country. when you add that in with 1/5 of the refining capacity is off line. just a short type ago trace

port arthur. >> pete: as you talk to people, because houston was not fully prepared but a little more prepared than elsewhere. these towns further east that maybe weren't initially in the direct path, do citizens have the path they were maybe caught a bit off guard, or do you feel like the response is as sufficient there? >> i think this was a deceptive storm because it was weak, and then it got real strong. i also think it was deceptive because it's just, it sat here for so long. storms don't ordinarily do this. for those two reasons, i think you have to give a lot of people the benefit of the doubt. >> eboni: thank you so much. stay safe out there. thank you for joining us. we're going to open it up for discussion. lastly, we saw so much of what is out there, is it surprising, talking about the unpredictability of a storm. what storm is predictable? >> leslie: that's right, and as people are looking to go to areas of safety and then those safety areas, those centers become flooded that's why we

back to port arthur texas, the high water rescues continue. reporters on scene are talking about more than 1,000 people who have been taken out today. for a moment the rain had stopped. you can see in the background on the right just above the cut out, more people coming in and then they line them up against this median in the middle there and wait for another high water vehicle to take them. they are staying in bowling alleys and parks just to try to get them away from their waterlogged homes and back to a place where they can get them something to eat. again, these municipal vehicles have been taking people in and out of there. you can see a muddy, horrible mess and authorities, so many are already in the water. you can see one guy starting up his engine there on the back, getting ready to go out and fetch some more rescues. so many people across the eastern portion of texas, we don't know rescues happening in louisiana but we know they did overnight. the storm system itself is getting north up the mississippi-louisiana line. they will get t

will it be as bad as beaumont and port arthur, likely not.o seven inches today. up in the hill country in western tennessee we're predicting seven inches of rain. western kentucky and western louisiana. when you get elevations like that, the water funnels. we'll have to watch those over the next two days. those pictures we were showing you from inside it's civic center there. that's as bad as it gets. it's hard to imagine, they go to an evacuation shelter and now they have to be evacuated now themselves. you can see the pictures here. >> i think it goes back to the point that you were talking about how quickly the water was rising that the folks had to take shelt 34. in a matter of 24 hours it went from being a safe place -- >> somebody was asking me how many lives do i think will be lost in this. >> tragic situation. >>> still ahead -- more on harvey and the impact it may have at the gas pump as we head into labor day weekend. >>> plus, president trump taking his push to overhaul the tax code. details he's looking to make. super cool noteboo

port arthur and beaumont. it's a dire situation as you could imagine. the rainfall last night was sometimes coming down four inches an hour. harvey has made landfall, look at the rain. still sitting right over beaumont, in the orange and down into the port arthur area. the devastation is not done there yet and it could get worse throughout the day. we'll continue to monitor the situation. further to the north, we could even have flooding as far north as tennessee over the next couple of days. even the memphis area, possibility of up to seven inches of rainfall. although we're going to be done with houston, the beaumont-port he devastation from harvey. just so sad that this story won't end. it just keeps going. >> bill, thank you. >>> fast-forwarding to a wednesday, president trump hits the road to settle his tax reform plan. the president will hold a closed event at a ventilation company in springfield, missouri, where he'll make the case for simplifying the tax code. >>> two million muslims are expected to arrive in mecca over the next four days for th

matt finn is in port arthur, texas. not as lucky there. still wet and nasty and lots of life saving going on. what do you see, matt? >> shepard, this feels like a war zone. it's a calamity. it's unimaginable. we're watching as people are being rescued. boat after boat after boat coming into this area of high ground, being propped up against the median here in this four-lane highway. we've seen elderly people being carried. we have seen people without clothing who are shaking. this area now we're seeing boat after boat go out into the water. when they come back, they have boat loads of families, elderly people, pets, children who are shivering. those people are placed here on the median and they sit and wait in the soaking wet rain for a truck or for someone to pick them up. here behind me, you can see a family being propped up into a truck and taken to a shelter or wherever they will go. there are children without shoes, there are people shaking and shivering and there are dogs. there's choppers in the air. there's countless fire, police,

some of the helicopters heading to port arthur, texas. i want to go to port arthur. wright is the head person. jesse is on the phone right now. i understand you just evacuated the hotel where you were staying. what's going on, jesse? >> caller: basically, we were sitting in the hotel, lost power. last night, all of it lost power. there's no -- we'll evacuate and go to a shelter. the problem -- the problem is in port arthur, the evacuation is headed by the cajun navy. i spoke with somebody on high land and all the shelters are full. the official line is meant to call the non-emergency number, but nobody picks up. nobody picks up at 311. ov obviously, 911 is no good unless it's an emergency. being a journalist, i can go into the shelters. if you are stranded, it's confusing. they don't have power on cell phones anymore, computers are dead. it's very confusing and very disorienting and disappointing for the folks really hurting here. >> yeah. as you are saying, right now, you have to rely on local volunteers. it's local and the cajun navy, people from louisiana coming t

we are in port arthur, texas. i believe we have a live picture from one of the -- it would appears to be maybe a cons less sent home -- convalescent home, could be a hospital. we have been looking at this live picture the last five to 10 minutes and we have seen men and women in wheelchairs being pulled out and the hospital beds being pulled out. you can see a reporter there doing a live interview right now. the picture just switched right there but seems to be a drastic situation in port arthur, texas. >> right. we were watching the workers in the hall and in the home we just showed you and they are walking through, you know, cast deep water at the very least and then people at their most vulnerable literally in the hospital bed with nothing they can do to help themselves. talk about people coming together. a lot of bay area people in the -- on the ground, even more on the way to texas to help out with the disaster relief. three members of the local salvation army got on planes at oakland airports this morning, t

>> reporter: yeah, still in a rescue phase here in port arthur. the water has started to go down a bit, look just how much water is still on the ground in this community. and a lot of people are still trapped in their homes. they don't know how many people, they're asking people to hang white flags or white towels from their windows so they can find them. i believe we have video of that rescue that you just showed, 15 minutes ago, that was a military helicopter flying over an apartment complex, airlifting people out of the apartment complex, about half a dozen people by our count that needed help there. we also have seen the coast guard on the ground here in port arthur, they brought boats in to help navigate these streets because look at that, it is knee high on that guy, it gets deeper as you go down. look at streets here, the communities. people had to evacuate so quickly, looks like this person left their pet in a cage here, a dog, he looks to be doing okay, though. has food and water. and all of the streets are like this in port arthur as you

port arthur mayor says the entire city is underwater.is asking individuals with boats to come help with rescue efforts. hillary vaughn is live on the ground in port arthur. hillary, what is the conditions like now. reporter: rain has stopped. that is a good thing. rescue efforts are arriving. air force is out. coast guard is in choppers, monitoring people, locating people needed to be rescued. this really turned into a fine-tuned operation. earlier, last night, 1:00 a.m., earlier this morning, rain started coming down people were trapped, just one volunteer who was here with his boat and the fire department, who didn't have a boat. so the fire department were relying on this volunteer to go into this community in the dark to find people. i spoke to him. his name is kevin van camp from new orleans. here is what he had to say. rescuing people, kevin we were talking earlier. tell me what you saw in the dark and how you found people? >> all we could see lights from the gas station in the background. some street lights and as soon as we got o

omar villafranca, cbs news, port arthur, texas. >> morgan: just fascinating to watch there.crosby, texas, residents within a mile and a half of the arkema chemical plant have been told to stay away from their homes. the plant was swamped by six feet of water and lost all refrigeration. the chief executive says he expects dangerous chemicals to catch fire or explode, and the company has no way to prevent it. so why was harvey so devastating to houston? some experts tell us the gulf of mexico is as much as seven degrees warmer than average. warm water fuels hurricanes, but that's not the only factor. here's manuel bojorquez. >> reporter: harvey dumped a year's-worth of rain on houston in a matter of days, shattering last year's rainfall, and bringing this year's total to an unprecedented 73 inches. was this just a natural disaster? >> no. no, this was a climate- influenced storm. there's no question. >> reporter: jim blackburn of rice university has studied the effects of storms on cities for nearly 40 years. he said when harvey came ashore, the storm laid bare another problem

most of port arthur is flooded. without a truck, you can't make it out of the city, if you don't have a car that sits high, there's no way out of the city. so, people are literally stuck in port arthur. there are no passes to get out. every avenue we use to get out of the city is flooded. to get to houston is flooded. to get to louisiana is flooded. people are trying to figure out ways to get their family out at this point. >> i'm so happy you are with family at your aunt's house in beaumont even though you are without running water. you have a supply of bottled water. we are praying and hoping for you in beaumont and beyond there in south texas and parts of louisiana. amber, thanks so much and best of luck to you and your family. >> caller: thank you so much. >>> the floodwaters are leveling off in some areas, but the danger remains from harmful bacteria to chemicals and fire ants. officials are warning folks to stay out of the water. details on the threats, straight ahead. >>> plus, amateur hour? the man who comma

port arthur is getting slammed. that city still under water. it's home to the nation's largest refinery, which will have an effect on you because gas futures are spiking 20% on news of harvey and that will soon very directly affect you at the pump. the number of people filing insurance claims, up 37,000 have received so far. accuweather is predicting that harvey will be a record holder eclipsing katrina as the most expensive storm to hit the united states at $160 billion. katrina was about $100 billion. i'll had far more significant deaths. better than 1,200. houston's two major airports are expected to open within the hour. united and some other major airlines are going to eventually be operating on a limited basis. but they will be back. this is the longest that we've seen flights interrupted out of that local since 9-11. let's go to matt finn in port arthur, texas where they're still dealing with this flooding. now an important refinery closed as well. matt? >> yes, neil. the largest refinery in the country from what we understand. we've bee

these pictures are from port arthur texas. this was supposed to be a shelter but you can see the place where people went for refuge became inundated with water. the joining me by the phone is port arthur city councilman raymond scott jr. i have to ask about you. i understand that you had a harrowing night water wushing into your home many how are you and your family doing? >> we're doing fine. the we got to dry ground. due to the fact my neighbors had a truck next door. but the water came in pretty fast and we were able to get into the struck and get to a dry ground. so. it was some type of experience, but, you know, my wife and i hadn't experienced before, because a few storms you wouldn't have left but thank god, and we made it to dry ground. we just ask that you all everyone keep us in the surrounding area in prayer because we definitely need that. >> so the mayor overnight posted this message on facebook. saying the entire city, our whole city is underwater. if you can look outside, give me a sense of the situation right n

the news from port arthur port arthur is that it is underwater hits about a few miles out of the cityd that is the results. we are trying to get into the city is going to be very difficult clearly a rescue operation. it is in need right there. where are you. we are in port arthur and it really feels like a war zone. you can see some animals being rescued onto this truck right now we had choppers up above and we have countless boats in the water heading out to the flood zone and returning with boatloads of people. some people who are not close properly. shivering. this is what we are seeing right now. it is a calamity and a disaster it feels apocalyptic. we had watched as collis people have come in off of these boats this is a launch point at this point in town this is one of the higher elevations this is the staging area for the boats to take out into water and then return with people. you can see family members with dogs these people are being rapidly rescued. this is a town of about 55,000 people. likely everyone is affected. we spoke to him a little while ago. he has been volunteer

it's inundating the texas cities of port arthur and beaumont. the floodwaters are rising and sadly there is no way for people to get out. >> this is all coming as rescues continue in houston. the red cross says 17,000 people are now in emergency shelters, two stadiums in houston, the toyota center and nrg stadium are taking in evacuees which houston convention center over capacity. it dumped 51.88 inches of rain in a suburb east of houston and unloading 15 trillion gallons of rain in texas. the amount of water is astounding and overwhelming. we're on the north side of houston near the reservoir that's overflowing. good morning, griff. >> good morning. rescue boats putting in under blue sky, something we haven't seen for five days here and we're on the north side of the reservoir. two dams that were overflowing yesterday are going to flood the neighborhood in and around this area for are the next four to five weeks. expected to last until october. a lot to do here but they're also facing some new problems. that is looting. apparently the houston

port arthur, texas, a city under water. residents at this nursing home rescued from their flooded out building, and look at this. other victims lifted to safety in a blackhawk helicopter. we were there with customs and border protection, and now flood waters threatening to ignite an explosion at a chemical plant, forcing evacuations. tonight from houston to beaumont to new orleans. they are all reeling from this storm. so let's get right to abc's gio benitez outside beaumont tonight. >> reporter: tonight, beaumont and port arthur, texas under water. residents waking up to this. major freeway interstate i-10 now completely underwater. cars completely submerged. in some places, catastrophic flood waters reaching rooftops. >> i'm on my roof right now. >> reporter: families in agony, waving white towels signaling for help. in the last 24 hours, the storm tragically claiming two lives here in beaumont, 41-year-old colette sulcer died. her 3-year-old daughter clinging to her as both were swept away. her little girl, miraculously,

port arthur, same situation, low income, largely african-american in port arthur.t is incredible that this storm has hit not one petrochemical center but four now. corpus christi, , houston, texa, port arthur beaumont, and now making its way into louisiana and lake charles. amy: as we conclude the interview with you, and hopefully we will check in with you over the coming weeks and months of this flooding playing out, can you speak finally on what you are hearing locally in terms of notifications about what you are describing to us and d briefly what people need o understand if they have concerns? should they go to your website oror oth phone numumbers? bryan:e have h had a great wealth off leadedership. i have a l lot of movement m mos and sisters. .e have learned a great deal i just want to take a second to acacknowledgdge the 12 a annivey of hurricane katrinaand thank all of the incredible women who thihisown leadership and regenerative energy that has kept us going. we have learned a lot and what folks need to o do now i is take thesee situations and learn from

look at the poor people in beaumont and port arthur. they continue on the back side of the storm with the rain bands. houston has been dry. we still have another couple of hours of additional rain to deal with. flash flood watches continue. we have new flash flood warnings for the mobile area, these are thunderstorms coming in here off the gulf. later tonight into tomorrow as the storm moves northwards, the heavy rain threat will shift a little bit. we'll watch areas in arkansas, mississippi and tennessee. now we're going to start adding you to the equation. do we think it will be anywhere near beaumont, port arthur and houston? no. but we could get isolated cases of flash flooding, especially if we get these rainfall totals. that's 7 inches of rain in western tennessee. that by itself would call for flash flooding and problems. now that it's daybreak, we're getting some of the pictures from the port arthur area and people are still crying for help. if you want a sobering experience, go to social media, type in port arthur and look for

the port arthur mayor says his entire city is under water.nd officials are pleading for more rescue boats. >>> rescue mission. emergency workers and volunteers take their boats door to door, evacuating people trapped by the flooding. our crews are out on the water with live coverage. >>> death toll rising. as the sun finally breaks through over parts of the disaster zone and some waters

now it is happening in port arthur. trish: wow, so hard to see this i know how difficult for people. looking roughly 32,000 now in shelters in texas. hillary, thank you. we'll continue checking back with you. joining me for more assessment what is on the ground we have texas congressman kevin brady. congressman, good to speak with you. first of all i'm so sorry for everything that you guys are going through there. this is as, as we said before, a one in 500 year storm. how are you holding up. >> trish, thank you. good. obviously there is so much more damage yet and lives to be saved in texas. that is our primary focus right now. i'm really pleased, the president, that has been his focus as well. so his visit yesterday was key. the coordination with governor bab bottom -- abbott and state and local responders has been perfect. right now we're worried about southeast texas and louisiana as it heads into the area as well. trish: gosh, you think about this being anniversary of katrina just yesterday. and i think about about

they did not evacuate port arthur, texas.hose shelters have begun to flood themselves. so the places where people have gone for refuge from the storm, now the shelters are flooding. imagine that situation and what they're trying to deal with as we have video of that. and we also have a sound byte from one woman here who says where do they go now? they can't go home and the shelter is now filling up with water. let's listen to that. >> the water's rising. . >> the only place we could go. god help us all. >> we were also following a pregnant woman on twitter tweeting out she had very low battery on her phone, she didn't have a charger because her battery was out. she said i've been calling and calling. the other issue is there were not enough phones to call 9-1-1. so this family said please keep calling for me. i'm pregnant, and i have no way out of my house. the shun come out, though, on port arthur today. the sun will clear that area. we expect by noon according to local meteorologist there and also, we can tell you the oil r

we are keeping a very close eye on beaumont and port arthur.enter of the focus now with torrential rain in those parts. you've got a 73-year-old woman who is rescued by a group of volunteers known as the cajun navy. team of people who have shown up in times like this, including after hurricane katrina and including the person who is joining me on the phone. john is part of that cajun navy the grassroots team of folks helping to rescue people. josh, thank you very much for being with us here. i understand you're north of houston. tell me what you are seeing currently on the ground. >> currently on the ground, you know, we've got a lot going on. we've got, we've got supplies coming in. we've got boats coming in. high trucks coming in. a lot of resources coming in to the areas that need the most help. >> and these are resources from just regular folks like yourself. talking about government resources you're talking about people in this cajun navy just driving in, boating in to help out, basically. >> we've recruited people from all over and we hav

this morning, east of houston, port arthur, texas, is getting hit hard. the mayor says the entire city is under water. people are trapped in their homes and residents are being told to go into survival mode. and there are reports of an apartment fire. tropical storm harvey makes its second landfall sometime this morning near the texas/louisiana state line. harvey is tinue and so far more than 13,000 people have been pulled from the floodwaters. don champion is in houston. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, anne-marie. some people here in houston finally got a glimpse of the sun before it set last night as those rescues of stranded residents continue, the need in this region is only growing. harvey slammed the beaumont area in southeastern texas of going into that survival mode and start trying to get yourself to higher elevations. >> reporter: some residents are trapped and in desperate need of help. in the city of port arthur, rescue teams are fighting a fire in floodwaters. cbs affiliate ksdm posted this photo and said the fire spread to several h

the port arthur mayor derrick freeman, put on facebook, our whole city is under water.is just beginning for the people in houston, texas. >> whether it's what do you do next? all those people in shelters, they have nothing. so now housing. >> and for how long. >> right. >> how long can they stay in those shelters. can they ever go back to their homes? some of the homes miguel marquez showed us yesterday, doubtful that i can ever go home. >>> flooding continues to slam the u.s. oil industry, forcing america's largest refinery to shut down. motiva is closing its port arthur refinery and won't reopen until the floodwaters recede. that closure on top of 13 other key refineries already knocked offline, cutting a 1/5 of the nation's refining capacity. a major gas pipeline to the east coast is also shut down and that means higher gas price. but they haven't budged much yet. the average only about 6 cents from last week. gas futures rose 13% since friday that spike will eventually trickle down to consumers increasing price, somewhere 15 to 25 cents nationwide that of course is

this time targeting the refinery city of port arthur.(vicki) the death toll has topped two dozen. 30=thousand evacuees are in shelters. 50=thousand homes are damaged or destroyed. and - numbers alone can't convey the scope of the disaster. tonight - we have team coverage... chief meteorologist brittney shipp is tracking the storms path... kron four's rob fladeboe is with the red cross in silicon valley - with ways you can help the flood victims. (grant) but we start with kron four's catherine heenan... with a look at the devastating impact of the biggest rainfall ever recorded in the continetal u=s.. catherine? (catherine) take a look at this picture ... whitecaps on an interstate highway.this is i-10 -- west of port arthur. and before harvey hit ... the freeway was ten miles inland. the storm moved ashore for a second time today, bringing a new wave of misery. "somebody gave me a ride on a boat and it just breaks my heart."traumatized residents resscued from a port arthur nursing home.a volunteer flotilla ferried them to safety."there's

the port arthur mayor says his entire city is under water. an emergency shelter and a nursing home are flooded and officials are pleading for more rescue boats. >>> rescue mission. emergency workers and volunteers take their boats door to door, evacuating people trapped by the flooding. our crews are out on the water with live coverage. >>> death toll rising. as the sun finally breaks through over parts of the disaster zone and some waters recede, rescuers find more bodies. the storm's death toll now up to 28 and is expected to rise. >>> pushing tax cuts. as the debate begins on how to pay for the recovery in texas and louisiana, president trump hits the road, calling for sweeping stacks cutax cuts. right now he's only offering an outline. does anybody have the actual numbers? we want to welcome our viewers around the world. wolf blitzer is out and i'm jim sciutto in the situation room. >>> urgent rescues are under way right now in southeast texas after tropical storm harvey made a second landfall in nearby louisiana. harvey is finally moving

the port arthur mayor says the entire city is under water. the latest part of texas to be hit with floods with rescueers rushing to get to residents as the waters rise. >> we had water in the yard and rising by inches every hour. >> reporter: even this shelter in the city flooded overnight. all of its evacuees had to be evacuated again. across texas, more than 32,000 are now in shelters. even this bowling alley has become a refuge for the state's growing number of displaced people. officials warn the flooding is still worsening toward the east of the state. >> there is more to come. the worst is not yet over for southeast texas as far as the rain is concerned. >> reporter: in some parts of houston, waters are still rising, even after the sun came out. >> around 2:00 in the morning the water started coming in the back and it just slowly started rising. >> reporter: some of the people now being rescued had thought they dodged a bullet. >> yesterday afternoon the sun came out. it receded a little bit. we put everything back that we had put upsta

look at this beaumont right in that port arthur area. this really just picking up last night in the last 24 hours. now one of the biggest rainfall totals we have. 45, nearly 46 inches of rain in that community. that's why absolutely everyone is dealing with it. this is the last 48 hours. it's rushing on shore. you're looking at nonstop heavy downpours from that port arthur area up to beaumont. that does continue to lift north. eventually we'll be tracking this system heading farther north heading to louisiana. this is a future forecast, future radar. time stamp up in the corner. this is now 5:00 p.m. we're beginning to see lake charles get on the back side of this system lifting up toward shreveport, up toward little rock, memphis. this is going to be clearing out by friday, so folks along the entire coast are going to see more sunshine. there's still more rain on the way. you can see this path of very heavy rain. good news is once we get off of the gulf of mexico, not as much moisture there. so areas that still gonna see heavy rain, 8 t

extending over towards beaumont, port arthur. as i mentioned, right now the rainfall still continues in beaumont, port arthur. not to the degree that we were looking at yesterday, with 1 and 2-inch rainfall totals. but we also saw some rainfall totals over here along the coastal sections of louisiana. i counted 37 cities in texas alone that saw 30 to 52 inches of rainfall. george, that -- we never see anything like that. but the fact that we're still talking about tropical depression harvey is still staggering. national hurricane center has issued its last advisory on harvey. back to you. >> storm that just left a great deal of devastation in its path. karen maginnis, thank you so much. just want to show you what's happen hearing at this convention center for a moment. you get a sense of how many people are here, volunteers, people doing so much to help those who have lost a great deal. we'll have more on volunteers who are pulling together to help make sure the people are safe in this state. >>> plus, the man who led the u.s. re

we'll have full coverage of the destruction in port arthur and beaumont, texas. kennedy: more desperate pleas for help as the remnants of harvey continue to pummel louisiana and texas. we'll talk about the damage arounded there. harvey predicted to be the costliest storm ever. how do the feds calculate the damage? do the numbers add up? grab a hammer. time to nail it. beaumont, texas has received 2 feet of rain in the past 24 hours. it guarantees one thing. it will be raining bills from d.c. once the storm clears up. although we are still have much in the thick of the crisis. the bill for hurricane harvey is at a staggering $160 bi. that's a quarter of our defense budget and that could be the starter path for the biggest, most of expensive storage in history. hurricane katrina cost $109 billion. and there is bad blood stirring in congress over hurricane sandy flooding. northeast legislators promise retribution is not on the docket. if the sandy package was bogged down with porky projects, lawmakers have a time to object. this is no time for emotional reaction. re

i don't believe that we're quite as bad as port arthur. we have many homes that don't have any damage whatsoever. but then we do have homes that have some water in them. i don't know of any that are totally covered that we're aware of yet. >> do you have any idea how many of your residents still need to be rescued? do you have a sense or are you not at that stage yet? >> what we are asking them to do, we have a customer service hot line that we turned into a nonemergency call center, and we've asked the residents if they need to be rescued and it's not an emergency, or if they think they might need to be rescued, that they call that 311. most of the people -- unless they get hit later -- or are near the river. w we are prioritizing those, the residents that can get out of their homes, like i said, we're prioritizing them. and also we -- they do know that we will wait until daybreak. because of the standing water, so many of the streets and the canals, it's very dangerous for us to rescue them. it certainly helps -- [ indiscernible ] we sta

he is in port arthur, texas. again, another community there in the lone star state that continues to deal with effects of harvey. deteriorating conditions on the ground in texas. six days. talking six days after this storm first made landfall. waters are still too high for people to safely return to homes to survey just how bad the damage is. i'm going to talk to the mayor of neederland where kids are supposed to go back to school tuesday. will that happen and what else is happening there. >>> also, vice president mike pence is touring hard hit areas of texas with governor greg abbott. he touched down a short time ago. we'll bring the latest on the vice president's visit as well. h a sore back. but he's got work to do. so he took aleve this morning. if he'd taken tylenol, he'd be stopping for more pills right now. only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. tylenol can't do that. aleve. all day strong. all day long. hey richard, check out this fresh roasted flavor. looks

beaumont, port arthur, texas. they saw 26 inches in one 24-hour period. until an hour or so ago when i looked at some of the radar images coming out of the area, they're still reporting mostly light rainfall. now they're pumping. pumping water at the natches river. they are saying that the river is going to crest on saturday. they can't get the pumps work ing until the river goes down. it doesn't look like that's going to happen until we head into saturday. then it is going to far exceed the previous record set in 1994 at 13 feet. it may crest at over 19 feet. this is a true problem that just continues for days and days. just when you think the rain pull the away, it still is a factor and will continue so through the tennessee river valley and into the ohio river valley. and then there's tropical storm irma. could become a major hurricane over the open waters of the atlantic. it could be a category iii as it approaches the lesser an tillets, tracking toward the west, moving rapidly. in is a time -- this is a time that we're sdwrerni inentering hurricane s

port arthur and beaumont, look