scott cohn has the latest for us good morning >> reporter: good morning.e height of the storm this week, the george brown convention center where i am in houston had 10,000 evacuees. that number is down now to about 2500 as houston starts to dry out and people start making their way back to their homes to assess the damage, but there is still a disaster going on east of here the scene last night in port arthur, texas near the louisiana border on the gulf coast, people showing up, good samaritans in boats getting word through social media and otherwise that people needed to be rescued. the scene at a motel six, they evacuated a number of guests out of there port author is basically under water. beaumont, the city water system there is out that continues to be a problem in the area where harvey made its second u.s. landfall yesterday. in the meantime an unfolding situation we're watching closely to the north of there, northeast of houston in crosby, texas. this arkema chemical plant, remember the issue is that they store and create peroxide compound there's

cnbc's scott cohn is in the flood-of a rajjed area nearby and joins us with the latest hi, scott. >> reporter: hi, mike. hi, kelly. the plant we're talking about is a cap called arkema. we've about looking at it all week it's about a mile up the road from here. we know that there have been fires there, and we also know that it is going to be on fire for a while. basically inevitable at issue refrigerated compounds, organic peroxides basically that are supposed to be kept gold they lost power and backup generators and moved the chemicals to refrigerated containers those have failed, and it's inevitable when that substance heats up there's going to be a chemical reaction >> when they decompose they generate heat and when they generate heat there's a possibility of a fire and possible explosion >> now, from a mile off, we have not really seen or heard anything so the hope was that it would be sort of small, almost controlled sort of pops as proposed to explosions, but all they can do because they can't get to the chemicals at this point is to let the fires out. 15 sheriffs deputies went

instead, report the person to the dating site and block him or her from ever contacting you scott cohn, "american greed. ". >>> today you will see the impact of new ownership at whole foods and how it will impact your pockets. the company says they're immediately cutting prices. some fruits, vegetables, beef, eggs, and peanut butter will all be cheaper. don't expect bargains galore if you go to whole foods today. amazon isn't revealing how they picked items they want discounted or how much prices would drop. from the list we have, we're seeing a lot of the organic produce and proteins will be cheaper. this has many customers wondering if this will impact food quality. it's too early to tell, but most analysts say amazon won't want to alienate devoted customers by lowering quality. >>> there's another social media network moving in, but this one has a bit of a twist. it only post things happening in your neighborhood. nbc's chris >> reporter: for lost dogs, garage sales, busted water mains, or recommendations for a plumber, for everything happening only in your neighborhood, there's now

scott cohn. >>> well, it is hot even for one of the hottest spots in the u.s. and the world. the new word that will have you sweating just thinking about it. >>> and when most people go to the animal shelter, they're not thinking about adopting a turtle, but that's just one of the unusual animals available in our area. >>> finally, some good news this morning for folks with v that massive power outage in the outer banks, it's over. two islands that were in the dark will start welcoming tourists back today. they lost power last week. 50,000 folks had to leave, and there's an untold number who had to cancel their plans because of this. it happened when workers who were building a bridge damaged a major underground transmission line. >>> well, if you're thinking of vacationing here, it's pretty hot. death valley just set a new record for the hottest month in u.s. history. the national weather service says death valley had an average temperature of 107.4 degrees during july. nighttime temperatures weren't much better. temperatures only dipped to about 89. the previous hot record

more of it happening in rbob at the bottom gasoline scott cohn is live on the ground in houston with e latest scott joins us now with more good morning >> good morning, joe this is the george brown koc convention center in houston at the height of the storm there were 10,000 evacuees that's down to 2500 at the last report there may be less than that as day light breaks shortly in houston and people start heading home don't let that fool you. this is still a developing disaster we want to get to that chemical plant in crosby, texas 30 miles to the northeast of here remember they make and store peroxide come points that need to be refrigerated the refrigeration is out because they got six feet of water in the plant. within the last two, three hours, reports of two explosions and fire at the plant. that was inevitable because the products are not refrigerated. so they evacuated an area about 1.5 miles around the plant there's the scene as you can see in crosby as they basically wait we are told it's inef vitable tt there will be more explosions. already ten deputies have gone to hospital

dangerous situation stemming from hurricane harvey, fires at a chemical plant in crosby texas, scott cohns there of the situation that's been developing the last several hours. >> reporter: it is going to continue this way for a while. we are 30 miles northeast from houston. they make all kinds of things but they're flooded and one of the things they are worried about is what they call organic peroxide the issue is these things need to be kept cold. they lost power in the plant and backup generators because of the flood. they have moved these chemical of 36,000 pounds into refrigerated containers. eight of the nine have failed. they ran the fuel and so it is inevitable that there will be more fires loo i can the ones that we are seen earlier from the air and potentially explosion. because of that, that's why we are far away that's why there is a roadblock setting down the streets here keeping us and residents out because of the fear of 30 foot or so plume of smoke that are not toxic but irritating that's for sure we talked to some people that came up to the roadblock that include a mother

there's treasury, gary cohn, goldman sachs lobbying we got at that do this the president's default position is to do it but the apparatus is going crazy. in terms of the market impact, scott, they said yes, it is true, gary cohn is the champion for the economic agenda in the white house. a resignation would cause a near term impact. the greater worry long term is what would happen if one of the three generals currently serving the president would resign, whether it's chief of staff john kelly, general h.r. mcmaster or defense secretary mattis, that would open up a national security vacuum and create a risk of a black swan event or something geo politically that would be much worse for the country, a much more grave situation than to say if companies were to have lower tax rates. >> on whether you expect from either your own reporting or other sources as to whether we would hear from gary cohn directly on his future plans today? >> well, of course we are waiting to see if he chooses to speak on this matter, whether he chooses to continue to talk privately with colleagues of his at the white house and people whose advice he's drawing from back in his previous life. at the r

house and as long as donald trump is the president, sometimes we focus on cohn or bannon or mcmaster or kellyanne conway. >> scottlk to you about all of the people who work for this president in the white house. what's the breaking point for them by standing by this president are they supporting racism? >> you know, when you go to work at a senior level in the white house, you actually get sworn in just like the president. you take an oath of office but don't take an oath of office to the president. you take it to the country. everyone i know, good people, believe in public service, they want to be there for all the right reasons. somebody asked today, you know, should we see mass resignations? should people walk out if -- i don't believe our government works well like that. i'm a conservative. i don't want to see people treat our government the way you may see it in another country. that's not the american way. >> scott, the whole government's not going to resign. >> people have suggested mass resignations. that's crazy. >> i think it's a bit of a hyperbole. but if you work for somebody and don't believe in what

cohn premium. the question, as you've been talking about, scott, are the markets in trouble they're not in trouble yet, but there are some cracks starting to emerge. we've seen something that wecht se seen in a long time. several events have come together first and most importantly, there's leadership doubts about president donald trump emerging and the ability to get tax cuts through. traders have been alarmed by the dramatic decline of the small cap russell 2,000, down 7% from its historic high about a month ago. it's been failing ever since the health care bill failed. it's now flat for the year look at this divergence. the s&p is up 8% for the year. the russell's flat it's almost all companies with earnings in the u.s. it looks like some are downgrading in the hopes of pro-growth policies from the trump administration also, separately, a basket of companies that pay relatively high taxes and would greatly benefit from tax reform, it began slipping back in april it's collapsed again just in the last three or four weeks the stock market is not cheap, we all know that, and the leadership does loo

cohn, mitch mcconnell, or in orrin hatch, paul ryan. they are all working on this and hammering about. how is this compared to health care reform? scott's a mix of interesting people. paul ryan and kevin brady have been at this along time. the have years of work under their belt and designing tax reform plans. steve mnuchin and gary cohn are trying to catch up. both come with her wall street prospectus that they do not have a big tax background. mitch mcconnell is more of a technician here. his job is to get something over the goal line. he is probably willing to be a lot more flexible rather than ideological. it's an interesting mix of people to put together a tax reform plan and get it from start to finish. david: what have we learned from the way that the george w. bush tax cuts were implemented and then renewed? what does that teach us about how this process might unfold? scott: there again was a tax cut design really around the budget rules. they had a look at the heart of fast and say, if this increases the deficit beyond 10 years, we are going to have to sunset this. they were unwilling to do the kind of all sets -- offsets to

scott pugh wit at the eps and justice is extremely well talented. and you ask for policy proposals to be staffed appropriately. let gary cohnelp put together the tax package. you turn to done mcgahn who is the very talented white house counsel. let's hurry up on the judges. and then you go to mitch mcconnell and paul ryan and have a summit with maybe mike pence and niek airs helping to bring it all together and say let's organize our fall so that we can roll out sws we did the 14 congressional review act. so i'm very optimistic of a reset of what a coalition goth -- and i've been calling it a coalition government for months. i've used the analogy before as well. there is the party of president trump which includes a lot of people who are never republicans before. in my home county president obama won 60%. donald trump won 55%. they all swichld over to president trump. i think the party of trump and the party of congressional republicans have frayed in the past month. i think that can be put back together again, and i mentioned for the second time watch in this case airs and mike pence. i think they're going to be the glue t

senate republican, tim scott of south carolina, said donald trump has compromised his moral authority with his response to last week's violence in charlottesville. an official said gary cohnposition as director of the national economic council. he was said to have been particularly upset over donald trump's remakrks. he has been leading the trump administration's efforts to overhaul the u.s. tax code. the trade deal with the european union after brexit is desirable, not essential. that is the view of the institute of economic affairs. the thinktank says britain should walk away from talks if the eu offers terms that are protectionist. global news 24 hours a day, powered by 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries around the world. this is bloomberg. matt: thank you. a new survey finds half the german electorate is still undecided about whom to vote for. and nearly 60% of women do not know which party they will choose on september 24 and that is according to opinion research institute. joining us now is aiko wagner, a research fellow at the berlin school of social sciences. first to talk about this, aiko, is that because -- if you are not passionately drive

cohn's future. we talked about what a stabilizing presence he has been seen as parts of pro-business administration and those questions are swirling. >> the fed chairmanship is dangling ahead of him. >> oh, sure. >>> scott wapner, what are you getting ready for in "fast money" we've covered this enough. >> we'll take a bit of your cue, bill and figure out why the stock market hasn't reacted perhaps more to some of the developments over the last many weeks in washington, and whether those days are about to change there were several parts of the market today that did move so we'll continue to develop and chase that story bill, kelly, thank you so much breaking coverage of this remarkable day both in washington and a wall street continues. what started with the trickle of ceos leaving the president's advisory council, edding in a torrent of departures, and ultimately the president disbanding his two main councils of corporate leaders we're all over this story, of course tonight eamon javers is in front of trump tower. we'll go to him for the very latest >> reporter: members of the council said they held a phone conversation and decided to disband the council. after that news became public, we saw this twee

cohn's future. we talked about what a stabilizing presence he has been seen as parts of pro-business administration and those questions are swirling. >> the fed chairmanship is dangling ahead of him. >> oh, sure. >>> scotttting ready for in "fast money" we've covered this enough. >> we'll take a bit of your cue, bill and figure out why the stock market hasn't reacted perhaps more to some of the developments over the last many weeks in washington, and whether those days are about to change there were several parts of the market today that did move so we'll continue to develop and chase that story bill, kelly, thank you so much breaking coverage of this remarkable day both in washington and a wall street continues. what started with the trickle of ceos leaving the president's advisory council, edding in a torrent of departures, and