fred, we showed pictures of a coast guard helicopter hovering over one of houston's bayous in southwest houstonminutes ago we watched a recognizable basket often used for rescues was lifted, hoisted up, just behind a tree line. we're directly right next to i-69 as you're driving into houston from sugarland. a municipality just outside of the city. so very likely we may have just witnessed one of the many rescues taking place here in houston, texas. i took a closer look, an aerial view of more or less where that helicopter is hovering and recognized what appears to be several apartment buildings, a cluster of apartment buildings behind the treeline and where two bayous meet. some of the water you're looking at is known as brays bayou, actually meets another one. this is usually a small creek, and residents tell me, you know, obviously in the last several hours all of that rainwater has flowed into the bayous and creating this raging river that is now the scene of this, what appears to be the latest rescues taking place. we can see in the live pictures, cable is lowered down below. it will be int

where i'm standing is in southwest houston, in a major affair sitting in the middle of west belford road and we're just off the southwest freeway. you can see there in the car behind me came running down this road, to charge these waters and got stuck, just about 20 minutes ago the driver of that vehicle was having an assistance, not necessarily a rescue, neil but assistance from several police officers who had to sort of talk him out and he got really rattled and spoke briefly with the gentleman he worked overnight and said he thought he could make it, he needs to go this way. clearly he can't and that is the danger. you've heard that you don't want to get stuck in these floodwaters. the phrase turn around don't drowned. well if you look back to 2001 at tropical storm allison that hit houston so hard, upwards of $10 billion of damage, 23 deaths in texas because of that, over half of them were because of flooding and they were mostly automobile-related. people got stuck in these floodwaters. there are more than a dozen high water areas playing all across houston right now in the southwes

rising water surrounds an upscale neighborhood in southwest houston. firefighters from the small town of limer, texas, have brought several boats. and joined by houston police officers and us. just a few minutes into the search, a woman opens her door and yells that she and her husband want to be taken out, but can't find their cat. brenda norwood and her husband steve have lived here for decades. they say it's never flooded before. a police officer spots their cat. >> what is his name >> moochie. >> come on out, moochie. >> reporter: there is little time to bring much else out of the house. pets and valuables are pretty much it. the home is heavily damaged. they hope they're able to come back soon. but for now, they board the fire department boat and evacuate like so many other houstonians. this neighborhood symbolizes how volatile the situation is. minutes later, another family makes it clear that they too want out. opening the door of their house, they don't want to wait for the water to get any higher. you okay? >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: a father,

we begin with matt finn who is on the ground among the hardest hit in southwest houston. what's the latest there. >> this is a very large residential area. we talked to houston police and they say this is one of the hardest hit area. they are pouring resources into the area. we been here for a few hours. people have abandoned their homes. a short while ago a woman was locked out with a tv covered by plastic and that seems like that was basically all she had. there are steady walls of rain. we been on the ground for about 48 hours and this has been pretty consistent. as you see, your heart goes out to the people who live there and it's kind of horrifying because you said yourself, this water has to keep going somewhere. it's collecting in this neighborhood. obviously it's nighttime and it makes it much more difficult for people to get in-and-out. i would say half of the apartment are now evacuated. a short while ago on fox, a female vote broke through here and there were officers shouting in the home. if you have women or children or if you are sickly, please come out. will

this is in the south southwest parts of houston. we're just off the southwest freeway and as you see, the flooding that they predicted, the flood warning that goes through tuesday, there's cars coming on this road trying to get to the southwest freeway and 59 south and there's some turning away. we've seen one tow truck go through and another suv, but we're just going to watch and50 see who decides to go through or not. you can see just to the left here, guys of me, this car in a parking lot which obviously didn't expect this to flood but there you go. i don't know when that car owneg is going to come and get it but we aren't quite sure how much water this is but i'm going to w ade in it a little bit for you the old fashion way and try and give you some sense for it, and what you're getting here and we've been listening to the radio all day was the bands and while this storm has been downgraded to category 1, this is exactly what they're worried about and these bands that keep coming and delivering in low lying areas like this in hou

we begin with matt finn who is on the ground among the hardest hit in southwest houston. what's the latest there. >> this is a very large residential area. we talked to houston police and they say this is one of the hardest hit area. they are pouring resources into the area. we been here for a few hours. people have abandoned their homes. a short while ago a woman was locked out with a tv covered by plastic and that seems like that was basically all she had. there are steady walls of rain. we been on the ground for about 48 hours and this has been pretty consistent. as you see, your heart goes out to the people who live there and it's kind of horrifying because you said yourself, this water has to keep going somewhere. it's collecting in this neighborhood. obviously it's nighttime and it makes it much more difficult for people to get in-and-out. i would say half of the apartment are now evacuated. a short while ago on fox, a female vote broke through here and there were officers shouting in the home. if you have women or children or if you are sickly, please come out. will

houston. jamie yuccas shows us the dangers in the streets. >> reporter: i am standing on a side street here in bellaire, which is about 10 miles southwest of e city of houston. and this just gets deeper as you go farther down. i want to go ahead and point out, you can see that speed limit sign. so you get an idea of how deep the water can get, it's about cut in half. i can tell you when we got here just a few hours ago, the water had not gone over the median here. it has now gone over the median, and it is creeping towards those homes. i know further down a number of the homes are flooded. there are apartment buildings where people are parking their cars up on fifth and sixth floor parking garages to try to get the cars out of harms way, if that comes. when we talked to city officials, its sounds like, here in bellaire, water is falling down in rain form about an inch an hour. they have gotten at least 15 inches so far, so more than a foot, since the storm started. we're expected to get another 10 inches today. and i can tell you that since we've been standing out here, we've gotten at least a couple more with how far the water has come up.

. >> reporter: a possible tornadoes has touched down in the suburbs of southwest of houston. emergency officials on the ground are checking damage trying to check on people there. near corpse -- corpus christi, we have problems there. rock port south of where i'm standings right here, senior living facility roof was ripped off and collapsed. the people being brought to the county jail to get treatment. reporting live from houston, abc news, back to you. >> thank you. intense and dangerous situation in texas. of course we've been monitoring the monster storm for days and keep track of its path as it unleashes its winds and rains on the folks of texas. over to chris sowers at the big board with the latest. >> reporter: good morning to you, christy and gray. thinking about where the storm started, 24 hours ago it was a tropical storm. it made landfall as a category four hurricane the first one to hit 2004. and it's been a long time since we've seen a monster to remember like this. there's the eye, we have hurricane warnings in effect for the southeast coast. we have tornado warn

where i'm standing is in southwest houston, in a major affair sitting in the middle of west belford road we're just off the southwest freeway. you can see there in the car behind me came running down this road, to charge these waters and got stuck, just about 20 minutes ago the driver of that vehicle was having an assistance, not necessarily a rescue, neil but assistance from several police officers who had to sort of talk him out and he got really rattled and spoke briefly with the gentleman he worked overnight and said he thought he could make it, he needs to go this way. clearly he can't and that is the danger. you've heard that you don't want to get stuck in these floodwaters. the phrase turn around don't drowned. well if you look back to 2001 ae tropical storm allison that hit houston so hard, upwards of $10 billion of damage, 23 deaths in texas because of that, over half of them were because of flooding and they were mostly automobile-related. people got stuck in these floodwaters. there are more than a dozen high water areas playing all across houston right now in the southwest be

omar: fema and firefighters will be assessing the full extent of harvey's destruction in southwest houston, and fema says they will be here for years. live from texas, back to you. autria: coming together at home to help victims of harvey. larry: suzanne kennedy is live in northwest with how you can help by eating out. ben's chili bowl opened about an hour ago and they have had a few customers in. some of the proceeds from today's tell will go toward -- till will go toward the houston relief effort. we have some breakfast going, scrambled eggs with cheese. famous halfn's smokes. many restaurants participating in dc dines out for houston. the restaurants will pledge 1% to 5% to the relief fund. a very popular chef, his restaurants will give 5% of their sales. busboys and poets says it will do the , theol, del frisco's diner, and continental edges right down the street, will also be participating. the black restaurant group's restaurants which includes black salt, curled dive, and others, will match dollar for dollar up to $100,000. there are dozens of restaurants that are participating, ben

houston there are no major flights set to take off or land. hobby airport is prepared to accept flights when the airlines start up again, southwest is the major carrier out of hobby airlines -- airport and they do not plan to resume operations until saturday. we are working to bring you ken wayne in the houston area we should see him in minutes. online at ktvu.com our coverage continues and you will find the latest on texas and many ways that you can help with more stories about the bay area response to that storm. >> we talk about the airports getting back up and running, the houston astros are expected to play in houston this weekend on saturday with a doubleheader. >> the ballpark is in the middle of downtown houston. imagine the emotional affect. >> you want to see the ballpark get filled with people if people can get there. it is saturday. hosting the mets. if they can do it it is a great move.>>> still to come, a deadly shooting in sacramento that left one deputy dead and injured two highway patrol officers. after the break, how the case is linked to the bay area. >>> the law enforcement community across the nation is in mourning followi

. >> we have come to this area of houston, the southwest part. you can see we are in a canoe. we have two good samaritans driving up and down the street. even the humvee, i think that is one we might've written here. the water is too deep. we were talking to some officers, some deputies who were here to rescue the rescuers. one of their large vehicles, the mass of one couldn't get through in this deep water. look at this. beautiful homes, the water coming up to the first floor. about is the only way you can get here. the high water humvees are able to get in in some areas. the radio that the police officers we been with are pinging and popping. people report, people stuck on the roof, people who have broke their way through, they were stuck in the attic. if you pan over to the right, this is one of the rescues that appears to be a man and a child plucked out of their home, being brought to safety. some of the men we were talking to, good samaritans who run a local brewery. they have a big truck in their popping people in as the police pulled them from the rooftop in their hous

houston and elsewhere. meteorologist jeff jamison from our dallas station ktvt has the latest on this catastrophic storm. good morning, jeff. >> good morning. we're looking at the center of harvey, off to the southwest of the houston area. the heaviest of the rain early this morning has shifted east of houston, but there are still showers developing in and around the city. and that's going to continue to cause problems throughout the day today as rescue officials and other folks trying to get to folks who are in need. the heaviest rain is to the east of the houston area over toward beaumont. the movement will be slow. what has already fallen is almost historic at this point, well over, sometimes 25 inches of rain reported in southeast texas. additional rainfall throughout the day today and really for the rest of the week. you can see by tomorrow, or into wednesday, we're looking at an additional seven inches of rain in the houston area and by friday we're talking about almost an additional 12 inches. that's on top of what has already fallen there in southeast texas with this catastrophic flood as harvey slowly actually works its way back out to the water and curves back to the northeast through east

let's go to matt finn who is in southwest houston which is among the many who has been hard hit by this historic storm. >> the rain has subsided a little bit. the water has risen substantially in this neighborhood. the hymie is a vote that fire members rescued people on all day. you might be able to see there is one fireman manning votes. it seems like they had some trouble getting out of the area. they were given a car ride back to the station. this fireman is waiting for his fellow fighters to return. we didn't interview and they had been rescuing people all day long. they rescued people from the rooftop. take a listen to that interview from a short while ago. >> one of the emotions running through your mind. this must have been an exhausting day. >> it's sad. a lot of devastation. i don't think the city was very prepared for it. we've taken our personal stuff out here. >> you don't think the city was prepared. >> not at all. >> why not? >> they just weren't. there's never any e-mail sent out, no evacuation orders. the magma say much more about it. i just don't feel like it was very p

houston's mayor has imposed a curfew from midnight until 5 am in an effort to prevent looting. >>can wayne has been reporting from katy, texas, about 30 miles southwest of houston. the rescuers there have pulled hundreds of people to safety. in houston and the surrounding areas, authorities have not performed 13,000 rescues. the sheriff's office says it has carried out about 5000 rescues over the past two days and those don't include the many good samaritans who are out in both helping with all of those rescue efforts. you are watching ktvu fox to news at 638 at 6:38 pm travis air force base has troops preparing to deploy. >> the storm has moved out of texas and is now moving into louisiana westmark >>after dumping 51.88 inches of rain, the most rainfall ever recorded in the continental united states for anyone system. hence the problems we are seeing in houston and galveston. you see houston, but basically it's in the clear, and and we will not see any significant problems with rainfall. and the idea is, it has been raining there day after day after day. the heavy, copious amounts of rain, it is over and we have also got back home here. that heat ad

gulf coast towards houston and southwest louisiana. that's a much easier production for gas and oil in the western gulf the storm has significant comings. we'll have to watch that that can be a route much more significant for oil and gas. >> you mentioned all the rain potentially 30 inches and there are some models that said four feet, what are implications on that >> catastrophic. i am not going as far to say that the three to four feet call for rainfall i would be surprised where you have some areas between san antonio and houston and mid texas, maybe closer to three feet of rainfallen in some isolated area. we have a lot of flooding in the san antonio area early in the summer, we could be looking at a repeat. they're right on the edge and austin, right on the edge of what's very severe flooding.

let's go to matt finn who is in southwest houston which is among the many who has been hard hit by this historic storm. >> the rain has subsided a little bit. the water has risen substantially in this neighborhood. the hymie is a vote that fire members rescued people on all day. you might be able to see there is one fireman manning votes. it seems like they had some trouble getting out of the area. they were given a car ride back to the station. this fireman is waiting for his fellow fighters to return. we didn't interview and they had been rescuing people all day long. they rescued people from the rooftop. take a listen to that interview from a short while ago. >> one of the emotions running through your mind. this must have been an exhausting day. >> it's sad. a lot of devastation. i don't think the city was very prepared for it. we've taken our personal stuff out here. >> you don't think the city was prepared. >> not at all. >> why not? >> they just weren't. there's never any e-mail sent out, no evacuation orders. the magma say much more about it. i just don't feel like it was very p

the center of the south of the houston area, still getting rain into this region stretching into louisiana. you can easily see six to 12 inches across portions of southwestuston dying for break right now. i have good news. there is some relief in sight. for now, river gauge operation in and around the houston area. we know how flash flood watches in effect from louisiana, stretching into mississippi because of the tropical storm that by the way is still a tropical storm offshore. here's the euro model tuesday into wednesday. by thursday this will get picked up north in eastward, which is great news, but we could easily see six inches, 12 inches cremate 18 inches, especially along the coast here and not towards portions of louisiana and mississippi is beginning to thursday. the good news, ladies, finally at the end of thursday, friday the storm will move northeastward. lauren: the mayor of new orleans even closing schools. they are very worried obviously. cheryl: we continue to follow the remnants of hurricane charley now tropical storm harvey. houston is the nation's fourth origin city and the city is now shut down. they bounce back from all of this bid

cnn gary tuckman shows us one example of that in southwest houston. s his story. >> rising water surrounds an upscale neighborhood in southwestern houston. firefighters from the small town of this in texas and we go and rescue. just a few minutes in the search a woman opens here door and yells that she and her husband want to be taken out but can't find their cat. brenta morewood and her husband are ehave lived here for decades. any say it has never flooded before. it's shocking. a police officer spots the cat. >> there is is mooch y. >> there is little time to bring much else out of the house. pets and valuables are pretty much it. the home is heavily damaged. the morewoods hope to come back soon. but for now they board the fire department boat and evacuate like so many other houstonians. >> this enabled symbolizes how volatile the situation is. it wasn't under water 24 hours ago now you see what happens. >> another family makes is it clear they want out they don't want to wait for the water to get higher. >> are you okay. >> yeah. >> okay. >> father,

houston. jamie yuccas shows us dangers in the streets. >> reporter: i'm standing on a side street here in belaire, ten miles southwestf houston. this just gets deeper as you go further down. point out, you can see the speed limit sign. get an idea of how deep the water can get. about cut in half. i can tell you when we got here, just a few hours ago, the water had not gone over the median here. it is now, gone over the median. and it is kreecreeping towards homes. further down, a number of homes are flooded. there are apartment buildings people are parking their cars on fifth and sixth floor parking garages to get the cars out of harm's way, if that comes. you've talk to city officials. sounds like here in belaire, water is falling down in rain form, an inch an hour. they have gotten 15 inches of rain so far. more than a foot. since the storm started. we are expected to get another 10 inches today. i can tell you since we have been standing out here. we have gotten at least a cup more with how far the water has come up. that's the situation out here. people really being asked to just stay at home. and not get out on

we begin with matt finn who is on the ground among the hardest hit in southwest houston. at's the latest there. >> this is a very large residential area. we talked to houston police and they say this is one of the hardest hit area. they are pouring resources into the area. we been here for a few hours. people have abandoned their homes. a short while ago a woman was locked out with a tv covered by plastic and that seems like that was basically all she had. there are steady walls of rain. we been on the ground for about 48 hours and this has been pretty consistent. as you see, your heart goes out to the people who live there and it's kind of horrifying because you said yourself, this water has to keep going somewhere. it's collecting in this neighborhood. obviously it's nighttime and it makes it much more difficult for people to get in-and-out. i would say half of the apartment are now evacuated. a short while ago on fox, a female vote broke through here and there were officers shouting in the home. if you have women or children or if you are sickly, please come out. will b

i live in southwest houston ouston, off the -- i'm about of the a half north enough, i luckily used to -- i've lived in houston years and i sold my house mid-rise and so i don't have the kind of problems that homeowners do, in, which isi live meierland, has suffered overflow from braised bayou this time and people who flooded before friends of ooded, ine and my wife's that we know and it's just been devastating to that area of the city and the only area in harris county that is, you know, in suffering. host: robert, how concerned are you about the next couple of the additional rainfall, what are you doing to prepare? enough, being in midrise, i don't have the ifficulty that the homeowners o and what it worries me that we're going to get more rain and rapidly, s down here's going to be enormous problems yet, but if the rain omes down slowly, like only a ,uarter or half an inch an hour it won't get worse, but it won't better. nd this is going to be an enormous amount of money that is needed to bring the and back to where it was i'm afraid that mr. trump thinks that we ought to spend all

right there in the middle of it, derek van dam joining us live from sugarland, texas, southwest of houston where over two feet of rain has already fallen. we know you were up late in the driving rain. it looks like it has not subsided yet. what are you seeing here this morning? >> reporter: it's relentless, dave. 15 million people under the threat of flash flooding right now. the imminent square mileage is so vast. 50,000 square miles of imminent flooding across the southeast texas coast into louisiana. incredible, unprecedented, and historic amounts of rain falling here. it does not stop. you can imagine that it has been a long and tumultuous overnight period for the search and rescue crews, the volunteers. there are several swift water rescues taking place in and around the greater houston area. in terms of shelters, we are hearing that some of the shelter beds have already been filled up at the local shelters. 8,000 people in houston alone have taken advantage of the shelters. 30,000 have bunkered down in shelters out of the catastrophic flooding event that is ongoing. an incredible, un

here with more on all that is stephanie gosk in southwest houston. >> reporter: lester, we have some ant news tonight from the army corps of engineers. they manage and control the two major dams in houston. they he will us tonight there has been so much water so quickly, they will have to do controlled releases overnight of those dams. one dam at 2:00 a.m., the barker dam at 11:00 a.m. this water goes through a bayou that runs through the center of town. to give you some perspective, these dams were built in 1945. they have never in the history of the dams ever had to release water during an event like this. when i spoke with the safety manager on top of the dam on saturday morning, he said their intention was to keep those gates closed the entire time. we're now being told they have to open them. lester? >> all right, stephanie gosk, thank you very much. so what's the forecast for houston and texas in the coming week? nbc news meteorologist dylan dreyer joins me. the hurricane two days past, normally you would be thinking about recovery. we're still very much in the middle of this. >

. >> reporter: overnight we did learn of mandatory evacuations in southwest houston in the area of fort ben county, the area of the brasoria river. that river level expected to be at 56 feet. we're learning about voluntary evacuations in north houston because the water there is supposed to surpass i-45. again, lots of water, more water coming. like you mentioned, alisyn, we're expecting more rain. >> rosa, they sure are. we'll get a forecast right now. thank you very much for all that. at this hour nearly 13 million people under flood warnings and watches in texas and louisiana. forecasters do say the flooding will only get worse. harvey could dump up to two additional feet of rain. cnn meteorologist chad myers has the latest forecast. how is this possible, chad? >> it's possible because harvey is about to emerge back into the gulf of mexico, not very far from where it came off the gulf of mexico and regain some strength. today houston gets two inches of rainfall. the real bogey today is beaumont, port arthur and over to lake charles. that's where the rain is going to be heaviest today.

this is from southwest houston. a nursing home in dickinson flooded by waters. a family member who posted this on social media. and you can see this 15 senior citizens, under water basically in a very difficult situation. good news here, they were rescued from that home by helicopter today. but just a sense of how difficult it has been. just like the people who own them, every business is different. but every one of those businesses will need legal help as they age and grow. whether it be help starting your business, vendor contracts or employment agreements. legalzoom's network of attorneys can help you every step of the way so you can focus on what you do. we'll handle the legal stuff that comes up along the way. legalzoom. legal help is here. my bladder leakage was making me feel like i couldn't spend time with my grandson. now depend fit-flex has their fastest absorbing material inside, so it keeps me dry and protected. go to depend.com - get a coupon and try them for yourself. go to depend.com - i kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. i thought i was

fatalities, it appears at this time a woman drove into high water at warrentown and south gesner in southwest houston discovered by residents about 9:15 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene. we are awaiting the official medical ruling on the cause of death. i talked to you about the shelters. there will be more shelters that will be opening as we go through this situation. we anticipate, again, this is just day two. we anticipate day three, day four. the number of shelters will dramatically increase. the bus service for metro has been suspended. metro is working with us to help transport people from either their homes or from the multi-service centers or from the libraries. either to the shelters at the chun he community center. center point is telling us in the -- in this area, 98% of the customers have power as of 2:00 a.m. with regard to resources -- let me tell you, the flooding has occurred all over. so we have reached out. regards the city of houston, we're operating with 39 dump trucks, high water vehicles. this is from -- who is this from? four from -- 11 boats. then the texas task force one

houston's mayor has imposed a curfew from midnight until 5 am in an effort to prevent looting. >>can wayne has been reporting from katy, texas, about 30 miles southwestf houston. the rescuers there have pulled hundreds of people to safety. in houston and the surrounding areas, authorities have not performed 13,000 rescues. the sheriff's office says it has carried out about 5000 rescues over the past two days and those don't include the many good samaritans who are out in both helping with all of those rescue efforts. you are watching ktvu fox to news at 638 at 6:38 pm travis air force base has troops preparing to deploy.

houston just to the southwest still enduring neverending rain. these periods of rain that are going to come through, we thought it would be good to see the track, the loop that comes around. you see into saturday, sunday, into monday, then it makes its turn, tuesday and wednesday back to the north and that's where we're seeing even more moisture. >> the fact that roads are already starting to go under water now is a huge concern for what's going to come. >> especially because when i was looking at this, i was worried about tonight through tomorrow. it's already happening now. >> yes, so we got to be worried about tonight, tomorrow, all the way through wednesday. >> correct. >> ginger, thank you very much. we'll be back with much more of our extended coverage of hurricane harvey all morning right here on abc. keep it here. you're lucky your backyard theis in the back.lize at lowe's we'll help you find the lawn care products that are perfect for your area. they'll quickly get your yard looking great so you can get back to enjoy it. ♪ all project ha

you get corpus christi in the southwest, houston and galveston in northeast. as you've been mentioning -- >> sean: i don't want to interrupt but important information. only because you've been on my radio program for an hour and a half the last three days, you've been writing me about this storm for over a week. this is important. you told me earlier today, this storm is going to push 75 miles inland. it's going to kind of stop. maybe beyond that. then it's going to make a turn. and then it's going to keep pounding rain. it's going to happen tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night, sunday, sunday night, monday, monday night, into tuesday. how far does it go and what does it mean for the people that are directly hit and let's go up the eastern coast of texas and tell everybody that's in harm's way here. what's going to happen? >> is going to be about 25, 35 miles southwest of victoria. then it's going to turn southward and be very close to corpus christi late in the day sunday. just to the northwest. monday, it's back out over the water to the northeast of corpus chr

that's southwest of houston. already a record in the continental u.s. for any tropical system. >> this morning there are now 11 confirmed deaths from harvey including a houston police officer, 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 another -- more officers at risk. >> now, reuters is reporting a death toll of 17 including a family of six. four kids and their great grandparents. >> 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 1

derek van dam joins us from sugarland, texas, southwest of houston. more than two feet of rain has already fallen. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. in fact, if we go back to june 1st, just in houston alone, 50 inches of rain has fallen. that's more rain than they receive in an entire year's time. it really puts it into perspective what we're dealing with here. rainfall totals have been remarkable, historical. from a meteorological perspective, it's incredible to see what's happened here. and you can imagine that this has been a long, long, treacherous night for the -- for not only the rescue operations but also for the people stranded with the rising floodwaters. we have witnessed it firsthand behind me how quickly the water can rise and how quickly it can fall. it's got ebbs and flows, as various rain bands feed through the city of houston and across the area. historic areas coming from our angles. we've had search and rescue people, efforts rescuing people with medical conditions. we've had pets reunited with their family members, incredible

cnn's polo sandoval is live in southwest houston with more. basically the situation as you understand it? >> reporter: absolutely, chris. in fact yesterday we spent a whole day in one of those neighboring community in ft. bent county, the brasos river continues to rise. some of the mandatory evacuations are in place and continue to expand. houston you find these scenes repeating themselves all over the place, entrances to neighborhoods still flooded out. believe it or not this water has gone lower but that is the deceiving part of the story. the water level throughout the city goes up, it goes down, much of that having to do with what you just talked a little bit about which are those releases from some of those reservoirs, the water released into the bayous, they overflow and end up in the neighborhoods. as a result more people are having to turn to shelters that are already reaching capacity. last night as the sun set the rain continued to fall. those floodwater, continued to rise, alisyn, and you look at the forecast, we certainly are barel

the rain still falling, particularly houston going to be going to southwest of houston corpus christiall how critical is it that he is at least, he is flying there today, rather than waiting until say the end of the week? >> well you know it is really -- i think the people will criticize him so much stress in terms of accessing people who need help the flooding in parts of texas is not even the worst, that will come. so there will be some questioning of why he came early, when there is so much work to be done, but at the same time, this is going to be a long, long, long spell of tragedy of after the rain people rebuilding lives president should come several times he should be on the ground he should be empathetic be with people so it is likely that he will be returning several times the weeks to come, and it is hard to pick a time and place to sort of come into these scenes, because, president was aware of this tweeted over weekend didn't want to come in disturb any recovery rescue. efforts. but he is trying to get in there to show that he is thinking of people doing the best that he

. >> sure, this is the nrg center, it's a massive convention street and meeting hall in southwest houstons the capacity for 10,000 people. it has 900 evacuees, they are expecting 1500 more, some times later tonight. when the doors opened last night and again this morning, some 3,000 houstonians turned out to volunteer to pitch spin way, obviously that was far more than they needed. but one man was kept around his service were definitely required. >> give away food whenever we can. there's nothing i can do, but what we can do is help feed all these people. >> obviously very important task but give us a sense about all the other things those folks behind you need, are they get language they need? >> absolutely. as you walk in right behind me, there's tables and tables and tables of food, toiletries, bedding, pretty much everything you could need. and there is a lot of need here. we spoke with one woman who is here with her 7 seven children at the shelter tonight. >> you know, they know that we have no house. lost everything. we're going to get back but not even -- >> o'brien: do you have a

the center is hovering around victoria, texas, that is southwest of houston. it is packing strong winds just below hurricane strength. but right now the major concern is torrential rain and flooding. the national hurricane center warns there will be catastrophic and life threatening flooding. the governor says some areas have already seen 20 inches of rain and another 20 to 30 more could be on the way in some places. harvey took down trees, power lines and knocked down buildings. officials say nearly 300,000 people are without power. rockport, texas, a coastal town about 10,000 or so, was among the hardest hit areas overnight. the mayor there ominously warning anyone planning to ride out the storm to write their name and their social security number on their arm just in case of the worst and their bodies need to be identified. today, people woke up to the widespread devastation, but no deaths have been confirmed. thank goodness. as the storm lumbers slowly inland right now, this area is facing dire warnings of tornadoes, torrential rain and days of flooding to

to the southwest of houston, a mandatory evacuation is in effect for all of the community of bay city where the rush was on today to clear out ahead of the approaching floods which are expected to affect every structure there, and could leave the community under as much as 10 feet of water. nbc's gabe gutierrez is there and has the latest. >> reporter: it's a race against time. in bay city, texas, a frantic rush to evacuate the senior center, the worst flood in memory is coming. >>> what's your name? >> reporter: monica carpenter told us she had nowhere to go after she barely missed the last bus of evacuees. you missed the bus? >> yes, whatever they had to go on. so, now i'm just stuck. >> reporter: her panic overwhelming. >> anybody still here so i can use a phone. i don't have a phone, i don't have anything. >> reporter: how desperate is the situation now, ma'am? >> it's bad. it's really bad. >> reporter: she ignored the mandatory evacuation order until now. local authorities predict harvey could ravage this town of 18,000 people with as much as 10 feet of water. this is the colorad

we'll keep an eye on it at riverstone and southwest houston. it will keep you updated, keep it tuned. where your gulf coast weather authority houston. >> thanks to fox 26 and the rest of our affiliated stations there where they're helping cover this. we just got an alert in from the writers new agency. total u.s. oil refining capacity has just shut due to harvey, exceeds 3 million barrels a day. that means a 16% of the united states oil refining capacity has been cut off following the shut off in beaumont, texas. the storm has been moving to the east. beaumont is east of houston. beaumont is one of the areas that's been having a lot of trouble today and sandra smith, as you know, the oil refining capacity goes down, most often, the price of oil goes up and usually gases followed by it. there's a trickle down on all of this and we are experiencing it. >> sandra: huge economic impact that could last for days. thank you very much, shepard smith. we're watching houston's largest shelter, it's a way overcapacity. at last check this morning, they took

concrete, a lot of it southwest of houston and it does not absorb water. in league city, southeast of houston, an astounding 30 inches has fallen, and over 2 feet recorded around the metro area. that's enough rain to fill up 448 superdomes. an event of this magnitude, rare to say the least, odds of a flood this bad? 1 in 500. and the geography here doesn't help. rainwater is forced onto the streets, then into small bayous, easily overwhelmed in heavy downpours. buffalo bayou runs through the middle of the city. right now it looks like this. 15 feet over flood stage. a level never been seen before. >> unlike other floods that we've experienced, the sheer volume of water that has fallen is going to take time to run off. >> rob is live in west houston. and the storm is not moving. is there a track tonight? >> reporter: the short-term relief, lighter rainfall periods like we're getting now. and also the tornado risk, a tornado watch out for southern louisiana through tonight. and it's going to spiral in more bands. and heavy rain for houston. the center of har

of texas medical center, a sprawling health complex southwest of downtown houston. i spoke to him by skype a short time ago. of engineering and today, all of those are open, there are. we're helicopters are landing here. nonstop from surrounding areas. >>> o'brien: so you have 10,000 bed in all, we can presume they're close to being full. do you have reports of patients being adversely affected by the storm >> we brought in physicians and nurses, technicians through the ahead of time and we've been on this campus for last five days, day and night. bets it's been quite miraculous to see the number of dedicated medical professional that is have really came here ahead of time been away from their families. and dedicated to serving the patients here this environmental catastrophe. >> to be clear, the staff stuck inside for all intents and purposes >> that's correct. >>> o'brien: you have in your medical city the mdanderson cancer center, many people are outpatient and in need of' of' ongoing chemotherapy. what are people in those situations supposed to do. >> well, agai

southwest of houston could pick up another 5 to 10 inches of rain on top of it.er 50 inches of rainfall. lot of our computers are slowly taking the heaviest rain away from houston during the day today. but too late. >> hard to imagine one more day. >> and watch out for beaumont. bad flooding there. >>> new footage continues to come in daring rescues throughout texas. those images are putting the human toll into perspective. for more we go to phillip mena, my co-anchor. >> reporter: frances, all this catastrophic rain and flooding is leading to catastrophic changes in the houston landscape. i'm at the buffalo bayou here, runs right through downtown houston. take a look at the before and after pictures. this area was one of the most coveted areas of real estate in all of houston. beautiful strip of land with parks and it was set right in front of the houston skyline. and now, it's all just covered, just e immersed in water and it's just astounding to see the stark difference between the way it was and the way it is now. one of the most costly disasters in texas' hi

that's a hard hit area just southwest of houston. >> here in bel air you see the high water truck hyped me. they're icing that right now to go into flooded areas where you can only have that kind of a truck or boat. firefighters that they are about to deploy. the power has gone out in this section of bel air. and this morning the houston police department is putting out another call. if you've got a boat and you've got time, come and help us. people have been coming from all overment the good folks of south louisiana mobilized navy it's just good people with a good heart trying to do the right thing. anybody with a boat who wanted to help showed up here and they have been working throughout the night. >> okay. we'll try to get a boat out here. >> around the clock search and rescue teams have been working to get stranlded victims to safety. more than 50,911 calls have come in, overwhelm first responders. the coast guard has only responded to a fraction of those requests. on sunday local officials pleaded for help. >> i ask for volunteers to come forward with boats and high-water vehicles

another way, his name was gavin, and he was going around to precincts as he went to a station in southwest houston to see what they needed. >> they were down to basically tortilla chips and water. and i said instead of helping aimlessly wander, let's direct our focus and it started out, we asked how many mouths. he said we can't tell you. so we guesstimated about 50. and 50 turned into a hundred and a hundred turned into 200 and like i said, we're up to 2,000. >> and miles, like i said, people are volunteering in a lot of different ways. in really crucial ways, physically driving the food to locations to these hospitals, to theas shelters. i talked with, and road with a volunteer driver, his name was mark austin. and he pointed out, he is delivering food from some of the best places to eat in houston. >> in the last 24 hours i have delivered food from reese, rial restaurant, hugos, brennans, so it's-- d western' not just delivering ham sandwiches to people, we're delivering hot, fresh, best product food, you know, from award-winning chefs. >> tomeka, i imagine there are a lot of other people and a

notice the circulation is now to the southwest of houston, and it's also heading to the southeast, which means it could go back over the ocean water and pick up more of that moisture. and start depositing it in the east texas woodland areas in west louisiana. louisiana wasn't even thinking anything about this, and now, yeah, you're going to be getting soaked. look at this, this is future radar over the next six hours. you can see the reds and the yellows and the oranges moving more into east texas, into louisiana. so the flooding is going to shift more from houston over to places like lafayette and baton rouge and lake charles. and we're going to have ourselves a crisis in the southern parts of louisiana over the next two days. along with what's going to continue to fall in the houston, texas, area. here's sue. >> all right, good morning, everyone. we have that fog advisory we mentioned on the golden gate bridge. at the bay bridge, things are looking good at this early hour. no delays here. no metering lights yet. we have road work out there. let's look at our overall traffic map. starti

a two hour drive southwest of houston about 30 miles in from the gust cost lies the city of-g gulf coast lies victoria. residents and emergency are responders are dealing with the heavy damage. >> 24 hours after >> reporter: 24 hours after the winds subsided, thomas cano is still shaken. >> the house shook. it shook like crazy. it shook like somebody was doing a whip on it, you know? i was scared. you know i've been scared before, but when you can't see it, that makes it even worse, when you can't see the danger, you know? >> reporter: born and raised in victoria, cano and his family boarded up their windows before harvey's arrival and opted to ride out the storm in the home his mother bought 40 years ago. now a tree, uprooted from the yard, lies fallen on the side of his house. >> did you hear that tree fall? >> yes, sure did. i was on that window upstairs. i was looking when it fell. i said, "oh, my god!" i was like-- it's just-- it was scary. it was scary, you know. >> reporter: in another victoria neighborhood, scott koonce and jake lutz clean-up debris strewn across their neighbors'

>>> spoke with a philadelphia woman who now lives in rockport texas, couple hundred miles southwest of houston. the coastal region where harvey made land fall friday night. listen as she explains the devastation in her community. >> the church we go to is pretty much in half. a lot of my friend's homes, the roofs have been taken off or it's just destroyed. >> her seven month old son safely evacuated her home. she's told it could be up to six weeks before she can return. she has no way of knowing whether her home is destroyed. >>> president trump and fist lady melania trump are back in washington after spending yesterday in texas assessing the damage from harvey. made stops in corpus christi and austin. hurricane harvey may require the most expensive disaster response effort in american history. also praised the response efforts. >> there's never been something so extensive in our country's history. never been anything so historic in terms of damage and for us as what we witnessed with harvey. >> the president pledged to work for recovery funding package to help pay for the damage in texas. >>>