Host its monday, the texas gulf coast is in for more rain and devastating flooding this water as the remnants of Hurricane Harvey continue to badger the region. Yesterday the National Weather service summed up the historic nature of the storm tweeting out events are unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced. Were turning over our phones to you so that you can talk about the impact of the storm, the efforts of the federal, state, and civilian responders. In the eastern or central time 2027488000. Mountain or pacific time zone, 2027488001 f. Youre a texas resident, a special line for ou this morning, 2027488002. On twitter, its cspanwj. On facebook, its facebook. Com cspan. Very good monday morning to you. Were talking about Hurricane Harvey and turning our phones over to you this morning to give you a sense, a chance to talk about the impact, the response that youre seeing on tv, in the newspapers, on twitter, want to make this a forum for you this morning. Again, the phone lines, and you can start calling in now if youre in the eastern or central time zones, 2027488000. If youre in the mountain or pacific time zones, 2027488001. Special line for texas residents this morning, 2027488002. To want show you some of the images that americans are waking up to this morning. On the front pages of their newspapers, and as we do, well tell you some of the statistics that are contained in those newspapers. They give you a scope of the situation thats underway in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. As of sunday afternoon, it dumped an estimated nine trillion gallons of water over Southeast Texas. Thats enough to fill up the Great Salt Lake twice over, and an additional 25 inches of rain are expected this week. Just saturday night, 911 operators had received more than 56,000 phone calls while First Responders performed more than 3,000 russ accuse across rescues across houston and the outlying areas. Houston itself, a sprawling city that covers an area larger than manhattan, chicago, philadelphia, and San Francisco combined. Show you the front page of the New York Times this morning, the picture there, some of the flooding in houston. More than 1800 federal Management Emergency Agency staff have been deployed to the region, along with 3,000 members of the Texas National guard and the texas guard. Another 1,000 guard members are expected to be on the way today, and, of course, the other stat this morning, the most tragic stat of all reported five dead as a result of the flooding. Those are some of the statistics, some of the front pages that americans are waking up to this morning. Want to give you a chance to talk about the storm. Phone lines are open to do it. Joe this morning, bradenton, florida. Joe, go ahead. Caller yes, good morning, sir. I want to say its time for the republican politicians to realize the change, Hurricane Harvey is a excellent, perfect example. Like ted cruz, they and many want to ns, they dont help the american people, but when its time when something happens for real, like Hurricane Harvey, now theyre acting like they do care, like we need money from the federal government. But these are the same people, like ted cruz is an excellent, perfect example, that he doesnt want money from government, they want government small so they can do many illegal things. Well, this is time to realize that Climate Change is real, its not fake like our president is fake, and thats it, thank you. Host should note, at this hour, federal Emergency ManagementAgency Holding a press conference. Well give you some of the updated news from that this morning. As thats going on, this is your forum to call in to talk about the storm, the devastation, the response. Its 2027488000 if youre in the eastern or central time zones. 2027488001 if youre in the mountain or pacific time zones. 2027488002 if youre a resident of texas. Arnold is in tennessee. Arnold, good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host good. O ahead. Caller before i start, why were you late starting this morning . Host we had trouble this morning, but figured it out, and wanted to be up as soon as possible for you, arnold, so apologize for that, but go ahead. Caller yeah, thats fine. I was just curious. Have you seen al gores an Inconvenient Truth . Host tell viewers about it who havent seen it, arnold. Caller well, thats his old movie. Its called an Inconvenient Truth. I just went to see his new movie called an inconvenient sequel speaking truth to power, or just truth to power. He explains in his sequel why were having such heavy rainfall. Ive noticed, you know, at any house, the rain drops now seem much larger than they used to be, and when it rains, it just pours. And he explains that the heating of the oceans is causing the condensation to rise more into the atmosphere, and then it comes on land and just falls. I would suggest everyone go see this, at an inconvenient sequel. We still have time to effect climate, but we have to do some things in order to be effective. We have to stop the burning fossil fuels, and there are ways to do this, but the fossil fuel companies are dead set against us cutting into their bottom line. But theyre going to have to step aside. The future of the human race on this planet, the future of all surfacedwelling species is dependent on the Oil Companies and the coal companies, the fossil fuel folks, standing down and letting technology and innovation that already exists go forward. Host thats arnold in smyrna, tennessee, this morning. Want to hear from you, our viewers. Phone lines are open to talk about the impact of Hurricane Harvey, talk about the response as well. 2027488000 if youre in the eastern or central time zones. 2027488001 if youre in the mountain or pacific time zones. And 2027488002 if youre a resident of texas. Especially want to hear from enthuse morning. Usa today noting that the government expects the recovery in the houston and Southeast Texas coast area to take years. The federal management officials that spoke on sunday and are speaking again now, a Live Press Conference taking place now, saying that theyre braced to help with Recovery Efforts for years to come in texas and other states that have been hit hard by harvey. The zaster is going to be a landmark event, federal management emergency chief said on sunday, were setting up and gearing up for the next couple of years, as harvey continued to slam texas and head toward louisiana, federal officials said theyre partnering with local and state officials to help residents facing severe flooding. At least two people were killed sunday. The latest reported now have the number up to five people. As we said, that federal Emergency Management agency press conference taking place. Usa today takes a look inside and the their reaction number of people and number of resources that they have put towards this event. Heres a view inside the d. C. Headquarters of fema. Huge room a few blocks from the u. S. Capitol. Nearly 200 workers packed the room for sundays afternoon shift. They came from different parts of the federal government, including the military, department of transportation, and the Environmental Protection agency. They came to help with everything from shipping extra supplies to texas and louisiana to tracking Environmental Concerns from the floodwaters host want to hear your thoughts this morning, your reaction to whats happening in texas. Its 2027488000 if youre in the eastern or central time zones. 2027488001 if youre in the mountain or pacific time zones. And 2027488002 if youre in texas. Paul, appleton, wisconsin, go ahead. Caller yes, my heart hurts for all those people in texas. I really feel bad for them. You know, for whats going on down there. But, you know, i watched that special that al gore did, and he talked about these water bombs, these storms. He called them water bombs, and Climate Change is real. For all you people that voted for trump, theres your evidence. I hate to, you know, put politics into this, but theres your evidence. Its real. Its real, all you people. Its real. Host got your point, paul. Cynthia is in he knowsville, indiana. Cynthia, go ahead. Caller hi. I would like to say that this is the second time, or third time that weve had these once in a 100year floods that have caused hurricanes, and now this is a once in a 500year. But this is you be precedented. Well, thats what Climate Change is. The storms are going to get worse. And we cannot afford to rebuild houston. We are really going to have to stop and think about this. This is going to be such a drown on our economy. I bet it will be hundred to 300 billion, and we just cant keep doing t. We especially cannot keep rebuilding vacation homes. Its one thing to put people back in their own homes, but a whole other thing to rebuild vacation property. Host thats cynthia in evansville, indiana, it morning, taking your calls as we also show you some of the pictures that americans are waking up to on the front pages of their newspapers from around the country. Rain floods deluge texas is the headline across the front page of the wall street journal this morning. Ben is in percival, virginia. Good morning. Youre on the washington journal. Caller good morning. Thank you very much for cspan and for taking my call. Im a professional emergency manager in the federal government, and id like to offer a couple of thoughts for the folks who keep calling in and claiming this is climb change. You need to go to the noah website and look at the actual numbers of hurricanes and tornados that are tracked for the last 50 years plus. There is no change statistically over time. Theres no change in severe storms. Theres no change in normal storms. These things happen. The reason we perceive them as worse now is because, in the last 25 years, the number of people who have moved into oastal areas that used to be uninhabited has dramatically increased. We have pushed more people into the path of these storms, and as a result, we perceive the impact as greater. Houston used to be a swamp. 200 years ago when storms hit it, it wasnt that big of a deal. Its a big deal now because weve pushed so many people into a very lowlying area, and that city has grown enormously. For those who are questioning whats happening with the government, let me just tell you that there are thousands of Emergency Managers working. I can tell you personally ive participated in no less than five different nearly hourlong teleconferences over the course. Weekend, and i work for an agency that has very little to do with this particular storm. They are actively out there determining what frain structure has been affected, determining how best to coordinate resources, but ultimately the decisions about resolving storms like this and how best to move resources into an area, how best to support the local population, those are local and statelevel decisions. The job of fema im sorry, go ahead. Host how long have you been in the Emergency Management work with the government . Caller in one capacity or to another, about 10 years. Host what do you think about the response well, the preparedness on the front side for harvey . Can you talk about that from your view from working here in the d. C. Region and what happened in the days leading up to this . Caller absolutely, and ill contrast it to katrina. This response was much, much better coordinated. And i will say that, given that, we had very little warning for this storm. This was a truly unprecedented storm in that as early as thursday morning, many of my fellow Emergency Managers were looking at this and going, oh, hey, you know what, another cat one, going to hit texas, no big deal. A lot of agencies werent too concerned about it because we get storms of that capacity frequently, and relatively speaking, its manageable. It strengthened in a very short period of time and gave us very little time to respond to it. And in spite of that, what i have seen is excellent coordination and excellent response. Its hard sometimes when you see a storm like this and you see so much devastation on tv to look at that and think that the people who are responding are doing a good job. But when you have a storm of this magnitude, theres no way to avoid that much damage and impact. The question is how quickly we respond to it. And i can tell you that the response to this, as opposed to, for instance, previous storms in the last 10 to 15 years, the response has been very well coordinated, and the actions that have been taken have been very appropriate. Ive been very pleased. Host do you mind saying what agency you work for . Caller i work for one of the financial agencies in the financial sector, so our primary focus is on insuring ensuring the Financial Institutions in the path of the storm, that were monitoring whats happening to them, as well as monitoring the status of our staff, many of whom live throughout the country and so could potentially be affected. Host can you talk about that side of what this storm did, the financial institution, how much disruption that weve seen as a result of this storm . There should be, of course, a focus on saving lives right now. Caller well, the focus is on saving lives, but thats a unique way of how the federal government works, different agencies have different focus. So for agencies like us, once we immediately address any issues related to our own staff, then were there to provide information into larger federal groups into those operating centers, like what you described with fema, so that when the sque asked, ok, whats going on with the financial sector, were able to provide an answer. Now, i can tell you that it is still very early on. When the initial storm came ashore, our focus was on just institutions and the path of those really strong hurricane winds. And basically all we were able to say is everybody in that area was closing in order to, you know, ride out the storm. Then our focus shifted to trying to understand how much Financial Institutions could be in the path of the flooding. Thats a big challenge, flooding is not something thats easy to track in real time. There simply is no magic thing. With radar its really easy to see where a storm s. You cant see where water is on the ground in real time. We still dont have that technology, that capability. The best we have is flood maps, which can tell us what areas are likely to flood. So its very challenging to find out where is there actually water, what buildings actual have the water in them. What it comes down to is waiting to Contact People from those institutions and discuss with them whats the impact at heir location. Those assessments are going to take place today, tomorrow, as the Financial Institutions in that area are able to get out and respond to us and let us know what their status is. Host appreciate the call. Thanks for taking us through that part of this recovery effort, the response effort. Phones are open this morning to talk about it, talk about what youre seeing on tv, to talk about the response on the federal level, the state level, civilian level as well. Its 2027488000 if youre in the eastern or central time zones. Its 2027488001 if youre in the mountain or pacific time zones. And 2027488002 if youre a texas resident. Reminder, President Trump is expected to be in texas this week, efforts underway to perhaps get him there as soon as tomorrow. Were going to be talking about specifically the white house response coming up a little bit later in our program. A reporter from bloomberg will join us for that discussion, a White House Reporter for bloomberg. A column in todays usa today, the headline, Hurricane Harvey will test trumps leadership. The former white house cabinet member and director of fema, the c. E. O. Of global partners, writes trumps trip will reassure texans the resources of the federal government will be there and stay there for as long as they are needed in the recovery and rebuilding stages. His visit will also be critical to the morale of relief workers who need to know that washington has their backs as the long process unfolds. Host if you want to read the full column, todays usa today. Tone any newport, North Carolina, go ahead. Caller yes, sir, how do you go . Host doing well. Go ahead. Caller its terrible, man. I mean, lets face it, its disaster. Disasters happened. 1 hundred, killed 6,000 in galveston. When you look on the United States map, on the east coast, North Carolina, how North Carolina justice out into the atlantic ocean, the hook that comes down off North Carolina, thats where i live at right there. Ive been through so many hurricanes, its unbelievable. When i was in the marine corps, i was doing Hurricane Relief plans. They had bad storms or monumental floods, all this kind of stuff happens. It had a fireball going through space at how many thousands of miles an hour, look, this place is evolution. Its changing every second. Not every year. Every second this place is changing. We cant do a thing about this. And i a global fear, defy anybody that can explain that. Oh, theres a lot of explanations for it, but just make sflb al gores group believe it. Host tony, on your history of hurricanes, the numbers from the galveston hurricane in 1900, which you cited, is 8,000 to 12,000 people died in that hurricane. Damage was estimated at some 30 million at the time. Its the deadliest hurricane in u. S. History. Theres also the south florida hurricane from september 1928. That category five storm made landfall near west palm beam after overrunning puerto rico. At least 2500 people drowned and more than 1700 homes destroyed. Hurricane katrina, august 2005, category three storm, killed nearly 2,000 people and caused 100 billion in damage. Thats a rundown of the United States most hellish storms in its history, from usa today this morning. Caroline, springfield, virginia, go ahead. Caller hi, i actually did Emergency Rescue during Hurricane Katrina for animals, and best friends animals has set up countless acres in tylertown, mississippi, to offer refuge, a great operation, and i hope that that can happen. I just have other pieces. At that time, senator kennedy was alive. Hes my cousin. And actually spoke to their office a little bit about maybe how to set up local state parks to accept, you know, set up animal shelters, or even tents for people, and getting legislation moving in that direction, and i would add it would be great to see lottery, under a state lottery, under improved condition. If you needed more money, make sure theres extra for emergency situations. Thank you for letting me people. Host before you go, can you talk about, what have we learned on that front since katrina, your focus on rescuing the animals and pets . Was there any effort after that to do a lessons learned, and is that being applied with this Current Situation . Caller i would i think that ill be honest, in terms of the animals, i am still just waiting to hear about that, so i think the most important thing, you know, and ive done other rescues since then, you have to make sure the volunteers are helping out. You have your shots. Youre bringing extra obviously theres going to be issues of water contamination, just making sure that the people that are volunteering are getting right now their shots in advance before going in. Everything that they need. The first aid kits, supplies. I would share that i think that theres more with animals, theres more microchips that are more effective so that you can track animals. People st share for now and in the future, if you put a bottle around the animal, then put a note or information inside, thats a way for people to just be able to track if theres any information about the animals. I think the microchipping is amazing. I think the chance everything the sterilization for just making sure right now, im sure theyre going to need extra surprise with the animals , the sterile pots, pans, trash cans. But open farm, many open farm land, someone wants to donate it now, work with over thousands of animals, and you can just set it up and organize it and set up the tents. Host do you still work in this area . Caller i got recertified. I helped save two peoples lives. Im doing work in education right now, consult work. Would i go down texas right now . Sure. But i know when did i Hurricane Katrina, i needed i think close to five shots. I brought the the wells werent working as well, so it carries extra water before going down, and the other thing i would add, its my understanding that the rental car agencies, after a flood, start placing restrictions if people are coming if they need a car, but theyre coming from flood places because theyre concerned that maybe the rental car, if theyre going to try to back track to look at their house, there needs to be something worked on to make sure that people that are trying to get certain supplies oar whatever, however the rentals with the cars are handled. There are actually people from Hurricane Katrina that i met in mississippi that couldnt go back, because their car was flooded, but then rental agencies werent giving them a car, and they didnt at some time cover the Flood Insurance if Something Else happened. Host thanks for bringing up those aspects of the response, the tragedy thats happening down on the Southeast Texas coast. Josephine is next, livingston, new jersey. Josephine, good morning. Caller good morning. My biggest concern is they need money for courses you can yet this president right now, if ure not aware, is cutting 300 million from fema. Please call your senators. Because this man is doing damage, and youre not aware of it. And here hes presented, sadly, with whats going on in texas, and hes cutting 300 million. So much so that people from the incident in sandy, up here in the north, are still being hurt, and he portrays fema as being ineffective. Thats not the reason. When you cut money, theres nothing there. Host are you talking about the president s proposed budget when youre saying cut money . Caller no, hes cutting it right now not proceed popesed. Hes cutting it right now host thats josephine in livingston, new jersey. The white house yesterday released a readout from the president s video teleconference with his cabinet officials, with fema members, with the governor of texas, and that readout notes that President Trump continues to stress his expectations that all departments and agencies stay fully committed to supporting the governors of texas and louisiana, and his number one priority of saving lives. He reminded everyone that search and rescue efforts will transition to mass care, restoring power, providing lifesustaining necessities for the population that sheltered in place. Last he urged survivors to continue to heed the instructions of state and local officials. The president and Vice President continue to extend their thoughts and prayers to those affected and recognize the many volunteers and faithbased organizations dedicating time and efforts to helping fellow americans. The president had been in camp david this past weekend. Were expecting the president this week to make a trip down to texas. Sandra in massachusetts. Good morning. Caller good morning. I went through the worst hurricane in history, close to it, and it was hurricane audrey. Hurricane audrey drowned 500 people. The wood from trees came off the trees and served as weapons to kill people. Glass was a thing. If you didnt fill your tubs up with water, you should have, because that would help for the thirst and things going down. My father had cleaned the city of cameron, louisiana, because he was in the air force. I was 12 years old. And the bodies were 500. The city was closed off to the public for months. The stench was unreal. No one listened to what was said. They didnt clean the area where they needed to be in the lowlying areas. No one listened. No one took hardly any they werent affair, and it was the eye of the storm, the stuff that did the killer. It was just tremendous, and we had tornadoes afterward. The winds were over 250 miles per hour. Host hurricane audrey taking place june 1957. The images on tv with Hurricane Harvey brought that all back to you this week . Caller oh, my god. Its terrible. But no, worse. Its terrible what i went through. I never, never want to go through anything like it. I shake. I was 12 years old when it happened. Thats all i can say. Host phone lines are open this morning to hear your thoughts on whats happening down in texas, your thoughts on the response at this point from federal officials, from state officials, from civilians as well. If youre in the eastern or central time zones, 2027488000. If youre in the mountain or pacific time zones, 2027488001. And if newer texas, 2027488002. Michael, new york city, go ahead. Caller hi, good morning. You know, the one thing that i would like to just contribute to the conversation, of course, thoughts to the people that are in texas, and i hope government and also all the agencies can help. Local, municipal, county, and state governments really need to be considering the fact that the amount of population density that has moved in the last 20 years in the United States are putting a lot of people in jeopardy when natural events occur. Houston and the area were seeing right now with harvey, we have such a population density in our urban areas now that, are they really planning for these kinds of events which are happening maybe more frequent or not frequent, but they have been happening with an intensity, like katrina, sandy, and now were seeing with harvey, and the other day with just the 25th anniversary of hurricane andrew in florida, which caused massive devastation. We have a lot of People Living very close to each other with very poorly planned systems to help those people, to help them evacuate, to help them recover afterwards. I really hope that the urban planners are thinking more about the suburban planning as well. This is not just about the center centers, but the surrounding areas with populations are really dense, and there might not be things in place right now. We really need to consider that. You might want to check out this story in scientific american. The study they highlight in that magazine story notes that researchers who want to know how disasters affect peoples decisions to move in and out of certain areas and they created a new database from 19202010 at the county level of storms. Their work shows that people move away from areas hit by the largest natural disasters but smaller disasters have little effect a migration. The data also showed the trends inequality as the rich move away from disaster prone areas but the poor are left behind. That map of the United States, the darker the red, the more number of disasters that have occurred in that county in the United States. You might want to take a look at that. Deborah, houston, texas, go ahead. We are between greens point and downtown right on 45 north. The flooding went down yesterday and they will release thedams last night. We are and a small neighborhood that has 20 houses and its old people and poor people like me. I sent my dad to cyprus to my sisters and now our houses flooded. Hitting out of the city with 3 islion people, Harris County seven, we tried to make the train from houston to dallas. If we can plan ahead next time, we have all his red state blue city stuff and its hard. There are so many apartments here that nobody is showing. Im terrified. I used to manage apartments. We have all these low income apartments. I am so sorry these people lost but there are two trailer parked behind me and i am disabled. I cannot even get back there. I dont know if they have food, they dont have computers or smartphones. Its a lot of immigrants here afraid to get help. Ive got mexican people by me your terrified. Looknk weve got to really for the poor. The government knows where they are. I cannot replace anything. We cant shop or seven days. We buy by the week. Covertamps wont even toilet paper so i dont know what poor people are supposed to do. Ike ruin my house and a contractor sold my parents repairs and then the roof caved in and now we are paying a 20,000 10 note. Its after the hurricane is when the poor people you may find all capss of dead people everywhere. I cannot leave my home. I came out of hospice and i am called palliative. My doctors come to my house. I dont know what will happen to me. I have two tanks of oxygens. My 27yearold son is sticking by me and we dont know. We are to waiting and we dont have no way to go anywhere or do anything. Where would we go . How my going to live . I am very ill. By theaccounts for may minute and i need help doing everything. I dont know how people like me can go anywhere. Host since the storm has had, have you been in touch with any response officials to let them know where you are . Caller i went to my sister who lives next door and my son rolled me over there. We tweeted out some things. Mayor turner is excellent. He keeps us up. I depend on him. I am watching local tv and they have wrote been running around the clock with no brakes and im watching. I worry about people who dont have cable. Has phones. Y i went three months without a phone because we cannot afford them. Then someone bought me one. I want you all to remember that. There are some of you people that cannot get connected. Thank you for putting the attention on this. Please remember the poor people because i am privileged even to be talking to you. For everyone one of me there are thousands they cannot reach out. Go, 1525 moreu inches are expected this week in terms of rainfall. What is your plan for the coming days . Caller there is three or four feet of water in this house. Our disaster is not happened yet. That is coming next. Host good luck to you and thank you for calling in. That will do it for this first washingtonhew journal. We will be joined by a White House Reporter for Bloomberg News and we will discuss President Trumps response and his trip down to texas. Thats coming up in a minute on the washington journal. This might be the only government class you ever take. You will be a voter forever. You will be a juror forever so i need to give you the tools that will help you for the rest of your life and those pursuits to do that well. P. M. , aay night at 8 00 discussion on how Current Events affect their lessons on history, politics, and government. This is a chance for them to learn about their story. Their story starts with people who have come long before them who have shaped the way the world around them they were born into operates. If they start to realize that this does not just start with me but what i contribute and where im coming from as part of this bigger story. In that way, it allows them to take in other peoples opinion and the perspective of others through social media and also through video. To thinkthem a chance how they see the world but why . How maybe can i expand that a little bit . Eastern. Y at 8 00 p. M. Tonight on the communicators, at how is the framework we look at Cyber Security . I think congress whether its bipartisan support, i think the Trump Administration is looking to focus on that as well. We look to participate as well. We visit the microsoft tech fair in washington, d. C. This is a complete and two and a system. What service we provide is to work with each one of our customers. Watch tonight at 8 00 p. M. On cspan two. This might be the only government class you ever take. You will be a voter forever. You will be a juror forever so i need to give you the tools to help you for the rest of your life in those pursuits and do them well. At 8 00 p. M. Ght eastern, two High School Students discuss two High School Teachers talk about how Current Events affect their lessons. This is a chance for them to learn about their story. Their story does not begin when theyre born. It starts with those will have come long before them who have shaped the way the world around them they were born into operates. If they start to realize that this does not just start with me but what i contribute and where im coming from is part of this bigger story. In that way, it allows them to take in other peoples opinion and taken the perspective of others through social media and also through video. It gives them a chance to be able to think, this is how i see the world but why . How can i maybe expand that a little bit by taking in other peoples perspectives . P. M. Eastern. 8 00 live sunday at noon eastern, author, speaker, and radio host richard mataxa is our guest. America is not defined by ethnicity. Every ethnicity exists in america. Its not defined by religion. Every religion exist. We are the only country in the history of the world defined by an idea. Therefore, in order to keep the republic as franklin and joined us to do, we must know those ideas, we must understand is ideas, we must buy into those ideas and we must live them out. Biographies include and his latest if you can keep it. Join our live threehour