There has been and will be historic flooding. There have been Mass Evacuations and several deaths. Tens of thousands are without power in houston. The nations fourth largest city, well, its at a standstill. And the heart of the Nations Energy infrastructure is impacted. We have reports up and down the gulf coast. In Corpus Christi near where harvey made landfall, galveston, of course, but we begin with Contessa Brewer in houston. Reporter houston is dealing with persistent flooding and relentless rain now measured in feet rather than mere inches. All the while officials are grappling with families still begging with the need to be rescued. On boats, by helicopter, even being carried. Thousands of people were rescued from rising waters. 5 00 in morning we started to get water inside the house. It kept creeping up and finally there was about 3 feet. Reporter jacob and Meagan Joseph watched water intrude on their beautiful home and overtake their cars. Got us to the midway point, this church in belair, then had hpd bring us in a high volume, highwater vehicle to bring us here. Reporter at the Convention Center they found shelter and a place to sit. By days end, they were joined by thousands more. Babies and the elderly. The disabled and small students missing out on the first day of school. It was damage in the flood so we had to walk through water. They took us to the library. So, and we took a bus. So thats how we ended up here. Reporter as they join other families made homeless by the storm, fema announced it expects half a million texans to apply for federal disaster aid because of harvey damage and the federal government is preparing its financial response. My focus here is on the tragedy thats unfolding. People whose lives are in jeopardy. And the people who need help. I have been spending day and night working trying to coordinate with local officials, county judges, mayors, speaking with the governor. Repeatedly speaking with the president , the Vice President , cabinet agencies trying to marshal federal assets to save lives. Reporter in houston, airports remain closed until thursday. Downtown, business after business is closed. And streets are impassable. Locals are putting off thinking about the financial toll. Were shut down for today dont know how long well be shut down this week. Primar its because of the impact on our colleagues and employees. Reporter 3 million workers have jobs in the metro houston area. Jacob and Meagan Joseph are eager to return to work. He is a physician at a local hospital. She, a speech pathologist. For now, theyre simply fwrat l f grateful to be the army corps of engineers is releasing water from two nearby dams, knowing theyre going to flood neighborhoods more in downtown houston but preferring that as the option rather than risking a breach from reservoirs that are at capacity. In houston, texas, for nightly busine im Contessa Brewer. As we mentioned earlier, houston is the nations fourth largest city and the region is a huge contributor to the Nations Energy output. Brian sullivan is in fwn with more on harveys potential hit to the oil market and houstons impact to the economy. Reporter along with the unprecedented flooding and humanitarian crisis unfolding in houston and lower texas region, there may be an economic crisis as well because 15 of the oil and gas that is refined in the United States is currently offline. Shut down by the flooding as a result of hurrican. The houston area produces more than 2 Million Barrels of oil and distilled gasoline every single day. Many of the refineries around here are now shut down including the second biggest refineryn th utestesheaywn facility from exxonmobil, also shells deer park facility is also shut down. Theres no clear word of when those facilities will open. The other hit comes from the port economy. The majority of those refineries lie along the port of houston, which is actually a series of four different ports and every ship that comes or goes has to come through a channel right over there. And that ship channel, the busiest in the United States, is currently shut down and theres no indication of when it opens. In addition, many of the men and women who had worked at the refineries, the pipes, the shipping facilities, the offload facilities and the ports, simply cannot or will not get to work because they are facing a much more serious issue. The city of houston does more than 500 billion per year in gross domestic product, make it one of the top 25 nations in terms of economic output. It is the fourth biggest economy in the United States and while the city grapples with a humanitarian crisis, and the rescue of many of its citizens, theres also the future issue of gasoline, oil and shipping which is shut down and is so vital to this area and to the United States. For nightly business report, im Brian Sullivan in galveston, texas. Its not just houston and galveston. Harvey came ashore first near corpus chr where more of the nations refineries are located and thats where we find jackie dean reporter the eye of Hurricane Harvey hit the coastal towns of and around Corpus Christi hard in nearby rockport, businesses and homes destroyed. I lost ev. I have nothing. And im trying to be positive and make this a fresh start. Reporter rick miller, a rockport resident, is disabled and was unable to evacuate the area ahead of the storm. The roof was ripped off his home and its interior decimated. Luckily his neighbors took him in before impact. Bill, ricks neighbor, describes the experience. Devastating is the first word, obviously. Howling wind was pretty crazy. We were getting through it. The next morning was heartbreaking. When you see destruction like this and your community and your lives, its hard, but were alive. Reporter the mayor of rockport advised those who evacuated to not immediately return because rebuilding the infrastructure and restoring power could take weeks. Governor abbott and senator cornyn also toured the area today to survey the damage. Governor abbott deployed the entire Texas National guard in response to the disaster. 12,000 people to help the rescue and relief effort. Were going to be dealing with really recordsetting flooding in multimillion res across the state of texas. Reporter meanwhile, another area of focus, the refineries on the gulf coast, a little less than 50 of what the u. S. Can churn out and it looks like as of now, projections indicate that 2 Million Barrels a day have come offline. That means that prices most likely at the pump are likely to rise as well. For nightly business re im jackie deangelis, Corpus Christi, texas. With the severe flooding along parts of the gulf coast, the price for u. S. Gasoline futures jumped to a more than twoyear high today while domestic crew fell nearly 3 as the market tried to assess the storms impact. John joins us now to tell us what this all means for gas prices. Founder partner of again capital. Good to see you, john. Thanks for joining us on set tonight. Sure. Really an unprecedented situation. As we were just talking, this storm is moving so slowly. Theyre in for more rain. How is the market for energy trying to price this i the market for energy, i think, is really struggling with what were dealing with here. Were used to big storms coming and trying to hit the heart of the refining sector. We but them all there for whatever reason. Theyre vulnerable to this sort of thinge built to withstand it. High winds, some rain, but flooding of this mag volumes of water of this magnitude, could make it nearly impossible for days, if not longer, weeks, for the folks that turn the dials and flip the switches to get back to these refineries that you saw brian and jackie talking about. Yeah. This could take some time, plus they have their hands full with their personal lives so were not seeing the rush, nor should we, for these people, this staff, to get back to the units. Thats whats going to hold back production of gasoline and diesel fuel over the next several weeks and drive those prices higher. Because it is a multipleday event, the governor is saying please dont come back. Exactly. So that, i think, it was one of the factors i heard a lot about in the Energy Market, its almost impossible to handicap when those refineries are going to come back online and its not that easy to bring a refinery back online, is it . No. This is what was called a sudden this is going to be what they call a cold restart. So, they were able, fortunately, to be able to shut them all day in an orderly fashion, but getting them back takes the full team. All hands on deck. Because theres obviously so many combustible parts in the refinery because youre running crude oil up a big stack, literally, and then pulling off, like you do with milk, the cream, the heavy milk, and the skim. And you need everyone there for that and youre not going to have be able to get that staff back soon. We are seeing some spikes in gasoline prices, most notably along the areas surrounding texas. Perhaps thats not so much of a surprise, but do you expect that sort of Ripple Effect of higher prices to be seen across the country . I do. I think initially here, as were seeing, its been a very moderately paced rise. The futures market and the wholesale markets have priced in what looks to be a looming tightness. I do think that prices ultimately could get as high as 1 over what they were just last week. And i also think that in the southeast, we will see spot shortages because thats the region thats most reliant on the refineries youve been talking about this evening on the program. In the upper midwest, they have their own refineries. East coast, we have our own refineries and can get product from europe. California suffers on their own all the time, anyway, so theyre out of the picture. Were really talking about the southeast here. Very quickly, late in the day this afternoon, nhk, the japanese broadcaster, reported and japanese sources confirmed that the North Koreans had fired a projectile. There were some reports that it was a missile. Other reports disputed that. What might that do, quickly, to the Energy Market . It is an extraordinarily bearish event for Energy Prices because its going to strike at the heart, if theres any kind of hostilities or even higher anxieties, at the economic virtue of the asian region, seoul, tokyo, beijing, theyre all in play on this if theres any kind of if hosties tsh this is why the equity market buckled a couple weeks ago as well. John, thank you very much,s as well, with again capital. Late today prege rapid goveg. O texas and those hit by youre going to get your funding. Its a terrible tragedy. We expect to have requests on our desks fairly soon and we think that congress will feel very much the way i fe. In a very bipartisan way. That will be nice, but we think youre going to have what you need and its going to go fast. And Corporate America is sending its help as well. Thus far, more than a dozen Major Companies offered assistance to harveys victims. See them on th. Some of note, 1 million from walmart, pepsi, chenier energy, home depot, amazon, wells fargo, and 2 million from apple. The Houston Texans pledging 1 million. , United Airlines which has a hub in houston says it will issue travel waivers for anyone impacted by the storm to 15 area airports. The waiver will be for any flights impacted between august 25th and september 5th. For a complete list of airports the waiver covers, go to our website at nbr. Com. Energy stocks weighed on the market today and insurer travelers was one of the big ef losers as investors took a step back to evaluate the impact and as i mentioned after the bell, the market could react to this tomorrow as we mentioned with john, there was a japanese news agenc that north korea launched a missile that passed over japan. As for today, the dow lost five points to 28,808. The nasdaq rose 17. The s p 500 managed to add a assessing the s c damage. Reporter reporter im Morgan Brennan in windsor, connecticut. Take a look weather analytics, social media fees. Big data. Some of the tools that insurers like travelers are using to begin assessing damage from Hurricane Harvey. Before adjusters are even on the ground. That story is coming up in nightly business report. Were starting to see harveys exposure for mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac. Fanmy they says there were more than 46,000 fans whose mortgages in the initial impact area with about 5 billion of unpaid balances. Meanwhile, freddie mac estimates it has 167,000 mortgages in the 18 counties affected so far but says that number could grow. Insurance stocks were hit today as investo wait on the initial estimates of damage from harvey but the insurers arent sitting idly by. They are using state of the Art Technology to get a head start on assessing the damage. Mo takes us to travelers Catastrophe Center in windsor, connecticut. Reporter as harvey continues to linger over the texas coast, insurers are using technology to model the damage. As they wait out the storm to send resources into the e. Travelers has been monitoring harvey from its national Catastrophe Center using monitors displaying weather analytics, big data, even social media feeds. This center and much of the technology in it is relatively new. It didnt exist for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or hurricane ike in 2008. But now its become crucial to the claims process at travelers. Many of the new tools have really expedited the claim process. For instance, we can actually bill out the footprint of a property before were on site to inspect it. Reporter as more claims come in, this center will get busier. Three mobile claims vehicles y to the coast. Many of the adjusters heading there will use drones to make their assessments. Travelers is one of the biggest underwriters of commercial and residential insurance in the region. Others, allstate, state farm, are also sending resources to the region. Farmers insurance is deploying a small portable city for its adjusters. Many of whom who also will the first time after a hurricane use drones. Our drones can map the damages for about three houses an hour. Prior to this, it would take an adjustor, we could do three houses in a day. Reporter harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane, it has largely become a flooding event. With several feet of water submerging parts of houston and the coast. The federal government accounts for nearly all of the residential Flood Insurance market, but Homeowners Insurance does cover wind. The private sector also covers flooding for many commercial properties. From strip malls to refineries to hospitals as well as automobiles. Lot of cars are trapped under ground. So if were wrong abe 2 to 4 on the private insured loss, its going to be because the auto losses are goine a lot more. Reporter harvey is expected to be one of the costliest storms in u. S. History with losses to expected to reach tens of billions of dollars. With more than 700 billion in surplus, the industry is well prepared to weather the storm. For nightly business report, aisle Morgan Brennan in winds door, contract are contract. Southeast texas is pounded by unprecedented floodwaters, national Flood Insurance program is set to expire on september 30th unless congress can reach a deal. Were joined from washington with more. Does the program he enough money as it stands now to take care of th in texas . Reporter right now it looks like it may not. The program is already running in the red, about 25 billion in debt, and that reflects claims going all the way back to even Hurricane Katrina. The program maxes out at about 30 billion, so its only got about 5 billion to 6 billion of wiggle room there and likely the claims from Hurricane Harvey will surpass that amount. So what can congress do about it . Reporter well, President Trump was just speaking today saying that the victims of hurricane ha will receive the full support and cooperation of the federal government, but theres been a lot of debate in washington over whether extending the program should be accompanied by any spending reforms in the future. So, well have to see whether or not there is a bipartisan spirit that will emerge when lawmakers come back to washington after recess is over. Thank you so much. Gilead sciences bets big on a potential Breakthrough Cancer treatment. Thats where we begin tonights market focus. Gilead said it was buying biotech kite pharma for nearly 12 billion. As the drug maker makes a deeper push into the oncology field. Kite pharma which does not have any fda approved therapies is working on a promising treatment that modifies the bodys immune system to fight cancer cells. Gileads shares were up 1 to 74. 69. Shares of kite pharma rocketed higher by 28 to 178. 05. Apple will reportedly unveil its newest iphone september 12th. According to multiple reports, the event is slated to include Software Updates and new apple tv and apple l watch. Apple shares rose to 161. 47. Speaking of the apple l watch fitbit unveiled a new line of products including a smartwatch. The device called the fitbit iconic ionic, rather, will retail for 300 starting in october. The watch is water resistant, includes gps tracking and can run thdparty apps. Fitbit shares were higher by 3 . Estee lauder denied reports its interested in selling itself. Over the weekend, the Cosmetics Company wrote a memo to its employees saying theres no truth to the rumors and the company places great value in remaining independent. Estee lauder shares fely to 105 it looks like the highprofile search for ubers next chief executive officer is at an end. The embattled Ride Hailing Company picked expedias ceo to head the company. While expedias chairman barry diller says nothing has been finalized, he acknowledged the offer will likely be accepted. We take a look at the man asked to take the wheel at uber. Reporter months of drama, a Corporate Culture crisis, executive departures and board infighting, uber will turn a new page having finally selected a new ceo. Expedias ceo was selected at the end of a dramatic weekend that saw former ge boss drop out of the race via a tweet. And hpe chief, meg whitman, reentered the running despite publicly denying she was interested in the role. Seen by early uber investors as a very qualified and respected choice. I love it. I think hes great. Weve been following his career for a while. Were super bullish. Everything i heard abe t work hes done at expedia, seems like a very good choice for the company. Presided over expedias expansion to more than 60 countries and made deals to bring in other brands like travelosity and orbitz and homeaway into expedias fold. He has his work cut out. If and how much hell work and talk to former ceo is a big question. And alphabets wamos over technology. Plenty of positions to be filled. Boosting morale and fixing culture at a company thats just gone through the wringer. I think all the distractions associated with the company have been unfortunate. Seems to me from what ive read and what ive seen from other people covering this, hes the type of person thats going to come in and institute a culture thats going to kind of ta some of those distractions and probably put them on a more professional business path. Reporter and perhaps put uber on the path to profitability and eventual ipo. Despite the drama this year, uber has continued to grow while cutting losses but Investor Confidence is another matter. Four mutual funds including vanguard have lowered the valuation of their uber investments and smaller rival, lyft, making inroads raising money and expanding to more of ubers territory. Cleaning up the mess, keeping the 70 billion company humming, is no small task for ubers incoming ceo. For nightly business report, san fran whole foods slashes prices, but will other grocers feel the pressur heres a look at what to watch for tomorrow. We will get a look at how home prices are doing with the release of the s p caseshiller index for june. Then a read on how the consumer is feeling when this months confidence numbers come out. And corporate earnings are still trickling out. Tomorrow we get Quarterly Results from big box retailer best buy. And thats what to watch for on and finally tonight, now that the 13 billion merger between amazon and whole foods is complete, the grocery chain has begun slashing prices. In fact, on day one, whole foods cut prices on some items as much as 43 . And now that amazon is the owner, many are watching the possible pricing impact on the industry overall. Courtney reagan has more. Reporter its the first day that amazon owns whole foods and shoppers are already finding lower prices on some bestselling items including organic bananas for 69 cents a pound instead of 99 cents. Organic brown eggs now 3. 99. 30 cents lower. 85 lean ground beef will cost 4. 99. Before today it was 1. 50 more. Most shoppers told us their biggest hesitation of whole foods are the prices but now theyll reconsider. Now im going to be shopping a lot more there. 43 drop. Came up on my phone this morning. Going to be dropping their prices. Im onboard with that, absolutely. I would absolutely go back to, you know, to going to whole foods if the meat was dropped. If the prices were dropped. Reporter Advisory Group analyst joe feldman says based on his analysis, prices are about 25 less on the 30 or 40 so items with new lower prices. Thats still a little bit higher than, say, a walmart or kroger might be but it is much more within the range. I mean, previously, whole foods had been 35 , 40 more expensive than conventional grocery. Now were talking maybe 5 to 20 , 15 to 20 difference. Reporter dont expect to see other supermarkets lower prices further in response. Grocer retailerses like kroger set prices with food suppliers like General Mills oy twice a year, possibly losing shoppers like those we smoke to in the meantime. Whole foods has only a fraction of the stores compared to those of walmart and kroger nationally. Walmart, biggest grocer, has ten times as many locations as whole foods. Whole foods requires its food passes strict organic, no gmo and other standards so its not for everyone. The can you believe that . They dont have the conventional stuff that guys like me get. Reporter still, stock prices of food makers like kraft and Grocery Stores like supervalue have gotten hit from each new development out of the whole foods amazon deal because of all the unknowns. When amazon comes into an industry, it changes everything. For nightly business im courtney reagan. And that is nightly for t. Im sue herera. Thanks for joining us. Well see you here tomor this is a bbc is america. Funding of this presentation is made possible by. The freemen foundation. And coal Fuller Foundation pursuing solutions for americas neglected me. Planning a vacation escape thats relaxing inviting. And exciting. Is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here in aruba. Families couples and friends can all find their escape on th