What are you guys going to do now, claudio . Were going to stay here, find shelter. Because weve been hearing the news its going to come back and hit us again. And would have had nobody would have had nowhere to go. So were going to stay here and try to protect ourselves. Try to protect my kids. And try to try to last through this storm. I dont know if its going to get worse or not. But we want to be safe. I want my family to be safe. So i guess were going to stay here until everything is over. Claudio, were glad youre okay. Hug your kids and wife for us. Thank you so much for joining us here on cnn. Good luck to you. Best of luck. All right, thank you, sir. Thank you. Jamie baxter, weve got jamie by phone again. Technical issues, storm, hes stranded in his apartment with neighbors tonight. Havent really tried the police because i know that theyve been swamped and the red cross is swamped, as well. So we dont really know who to call. It seems like we put out the word for help and we sit here and we kind of wait and see what happens. Anybody else rescued from your area . All i know is that they have sent the National Guard out. I know theres been people riding around in boats. Weve seen some helicopters earlier today. I just hope theres a lot of people in boats heading out. People telling me theyre coming from New York City and colorado, a group is coming in from chicago with their own personal stuff. Basically just trying to get the word out to make sure that nobody else has to lose their life or anything in this storm. Because its getting a lot worse
all right. Thank you, sir. This is cnn Breaking News. Heres our Breaking News. The waters rising. Thousands trapped. And more rain on the way in texas. President trump heading to the flood zone in a matter of hours. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Things are really bad in texas tonight and expected to get much worse. The state already hit with at least 15 trillion gallons of rain. This storm is far from over. The National WeatherService Warns lifethreatening flooding is continuing. The coast guard getting more than a thousand rescue calls every hour. Tonight well have stories from some of the people who narrowly escaped the raging floodwaters and some who are still trapped. The forecast as the storm gathers strength. Its gaining strength tonight. Lets go straight to derek van dam in sugar land, texas for us. Derek, good evening to you. The latest on the searchandrescue efforts where you are right now . Reporter good evening, don. The thing about the Search And Rescue Efforts, its complicated by the nighttime. The dark, darkness has set in across houston and with conditions can like this, it is extremely treacherous. Last night we joined some of the Search And Rescue Efforts and we saw firsthand what they have had to deal with. They navigate these flooded neighborhoods with sometimes the streams flowing extremely fast. Almost too fast to cross. In fact, the braes bayou yesterday prevented the majority of rescues from taking place for some of the neighborhoods because the current was too strong for the boats that are in place here across the area. Weve talked to a lot of the rescuers who have volunteered their boats, their time. And just to do their best to help this community. And they have told some harrowing stories including just
because its out over open waters right now. If you look closely at a radar to see where its heaviest, its almost pivoting across the Greater Houston Area right now. Thats why it continues to bring this heavy incessant rain. It has not stopped since we got here 48 hours ago. Its unprecedented and it looks as if its going to continue into the night and going to be a very difficult time for rescuers and, of course, for all the people who are stranded. Before i let you go, Whats The Story behind you . Whats going on there . That truck and water and all that. Reporter this is just one of the many stranded vehicles, don. What you cant see is the dozens of them littered across the car parks within this area, the parking lots. I think this is just the last ditch effort. People realize that they needed to ditch their cars and get to higher ground. Get to safety. Its a bit unfortunate to see people trying their hardest to drive and navigate through these flooded roadways because weve
manner, being polite, courteous, theyre just trying to get food and water for their families. Trying to get a good fights sleep. Its orderly and organized inside that building. A lot of police and volunteers trying to calm people down and get what they need. So far so good in the convention center. It is incredible. Your derek described how quickly the water could rise. We were earlier tonight in a place called lakewood today, earlier today with some private rescuers who were pulling people from Flooded Homes you wouldnt believe the devastation. These were neighborhoods where the water was almost to the roofs. People were waiting on rooftops and on the hoods and on the tops of their cars while water was right below them, waiting there for a couple of days. They said they had called and tried to get the city and others to come. We know how overwhelmed the First Responders are. These people are saying they were thinking nobody would come,
and the water was still rising. So it is still a very dire situation out there tonight, don. What the Harris CountySheriffs Office has put out there to some of the people in these neighborhoods, theyre saying to them, display a prominently in your Windows Towels and sheets so that we know thats a place where we need to come into. Dont just call and give us your address because these addresses are almost unrecognizable. Youve got to display towels and sheets prominently your windows. So we know thats a place where we can get to people. There are tens of thousands of people still needing rescue. Brian todd, thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting. I want to go to isis bragg. You heard from her in our last hour, the very beginning of our show at 10 00 p. M. Eastern. She is trapped with her 1yearold baby and her cousin. The water is rising. Now shes very worried about the electricity and she joins us by phone. Isis, where are you now in and who is with you . Yes, im still in the home and i still have the same people with me. My cousin and 1yearold baby. Has the electricity been intermittent . Has it been going in and out . Yes, it has. Most of the units lights have went back out. Do you have electricity now or no . Yes, i have electricity right now. As i understand, are you seeing a fire nearby you . Yes, i am. Talk to me. Where is it . Its across the street behind behind the school. We just see like a lot of orange in the air. We can see it from here. You can see it . Yes. And has the water since we spoke to you last about an hour ago, how, has the water gotten any higher . Yes, the water has gotten higher. From the front end of my to the back end of my apartment. And you said one of your neighbors, you told us last hour one of your neighbors was trying to go upstairs to another apartment and what happened . The lady had told her that if she had 300 to come into her apartment she would let her. Wow. Unbelievable. Yes, sir, it is. And so how high is the water in your apartment now . You said its coming in . Its Different Levels in the apartment. The highest the water that im reaching is to my thighs. Weve been trying to get folks to come help you. Have you been abe to get anyone on the phone . Have you heard anything . No, sir. We even, my cousin, she even went and stood at the end of the road. She did get three City Of Houston trucks but they had drove off by the time we came back out the house. So tell us where you live and how much im wondering i asked you about the water because just in the last report, theyre saying that some of the addresses are covered and they cant get to them. If your address is covered, they cant get to it. Is that your apartment that bad off . Its not bad. So you can still see the numbers . You can still see the numbers . Yes, we can still i mean yes, people can still see numbers and still see people standing outside at the end of the road saying can you help us. Now tell us where you are. I just wanted to get that. If they cant see the address, then the point may be moot for you to give it out. Were across the street from the school. There is still people outside standing on their porch just facing towards the road. Screaming help, waving help,
flashing light, help. And really nobody cant tell us nothing but call the number, call the number. Weve been trying to cause the number. Theres no answer. No help. And its the forest Creek Apartments on whats the road again . On uvalde and wallaceville. Uvalde . Yes, on uvalde. Give me a cross street. Wallaceville. Watersville . Wallaceville is the cross street. Wallaceville okay. Uvalde road in houston, 5900 block of uvalde road. And thats where isis bragg is with her 1yearold and 21yearold cousin. Isis, were thinking about you. Were going to try to get help for you and hopefully some officials will get you out of there. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Lets turn now to reverend john stevens, Senior Pastor at chapelwood United Methodist church. He went out today to save as
many people as they could. He joins us now by phone. How you doing, rev . Im doing well. How are you . Im sure doing better than you guys. You guys are doing a great job down there. Youre doing gods work. Youve been with your church group helping with rescues. We have some video from instagram. What are you seeing . Tell us what youre seeing. Well, a lot of rain. It just wont stop. You know, we got a call, this thing started out kind of small and organic. We have Church Members we heard were stranded. We had a couple of guys get together. It kind of grew from there. We went down to where they were and found out more and more people. When we got to the little neighborhood thats got about chest high water all around it so you cant get in and out. Once you get in, its a little higher. People just start coming out. Then wed have people that were walking up in the water to check on their parents. We had some elderly there was one of the things a guy in a wheelchair. That guy just walked up. Theres a car there, but uthat car pulled out from his carport. Were looking at that video now. Go on. Thats just to get him to the boat because we couldnt walk. We couldnt get him to the boat. Youve got to go two blocks around where his son was going to pick him up. Then we start walking around. I saw a lady looking out of her window. I just asked her how she was doing, was she alone. She was. She had no power. Her name was miss louise. I said would you like to go out with us on the boat. She said i would. I said ill be back to get you. I went around and she said before i walked away, youre not going to forget me, are you . I said no, maam. Im getting old but im not going to forget you, i promise. She was on one of their little videos as we pull out. The surprising thing, a lot of people wouldnt come out with us. Theyre trying to wait it out. They think its like Hurricane Ike or thunderstorms in houston
when we get deluge and the water builds up quick and then it drains quick. I dont think people understand that with the reservoirs being released bayous over record levels, the waters not going anywhere. In the next day, two days, three days. I dont know. I trust people to know more than that. I just know weve got a list in the morning of more people that were getting that are just in our neighborhood. We cant do it all. I heard you talking to this young lady isis. I mean, she is way on the other side of where we are. Were on west side of houston and shes way over on the northeast side. But were staying in our little west side memorial area. Weve got plenty of people to get off of buffalo bayou. And were just trying to get all we can. Weve got more guys coming in the morning and bringing their boats. Were just going to get one at a time. Safety guys are doing great. The fire and the police, theyre doing a great job. Theyre just im looking at this website on people who need rescue, houston Harvey Rescue or whatever. Theres over 1100, 1200 names on this thing. Some of them are not correct and
you start looking up where map links are, its not correct. Theres a lot of confusion and a lot of its word of mouth. Social media. But everybodys chipping in. Thats the great story is, we go knock on the door, we dont ask them what their religion is or who they voted for in the last election. None of that matters. You need help . It should not matter especially in this circumstance. This is something as sad as it is it brings us all together. Realize were just all human beings and were all americans, and life is very precious. Reverend, i have to go. I want to thank you. Continue to do gods work. Thank you. We really appreciate it. If we can help you out, please let us know, okay . I will. Thank you so much. Thank you. When we come back, well speak to more of the heroes out there trying to rescue the thousands trapped in the flood zones. Well get an update from the National Guard and speak to an emt who rescued a pregnant woman who was in labor. Scuse me. Mind if i sit here . Not if you want your phone to work. Let me guess, you cant livestream your lobster roll. And my mobile pay isnt connecting and i just got an unlimited plan. Right plan, wrong network. You see verizon has americas largest most reliable 4g Lte Network and now unlimited plans start at 40 per line, you know what i am saying . laughs. oh this is your seat. Definitely. Yep. Just tucking it in. Nah, i wasnt going to pull it out. When it really, really matters you need the best network and the best unlimited. Now plans start at 40 per line for four lines. Parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what . You could apply for a Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan whenever you want. No enrollment window. No waiting to apply. That means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Medicare doesnt cover everything. And like all standardized Medicare SupplementInsurance Plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. So dont wait. Call now to request your free decision guide. It could help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan that works for you. These types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Rates are competitive, and theyre the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. Remember these plans let you apply all year round. So call today. Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. Breaking news. Waters are rising in texas and the coast guard has been getting more than a thousand calls an hour for people desperate to be rescued. Look at the live pictures there from sugar land, texas. And the water is rising as you can see. Already flooded area. Unbelievable. Joining me now via skype is colonel steven metz, a Public Affairs officer with the texas
military department. Colonel, thank you. We know that youre busy. We appreciate your time. Your guardsmen are around the state of texas aiding in this evacuation and rescue operations. Will they be able to continue working throughout the night and working 24 hours . Its a lot of work. Absolutely. The men and women are working around the clock. And theyre going to keep working. Weve got a plan to keep it going 24 7. Uhhuh. Do you have any idea how many people are still stuck and waiting to be rescued . Were hearing a thousand calls an hour for rescues. I dont have an idea how many are still needing rescue. As soon as we get calls, were still responding to them. Were still getting plenty of calls from local and state agencies, and from other groups out there that are doing search and rescue, and were helping them. Those have not slowed down. So i know we still have a lot of work to do. So whats the biggest problem . Is it equipment or what . Do you have enough equipment to get to people . Whats the biggest problem youre facing at this hour . Well, i mean, weve got boats there now. Weve got high profile vehicles there. Were bringing in more and more helicopters to help us all the time. I think the Biggest Issue right now is just time. Getting to everyone that needs to that we need to get to and covering such a vast amount of area. Were still fighting deep waters in some areas. But i think we have the equipment we need now, and i think you know, were not going to rest till we can make every effort to get to those in harps way. Harvey is supposed to get worse and its far from over yet. Whats your plan in the next few days . Well, were bringing more people to the scene. Weve got 3,000 people there now. As we mentioned earlier today, were increasing that to 12,000. Weve taken a number of helicopters from 14 to 2. Thats going to increase to 46 by tomorrow. So were continuing to bring more and more forces in. Boats that we didnt have out before weve got out now. Were going to continue to focus on it until we get everybody that needs to be rescued, rescued. Thank you very much, colonel steven metz, i appreciate your time. I want to go to cnns tom sater now live for news the weather center. Tom, you heard what the colonel said. Youve been listening to the folks on air and our meteorologists out in the field, reporters as well. Harvey has dumped more than 15 trillion gallons of rain so far. 15 trillion. What can folks expect on the ground now . Well, were looking at least another 10 to 15 in houston, isolated 17inch totals. I have more of a fear whats going to happen north of houston in the next 24. Lets back it up a little bit. That 11 to 15 trillion have fallen already, theyve calculated in Harris County
alone 1 trillion gallons. About 33 inches blanketing the entire county alone. In the color purple is over ten inches and in white, this is two to three feet of rainfall. Not only the size of south carolina, but to give you an idea of how much rain, greater than the size of the country of greece. This is an amazing amount of water. Many will complain maybe its poor planning. But no. There is not a city in the world that can handle this amount of rainfall. The models bring it off. And they have since last thursday, 70 miles where it made landfall. The totals are unbelievable. Harris county has 40 locations that picked up over 30 inches. And there is another, as mentioned, 10 to 15 more to come. If you look at the center, its over land. Were talking about this maybe intensifying a bit. I dont think youll notice that. The bigger story is its over a water source. You can start to see the bands at the bottom of the screen picking up this water like a siphon and tossing it back into the area. Houston is picking up half inch an hour. And theyve done this for the past 13 hours. Weve picked up another 6 inches. The tornado watch extends into parishes of louisiana. When it makes its second landfall, it does look like it moves out by wednesday night. Is that is an a improvement from previous forecasts that had it hanging around friday into saturday. It picks up in speed. But the amount of rainfall will be a good 20 inches or plus in Northern Areas of houston, 10 to 20 into parts of louisiana. Theyre going to need aid and rescue efforts to extend into this area. Tom seder, thank you so much. Appreciate that. We have much more to come on cnn, stories from the flood zone as President Trump promises aid for millions of desperate people but can he deliver the help they need . Whose house was flooded. She joins us on the phone. How you doing . I am dry. So that is all im thankful for right now. Im alive. My family is alive. Im gracious for all the help we received the past day. So im just taking it in day after day. Your house flooded in dickinson, texas. Yes, it was actually aunt and uncles house. We were actually checking in on them and got stuck there. And it was just it just happened so quickly. Its unbelievable how fast the water can rise and how much rain can pour out of the sky in moments. So where are you now . Im actually staying with a friend who took us in for shelter and safety on dry land, and im safe. So im just safe and dry. Were not in any water. Were still in the Galveston County area because the roads are inaccessible unless you have
a helicopter or a boat to get through to certain houston areas. Uhhuh. Tell me more about your story . Heres what i understand. You were trapped on the second floor of your house because the water was so high. 11 people were stuck all together . Yes, we were there and literally 4 00 in the morning, we heard water and so we went to look and its just seeing in through the floorboards. Its forcing itself in because it has no where else to go outside. And we were trying to see how to keep it out but in moments it, just kept coming in and more and more and then it started rising. At that point, we just had to start moving upstairs and its like we were just watching it raise on the staircase. It got up to about the fourth step and we had our grandfather with us. And he needed hes critical care. We were worried about him. Hes on dialysis and has a prosthetic leg. Yes, hes on dialysis and he has a prosthetic leg. We were really nervous how we were going to get him down the stairs and to dry safe areas because he does do daily dialysis. How serve doing . How is he and everyone else doing . He is doing okay. Hes got his dialysis treatment. Were thankful we were able to get him out. Ify echetebu, 11 people in her family, all of them trapped, and now theyre all safe, including her grandfather who is on dialysis and has a prosthetic leg. Thank you so much for joining us. Were glad that you are safe. Take care. Thank you. President trump heading to texas in hours to get a firsthand look at harveys devastation. I want to bring in juliette kayyem, a former department of security official. Cnn contributor lieutenant russel honore, who was commander of joint task force katrina. He joins us and president ial historian douglas brinkley,
author of the land of america. I have so much to ask you guys. Please, if you could keep it short. Theres so much ground to cover here. General, i want to start with you. Its about 72 hours since harvey first slammed texas. How do you think the response is going . I think its going in the right direction. Ive been a proponent from day one that we needed to go in big and it took the governor hes doing a good job but he only fully mobilized all of his National Guard. Whiches about 12,000 he has to date, and been operating with 3,000 or less. I think thats important. Theyve got to get more helicopters in there. They dont have enough. Thank good, the savior is the civilian Good Samaritans. So listen, i know that youve been somewhat critical of the mayor of houston. Youre thinking that the evacuation should have been mandatory. He gave his reasons saying there are too many millions of people there in order to do it properly in a couple of days. Should there have been a mandatory evacuation and do you
see his side of the story . I see his side of the story but its a Bankrupt Idea. Right now weve got millions of people out there in water. As far as we know. And this is the beginning of the hurricane season. I hope no other mayors use that doctrine of lets wait and see whats happening because evacuation is too hard. Weve invested a lot in these communities to evacuate. In these states, a lot of money since katrina for them to mobilize. Weve got to get the he would the elderly and disabled out. We have to get the people who flooded before out, and we need to have a voluntary evacuation before we go to mandatory evacuation. This is a Bankrupt Idea and with all due respect, i think hes a great mayor and hes very popular but i hope this Isnt The Doctrine that miami, tampa, new orleans, and other great cities start thinking and even new york because its too hardware not going to do it and we leave people in a flood zone where its clearly predicted its going to flood. Ive got to get the other folks in now. President trump, this is for doug. The president spoke earlier today about the devastation and happening from harvey. Take a listen and then well discuss. I think that youre going to see very rapid action from congress, certainly from the president. And youre going to get your funding. Its a terrible tragedy. We expect to have requests on our desk fairly soon. We think that congress will feel very much the way i feel. Very bipartisan way. That will be nice. We think youre going to have what you need and its going to go fast. Youll be up and running very, very quickly. Really very quickly. So yeah. I think youre going to be in fantastic shape. Ive already spoken to congress and everybody feels for you and feels for what youre going through. So this is where relationships matter, doug. Promises of this federal aid to help out houston. Im wondering if its really that simple because of his poor relationship with congress or do you think theyll come together and realize these folks are in
dire need and get it done . Well, i think whats important is when President Trump comes here to texas tomorrow, we dont know whether hes going to be in austin at camp marby or he might be able to get to Corpus Christi to the Naval Air Station that he somehow gets to really understand the devastation. Water doesnt just dry up in a week. It creates mold it, creates Electrical Wire shortages. It creates destruction that cant be done for years. Fema has said theyll be in houston for three years. Why dont they try a decade. This flood is that great. Its going to be what is that price tag . What is the federal government funding . Youre looking at 30 billion that donald trump has to get out of congress at the same time hes threatening to shut down if congress doesnt pump money into building a wall. Im hoping this doesnt get politicized. Obviously the country needs to pour billions of dollars into
louisiana coming soon and the state of texas. And maybe tomorrow, hell get to talk to the right people, catch a vibe of whats going here and fight for that high amount of money theyre going to need. The situation, juliette, talk about how this is going to play out. Well be dealing with this as americans for weeks, months, maybe years. How do you see this playing out for texas and louisiana and the country as a whole . So this will play out as its played out after Hurricane Sandy and katrina which is there will be tremendous amounts of money that are delivered to the city and state, as there should be. The problem with the United States, this is bipartisan problem, is we tend to view Disaster Relief money as something were going give to people so they can get back to normal. Its one of the hardest things to say in my field is sometimes we shouldnt get back to normal. In other words, we should look at houston as general honore is saying. Where are people are building their homes . Is it smart to build the homes . This is a city that has faced 400year storms in the last couple of years. These there are going to be places in the United States that are no longer liveable inhabitable because of the rising oceans and extreme weather events, same is true in new york. While i have no doubt the money is going to flow, it always does because of the generosity of americans and the politics of destruction, my hope is we will finally wake up and say were not building for the next storm. We arent. Were not building outside of flood zones. Were building in areas that are going to be wet, given the kind of client we have. Its a wish of many of us in Disaster Management who think about resiliency and those of us in Homeland Security who know that were not building for the storms that are going to come. All right, thank you everyone. I appreciate it. Emergency workers and civilians risking their own safety to rescue neighbors trapped by rising waters. Joining me is tara gower. She is an emt in the process of evacuating patients from a hospital and help herd pregnant neighbor get to the hospital when she went into labor during the storm. Fascinating. Tara, you worked at a hospital. Youve been evacuating patients tonight. What is going on . Basements, as i understand it, and a lot of those are having issues. Theyre evacuating. Those hospitals transferring to other hospitals. And then theres also hospitals that are not expecting you have a Family Staying in the hospitals. Youve got more people to feed than they probably have food for. So were trying to get patients out because theyre thinking of the future where theres not going to be enough food for everybody. Were trying to get them to hospitals that may have less mouths to feed basically. Where are these patients going . Just to other hospitals around the area. And does it look like they have that theyre going to be able to hold all these patients they have enough equipment, resources to do it . A lot of hospitals yes, they do. Were transferring not to the biggest hospitals that have a lot of the mouths to feed. Were trying to find smaller hospitals that can take them in that are in a safe environment. I know sugar land, theyre evacuating some hospitals down there due to the hurricane. Ours right now is more of longterm you know who we can feed and just trying to get people out there that are to places where they can actually take care of them, you know, food wise and just trying to be wise for the next few days. A lot of nurses and doctors arent going home till at least wednesday if not friday. Tara, dont go anywhere. I just want to show our viewers what is going on. Can we take this and show . These are live rescue that youre looking at right now. This is in the houston, texas area. These live rescues coming in now, thousands of people, hundreds we know for sure
thousands of calls. At least a thousand an hour coming in for people to be rescued. And heres the reality of whats going on. It is 10 38 central time in houston, texas. You see people now out there lets see if we can take it. Tara, dont go anywhere. Lets listen for a little bit if we can. You want to plug in . So, again, there you see some of the rescues. You see people trying to help folks out of the truck there, and just you know, this is what happens when you have an event like this. People pitch in to help. And you just see people who are displaced. What matters for the most part is the clothes on their back and
the loved ones they may have with them. And thats what they leave with. And luckily, these people are alive. Those who made it have been so far we know three people have died because of the storm. There you go. Youre looking at houston, texas and a live rescue. Weve got tara on the phone. She helped save her neighbor and shes been helping people evacuate from the hospital. There are many stories to tell, tara, for people who are, you know, who are running away from the floodwaters and trying to get to safety. Right, right. Definitely. Definitely. Theres quite a bit out there. Weve seen a few. We got to witness different ones with coast guard, in fact just coming down in a basket, picking up another pregnant woman they couldnt get to. I tried, over fences and everything. I couldnt get to her. Luckily the coast guard about then pulled down a basket and
picked her right up, her and her husband and were able to evacuate her. Yeah, were its crazy how much is going on right now, but a lot of people are pitching in and houston people are just really stepping up. It makes me pretty proud to live here right now. Tara gower, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. For ways that you can help those affected by hurricane harvey, make sure you go to cnn. Com impact. Cnn. Com impact. Well be right back with more on the storm and whats ahead for those in the flood zone. Plus north korea firing a missile today. Were going to bring you a live report from pyongyang. If you have medicare parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what . You could apply for a Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan whenever you want. No enrollment window. No waiting to apply. That means now may be a great time to shop for an
aarp Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Medicare doesnt cover everything. And like all standardized Medicare SupplementInsurance Plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. So dont wait. Call now to request your free decision guide. It could help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan that works for you. These types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Rates are competitive, and theyre the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. Remember these plans let you apply all year round. So call today. Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. Breaking news. Harvey still inundating the Texas Flood Zone tonight as rescuers across the region struggle to save desperate residents. Cnns Paul Vercammen is live for us in houston. Paul is where we saw the live rescues coming in. Tell us what youre witnessing. Whats going on at your location there . Hey, don. Communications are extremely rough because of all the cell service out. Theres been about a thousand rescues in this part of east houston. You can see right now, people coming out of this neighborhood, basically all of them being rescued within the last, oh, four, five, six hours. Theyve been coming in with everything that they can. Theyve been using boats. Theyve been using these huge trucks. And obviously, a tremendous accepts of relief on the faces
of these people who were stranded by this historic flood. Lets try to get you out into this a little bit here and show you. Don, if you are going to try to talk to me, i advise you try to yell. It is really difficult to hear right now. What has happened here is for these people, nothing short of a miracle. Theyve been trapped. Some of them for absolutely days in their houses. Sealed off by these walls and sheets of water that just came pouring down. What youre looking at right now on this side, this is making use of a freeway underpass. Theres one of those trucks that can ride rather high in the water. That helped to get some of the people out. Then as you saw, they are taking off with another one these trucks in this direction. A very smart and coordinated effort. As we said right here on the ground, theyre estimating they were able to be rescue at least a thousand people tonight. Let he try to talk to somebody. Excuse me, young man. Real quick. How long had you been in there . Did you just get rescued . No, i delivered some water. I knew people were over here. Youre helping out. Another Good Samaritan in houston. What prompted you to do that . What inspired you to come down and deliver water. They need help. I know their houses got flood. They dont got nothing. I think theyre tired. Need some water. Good for you. Thank you for that. Were trying to find some people who obviously just came out of the water. Were going to come over here and see if we can talk to this family, don. As i said, no pun intended. Very fluid situation. Excuse me, did you just come out of these floodwaters . Excuse me . Did you just get rescued . We just got rescued right now. Weve been at it since 10 00 in the morning. We called the choppers. We waved white flags, i mean our cell phones. We had to kind of like conserve everything. Then our power went out around 3 00. Waters were rising. Were like you know what . We have to go and priority was priority. So they got the woman first and we walked from hidden meadows
all the way to tidwell and from tidwell they told us coast guard, 7 30. Were done. So what happens is somebody came and told us that the Middle School got broken into. C. E. King Middle School. We got there the second floor because the first floor was flooded. We got there and they said that they sent a truck or something that they sent a truck. And so when we got to the store, the boats were just coming. We didnt know. We were going to wait till 5 00 in the morning. So we were like lets go. Lets go. Three kids and pregnant. Ive got my 3yearold over there. Were glad to see you and your whole family are okay. Its so good to hear you got out. Were hoping theyre boating everybody in. Right now, we can see the boats and these big rigs. Theyre doing the best they can. Glad you made it out of there. I know it was a long day for you. Thats what the scene looks like right now in the City Of Houston. An ongoing situation. Back to you now, don. Oh my goodness, Paul Vercammen, thank you very much. One story among many. Weve been hearing so many over the last few days coming from the texas area. Just unbelievable. Well continue to follow that. In the meantime, we have some Breaking News i need to tell you about. North korea launching yet another missile. This one flew over japan. I want to bring in International Correspondent will ripley, the only western correspondent in north korea. Will, thank you for joining us. Tell us what happened. Well, what north north korea did, don, was a highly, hughley provocative missile test, the most provocative since at least 2009 which is the last time they launched something that went over japan. An immediate range Ballistic Missile launched from not too far from where im standing now at the airport in pyongyang. Normally we see them in remote
locations. In this case it appears they used a Missile Launcher to launch from an airport american tourists use. It flew 1700 miles over the Northern Island of hokkaido coming down in the pacific ocean. This is significant for a number of reasons. One, the trajectory. The kind of missile they launched had they pointed to the south, this is the kind of missile north korea could use if they were going to launch missiles towards guam. As they threatened a few weeks ago. By launching it from a more populated area near pyongyang, theyre telling the United States dont think about trying a preemptive attack or a preemptive strike because they can put Missile Launchers near people live, a lot of people. More than 3 Million People live here which ups the risk for the United States if they were try to take Military Action to take out north koreas missile. Something the United States has not ruled out. Obviously a terrifying situation for People Living in japan. They woke up around 6 00 local time this morning with their phones beeping, air raid sirens sounding. Even though the missile didnt pose a direct threat, it certainly does underscore the escalating situation here. There are indications rights now according to south koreas intelligence service, north korea could be making final preparations for their sixth nuclear test. For months the government has been saying they could do it at any moment with very little notice. We have to watch closely to see what else happens here. Will ripley, appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much. When we come back, President Trump today defending his pardon of sheriff joe arpaio. Well speak to a man who spent a year in arpaios tent jail and see what he has to say about the pardon. Scuse me. Mind if i sit here . Not if you want your phone to work. Let me guess, you cant livestream your lobster roll. And my mobile pay isnt connecting and i just got an unlimited plan. Right plan, wrong network. You see verizon has americas largest most reliable 4g Lte Network and now unlimited plans start at 40 per line, you know what i am saying . laughs. oh this is your seat. Definitely. Yep. Just tucking it in. Nah, i wasnt going to pull it out. When it really, really matters you need the best network and the best unlimited. Now plans start at 40 per line for four lines. Albreakthrough withyou back. Nondrowsy allegra® for fast 5in1 multisymptom relief. Breakthrough allergies with allegra®. President trump, today, defending his controversial part pardon of former arizona sheriff joe arpaio. Sheriff joe is a patriot. Sheriff joe loves our country. Sheriff joe protected our borders. And sheriff joe was very unfairly treated by the obama administration, especially right before an election. An election that he would have won. So, and he was elected many times. So, i stand by my pardon of sheriff joe. And i think the people of arizona who really know him best, would agree with me. Joe arpaio tweeting, i
appreciate Donald Trumps support and comments about me today at his press conference. Joining me michael keifer, a Senior Reporter at the arizona republic. Thank you so much for joining us. Michael, the president wasnt koy about his pardon of joe arpaio. Today he reminded us how the people of arizona love him. So how are the people responding there . Well, it depends on which side. I dont think the pardon have changed anybodys opinion. There were people that were strongly for, people who are very strongly against. The only difference, is they might be talking about it louder. You were with joe arpaio the day he got the news of the pardon. What was his reaction . He had gone out for dinner with his wife. It was his wifes birthday. They had spaghetti and calamari. We found out at the last minute that we could get in to have an interview. He was his usual self. Hes always very cordial. Hes always very blustery. And it was, like any other interview with him, although he was grateful that he had been pardoned. And he did act as if that this is sort of an incentive for him to get back into public life. You covered him for many years. What is some of the most controversial actions his controversial actions . And why is he hated and feared by so many people . Well, there was a period in which he and the county attorney, Andrew Thomas, who has since been disbarred, were investigated and pressing charges against political enemies and judges. That all ended badly. All of those lawsuits, criminal charges, all went away. And it resulted in Numerous Court settlements. I think i tallied up a year and a half ago. And ive added in today, since 1994, when he first took office, the county has paid about 160 million in lawsuits. In settlements. Among the other things, of course, are the immigration wars. You know, in arizona, they started passing state immigration laws. And around 2005, there were several of them. They were to prevent Illegal Immigrants from getting bail. They were they had to do with smuggling. They had to do with i. D. Theft. Nearly all of them have been thrown out by the federal courts because they were either unconstitutional or preempted by federal law. So, we have been through this immigration this immigration battle here in arizona. All of the main players are now gone. The county attorney was disbarred. The president of the senate was recalled. And the sheriff finally lost election. Enough was enough. Yeah. Thank you, michael. I appreciate it. And by the way, i need to tell our viewers, his team, the legal team for joe arpaio. Thank you, michael, i appreciate that. Released a statement. Joseph m. Arpaio, was not convicted for racial profiling. As certain news outlets have inaccurately reported. His conviction had nothing to do with race. He didnt say which news organizations. Because he wanted to be correct. But he didnt say which organization. I want to bring in francisco charez. He spent a year in the tent jail. Francisco, thank you so much. You were born in mexico. You moved to arizona at the stage of 14. You went to high school there. Arizona state university. But you got in trouble. What happened . I was arrested for aggravated assault. I was under the influence and rearended another vehicle. And i pled guilty to a charge of aggravated assault. And my sentence was one year of Work Furlough in the tent city jail. You wrote an Opinion Piece for the washington post. I just want to read a little bit of it. I wont read the whole thing, but ill put a little bit up. Talking about after you turned yourself into authorities, they put me through something called the matrix, being moved from one cell to another, for about 12 continuous hours. It was cold. I was allowed to wear underwear. All i was allowed to wear was underwear. The striped uniform i was given was underwear and flipflops. And you go on to talk about that. An ill let the viewer read. You ultimately ended up in one of his tent cities. What was it like . Why were you there so long . And what did you think the conditions were like . I was there for a year because thats what i pled to. Under my plea agreement. The conditions were extreme. The weather was extreme. The heat. There is no Air Conditioning inside the tents. There is no cold water. You had to buy food from a Vending Machine where the prices are outrageously high. Sometimes the detention officers wouldnt let us buy stuff from the commissary, thats what its called, because they were upset with one of the inmates or what not. So we would go hours without eating. The extreme weather conditions in the wintertime, we would have to put hot water in empty Water Bottles and put it in a plastic bag and put our feet inside a plastic bag and wrap it around our feet so we would be warm all night. You could only get a certain amount of blankets. The blankets were plastic bags. Cruel and unusual . I think so. I truly believe that anybody who commits a crime deserves a punishment, deserves to serve time for whatever crime they committed, which is what i did. I owned up to what i did. But i think he took things way too far with his tent city. I really dont think it was necessary to even create this. I dont think its a decent program. I think its set up to make
criminals fail and commit other crimes. I dont think its a Successful Program at all. By the way, temperatures as i dont know in arizona can get 115, 120 degrees. It gets really hot there. In the time we have left, the short time, you have been a Court Interpreter at the time of your arrest. And you witnessed how undocumented people were treated. Tell me about that. Yeah. People who were just caught crossing the desert outside of Maricopa County, they were always charged. They were always he just wanted to make sure him and Andrew Thomas wanted to make sure they had a charge on the record. Conviction. If they try to come back to the u. S. , they would be sent to federal prison. It was a huge thing they had against Illegal Immigrants and latino people in our community. Created huge issues and created racial tensions within Maricopa County that were unnecessary. Ive got about ten