Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace 20170827

That is just days after mr. Trump raises their restraint. Kim jongun, i respect the fact that i believe he is starting to respect us. Chris will break down how the administration plans to deal north korea and afghanistan, in an exclusive interview with the Rex Tillerson. Plus, the president pardons former arizona sheriff, joe arpaio getting criticism for both president. The president supports Law Enforcement. Chris will ask the sunday panel if the president is sending a message about being investigated by the special counsel. All, right now on fox news sunday. Chris hello again from fox news in washington. Hurricane harvey, now downgraded to a Tropical Storm continues to hammer texas with deadly flooding and devastation. At least two people are confirmed dead. Officials expect that number tries. The storm has left over 300,000 without power in 1500 taken refuge in shelters. With a drenching storm expected to continue four more days, 10 million texans are under a flash flood warning. In a moment, we will discuss the damage from authorities with texas governor, gregg abbott. First, meteorologist will tell us where harvey is headed. Steve here again is just outside rockport with how folks are coping there. Well begin with Casey Steagall in galveston with the latest on the storm. Chris, the conditions continue to deteriorate out here rather quickly. This is happening up and down much of the texas coast. Ill get out of the way and show you a look of what were talking about in galveston. You see stuff like this all over the place. A roadway taking on water right up against neighborhoods. It is impassable and the water levels are rising fast. These torrential rains simply will not let up. Look at the video shot not long ago early this morning of an actual rescue happening in houston. The human chain be informed pulling someone to safety. Galveston county and the city of houston have received highest rainfall total so far. The National Weather service says the rain has been coming down at a rate of 5 6 inches per hour in some places. 24 inches have fallen in the houston metro which is just to the north. Local Emergency Management say 8911 call centers are swamped with people calling for help are stranded in their homes or on the roadways. Forecasters fear the worst may be a to come in terms of flooding. President trump is monitoring the disaster very closely. He held a teleconference by video from camp david yesterday with key members of his cabinet. He was briefed about the situation on the ground from the new fema administrator, the federal Emergency Management agency does now is go time. This is where we figure out who we fog, how much they need, and how quickly we can get it to them. President trump tweeted today, great coordination between agencies at all levels of government. Continuing rains and flash floods of intel with, thousands rescued. While high water rescues are carried out, residents are also under a different threats, tornadoes. Amateur video capturing this. Listen to people screaming. Several twisters touching down that if hit the suburbs of cyprus and katie. Homes have been damaged and minor injuries reported. The National Weather service says between friday and saturday, 67 tornado warnings have been issued. Sixtyseven. In fact, we woke up to yet another one here in galveston today. Is starting to look like millions of texans have a very long road to recovery. Chris thank you. Lets bring in Steve Harrigan who is just outside of rockport. A town that may have been hit hardest by the sword. Chris, and this part of the texas coast there is a lot of small towns. Sometimes with the publisher just a few thousand. For them, the storm came as a surprise because it went from almost nothing to a major powerful hurricane and less than 56 hours. People here really had a choice to make. Stay put in their homes, or to leave. Some made the wrong decision. I see the other family with 45 kids run back in their chair letter and the tornado hit it they were gone. Two more came across the other side on the other way. It cut a path going this way. Everybody in that area, if they are in their homes theres no way they could survive. Officials dont know how bad things are. No electric power, no cell phone service. We have seen some search and rescue operation, but they are very basic. It is just firefighters on foot with axes. They knock down doors, kick them in and say is anybody in here a live . People here walk of around in a stunned it days. They have lost the houses and businesses. Some people we spoke to say they dont know what they will do next. They have no insurance. After moment of sadness many admit they are better off than their neighbors. Our houses were gone. Were friends out there that i dont even know if they are all right. Officials tell people do not come back. We do not have utilities, you will be a burden. Stay away from now. We are seen people come back a little at a time. In the rain to pick through the wreckage and try to find something that is left. Back to. Chris thank you. Now to look where harvey is headed will go to the Weather Center new york. We have a long ways to go for this store. Resources statewide are being taxed. This is evolution of the last 48 hours of the storm. The storm has stalled just in sure, but all the moisture of this warm golf, one of the warmest bodies of water anywhere in the world is continuing to pull up across eastern side of texas. Thats targeting the houston area and everywhere around it. Weve seen some spots with over two peter rain and about another three days to go. We knew thered be some spots from 50inch rainfall totals by the end. We didnt know where that would line up. It looks like it will go further east than we anticipated. We have heavy rain in houston, over 2 feet of rain in houston we probably will be looking at an additional two peter rain by the time this is done. The flooding pictures we been seen today will only get worse by wednesday. The storm doesnt pull out of the region until thursday and friday. Chris thank you. Joining me now with the latest on the storm and its impact is the governor of texas, gregg abbott. Governor, what is your latest Damage Assessment for harvey . Both to people and property . It is batting growing worse. Part of the Damage Assessment is because where the hurricane hit and the entire surrounding area. Now are dealing with damage on the houston area because of flooding. Dollarwise it is large and growing larger, and the billions of dollars. We will be able to tell for the next couple of days, when better assessments can be made. Chris what is the biggest challenge right now for you and for authorities . Is at the flooding . We have multiple challenges all at one time. As people can see, the flooding in houston is dramatic. Some people will recall the Tropical Storm allison devastated houston in 2001. This looks like a replication of that. Were working to save lives and keep as many people safe as possible. At the same time, were conducting search and rescue missions where the hurricane hit. That is near Corpus Christi and rockport areas. Were doing multiple duties and multiple parts of the states. Chris i want to ask about that. We just had a report about rockport which mia been the Community Hardest hit. The damage has been so extensive that a lot of First Responders havent been able to go in and see what has happened to people who sheltered in place. The casualty count seems remarkably low, today, dozen or so injured. I hate to ask this, do you expect the casualty count to rise dramatically as First Responders get into these devastated areas . We will see. We are First Responders there, we have test axes task force wanted to. These are search and rescue missions as well as Texas National guard who are going door to door throughout neighborhood in rockport and throughout the region. We will have more reports coming out today. In that region there were a lot of warnings to evacuate. A large number of evacuations from that area and those evacuations likely saved a lot of lives. Chris the gulf coast, in addition to the folks in the homes it accounts for one fifth of this nations crude Oil Production and almost half of our oil refinery facilities. What can you tell us about the hit the Energy Sector has taken a what impact will that have on supplies and prices . Have spoken with leaders of some of these companies. Theyre very experienced until he was challenges like this. There are hurricanes and Tropical Storms that go through the off region all the time. They were well prepared for. They hunker down and were able to contain their facilities. They have the ability to come back up fairly quickly. This will probably be a one or two week downturn. , they are prepared to wrap up swiftly. Chris lets talk about the federal level. Congress change some of the rules for fema post katrina. Part of that is there are much more able to deploy personnel and equipment in place, in san antonio, texas region before the storm hit. Has that made a difference . It has made a difference. I give fema a grade of a come all the way from the president out. Ive spoken to the president several times, to his cabinet members such as secretary of Homeland Security, such as the administrator of fema and tom price secretary of health and human services. All across the board from the white house to the federal administration to fema they have been very helpful. We are able to see the storm come in a week or more in advance. Supreme positioning were taken care of whether the federal or state assets or local assets. When it comes to preparation, weve never been more prepared than we have in this time. Chris what can you tell us about President Trumps personal engagement in managing the response to this problem. Its been extremely professional, very helpful. He called and said, governor, whatever you need, youve got. This is the quickest turnaround ive ever seen from the time a governor and a disaster declaration to getting that granted. What that means for the layperson out there is because the president so swiftly granted my application for disaster declaration, it triggered all the resources of fema to help texas. What youll see in the coming weeks and months is a tremendous rebuilding from this damage. A large part is for fema helping out. Were appreciative to the way the president and white house has responded to this catastrophe. From the forecaster getting, how much longer is texas, the millions of people going to be under the gun from harvey whether a hurricane or Tropical Storm . Understand what im going to tell you is not precise in perfection. But for multiple reports im here and we can expect torrential rain in the greater houston and east texas area for days. Remember, the focus on tv right now in the houston area but there are miles outside the houston area where people will face challenges because of rain, flooding and rising water. We have a big task on her hands for at least several days if not a week. Chris are you talking 3 feet or 4 feet . If so, what to do about that . How do you try to help save those people . Were measuring rain these rain not in inches, but in feet. Were prepared to deal with that. For example overnights are National Guard deployed multiple highlevel vehicles that are going to be manned by the National Guard. Were deploying boats and helicopters to be involved in swift water rescues a method just in the houston area but all across east texas where you can see the heavy flooding. All we can do is provide as many resources as possible to achieve goal number one enough to save as many lives as we can. Chris i want to thank you for talking with us in the midst of all this. Know that the rest of the country has the people of texas in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you so much. North korea launches more missiles. How will the u. S. Respond . Secretary of state Rex Tillerson joins us for an exclusive interview. Usaa to me means peace of mind. We had a power outage for five days total. We lost a lot of food. We actually filed a claim with usaa to replace that spoiled food. And we really appreciated that were the webber family and we are usaa members for life. Adult 7 promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. ray the difference has been incredible. She is much more aware. She wants to learn things. vo purina pro plan bright mind. Nutrition that performs. Whats going on . Oh hey thats it . Yeah. Everybody two seconds dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance. Through the Tuition Assistance program, every day mcdonalds helps more people go to college. Its part of our commitment to being americas best first job. You dont let anything lkeep you sidelined. Come on thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals. For the strength and energy, to get back to doing what you love. Ensure, always be you. Chris president Trumps National Security Team began the week with a careful rollout for any strategy with afghanistan. They ended the week with north korea surprise launch of three short range missiles after a pause in the testing program. All part of the job of our next guest, Rex Tillerson. Mr. Secretary, welcome back to fox news sunday. Pleased to be here, chris. Chris before we get to foreign affairs, as a native son of texas and former chairman and ceo of exxon mobil, your thoughts about Hurricane Harvey and the impact its having in the oil and gas sector in the gulf coast. Chris, my wife and i are both native texans, was to make her home in texas and our families are in texas. We have many, many friends, family in the affected areas. Both her and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who are effective, over 1 12 million are being impacted. In respect to the the texas, Governor Abbott is doing a remarkable job dealing with an ongoing event. Its import people understand and recognize this is an ongoing event they are dealing with. President trump has been in all caps its meeting yesterday and another one later this morning to ensure all agencies are doing what they can to support the state of texas. With respect to the oil and gas industry, they been through this many times. Theyre probably among the most prepared for these type of events. They do a lot of prestaging capability. There will be challenges created by storm of this magnitude and one that is going to last as long as this one. Im confident they will respond capably. And the Government Agencies have facilitated early action as we well. Chris lets turn to your day job. North korea fired three short range missiles on friday. What message do you think the kim regime ascending. The firing of any Ballistic Missile is a violation of Un Security Council resolutions. We view it as a provocative act against the United States and our allies. We continue to want the kim regime to understand there is a different path he can choose. The International Community has been clear with unanimous 15 0 approval of the Un Resolution imposing the most stringent sanctions ever. Theres a unified International Voice echoing our message that nobody wants to see a Nuclear Korean peninsula. Were all unified to see a denuclearize korean peninsula. We hope for the opportunity to engage with them on how we might achieve that. Chris this week before the missile test, both you and the president suggested that kim might be backing off of his missile program. Here both of you are. Kim jongun, i respect the fact that i believe he is starting to respect us. Im pleased to see the regime in pyongyang has demonstrated some level of restraints that we have not seen in the past. Were both a be wrong about kim . I dont know that were wrong. I think it will take some time to tell. This type of launch again it is a violation of Un Security Council resolutions. So clearly they are still messaging us as well that they are not prepared to back away from their position. Having said that, we will continue our peaceful Pressure Campaign to see if we can bring the regime to the negotiating table to begin a dialogue on a different future fourth. Chris President Trump lunch this week to fight and win in afghanistan. I want to play clip from his speech on monday. Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables will guide our strategy from now on. Chris how open ended is that commitment . How many troops is the president prepared to send to afghanistan . Along as he prepared to keep them there . The president has been clear that this is a dramatic shift in terms of military strategy. Were shifting from a timebased strategy that hate troop ceiling levels to now a condition based strategies which will be dictated by conditions on the ground informed by battlefield commanders. He has delegated significant authority to secretary mattis to set troop levels but has been able to delegate further to military commanders in the field decisionmaking to turn the tide against the taliban. For the past couple of years the taliban has been advancing and Afghan Forces have been unable to push them back. Therell be a definite change in tactics on the ground. All of this is directed in sending a message to the taliban that we are not going anywhere. We are going to continue to fight for the Afghan Government and security forces. The taliban needs to engage with Afghan Government and a process of reconciliation and developing a way to govern the country in the future. Chris when you say theyre gonna be there until they get that message is an openended commitment . Racing whatever the president s view is, whatever it takes . The president was clear that hes not committing to any deadlines. In his speech if you recall he set our patience is not unlimited. Our time is not unlimited. So. Chris hes talking about that in terms of the Afghan Government. Correct. Hes not going to set arbitrary guidelines. And deadlines. Chris theres also the question of how this administration defines victory in afghanistan. You and different terms. Here you both are. Attacking our enemies, obliterating isis, crushing al qaeda, preventing the taliban from taking over afghanistan and stopping master attacks against america before it emerges. This entire effort is intended to put pressure on the taliban to have them understand they will not win a battlefield victory. We may not win one, but neither will you. Chris which is it . Is it obliterating al qaeda and isis or is it just getting the taliban to the negotiating table . The word against isis is clear and the president has been clear, we will do fight isis and eliminate their capability to organize, raise financing, to plan new recruits to their fight to carry out terrorism acts roth world. That fight is progressing well. Were well on our way to the feeding isis. We have taken the caliphate from them in iraq. Over 70 of the territory has been recovered. None has been lost back to those forces. Most 2 million displaced iraqi people have returned to their homes. In the fight in syria where the process of liberating raqqa which is there self designated capital. That liberation is going well. Its our expectation that we will defeat isis and syria and iraq. Then our effort is global to make sure that isis does not reemerge elsewhere. All terrorist organizations have somewhat different objectives. Whether its isis, al qaeda, the tell banner others, our objective is to deny any terrorist organization any territory with which they can organize, raise financing, recruit new fighters, develop techniques for carrying out attacks and applying those. If we deny them the space to do that we protect the homeland. We also protect americans and our allies as well. Afghanistan has a history of being a refuge for some of the most devastating attacks carried out. The attack of 9 11 was organized and carried out from afghanistan. So we need to secure afghanistan in a way that can never occur again. Sebastian gorka, one of the spokesman of foreignpolicy was fired on friday following the firing of steve bannon. Some folks are saying this, it prints it particularly on the writers and this is a victory of the global over the socalled America First. Sebastian gorka and his resignation level to the president wrote the about the afghanistan speech. The fact that those drafted and approved the speech removed any mention of radical islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of your president ial campaign has been lost. Is gorka right . I think hes completely wrong. It shows a lack of understanding of the president s broader policy when it comes to protecting americans at home and abroad with all terrorism. Terrorism has manifested itself in many types of organizations. The president has charged us of developing policies and practices to attack terrorism wherever it exists in the world or where there wherever it would pose a threat to americas. We need to develop techniques that are global in their nature. We want to ensure terrorist do not have the capability to organize and carry out attacks. Chris what you make of this vision between America First and these globalist. I dont see a division. I think its a question of tactics and how you achieve those. The present was clear that we are not undertaking nationbuilding. Well shift our diplomatic aid and Development Programs as well to coincide with the president s view that the Afghan Government people must own their form of government must come to some reconciliation with all ethnic groups including the taliban as to how they can secure their country, peaceful country that does not align itself with any terrorist organizations or countries that do. Thats what when it looks like. Chris finally, the controversy over the racial protest in charlottesville in the president s response to it has become an international issue. The un committee this week criticized the Trump Administration for quote, its failure at the highest political level to unequivocally reject and condemn the racist violent events and demonstrations. Here was the president in phoenix this week talking more about the media then he was about the neonazis and the client. The only people given a platform to these hate groups is the media itself in the fake news. Does that make it harder for you to push American Values around the world when some foreign leaders question the president s values . We express American Values from the state department. We represent americas people, our commitment to freedom, and to equal treatment of people. That message has never changed. Chris and when the president gets into the controversy he does and the un committee responsible it does seems to say they did begin to doubt the reliving those values. I dont think anyone doubt the american peoples values or the commitment of the American Government or its agencies to advancing those values. Chris in the president s values . The president speaks for himself, chris. Are you separating yourself from that . I made our own, star values as well in the speech i gave to the state department this past week. Chris thank you. Thank you for coming today. My pleasure. Chris lets help the friends and family in texas stay safe. Up next, will bring in the sunday group to discuss President Trump pardoning former arizona sheriff, joe arpaio. Plus, what would you like to ask the panel about the pardon go to fox news sunday, we may use your question on the air. Your brain changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. The name to remember. Was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job . He shouldve had a jury, you know what . Ill make a prediction. I think you will be just fine. Okay. Chris present trump in phoenix hinting that he was going to pardon sheriff joe arpaio. There is a line from the godfather that says that while the country was watching Hurricane Harvey frightening the president fired sebastian gorka, set out guidelines for banning transgenders in the military, and pardon sheriff joe. Its time for sunday group. The columnist for the hill, catherine lucy, who covers the white house for the associated press, and josh, Mitch Mcconnells former chief of staff and the gop strategist. Joe arpaio was convicted last month of criminal contempt for defying a court order from detaining latinos on suspicions they might be illegal, his opponents called it racial profiling. We answer questions regarding the pardon and Maria Swanson tweeted this, if the law doesnt apply to joe arpaio, should it apply to anyone else . How do you answer maria . What you think of the pardoning as a legal proposition in the politics . The president is entitled under the constitution to have an Unlimited Power pardon. Sheriff was found by guilty of violating a court order for over year that said to stop racially profiling people and he openly defied and said he was going to continue the current policy that the federal court told him to stop. This did not go through the normal routine that normal pardons go through. It was drafted in the white house, did not go through the regular process reviewed by outside lawyers. I think the president was making a political statement. And allies of his was going to go to jail for six months or so and he stepped in. He had the right to do it, think it was a bad mistake for the cut him in the country. The president said he actually talk before hand to the attorney general, Jeff Sessions about not doing the case in the first place. Some critics are suggesting the way the pardon went down, no appeal, no expression of remorse, no review by the Justice Department, may in some sense send a signal to his aides who might be under investigation in the unrelated investigation by special counsel mueller, he will take care of them too. This is not an act of mercy of someone who have been denied justice. Joe arpaio has not been sends yes. This was a preemptive act by President Trump that i think sets a precedent going in that he can act in terms of pardon with little review from the Justice Department to help out someone who is a family member, someone whos a political ally. Remember, he was not only an early supporter, he was an early birther. He is the face of hostility towards immigrants. Specifically mexicans and latinos. It was a political promise for his base and he delivered on that promise in a way that in the future such acts of pardon are more normal. He can set a pattern. Are we overanalyzing this . I dont think theres any grave threat to democracy here. President ial pardons are clear. He has Broad Authority to do anything he wants. This is an 85yearold Law Enforcement officer who may or may not get six months in prison to a guilty verdict. In comparison to some of the pass clemencys it pales in comparison. My guess is your reaction to this is a direct way you feel about joe arpaio. I think he is a face of law and order. Sorry for interrupting. But i think the idea that you undermine a federal court order as a Law Enforcement is not subject to equal justice under light. Thats different. When nixon was pardoned by ford there is huge pushback. Allowing a double standard to be put in place were former president. We now recognize that was a great act on behalf of our country. The united our country by putting that issue behind us. The suggestion in the Washington Post that theres a grand strategy to pardon joe arpaio and signal to others in the campaign, it doesnt work. Theres no strategy behind it. It was an act on impulse by the president. It has no relationship to the Ongoing Investigation on russia. I want to switch to another subject. The subject the president escalated his fight this week with members of congress. Mitch mcconnell, bob corker, john mccain, speaker ryan, josh, you have a dog in this fight as former chief of staff to mitch mcconnell. Is a president separating himself in picking fights with these members and republican leaders. Will that make it harder for them to pass the agenda . No question. Theres a great piece that explores the president s triangulation. Its not effective when your party runs congress and your in the midterms. It were could lead is in peach man. Attackingyearold party drives down the overall approval of congress, your Leaders Within and the generic ballot. Paid out to its logical extension means democrats have a better shot in the midterms than they would ordinarily. If democrats take over the house, if this president leaves the Democratic Base will not force impeachment proceedings he hasnt been paying attention. Another immediate position which washington must do in september is keep funding the government which runs out of money at september 30. The president had Something Interesting to say. Leave me, if we have to close down our government, were building that wall. Chris catherine, when your sources in the white house tell you . Is this president really prepared to force a Government Shutdown unless he gets running for the wall . Ive been talking to republicans in and outside the white house. There is a sense that we should not view this as an empty threat. Hes frustrated. Hes frustrated he hasnt moved his agenda more. His base cares about the wall and immigration. People were chanting build the wall at his rally as they have been for over a year. But what leverage does he have . Hes getting the democratic votes in there, say, were not going to give you the wall and juergen on the shutdown. Hes really doesnt have leverage over democrats on the wall. But he will continue to push on this. He wants to see something on the wall and hes not backing down from a fight even from his own party. Chris when we come back, the president launches a new effort in afghanistan while north korea launches a new provocation. Governor gregg abbott of texas is at a News Conference on harvey. Lets listen. Fema administrator as well as the secretary of Homeland Security duke, we talked the phone call about more ways in which the state of texas will be collaborating with fema and the federal government. That will be part of the material i cover today. We had a long briefing i will want to break out in detail because theres a lot going on. I will be discussing what is going on in houston, but also will cover the ongoing challenges that were dealing with other parts of the state. Then we start with the weather. You all have seen briefing about the weather, one thing were dealing with is a triangle of ongoing rain. One tip would be the christie area up to Travis County and then back up to Corpus Christi. Parts of those region will continue to receive incredibly heavy rain that will lead to even more flooding and more danger for texans. Houston and so many other areas in that region will sustain heavy rainfall. I realize theres a lot of focus on houston right now. Its important not to forget the challenges that people in the counties outside and around houston are suffering because of the rainfall. That includes and in particular, liberty county. Texans need to be prepared for more rainfall tonight on occasion. Very heavy rainfall. We want to emphasize the importance when there is heavy rainfall, when there is floodi flooding, the importance of staying off the road. If you drive into water youre taking your life into your own hands. Always try to seek i ground, whether you are ground or in a building. Criticize you can. Try to avoid going outside if you do not need to if youre in a location that has rising water and heavy rain. This likely is going to be a historic rainfall, if not an alltime record. In the amount of rain that sustain in certain regions. Also went to emphasize to our fellow texans that there will be locations today, tonight, tomorrow that will continue to have tornado action. Texans need to constantly be watchful and hopefully have the ability to stay tuned to information about tornado warnings and watches. I like to break down what agencies in the state of texas are doing. First with the National Guard and the state guard combined. We have now activated 3000 National Guard and state Guard Service members, serving all the way from houston to victoria, Corpus Christi, and parts in between. They have activated 500 vehicles, six shelters and 14 aircraft. The Texas Department of transportation has deployed 400 people. They are involved in Recovery Missions in Corpus Christi and victoria primarily. When those areas they are involved in removing debris as well as repairing science. So one positive about where we are is that text. And other agencies and city and local folks in the Corpus Christi region are in the early stages of the rebuilding process. The texas char transportation is working to restore the ferry service. Right now there more than 250 highway closures in texas. In a triangle region that i mentioned earlier. We have electronic Message Boards providing realtime information. If youre seeking information about road closures, you can go to drive texas. Org, that is drive texas. Org. To find out if there are road closures. The report from the Public Utilities commission is that there are 316,000 outages which is less than i reported yesterday. That does not include any update from houston today. Theyre working as fast as possible to continue to reduce outages. With a decrease of wind and weather in regions like Corpus Christi, rockport, victoria, et cetera that will enable them to move more swiftly to reduce outages. The Texas Commission on it fire mental Quality Environmental quality is working on water samples to help them get off of boiling water, which they hope will be coming fairly soon. Theyre working swiftly with other communities to help other communities get back to a reliable water sources quickly as possible. In the state of texas we have Texas Task Force one and two. These are Emergency Responders affiliated with the Texas Division of Emergency Management. There are 400 members engaged. They provide primarily search and rescue missions and other activities, but theyre working in multiple places. Including in houston, victoria, Corpus Christi and rockport areas on search and rescue missions. Along those lines, as far as search and rescue missions are concerned and other assistance is concerned assistances pouring in from across the country, both helicopters and other resources have been provided by at least the following states. Nebraska, tennessee, utah, california, missouri, ohio, arizona, and new york. That is in addition to resources that are being provided by the federal government. I extend my deep gratitude to our fellow americans who are pouring in support from other states and providing resources that are needed to help us deal with the challenges. From texas park and wildlife there are about 100 game wardens who are working on water rescue another missions. They are receiving assistance from louisiana and florida. They are using over 60 vessels. As one example, they performed about 19 water rescue missions around the bastrop area eight, yesterday. They are continuing patrols in the rockport area and houston area and an air votes around the galveston area. The Texas Department of public safety, they have assigned 1750 dps officers to work in this triangle area i mentioned befo before, in between Corpus Christi, and Travis County. They have close to 500 dps officers currently assigned in the houston area to help deal with that situation. The report from the red cross is that they are serving about 100 30,000 meals per day. They have heavy activity in the victoria and houston areas. There are a lot of people across the state of texas and across the country even outside the country who are wanting to help. The best way you can provide help that can best assist texans in need, is by providing the help through the red cross. There are two ways you can contact them. One is red cross. Org. That is, red cross. Org, or call 1800 red cross and indicate that your trying to provide assistance to those in texas and the red cross will be the best way to do that. From our health team among the long list of things theyre doing, they are sending about 92 ambulances to the houston, texas area to help them deal with their challenges as well ascending a mobile medical unit to houston, texas which when fully implemented is basically a standalone hospital facility. On transportation, we are still moving hundreds of evacuees to safe locations. That includes adding evacuation routes from brazoria county, 25 buses. There are 65 buses in the houston area that are staged for evacuation purposes. They will take assignments from the local authorities for the appropriate location to go to to evacuate people who need to be evacuated. From the communications department, a Dps Communications trailer has been set up and rockport for all First Responders. As you know, the ability to communicate electronically is difficult in that region. Its essential in order to restore the type of order we need that we have the ability for all First Responders to communicate. That trailer exists for that purpose. That covers the rockport area as well as ingleside. Theyre setting up the Communications Committee in Harris County them was orchid county to give a breakdown example of some activity in the coastal region. Troopers are operating in oasis county, and sam patricia a county and have assigned in those regions about 250 dps officers. They are involved in Security Operations as well is any rescue operations needed. They been in contact with local leaders such as mayor mccombs in Corpus Christi and they are working to help out with port aransas. Their Regional Distribution Centers are set up for food delivery purposes, food delivery locations will be set up by tomorrow and rockport, port aransas, ingleside, and portland. There will be other areas also. I know people in those regions in particular are looking for that type of help. That help is coming. As the officer who reported to us today from the region said, he was talking to someone who approached him and they said they now know that the calvary is coming. In addition to our efforts, we are proud to be joined today by vice admiral carl scholz. He is with the United States coast guard and i would like him to share a few words, then i will retake the mic and say few more take some questions. Thank you governor and good afternoon. Im from the coast guard atlantic area were here as part as the department of homeland Security Team to support the state of texas and the federal Emergency Management agency for this crisis response. The coast guard has been actively and closely engaged with Hurricane Harvey, note Tropical Storm harvey for a good part of the week. We removed our assets for the immediate areas they could survive initial damages. We been repurposed seen in other areas. We have resources from the entire coast guard, california, maine and eastern seaboard to the gulf states that are here to support the states and fema. Have eight helicopters flying with another eight flying that are rescuing citizens from the immediate region weve been down in Corpus Christi. Were pushing boats on the water from all parts of the questio c. Our partners have resources here. Were in the fight to support the state of texas with full efforts of the entire coast guard. A few messages is the maritime guy. This is a very, very dangerous storm