And one lucky guy, fox news contribute, jason chaffetz. Hes outnumbered. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you get inspired by what the people are doing. The magnitude of this storm is scary. Yes. Tropical storm harvey making its second landfall battering towns along the texas and louisiana border and threatening new orleans. 12 years after katrina. This as the death toll in houston has risen to at least 20 now. Authorities expect that number the climb higher as the waters recede. Among the lost a Houston Police officer who drowned in his patrol car on his way to work. Officials say 13,000 people have been rescued. But others still desperately trying to escape their inundated homes. The head of fema making clear the main priority remains getting folks to safety. The operation right now is very clear. Were still in lifesaving, lifesustaining mode. Not only are we performing through our partners at the coast guard, were performing the life safety measures. The life sustainment mission is huge. Its going to grow. We have over 230 shelters operating in texas with over 30,000 people. Shepard smith continues coverage from the fox news deck. Shepard . Forecasters warning catastrophic flooding in texas could remain in days to come. The mayor of houston says his whole city is under water right now. He says rescue teams are dealing with fires as theyre trying to get people to safety. Officials calling for everyone with a boat, every person with a boat to come help out. In this video here from nearby beaumont, texas, yesterday, sure enough, highway 90 flooded. Look at the water halfway up the windows. Beaumonts mayor told nbc that every road is overflowing and the rain is still coming down. A look at the current radar now. Weve been waiting for this storm to head inland. It did last night. Came inland about here in louisiana. Theres the last thing it will make you sneeze. During the night the wind shear goes down to almost nothing. In the daytime, were hoping this dryer air coming in from the west will come up through here and dry some of this out. Thats the hope. We shall see. Forecasters are saying that tornadoes are possible today across parties of louisiana, mississippi, lower alabama, Southeast Texas. Rainfall totals in louisiana now, bayou conway in louisiana, 22 inches. In kenner, the kenner gully in louisiana, 18 inches already. The big numbers, of course, out of texas, cedar bay, 52 inches. Clear creek, dayton and marys creek, 49 inches. In south mississippi, theyre getting a lot of rain. And ocean springs, 4 1 2. More to come. Remember the cruise ships stuck at sea . More than 15,000 people still stranded on carnival liners. They were supposed to return to the port of galveston many days ago. Theyve been getting supplies in the port of new orleans. A carnival spokesman said the ships have started to head back to texas. Greg abbott down playing the effects of a property insurance bill that goes into effect later this week. Critics have called for the law to be delayed to give people more time to file their claims. The government says every valid claim will be paid. Weve been watching jeff flocks amazing reporting in the waters. Hes live in richmond, texas for this morning near the brazos river near houston. How is it looking, jeff . The National Guard has arrived. Thats a good sign here. Its a bad sign for what will happen here. The guard coming in with big vehicles and evacuating this community. This is something called rio vista, i believe. And theyre going doortodoor to each of these houses here. As you can see, shep, the water is already up. But heres the fear. That flood water comes down from houston and everybody from the guard here just helping to evacuate everything out of here. Theyve been great. The flood water comes down from houston, it then begins to swell the river and they say it could be another three, four feet of rise in this area. So they say we got to get these folks out. This is the family that theyre evacuating right now. Theyve been great, helping them out with their stuff. This is a big family. They have multiple children. Not unlike what we saw yesterday. A little less dramatic because theyre getting a little chance to get a headsup before this goes to no good. Thats the latest from here, shep. Jeff, just seeing the sun come out, that must help at least mentally a lot. Well, blue sky. Ill tell you, yeah, i agree. You may want to point your camera in the sun but the blue sky. I dont know that these people will figurative see blue sky soon. But literal blue sky goes a long way. Jeff flock high and dry today. Matt finn is in port arthur, texas. Not as lucky there. Still wet and nasty and lots of life saving going on. What do you see, matt . Shepard, this feels like a war zone. Its a calamity. Its unimaginable. Were watching as people are being rescued. Boat after boat after boat coming into this area of high ground, being propped up against the median here in this fourlane highway. Weve seen elderly people being carried. We have seen people without clothing who are shaking. This area now were seeing boat after boat go out into the water. When they come back, they have boat loads of families, elderly people, pets, children who are shivering. Those people are placed here on the median and they sit and wait in the soaking wet rain for a truck or for someone to pick them up. Here behind me, you can see a family being propped up into a truck and taken to a shelter or wherever they will go. There are children without shoes, there are people shaking and shivering and there are dogs. Theres choppers in the air. Theres countless fire, police, National Guard crews there. This is a staging area for port arthur, a town of 55,000 people. County Officials Say all 55,000 affected one way or another. We just talked to a woman that said she had 40 minutes to get out. Weve seen people without shoes. Families shaking and shivering and crying. Theyre in shell shock. This is the worst case scenario. How long have they been wet and how the rescues came about . We just spoke to a woman who said she had about 30 or 45 minutes to get out. Were being told that if anyone is still in the area or has family here or seeing us to place a white sheet outside of your property. People saying their water began to rise rapidly around 3 00 a. M. In the middle of the night. Thats when people began going to the roofs and their second floors. Now were witnessing those people being rescued. Shepard, weve been here about two hours. Its a consistent flow of boats going out in the water and then coming out. Heres a family. Theyve been here 10, 15, 20 minutes just sitting on the side of the barrier. Were told this will go on for hours. Shepard people to the west of there, im sure theres people in west houston and the big city dont realize its such a complete disaster there. Yeah, this is about a twohour drive from houston. I understand that there was about 25 inches of rain in a 24hour period. So more than an inch an hour. Our meteorologists and people are saying this is an absolute disaster. Like you said, the mayor saying the entire town is under water. Shepard ask your photographer to show us around while youre there. Sure. Lets walk down towards the water. Here to my left is another family getting off a boat or what appears to be a family. Another child without shoes. We have seen that more times than we can count. A woman with a cane. Based on how these people are arriving, looks like they didnt have long to get out. Ill let the pictures speak for themselves, shepard. Shepard you know, matt, i remember i dont want to draw parallels and such, but i remember standing on the i10 overpass in new orleans and seeing this, person after person after person. It changes your life. It changes your perspective when all of a sudden peoples lives are uprooted, home after home after home, community after community. Never to forget this. These kids coming out of the water as you say with no shoes, nobody will ever forget the late august days when suddenly the house was filled with water. Just astounding. It will change a community forever. On her way in here, we witnessed what are being referred to as people pushers, which are very large pickup trucks. We saw that in houston. On the way in here, we saw one of the pickup trucks that had about 12 to 24 people shoulder to shoulder in shell shock. Like a war evacuation zone. So to your point, i dont think any of those people will remember the day that they were carted into a truck and evacuated out of their home and their town. Shepard yeah, its a tough thing to see. Man, these armadas of helpers, some are rescue officials and some are volunteers, right . The majority of these people are volunteers. Look at these boats. Theyre not county boats or police boats. Theyre fishing boats. Civilian boats and civilians that are here. On our way in here, we were stopped in traffic shepard ask your photographer to show them if you would. We would like to see them. Sure. You get it. Stay on these guys. We saw truck after truck. It was just traffic of trucks with boats on their hitches. This is one of the counties that sent out the alarm. If you have a boat, we can use it. Thats what youre seeing in the distance. Heres another boat load of people. Another boat load of evacuees. Shepard thats to the right of where your photographer is shooting. Are you guessing hundreds have come in this overpass today or how many . Yes, yes. And yes. When we first arrived here, the line was the line evacuees, there were dozens and dozens. They have slowly been put on trucks and taken out of here. As you see, they just keep coming. Id estimate hundreds, yes. Where do they go from here . We just interviewed a county official volunteer a short while ago. He said theyre trying to get them to shelters. We spoke to a woman, an elderly woman who said shes just trying to get ahold of her family. Its uncertain where every one is going. How are you, sir . How are you holding up . Were holding up, man. Where do most of the people go from here . 39th and 73. A warehouse over there that they have situated over there. Or the bowling alley. You think these shelters can handle this many people . We dont know. Were going to give it a try. We have to do what we have to do to get them out of the weather. We spoke to an elderly woman. She said shes going to try to get ahold of her family. When she gets to the shelter, will she have access to a phone . Yes. They can use their own cell phones up there. They have power to power their phones up and stuff like that. Neighborly. Let them use a phone, call relatives and stuff like that. How many people would you estimate have been brought to this location . About 800 to 1,000 people. Since what . Since 3 00 a. M. How many people would you estimate are in the water that need to be rescued . Theres no telling. Id say 800 to 1,000. Maybe more. We dont know. Its communities. When did the water first start rising . In the middle of the night . Yes. Midnight. How high is the water . Eight, ten feet. Some houses have almost at the gables, which is about 12 feet. So we dont know. The apartments will be flooded. Theyre flooded, too. 20 feet of water at the first level. So about ten feet right there. So how long will you be at this location . As long as it takes. Thanks very much. Wish you well. Thank you. Shepard matt, water to the gables could thats a very frightening thought. If the water gets to the gables, people inside dont have air. They have water. Heres more children, shepard. More people being propped up against this median. This has served as the base. Weve seen some very elderly people that couldnt walk and had to be carried here. They sat in the rain for quite a while. All of these volunteers are doing everything they can. You can see the numbers are somewhat overwhelming right now. Shepard matt finn. We dont have communications with your truck. These are normally things we talk about to the producer booth, the people in your crew. We appreciate it. When youre not reporting, if you can leave the pictures up for us. Your people need a break. Even if they stick it on a tripod and leave it there. We want to monitor this if possible and give this information to our viewers. Thanks to your crew, the photographers, people running cables. You see the plight of these people. Its been going on for so long, for five days. Certainly moved to the east now. In port arthur, this is a brand new disaster, brand new last night. Their disaster didnt start days ago. It started in the middle of the night. Think of it. The rain is pouring and the winds are howling. Youre in the house with kids. The kids and the family and nowhere to go. Suddenly the water is up to the gables as the rescuer described it. No boat. A carnival. Just a parade of boats heading out there to get people. 800 to 1,000 to go. Just incredible to see. Unbelievable to watch. That mayor saying my entire city is under water right now. Congressman chaffetz is here with us. This is 100 miles outside of houston. And still coming. Your heart sinks. Its hard to watch. Its emotional. Go texas go its very serious. Yeah. I think were all having to same feeling. Very difficult. Thats why the pictures are so important. It is hard. Sometimes you feel you have to look away. You also have to realize the depth and the breadth of this storm. The impact that it has on people and those life and death decisions having to leaf. Sometimes they dont have enough warning obviously to properly evacuate. Thats why it is this incredible spirit. Its that society, the neighborhoods Holding Together and helping one another out and people coming from far and wide in their boats, in their trucks to do whatever they can to get the most Vulnerable People to safety. The fact that, you know, its wednesday. The storm is still ongoing. We talked about this last week on thursday. These pictures and these stories are staggering. Its important to shows these images as shep mentioned standing on i10 after Hurricane Katrina in new orleans to show these pictures to the federal, the state and the local authorities both in texas and in louisiana at the federal level to remind them where the help is needed. Theres 30,000 National Guard troops at the National Level that the pentagon stands ready to deploy in addition to 12,000 and 14,000 in the state of steaks texas alone. This is a situation that needs attended to. You can see what people are doing at the local level. More help is clearly needed. And jillian, the mayor of port arthur as you heard reported saying if youre still in your homes, the entire city is under water. Put a white towel out to let us know youre in there and need rescued. Its hard to really looking at the images, so you have a visual to accompany the Horror Stories coming out of there. Its still hard to imagine. Its still unbelievable and shocking and hard to really understand what these people are going through. All right. Were going to come watching these pictures. Our cameras are still on in richmond and port arthur. Were going to follow this devastation out of texas and louisiana as harvey makes landfall again. The white house says President Trump will make another trip to the region this weekend after touring the damage in Corpus Christi yesterday. How hes doing with this and what the Mainstream Media is saying about it. 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. Year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. It senses and automatically adjusts on both sides. The new 360 smart bed is part of our biggest sale of the year where all beds are on sale. And right now save 50 on the labor Day Limited Edition bed, plus 36 month financing. Ends monday livestreat the airport. E sport binge dvrd shows while painting your toes. On demand laughs during long bubble baths. Tv on every screen is awesome. The Xfinity Stream app. All your tv at home. The most on demand your entire dvr. Top networks. And live sports on the go. Included with xfinity tv. Xfinity, the future of awesome. Fox news alert. Were keeping an eye on harvey. The Tropical Storm continuing to pound parts of texas as it makes its way through louisiana. Flood emergencies ongoing in beaumont and port arthur, texas. A foot of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours, swallowing homes and shutting down a major interstate. Adam klotz joins us from the Fox Extreme Weather Center with more. Adam, what now . Well, unfortunately, more rain right now. Heres what were looking at rainfall totals. This is the beaumont, port arthur area. 45 inches coming in the last 24 hours. Its insane. The last 48 hours, you can see this rain running on shore during that time. Those were real downpours off the coast. Backing out a little bit. Heres how the season looks. Weve seen this rain stretching across the gulf coast. The heaviest showers have been close to the circulation where weve seen landfall. The good news is, folks in houston as of recently, now looking at clear skies. So at least a little time for them to dry off and clear off. How long do the rest of the folks have . Pay attention to your future radar. At 5 00 p. M. Today, well put this in motion for you. Its going to continue to lift to the north and off to the east. Its bringing heavy rain. Shreveport, little rock, memphis, all areas that are going to be seeing some heavy rainfall here in the next couple days. I just took you to friday. You can see right along where this storm will run and drop heavy rain throughout. As it continues to get further inland, it will be cut off and places should see less and less rain. Memphis getting 6 to 8 inches. Right along the line as we let it run out of north. Heres how it plays out. It becomes a low pressure system and will track to midwest, kentucky, indiana, portions of ohio. That getting you to really early next week at this point. Thats this big system. I do want to point out before i toss it back to you guys, irma has now firmed. This is off the coast of africa. This is one we wont know a lot about until next week. Could be the next big system. Thank you. President trump is planning to make a second trip to texas and possibly on to louisiana on saturday. He tweeted this this morning. After witnessing first hand the horror and devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, my heart goes out even more so to the great people of texas. This after he toured the damage harvey left behind in Corpus Christi and vowed to stand by texans. This has been a total cooperative effort. Again, we will see you soon. I will tell you this is historic, its epic what happened. You know what . It happened in texas and texas can handle anything. Thank you all, folks. Thank you. Thank you. Trump getting a good great for his Disaster Response from former press secretary ari fleischer. That scene what the flag is important. It connects him to the people suffering. That is a very important boost for the morale of people going through this, especially texans. Texans love that message about texas pride, texas can do it, texans are precious. One thing about the president s style, hes very emotional and he will give you the empathy. I think if youre in texas what he did today and the full day is what you want to hear. The New York Times pointing out harvey is giving trump with an opportunity saying harvey gives trump a chance to reclaim power to unify. Congressman ch congressman chaffetz . Yes, hes sending his cabinet at every level. Tom price is down there. You have secretary zinke from the interior making sure fish and wildlife has assets there. Its a time to unite. Its sickening to know, i still see some in the Mainstream Media, its ironic that those that call for the most unicase when the country should rally behind texas and louisiana and anybody suffering youre not seeing that. No. Its sickening. Put together an example of what you heard on the other networks including msnbc, including this panel. Watch this. You think ben carson, linda mcmahon, several others, i did not hear him speak about the victims of this flood. The Human Element was absent outside the selfcon grad la torre effort of the press conference. Seems to me its concerned about optics. We should be talking about response. How many people have been rescued, how many need to be rescued. How many resources to get people and save their lives . Everything is not about money. It is for trump, but not for the rest of america. Jillian . So the feelings aside, the politics, it was important for the president to go to texas when he did because its important the nation sees him there. Its important that they feel that he is on top of this and hes supporting texans. But beyond that, theres really important practical reason why he went down there. That is because he needs to see firsthand the level of the devastation, the rescue relief efforts. The next coming days and weeks, hes going to make some important decisions that will shape how people recover from this. And that will have implications for months and years ahead nor the state of texas. The president needs eyes on the ground. Youre only as good as your people on the ground. So far we have to be careful. Dont make conclusions about the overall response. Just looking at the pictures that were getting from port arthur, texas. But so far the planning from the federal level at fema. Fema used to wait for the governors to call them in. No more after katrina. They were there about 48 hours before harvey moved in to the texas coastline to the governor, to the local authorities. Theres been a clear chain of command. They have been on top of it with Governor Abbott calling out the entire National Guard on monday. Theyre acting as swiftly as they can at this point. The president , its about the walk, not the talk. It will be interesting to see how he addresses this. And in missouri at 2 30, hes giving a talk about tax reform. He needs to stay focused on the people of texas. And the people criticizing the president s trip there have been saying things like were wasting resources sending them there. This is all for optics. Im pointing out they want to see him fail. Theyre looking for reasons for the president to fail. Not right now, not this. This is not the time for political blood sport. People watching this storm coverage, they are watching people survive. Theyre watching successful efforts by individuals and their communities. Thats what people are invested in. Theres plenty of time to catalog the president s mistakes. Not right here. Its the people of texas and louisiana helping one another, setting the example for this angry Mainstream Media that cant see the forest for the trees. Well keep our eye on the live images out of port arthur, texas. Two new megashelter opening in houston to help thousands. In the shelters, so much emotion coming out of there. This woman lost everything and broke down due to the kindness of a neighbor. Were going to keep it right here. Well be right back. flourish spray noise flourish spray noise flourish spray noise flourish spray noise the joy of real cream in 15 calories per serving. Enough said. Reddiwip. flourish spray noise share the joy. With moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis . How do you chase what you love do what i did. Ask your doctor about humira. Its proven to help relieve pain and protect joints from further irreversible damage in many adults. Humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. Humira has been clinically studied for over 20 years. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. 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Shes weeping as she mets her friends. They just got back together. They had been texting back and forth on friday and saturday as the waters rose at donnas trailer. The first trailer shes ever owned. It looks like its been destroyed. She was picked up by police, bounced back and forth between a few shelters and now delighted to have her friends, the whipples. Youre taking donna to your house . Yes. Her trailer cannot be saved. While shes at my home, we have a group of people from our church that are going to strip the trailer and try to do as much as we can to get it back to living option so she can own something. You have been texting back and forth. Your church must be overjoyed. Yes. I can feel my purse buzzing. You found her. Were so happy. She was happy to see us, too. Wonderful. Ill let you get donna and take her home. Thank you so much. Thank you. There are still people trying to get in the shelter, kennedy. We have pictures outside. You can see the line. Thats volunteers, people like our friends, michelle, trying to get their friends. People still trying to be evacuated and get in the shelter. This is very much far from over. Some bright spots that were seeing throughout the city. Back to you guys. Caroline, how longterm is that shelter capable of holding so many people . Not forever. The city is saying as long as you need us well stay open. The red cross folks are saying were here for you. Thats not an option. Fema has said look, right now the main goal is to save lives. Step two, what were moving towards is to save homes. We need to pull these people out of the shelter and get them back in their houses. Theres people in hotels. Theyre not giving a firm date. But we know this cant go on forever. You cant sleep on the floor or a cot with your family for more than a week or two. Its unsustainable. Many of these folks have nothing to go back to. The devastation is unimaginable. Hundreds of shelters open as you see caroline shively. Well be following the stories that youre uncovering and all of the devastation there. Thanks so much. You bet. The fbi denying a request for files related to its investigation into Hillary Clintons emails. They say there isnt enough Public Interest to merit the release. Can that possibly be true . We will discuss in moments from the couch. Tropical storm harvey making landfall a second time. This time in louisiana putting new orleans in the past of another devastating storm. 12 years after katrina. This as the death toll in texas has risen to 20. The red cross says 32,000 people are in 230 shelters. Houston had to open two more megashelters after the citys Convention Center swelled to more than double its capacity taking in 11,000 people last night. The fbi rejecting a request under the freedom of information act for records related to Hillary Clintons emails citing a lack of Public Interest. The bureau is saying in a letter if you seek disclosure of any existing records on this basis, you must demonstrate that the Public Interest in disclosure outweighs personal privacy interest in this record. You must show the Public Interest sought is a significant one and that the requests information is likely to advance that interest. This all results from a referral from the department of justice from one lucky guy, jason chaffetz. He asked the department to investigate whether clinton or her employees violated laws against the destruction of records. Congressman, what do you make of this . This is disgusting, totally counter to who we are as a nation. Were open and transparent. Were supposed to be selfcritical. The American People pay for this government. Hillary clinton was the secretary of state. What she created were federal records and every individual in this country has a right to see them. When i was a member of congress and made a congressional inquiry, ney wouldnt give us that information. When i issued a subpoena, they didnt respond to that. And now to put in writing that were not going to provide you, the American People, these emails because we want to protect the privacy of hillary clinton. What do you think is behind it . The deep state fighting back. Are they fighting for her or the Current Administration . Theyre protecting themselves and protecting hillary clinton. They dont want the exposure. What is it that theyre hiding . This is the cruel irony. This what frustrates me. As a member of congress, to have a subpoena, its not worth a hill of beans. To enforce the subpoena, who do i have to go to to enforce it . The department of justice that doesnt want me to look at the department of justice. Is there an end around this . Is there a higher power . I need, i hope, i want the Obama Administration to be exposed for what it is. I need the trump administration, i need the attorney general himself who when i met with him and talked to him on the phone and i havent talked about this much publicly he said i cannot and will not do this. If Jeff Sessions as the attorney general will not loosen this up, i beg the white house, give me somebody to talk about. I hope this can expose it. I Left Congress for a lot of reasons. One of them was that i cant do this. But i can beat the drum on fox news and around the country and expose it for what it is. If you think that as a member of congress the chairman of the Oversight Committee can go in there and get those documents . Guess what . You cant. So if your experience looking at the request through the ordinary business what are some of the more prevalent and i guess like legitimate reasons for a refusal to information . What do those look like . If they were asking for Hillary ClintonsSocial Security number, were going to deny that. The privacy would be legitimate. Theres hundreds of thousands of documents that are denied access by the government to the Miles Per Hour people. Its their government. The government forgets who they work for. They work for the American People. The people are subject to arent they public records . Yes. If theres classified information, redact it. Members of congress arent supposed to have redacted information. Here we are years later and we dont have them from fast and furious, we dont have them from benghazi. You name the list. The irs. Does this speak to the power of the clinton machine . That people are afraid of releasing these documents to have that power and that money bear down on them, these career bureaucrats . This is one of the few times that ive seen the department of justice put this excuse in writing. So this lawsuit, the exposure to the American People, i hope opens up a whole can of worms and exposes the truth. Thats what we do. Thats whats supposed to differentiate the United States of america from the rest of the planet but its not happening. Final word on that. A University Professor fired after appearing to suggest that Hurricane Harvey was karma for texans voting republican. Did the school make the right move . Or is this free speech violation . Texas Governor Greg Abbott getting an update. Lets listen in. The desperate needs they have to get power restored as well as to begin the rebuilding process. And then the president was here at this Operations Center and got to see what we do. His commitment was firm, strong and unequivocal, that he was going to do everything he could to ensure that texas will be restored as swiftly as effectively as possible. As we all know, theres been rapidly changing conditions in the state of texas. While at the same time, we are beginning the rebuilding process around the coastal bend region. While were dealing with what is now receding waters in Harris County and the ongoing evacuation as well as safety rescue process in Harris County, were now also dealing with catastrophic conditions in Southeast Texas. And those conditions are a threat to life and property. And that is required that we take measures to do all we can to help protect them. And i will cover part of that in various different categories as i go through this discussion. First, let me tell you, that since i last announced the status of the National Guard and the state of texas, i last announced that we had 12,000 National Guard members activated. That number has been increased to 14,000. The reason for that is because some members have come back from deployment overseas. Others who were unable to participate because their own homes had been subject to flooding or damage. They can now participate. Bottom line, were up to the highest level of number of texas National Guard members that are deployed to help our fellow texans deal with the challenges. Were also, as we speak, coordinating with the National Guard bureau to deploy an additional 10,000 National Guard who were being deployed here from other states. So that will take us up to a total of approximately 24,000 National Guard who will be deployed here in the state of texas. Some of those will be arrayed across the greater Harris County area. Were deploying far more to Southeast Texas to deal with the emergency conditions that people are facing in Southeast Texas and we will continue to deploy more west of the Harris County area through victoria to the coastal bend region. We are also getting immediately 200 boats and 200 vehicles from the department of defense to be assigned where needed. As you might imagine, the greatest area is in beaumont area and ongoing needs in the greatest Harris County area. I have asked for and received an expansion of the number of counties added to the federal disaster declaration. It has gone from now the total is 33 counties, are part of the federal disaster declaration. Weve added 14 counties. I want to list these counties so that people in these counties will understand that by being included in the federal disaster declaration, individuals as well as local governments are going to be eligible to receive aid from fema. First, im going to list 11 counties that are have what i call a complete federal disaster declaration which includes individual assistance as well as public assistance. These new counties include colorado county, fayette county, hardin county, jasper county, jefferson county, montgomery county, newton county, orange county, San Jacinto County and waller county. There are four counties added to the federal disaster declaration where public assistance is available, but individual assistance is not. The reason for that is these four counties were not the subject of disasters in the way that these other counties are, but theyre aiding in the support of the disaster. That includes dallas, tarrant county. They provide sheltering, evacuees, providing Law Enforcement and other assistance to these efforts. I want to emphasize something very important that i will come back to several times during my remarks. For the people in these counties i just listed, especially those 11 counties that are going to be receiving individual assistance, you need to write down this website address. It is disasterassistance. Gov. If you are in one of the counties that is part of the federal disaster declaration, you will be eligible for immediate support from fema that you can register to receive at disasterassistance. Gov. Ill talk to you more about that later. Let me talk to you about weather, where we are and where were going. First, as you know, the rain that was received in the greater Harris County area has set an alltime record. Now that rain has moved to the beaumont region and Southeast Texas. President 15 inches of rain have already fallen in the area. Theres more to come. The worst is not yet over for Southeast Texas as far as the rain is concerned. There will be ongoing challenges both during the time that rain continues to fall as well as for approximately four days to a week to come. Let me mention specifically, flooding conditions that will continue to be a challenge for people in the area. It includes the sabine and natchez rivers. There will be flooding there and could last a week. Major flooding will continue for a few days in the beaumont region and the lower brazos river where there could be extensive flooding for about a week if not longer. In the Lower Colorado region, there should be flooding for the rest of the week. Over in victoria, there should be ongoing flooding for a few days. Its important for people in all of these regions as well as in every county that is affected by storms that you continue to listen to and he heed local warnings about evacuation. So listen to, heed and follow evacuation notices and then, of course, on top of that, always please remember, and that is if theres flooding around your area, do not drive into that flooded area. Many of the lives, if not most of the lives, have been lost in this devastating storm so far, are lives that have been lost because of people that were driving vehicles in the flooded waters. Do not drive your vehicle into flooded waters. Some information based upon certain categories. First, the texas National Guard. They are active in 25 locations across the state. As i mentioned, we have 14,000 state National Guard deployed with more than 600 vehicle, 500 boats and 100 helicopters. They have been doing most recently air rescue missions in the beaumont region and in the past week they have made more than 8,500 rescues, more than 26,000 evacuations and more than 1,400 shelter in place and welfare checks. They will continue in the most immediate time period search and rescue operations and aiding shelter operations across the state. Some information about the puc and access to power. Theres an urgent need to get power restored in the coastal bend region, in particular in aransas county, the aransas pass, locations like that. The power provided there is aep. And the update for aep is there are still 107,000 outages. That is an improvement since the last time i that is an improvement since i last reported what was around the 138,000 level. There are many new power crews that are out working in the region to reduce the power outages. Since the last time i reported, there are two other Power Companies with reports. Our numbers show that centerpoint has a little bit more than 90,000 power outage and more than 81,000 power outages