Back on line. So far 38 people have been killed as this shifts from a rescue to a recovery effort. And part of that recovery is going to be funding from here in d. C. With President Trump heading back to the disaster zone tomorrow after his vps visit on the ground that youre looking at right now. Our team across texas and louisiana following all the developments for us this morning includic blake mccoy who is live in port arthur, texas. Tell us about the situation there. What has changed and what do we expect as the sun comes up and the day unfolds . Well, hallie, weve seen dramatic improvement. The second day and to show you how much progress has been made, i want to put up a split screen right now. These streets were covered with water. Right now you can see they are bone dry. So, people here are feeling pretty good, as the water has e rezer reced receded. You can see on this home right over here you can see where the water was. It was right underneath that window. Remarkable how much the water has come down. The shelters remain open. Three shelters, in fact. A lot of people are still displaced because of this storm and now that the streets are dry, theyll be able to return to their homes and see whats left of their homes and what needs to be done in the coming days to make it livable, once again. Hallie. A dramatic split screen, blake. You have to feel for those folks who are getting back in their homes and the water starting to recede and the pets, also seeming to be okay. Blake mccoy, thank you very much. West houston which has been another focal point. It is potentially an area that we may see the president at tomorrow as he heads to the greater houston area and also to louisiana. Garrett haake is there. The president is talking about this out on twitter already this morning. Yeah, thats right, hallie. The president weighing in on what has been evident here on the ground. A lot of recovery here in houston, but still plenty of work to be done. The president tweeting this morning about his visit expected over the weekend. He said texas healing fast thanks to all the great men and women who have been working so hard, but still so much work to do. We will be back tomorrow. And there is a lot of work to do, hallie. We have seen crews coming back into the neighborhood this morning. Folks coming back to their homes to tear out their houses and start throwing out their furniture and start the process of rebuilding. They will continue. The help theyre expecting or should expect from the administration could come in the form of ask from congress that were expecting to see in the coming days from the Trump Administration somewhere around 5. 5 to 6 billion worth of money. That is sort of the initial pot of money expected to be needed here just to get the recovery effort started. When you talk to folks around town here, especially the mayor, youre hearing that one of the most urgent needs they might have here in houston is just finding places to put people. Housing is a critical issue. Heres the mayor of houston Sylvester Turner on morning joe this morning. Most of the city is now dry. And, so, were turning to recovery and if housing, housing and housing, especially for individuals whose homes were greatly damaged. And i expect 40,000 units, if not more. We are going door to door. We started that yesterday. Many of our communities all over lowincome areas to make sure to make sure that we have not missed anyone. And, hallie, we talked so much about the outpouring of support all over the country for the Lone Star State and the governor hoping to raise 100 million over the weekend for the efforts here in houston and all up and down the east coast and in texas to start that rebuilding process. Just announced this morning that people will help out over the holiday weekend. Thank you very much. I want to bring in former fema deputy administrator rich. Rich, thank you for being with us. The Trump Administration is expected to ask congress for somewhere between 5. 5, 6 billion in relief money. That is the initial amount, right, with longerterm funding coming up down the road. So, what does fema do with that money . Is that enough, in your assessment, for this sort of first push of funding . Well, initially for the first push of money, it will help on that part. It will be a much larger event. For example, it was 60 billion after sandy, but, initially, i think people have to realize that that money is going to go for public. Its going to go for individual assistance. Even for individual assistance, for people who didnt have insurance, fema is not going to make that whole. The maximum they can give is 34,000 and even the average is about 6,000 or 7,000 that people will receive. This is where the red cross. This is where people like volunteers can come in and help rebuild the communities. One of the important parts early on is to get the houses what we call mucked out. To clean out whats wet and to get rid of all the furniture thats wet and get rid of the mold as quickly as possible to try to get people back into their houses. People are returning to their homes to see these issues that are not just sort of on the construction side, but as you talk about, on the health side. You say that you cant make these folks whole from a fema perspective. What will help . What else could washington do to try to help fill in the gaps . Anything . I think one of the things, fema is limited. For people who had flood insurance, thats different. Looks like 80 or more people dont have flood insurance. Only so much that fema can do, but then thats where the volunteer agencies, thats why these donations that people are giving to various, credible charities really make a difference in helping people get back on their feet. This is not going to be weeks or months. This is going to be years for people before they get back whole again. Houstons mayor was on morning joe this morning and saying not a function of them needing reimbursement money. They need advance funding. Realistically, how long will it take for this money to trickle down to where it needs to. Affecting some of the people like the mom inside the home that the coast guard hacked away at yesterday. Some of that money is already out. A number of 400,000 people who applied for assistance. I understand over 100,000 people are receiving some sort of assistance to get people back, initially back on their feet and thats understandable. This is very complex. One thing is, this is not one event that one person can do. Not one agency can do it and one department can do. This will truly take the entire whole community to come together to this complex disaster. Before i let you go, anything in particular that concerns you as far as the response on the ground so far. In beaumont they still have no Running Water and working to try to help folks there. Is fema, in your assessment, working fast enough and well enough with locals on the ground . From what ive seen and heard, fema is doing a great job. They really are integrating. They are able to inform. Theyre able to build that confidence, administrator long has been leading up, down and across to help instill that confidence and inform people and i think thats key. Ive seen it at the federal, state, federal and local levels. Especially in the response of the early stages of recovery. This is going to be long term and we really have to bring it and coordinate all the voluntary agencies to help each other. To help neighbors helping neighbors. To help the survivors. Rich sereno, former deputy administrator for fema. Thank you for joining us, i appreciate that perspective. The perspective of a couple folks joining us for a little bit. Sarah westwood and nick johnston, editor at axios. The president wants some quick action from congress when they get back. They have a ton on their plate. This seems to be sort of the main course, right, the priority at this point. Took a couple months for sandy funding from the time of the request to the time it actually was approved and put through. How realistic is it that congress will get something done in the next few weeks here . I think if you see the bill coming out for this money could come out very soon. Some reports saying as early as today. Congress wants to move on this fast. A lot of reporting off the hill is that nobody wants to see obstructing this initial round of funding. The 5 billion can get done quickly the next 150 billion to really help this problem with the flood insurance. Sarah . I think a lot of lessons to be learned from sandy. Conservatives argue that they filled the bill for funding for pork and not related to the storm and democrats accused republicans of demanding spending cuts that slowed down the processes. So, i think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle and if theres one overarching lesson to be learned is that if you polites is the funding in any way, its a problem. And the white house has not ruled out tying it to something controversy like the debt load increase, continuing resolution, something that could gum up the wheels of it. Is this money going to come with Strings Attached . We just dont know. Like nick said, some kind of supplemental spending bill that comes out right away. The next wave of funding, though, could be tied to something they have to get done by the end of september which will put a lot of pressure on these negotiations. The key word is initial. The 5 billion is really quick and then a long way to go. I spoke with one Administration Source overnight who said this is just the beginning. I want to get a better handle on what the disaster costs are going to be before we put in the funding request. Well be watching this. First, you heard rich serino talk about donations coming to the volunteer groups. You might have heard this. How it spends some of those donations. What is the real story . Whats happening. The chief Public Affairs officer is here with me on set next. Wheres gary . saved money on motorcycle insurance with geico. Goin up the country. Later, gary i have a motorcycle wonderful. Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Im goin up the country, baby dont you wanna go . Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. 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Through donations how much of every dollar donated goes to relief . Yeah, i dont think i know the answer to that any better than the chief fundraiser knows how many Emergency Response vehicles i have on the road today. So, i think if he was on this interview and you were asking him how much relief vehicles were in texas, i dont think he would know the answer and i dont know the answer to the financial question, im afraid. With me is susie defrancis. Susie, thank you for being with us. Thank you. You have been out in the last couple days talking about not just the need for dooinatinatio you prepared to answer that question . Do we know for harvey how much every dollar is headed towards actual relief on the ground . We do. First, let me Say Something about Brad Kaiserman one of the best Emergency Management people in the business. He can tell you how many vehicles and how many shelters and cots. His head is full of all that. The reason you can see us in the shelters is because hes moved all those people and materials there. So, he doesnt do, you know, the financial stuff. You think hes getting blamed unfairly for some of this. I do. Let me answer your question, because, yes, the public cares. So we give 91 cents of every dollar that we spend goes to our relief efforts. So, if you give 1 to harvey, 90 cents of that will go to our relief efforts. 10 cents of it will go to management general and fundraising or people call it overhead. But what we do is we put the money that comes into harvey into a separate account so you know it will go to harvey and 91 cents of all that goes out to the relief effort. That can be the cots and the blankets and the meals and the water but also be moving the volunteers there. Putting the gas in the vehicles. Everything it takes the costs of delivering that aid. When you talk about 90 cents roughly from every dollar. People might not know that goes to harvey or not. They have to take actual proactive steps to make sure it goes to the specific relief effort and not to jegeneral fun. Youll go to our website and see Hurricane Harvey and click that button. Give it to Disaster Relief and your local chapter. You have choices. Once you specify harvey and you can write it on the memo line of your check, its going to go to that relief effort. Can you talk about, this has raised some questions like how a Big Organization like the red cross spends some money. Do things that Smaller Charities simply cannot do. What is the red cross doing to make sure the most money possible is going to Harvey Victims and not to administrative costs to postits and staplers and things that an Organization Needs to run . We work very hard to keep our overhead low and oour management general fundraising. The reason we do that is to put more money into the volunteers. We are using volunteers, not paid staff. One way to keep your costs low. We dont have to fly people to certain places. We try to use volunteers on the ground rather than fly them in from all over the country. Were always looking for ways to keep our costs low. Were very proud that our overhead is only 9 cents. And we do that so we can put more munny to the people we serve. Given that youre trying to keep costs low. Has the red cross recently given any reconsideration to compensation packages . Actually, our ceo is very much in the middle range of salaries for charities and, particularly, for a charity the size 5 500 million. But its really in the middle range. She keeps that down and, by the way, our ceo gives a lot of her money back to the red cross in donations. Do you think people have enough trust and faith in the red cross . Yes. Lessons learned after haiti and what happened there and a lot of reporting on what the red cross has tried to do. Do people trust you, do you think . We believe so. Were seeing it in the donations and the volunteers and the people coming in. Also, just a thing about Disaster Relief. Its not going to go perfectly. No Disaster Agency that gets it right all the time. But i tell you we get a lot more right than wrong. Were there and in those shelters helping out. Youre concerned when there are stories out there. Brad is being blamed unfairly for some of this. This prompted a National Conversation about it. Are you concerned that will create a dip in donations at a time like this to the red cross specifically. Were not seeing it, hallie. We have a brand that has been around for 135 years doing this kind of work. Of course, youll take ups and downs and hits and when youre the biggest one on the ground, of course, you know that you have the biggest responsibility. Thats okay. We welcome that. And we are going to be there serving people and doing the best job we can and then well let other people worry about our reputation. Were worried about the people down there. Before i let you go, can you tell me how much you guys raised or spent on Harvey Relief so far . Its changing every minute because the donations are coming in. What we really want to do is release not only what we raised but what we spent and well do that next week. Do you expect the numbers to be roughly the same . Well, it depends. Usually we dont raise as much as we need to spend on a disaster because a lot of disasters arent as high profile as this or receive as much attention. In this case, we might now may have raised more than we spent. Well see. Well be looking for that. Suzy defrancis. Well keep an eye on what is happening down in texas. President frump President Trump is getting on the band wagon. Press secretary Sarah Sanders told me yesterday that the president is doing some research on where to send that donation. He actually asked advice from reporters. We have some tips for you, mr. President , and all of you. Never give money via email, never look out for copycat charities. Be wary of emails. Dont open something from somebody you dont know or click on suspicious links. Pay attention to the website address. If it doesnt seem legit, it probably is not. Watchdog organizations Like Charity Navigator and givewell can all help you figure out what charities are really worth your money and once you do give, demand transparency. Ask the organization for detailed disclosures about their spending and make sure to get a receipt. A lot more coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and not just what people are doing to help but what theyre doing to move forward as folks work to rebuild. We also have headlines of the day, including secretary of defense saying he did not contradict the president on north korea. Thats next. Liberty mutual stood with me when this guy got a flat tire in the middle of the night. Hold on dad. Liberty did what . 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Side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. Nows the time for a better moment of proof. Ask your doctor about victoza®. We are back now with a look at your morning headlines. As soon as today the Trump Administration will ask congress for 5, 5. 5 billion in initial funding to try to help the victims of harvey. Houstons mayor says they need that money to try to get out some of the debris that is covering the city and help displaced families find some temporary homes. More than 100,000 homes are believed to be damaged or destroyed so far. We can hears as early as today that President Trump can end a program that prevented undocumented immigrants from being deported. The president is considering ending that obamaera program by maybe letting it expiring over time. Thats what they say privately. Doca is under review and wont get specific on a timeline for a decision. Were also looking at these new august job numbers. Employers added about 156,000 new jobs. That is down from the expectation of about 176,000 that were actually created in each of the previous two months. The Unemployment Rate ticked up a little bit. Bottom line here, gang, economists say businesses are still confident about the countrys continuing economic recovery. And defense secretary james mattis insists he and President Trump are on the same page and looking at their options for dealing with north korea. Listen. Didnt contradict anything the president said. Were not talking to north koreans right now. Thats what i took it as. Widely interpreted. Widely misinterpreted. Mattis comments coming one day after he appeared to contradict the president on the path forward with pyongyang after the president tweeted talking is not the answer. Mattis saying this while meeting with his counterpart from south korea. But, no, were never out of Diplomatic Solutions. We continue to work together. Nbcs hans nichols covers the pentagon and joining us live making a cameo at the white house filling in for me because im here over on set. Walk me through this. Secretary mattis says, no, im not contradicting the president. Hes talking about Diplomatic Solutions not over and the president says talking is not an option. What is the deal . This is secretary mattis showing in addition to being a marine he would make a pretty good philadelphia lawyer parsing his words very, very closely. So, ill come clean on a little trick that i used on him. I knew the answer to the question that i asked him whether or not he had seen the president s tweet before he spoke in front of his south korean counterpart. I want you to listen to the pause before his answer. Had you read the president s tweet . Yes. Yes, i had by that time in the morning. The question was, are we out of Diplomatic Options . No, were not. And it was not, you know, should we talk now with the north koreans . In which case i would have said, no. I would agree with the president exactly. We dont do that right now. Legally, i think we have to give the benefit of the doubt to the secretary of defense. But just on the optics of this. Defense secretary came down in the middle of his way and ambushed reporters downstairs in the Briefing Room and wanted to talk about this. Went around goes on this insisting that there is no distance, no daylight between him and secretary mattis and the president that he serves. One other note, he also disputed this idea that those comments you may remember that Youtube Video in jordan where secretary mattis says now is the time to hold the line. He said he got up early to watch the president s speech. He was simply trying to channel what the president was saying. Thats his argument. And in a lot of ways the argument seems sound legally. I think the optics of this, is this a secretary of defense that makes sure he doesnt appear in any way to contradict the commander in chief. Step back from the optics for one second and talk about policy. Does this change our posture towards north korea . What you listen to secretary mattis say, he doesnt think the time for talking now. He added that now there. That gives you a sense that every o everyone at the pentagon continues to talk about Diplomatic Solutions. But i will just add to scrutinizing this like a lawyer. Well have to start looking at what secretary mattis says very closely. If he adds in now where the president doesnt, thats telling. Thats an indication that the pentagon still wants to resolve this diplomatically. Ill see you at the white house in a bit. I want to get back here to nick and sarah. How much of this was damage control and how much wasnt . What do you think . A lot of it looks at trying to parse the word the president uses and how the administration acts. The pentagon is not changing its posture or pulling back nonessential personnel. The standard way to approach this is diplomacy first. Difficult to say this. Put the president s rhetoric in his tweets aside when you look at what tillerson and mattis. It is difficult to hear Something Like that. These are the commander in chiefs directives. Its kind of clear the administration does have some kind of coherent policy when it comes to north korea that military force would be the last resort for dealing with north korea and any dolialogue but eventually it might be back on and they consider economic sanctions as the key diplomatic tool here. But, we have seen President Trump sort of veer away from the kind of rhetoric that the administration wants to use before. Remember he said off the cuff that fire and fury was going to rein down on north korea and official husband to go back and back pedal that a little bit. This is not the first time that weve seen the president go a little off script. Hans made reference to this. He went down to the Briefing Room for the pentagon reporters there and held this impromptu gaggle and he talked about that decision to halt temporarily this military ban on transgender people. I want you to listen to it here. But you agree with the president. The president gave me the time to look at this and he, obviously, wanted me to do something or he would have said i want something done tomorrow. He told me what he wants in broad terms. And now hes leaving it up to me. So, theres secretary mattis, once again, not saying that he disagrees with the president , but taking some action that is sort of putting a pause on something that the president , obviously, has wanted to happen. Never shied away from saying he disagree woud with the presi. He changed the president s mind on the importance of nato and the importance of torture and interrogations. So, i think if mattis decides the president is going the wrong direction in north korea, we may hear about it. I think that was one of the most interesting lines that mattis said during that gaggle. Open to persuasion and thats one of the reasons why mattis took the job. He believed he could shift Foreign Policy in the right direction. He actually talked a little bit about why he took the job when he was asked about this. Heres what he had to say. And the president of the United States asked you to do something, i dont think oldfashioned school, i dont think its oldfashioned or anything. I dont care if its republican or democrat, we all have an obligation to serve. We call these guys to save america. General mattis is part of this group who sees him playing an informal role in the administration to tone down some of the president s instincts on some of these things. Despite the fact that mattis has been openly at odds with the president , the president still speaks more highly of mattis than potentially any other cabinet secretary. Has never drawn those frustrations from trump. Sarah westwood, nick johnston, thank you, both, for being here on this friday. Happy early labor day to you guys. Well see you back here in the fall, which is going to be extremely busy. An extremely busy 20 or 30 minutes left. The flood waters, yes, they are receding. But folks heading home, man, they could be facing some really big health risks. Were going to have more on that. But, first a little bit of optimism from one of the survivors in texas here. All of this is material and it can be replaced and we have each other and thats really all that matters. This is the story of john smith. Not this john smith. Or this john smith. Or any of the other hundreds of john smiths that are humana Medicare Advantage members. No, its this john smith. 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Hurricanes and oil country make for a mix for people trying to get back to their homes in the flood waters. The fourth largest city, remember, home to two dozen toxic waste sites and one of the biggest, rather, oil refining hubs in the world. People are now looking at concerns over contaminated air and water, potentially. Its where we find Mia Rodriguez in kingwood, texas, where theyre still working to clean up, mia. What are people saying to you . Are they worried about potentially toxic conditions . I mean, thats always a possibility. Right now the big concern that were hearing from residents is the mold. Theyre afraid that all of this water and there was four feet of water in this neighborhood in kingwood had gotten into their homes. So, now, theyre dealing with the fact that theyre going to have to tear out parts of the walls here, at least five, six, seven, sometimes eight feet up just to make sure that that mold hasnt spread all the way up because, again, you know, that could be a real problem for them if they do want to move back into their homes. I mean, some people are questioning. Do i want to rebuild, again, and come back in. But everywhere you go in this neighborhood, piles upon piles of people belongings out in the street. Couches, chairs, tables, mementos. Parts of flooring. I mean, a lot of the flooring in these houses now warped because of the way the water came up from underneath it. It is a real, real mess out here. Some people have some masks on, like dust masks as theyre making their way into their homes. Others dont. Theyre opening up all the windows and the doors and the garage doors to make sure they have as much ventilation coming in and out. People bringing in heavy duty fans to dry out some of these areas. The river is not far from here and thats where all this water came from. They said they had not flooded like this ever. This was a real surprise. We spoke to a couple people who have flood insurance, but a lot of people in this neighborhood, frankly, dont. That is going to be a real problem here as they try to assess and see what they can do to rebuild and recover from this. Mia rodriguez live in houston in the kingwood neighborhood. Well check back in with you. Thank you very much. We want to talk about what shes discussing. The idea of mold in peep wass homes. Joining us now, dr. Finklestein, thank you for being with us. I have a bunch of questions for you. But i want to start with what you are seeing now in your emergency room. What you have been seeing over the last week here. Well, first, i would like to certainly thank all the thousands of houston methodists hospital employees. We run eight acute Care Hospitals in houston, texas, here. As well as seven freestanding emergency departments. Due to the diligence of the employees and those physicians and those dedication who are performing Recovery Efforts we couldnt have done it without them. But we kept them all oepen to service those patients needs. Plenty of acute care needs. The things youre seeing such as heart attacks, strokes, cancer related illnesses are pretty typical. What we see is a very quiet phase in the beginning because people cant access the health care system. They have difficulty getting to the hospital there. What you do see are you able to get emergency vehicles to these folks . Yeah, thats a great question. During the acute phase of the storm, basically what you saw is high water or amphibious vehicles being brought in to deliver these patients. In the past where people focused on the Texas Medical Center we get those patients out to the communities where they could be served, as well. We see typical things like invenimation from snake bites, falls, bumps, bruises, all sort of your acute type injuries. Can you talk a little bit one of the stunning things weve seen as we look at these pictures standing flood water in a lot of these places. It looks, frankly, gross. Can it make people sick . What can they do if they have to wade through it to get back to their homes to check on where they live. Couple things to remember. One issue people forget about, the often submerged objects. Folks going around in boats will tell you when theyre rescuing folks cars and refrigerators and all sorts of things under the water. Protect yourself, wear hard toe shoes and make sure youre safe if you have to get out in those waters. The Biggest Issue is bacterial contamination. Situation wheres some of the sewer systems have lost power and that backs up the sewage into peoples residential homes. So, you definitely want to be cognizant of that. Get a nice, hot shower and disinfect yourself as appropriately possible. Two quick questions for you. Longer term mold issues. I can imagine that this is something that you may have to be dealing with in houston for months, if not years to come. Can you walk us through is there anything people can do at this point other than not breathing in the mold, i guess. So, again, taking care of yourself is the most important step. Attending a respirator mask which you can get at any local Home Improvement store and gloves. If youre wearing the bunny suits from head to toe, that is great. Not many people have access to those suits. If theyre walking in dust masks, will that help having something over their mouth and nose . The way it enters your body is through the respiratory root. Its not the actual, physical mold but the spores and you can inhale those into your lungs. And thatter where the ill effects of health comes from. Aches and pains and fevers and headaches and skin irritation and nausea, vomiting and things of that nature. Those are typically treated as allergic reactions. Elderly and very young as well as the immuno compromised. Transplant patients or multiorgan transplant patients those people are at the highest risk of disease. People are concerned about the black mold. This is not conducive to the production of black mold. Interesting stuff. Thank you very much. Good luck to you and our thoughts and prayers with you guys in houston as you work to recover and rebuild at this point. I appreciate you joining us. Thanks. We will also talk about a very important fuel pipeline. This critical line set to reopen by the weekend after shut down because of harvey. It pumps as much as 3 Million Barrels of fuel every day here to the east coast. Ahead of the labor day weekend, a huge travel holiday. Everybody wants to know, what does that mean for gas prices . As king midas, i expect a lifetime guarantee. 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And at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. Today were bringing you americas number one shave at lower prices every day. Putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. As one of those workers, im proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. Gillette the best a man can get. 3 Million Barrels of fuel transported every day from houston up the east coast will start flowing again over the weekend after hurricane damage forced a shut down of that big pipeline transporting nearly half of the east coasts gas and jet and diesel fuels, too. The storm also stopped down some major refineries. If youre planning on traveling this labor day weekend, you know youre keeping an eye on fuel prices. So is our own tom costello in beth bethesda, maryland, with more. Were seeing pump prices jumping across the country. In some places overnight jumping by 20, 30, 50 cents a gallon. Right here, this is actually the National Average. Look in red, 2. 52 a gallon is the National Average. We just happen to be at a pump where they are displaying that price. Thats up 16 cents in just a week or so. So, we are seeing pump prices jumping across the country. As you mention, a lot of americans about to hit the road. Just in time for the labor day weekend, higher prices at the pump could be coming to a gas station near you. After the nations largest fuel transporter colonel pipeline announced it has temporarily shut down its major east coast pipeline all because of Hurricane Harveys devastation. The situation is so bad right now that even once things do start moving, were still talking about possible shortages for the next week or two. And a gas price impact that will probably last over a month. Reporter that 5,500 mile pipeline normally carries more than 3 Million Barrels of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel every day from houston through the southeast, midatlantic to jersey. Serving several major cities including atlanta, washington and new york. But harveys massive flooding in texas and louisiana has knocked 13 major refineries in the gulf coast offline. Half of the 26 refineries that supply that massive pipeline are between hard hit houston and lake charles, louisiana. A quarter of Refining Capacity is now shut down. Colonial pipeline says service should return on sunday. For the gas to start flowing again the port of houston needs to reopen, allowing ships to bring oil to the refineries once they reopen. Already people are lining up for gas in dallas with some stations running out. Pulled into the parking lot at 12 noon and every five feet maybe an hour and a half and now that ive got up to the pumps, they are saying they are out of gas. I went to six other spots before here and they are all out. How do i make it to work . Where the pumps are open the prices have soared. Price spikes could be felt across the country. In the northeast this weekend the price at the pump could jump 15 to 35 cents a gallon. And the National Average could spike another 15 to 25 cents. As americans prepare for a labor day getaway, its not just prices at the pump that could take a hit. The Colonial Pipeline supplies major airports like baltimore and atlanta and if we see jet fuel supplies interrupted, that could have an impact not just for travelers on the road but for travelers in the air as well. Reporter so its more than just cars. Aaa saying were paying the highest per gallon weve paid all year and the trouble is this storm took aim at the major oil centers gasoline centers along the coast. You have beaumont and Corpus Christi and port arthur and houston into louisiana. This was just in the words of one oil analyst, satan could not have timed this any better. Hey, tom, how are they planning to get the fuel moving over to the east coast again . Reporter so they are using rail lines, they are trying to make up what was in that pipeline, which is now shut down, trying to make that up with rail deliveries but of course thats going to take time. We could be seeing these refineries con strained output, a third of the Oil Refineries strained in the output for weeks on end. Tom costello, live in we that he is da, thank you very much. Live to beaumont to check back in on that town incredibly hard hit, still without Running Water. We have a live report after the break plus todays big picture. Thank you so much. Thank you so were a go . Yes we got a yes what does that mean for purchasing . Purchase. Lets do this. Got it. Book the flights hai si si ya ya ya what does that mean for us . We can get stuff. Whats it mean for shipping . Ship the goods. 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You know the recovery from harvey is going to take months, if not years and one of the things thats going to be critical is funding coming in from washington. Nbc news has learned that roughly 5. 5 billion, 6 billion will be the request from the white house over to congress, at least for now to try to help these folks get back on their feet. Congress will take it up when they get back in town on tuesday, a few days from now. That is certainly not the only thing on their plate. Theres basically no grace period for them, hitting the ground running. Heres whats on the calendar for september, 12 working days. In those 12 days they promise to try to get this federal money to Harvey Victims. Theyve got to raise the debt ceiling by the 29th and pass the budget by the 30th and then want to try to get debate going on the tax reform package, although indications coming from the hill is that is the thing that is probably going to slide until october. No big deal, right . Just 12 days to do it. That is a deadline, talk about it, especially when you have people in places like beaumont, texas, still trug struggling. No Running Water, working to get fresh water to the folks. On this show jyesterday we were talking to one of the lawmakers driving pallets of fresh water to folks who needed it out there. The recovery still absolutely in a crisis mode if you will as people in beaumont work to get back up and running along with places like port arthur and places like houston too. The sun is out and all blue skies, it is certainly not going to be easy to try to rebuild and recover. Again, washington is going to be critical in playing a part in this recovery. Well keep an eye on that. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has a briefing later this afternoon. Ill be headed back to the white house to talk about this with her and bunch more topics. Before i let you go, i want to get you to todays big picture. Well head away from houston and over to kenya. A story weve been following for several months with a stunning twist. Look at this picture. These are people celebrating these are supporters of the open significance leader celebrating on the streets of downtown night ro nairobi, the Supreme Court struck down the results of the controversial president ial election because of widespread voter fraud the court says, now calling for new elections. They are basically doing a doover over the next 60 days. This is unprecedented. The first time in african history a court overturned the president ial election. Ben curtis for the ap. Would love to hear your thoughts on everything we covered today, facebook, twitter and snapchat and instagram, im responding on comments on all of it. Ill see you back on nbc news on sunday morning filling in for willie geist on the today show. Keep your dial with my colleagues with ali velshi and Stephanie Ruhle in new york. I feel like you do those kenya things for us, because im kenyan born and stephanie spent six months in kenya. Indeed i did. It is an unbelievable twist, you thought the reelection was over, big deal. Interesting case study and 45yearold attempt at democracy. Ill see you this afternoon because we have a White House Press briefing. Im ali velshi. And im Stephanie Ruhle. Its the 1st day of september. Lets get you started. As the waters slowly recede, the incredible scope of the recovery is just beginning to be realized. The floodwaters still pouring into communities. First responders are in search and rescue mode still. Take the astro dome, eeld football and baseball stadium here and fill it to the roof, 3,200 times, thats how much water the city of houston, the county of Harris County has been trying to deal with over this week. Whats left of harvey is now leading to new flooding in other parts of the south. We do have flash flood warnings in effect right in and around bowling green, kentucky. A major pipeline closed in the wake of the storm, gas prices soaring nationwide as millions hit the road this labor day weekend. With a quarter of the nations refineries off line, a quarter offline, gas prices are rising just in time for the holiday weekend. Theres talk that President Trump could end daca, the program that president obama put in