And the storm claims more lives, including a first responder. It was his turn to go, she said. This is the way he would have wanted to go. And the president heads to missouri this morning to sell tax reform after appearing in texas. Theres never been anything so expensive in our countrys history. Theres never been anything so historic in terms of damage. We begin with harveys newest target, the powerful Tropical Storm taking yet another painful punch at the gulf coast, making a third landfall early this morning near the texas louisiana border. Lets get you caught up on the latest. At least ten confirmed tets hde have been attributed to the storm, including 60yearold Police Officer steve perez who drowned while drive to work on sunday. At least 18,600 people have been rescued from flooding just in the houston area with several thousand evacuees flocking to shelters. Take a look at this video from customs and Border Patrol showing the dramatic rescue of two people who were caught up in the flooding in houston with an agent pulling the pair out of that fastmoving water. The citys 911 operators struggling to answer all the decemb desperate calls for help. The mayor has imposed an indefinite curfew with warnings to looters. As the rain starts to let up in floodravaged houston, harvey is now unleashing its fury in and around beaumont, texas, with rainfall totaling 26 inches in just the past 24 hours. The water rising so fast it hit this Evacuation Center in port arthur. The evacuees at the bob Bauer Civic Center had to scramble up into the bleachers as water completely flooded that build g building. Theyre now being evacuated to the Carl Parker Center in another part of port arthur and more rain is coming. Weve got our team of reporters in the hardesthit areas so we start with Stephanie Gosk currently en route to beaumont. Stephanie, what are you seeing along the way . Reporter hey, chris. En route is sort of a generous description of what were trying to do right now. I dont know how much forward progress were making. This is a lot of flooding in the road. You know, there are concerns this morning that the rain has dropped so fast and there is so much of it that the flooding in beaumont will actually end up being worse than what weve seen in houston. Theyre talking about over 26 inches of rain in a 24hour period. It is still raining. We are outside. We are west of beaumont and it is a torrential downpour. To just give you an idea of how logistically difficult it is to travel on these roads, we just came to a tiny town on this backcountry road. The fire chief that we met up with here said that down the road there is a bridge and it is eight feet underwater. This was going to be our best option at the moment to get to beaumont. Obviously were going to have to turn around and come up with a different plan. Last night we were in a small town of home grove and spoke to the fire chief there. He was trying to rescue 500 people out of this small community. The water rose really quickly. Monday he told us there was a shelter that they had in place in the afternoon that they moved dozens of people into it, but monday night the water rose and that shelter itself flooded and they had to scramble to find another shelter for those people. Just a taste of what people in east texas are feeling today. Chris. When you talk about these small towns and you have 500 people who need to be rescued, do they have outside help or are they dealing with all of this with just the locals . Reporter its locals entirely, chris. Obviously in a city like houston when youre talking about millions of people, you have the federal help, the state help. In these places, theyre harder to get to and you find local fire chiefs really stepping up. On top of that, people in this part of texas do a lot of boating so there are a lot of people here that have boats. They have been contributing. No one is paying them for the gas, no one is paying for their efforts, they have to worry about their families as well and they are showing up and pitching in. Its quite a group effort. Stephanie gosk, who is carefully, we hope, but also treacherously making her way to some of the hardesthit areas. We thank you for that. Joining me now on the phone is the mayor of beaumont, texas, becky aimes. Its so good to talk to you, mayor. Where are you right now . What are you seeing and how is your town doing . Well, we are very glad that it is light outside now because its much easier to do rescues when it is light. It is still pouring. We do hope that it will stop at light today is what the forecast is telling us. Our Emergency Operations center in the city of beaumont has been set up since last wednesday. This has been going on for quite some time and weve had some very bad rains for the last three or four days. But i think that last night certainly will be the highest amount. Were thinking probably close to 40 inches total. Yeah, i understand you had 26 inches in just 24 hours. I cannot even imagine what that feels like and looks like. In spite of the fact that you had the Emergency Operation center going, and i know you were mayor when ike came so you have unfortunately some experience with this. Do you have the resources you need to deal with whats going on in your town . We have more resources coming today. We, because we have as a team gone through ike and then rita together, we do have contacts that are coming through for us. We can always use more federal and state assistance. The resources are very, very limited right now because of the devastation of this storm starting close to corpus christi, making its way all the way down the coast and now going toward the coast of louisiana. So i mean theres really just nowhere to go. Everyone just i mean its just even if nobody can leave. I mean just like your reporter, i heard her saying she cant get here. We are like an island right now in a way you can only come in or out on interstate 10 going toward louisiana right now. You mentioned that light as come. Do you have a sense of what youre going to be dealing with today . Do you have a sense of how many people might be out there needing rescue . Whats coming into your 911 center . Well, our 911 center has been very busy for the last few days. We also have a 311 center in the city of beaumont. I heard you talk about port arthur, which is totally separate, but our 311 center is for nonemergent needs. That has been the busiest. We have been rescuing them, highwater rescues for the last few days. I believe we did about 80 to 90 yesterday, and thats nonemergent, thats just highwater rescues. And so what we anticipate this morning is that we will have more of those because we did stop doing the nonemergent rescues last night because it is more dangerous for your First Responders and also the people who we are trying to rescue to try to do that at night with high water. So thats what our focus is right now is to assess the situation, see where we were and get to those people that need us. Mayor becky ames, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Our prayers are with you and obviously everybody there in your town. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, thank you. I want to check in with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Lets talk about what were seeing now. Its been five days of unrelenting rain. She talked about what shes seeing, which is just these huge totals. Lets start in beaumont, because its almost unbelievable what theyre seeing there. Were going to loop the port Arthur Beaumont area together. These rainfall totals are from the airport. It went from serious yesterday to now just unimaginably devastation, destruction, people were like fleeing for their lives throughout the region. 26. 4 inches of rain in 24 hours. We showed you those crazy hutle totals and that was 50 inches in four days. That was 24 hours. Thats unheard of anywhere in the country, almost anywhere in the world. In six hours they got 11 inches of rain. I was listening to a press conference with the judge for jefferson county. He was saying that houston had the advantage of many different highways and ways getting in and people with boats from other cities and towns could get in there. All the roads are completely impassable to get to bbeaumont port arthur. The only way they can get aid is through the air. So they will need to count on the National Guard doing those rescues. They have already lost three fire trucks in high water and ive heard similar reports, their resources are being eaten up too by the floods. Ive seen many people on facebook and on twitter that are trying to go around with boats. Theyre running out of gas and people are asking does anyone have any extra gas so we can continue doing rescues in these areas, new flooding that happened last night. So thats kind of the story. The storm did make landfall overnight, so we do know that. Thats good. Now were trying to move it across i10. Look at the poor people in beaumont and port arthur. They continue on the back side of the storm with the rain bands. Houston has been dry. We still have another couple of hours of additional rain to deal with. Flash flood watches continue. We have new flash flood warnings for the mobile area, these are thunderstorms coming in here off the gulf. Later tonight into tomorrow as the storm moves northwards, the heavy rain threat will shift a little bit. Well watch areas in arkansas, mississippi and tennessee. Now were going to start adding you to the equation. Do we think it will be anywhere near beaumont, port arthur and houston . No. But we could get isolated cases of flash flooding, especially if we get these rainfall totals. Thats 7 inches of rain in western tennessee. That by itself would call for flash flooding and problems. Now that its daybreak, were getting some of the pictures from the port arthur area and people are still crying for help. If you want a sobering experience, go to social media, type in port arthur and look for the pleas. Theres hundreds of them saying i have 11 people in my house and four are kids. We need rescue. Its going to take all day today, tonight, probably tomorrow, as long as the water stays high in those areas to get everyone to a dry place. As Stephanie Gosk pointed out, many of the small towns are really on their own so theyre doing the best they can. Lets head now to houston. Garrett haake is there. I guess the strain of all this historic rain is just pushing reservoirs, dams, levees to the brink and those rescue operations i know are still under way. Youre at the Addicks Reservoir. Whats the latest from there . Reporter chris, the Addicks Reservoir was built in the 1940s. It was never meant to handle this much rain. Now that the rain stopped we can show it to you. My photographer is on the top of this earthen dam that makes up the ring around the addix recks reservoir. Im only halfway down this wall. Those trees you see out there in the distance, im told by people who live in this neighborhood that those trees are 20 and 25 feet tall. That is how much water has shown up in this reservoir which is normally essentially a dry creek with a little band of water running through it. But now so much rain has fallen they are discharging, chris, 60,000 gallons of water per second out of this reservoir and the barker reservoir, which is really only a few blocks to a few miles away from here, trying to dump all that water out into the bayou system so it can make its way back into the gulf of mexico and dry out some of these neighborhoods. I spent the early part of this morning essentially upstream from here, if you will, in neighborhoods from which that water is draining into this reservoir and back out. Police tell me they have been through those neighborhoods a couple of times and most of the folks who are still in their homes are people who said they wanted to stay, they knew what they were getting themselves into. Police are going back to those folks today and try to get them out of here just because even with that 60,000 gallons of water a second, its going to be a long time before those neighborhoods here and around this part of western houston dry out, even without another drop of rain today. Garrett haake, thank you for that. Joining me is Houston Chronicle reporter, sinjen smith. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. We saw at the emotion of the press conference what a huge loss this is for Law Enforcement, the entire community of houston. And the police chief there spoke about his conversation with Sergeant Perezs widow. I just want to play a little of that. She tells me, i told him not to work, i really dont want him to go. His fatherinlaw, whos a korean war veteran from the army, combat veteran, we told him not to go. The conditions were so bad. His response was weve got work to do. What can you tell us . What have you learned about what happened to Sergeant Perez . Essentially what happened was he was, like so many houston Police Officers and Harris County responders, he was just trying to get to work. He left his home early, early in the morning around 4 00 a. M. , spent a couple of hours trying to get downtown. You know, i dont know, youve seen photos, youve seen the videos, theres just been an enormous amount of water and all of our highways have been totally inundated. So while he was on the road, he mistakenly went into some high water and drowned. Our thoughts obviously and prayers are with his family and all the folks who are there as part of the larger police community. In the meantime, i understand youre about 60 miles southeast of houston but heading west to columbia today. Where are you going . Why are you going there . So a lot of the communities down here are being potentially threatened by the brazos river, which is a river that flows down here, which has just seen also, like all the other rivers and bayous, intense, intense rain and intense levels. And so, you know, a lot of these communities are seeing rising floodwaters. The place im checking in today is called columbia lakes, a subdivision which is surrounded by a levee which is meant to protect it from a creek and from the brazos. Yesterday that levee was starting to fail and they were seeing water trickling over the top, so a bunch of local residents there were trying to shore it up. But if we see significant surge from all of that additional water pushing downstream, that could that could overwhelm the levee. The ongoing threat that the people of texas are dealing with. Be careful over there, thank you for talking with us. Sure thing. Philip is inside the Houston Convention center. That place packed. Evacuees had to set up cots in the hallway overnight. How are folks holding up there, philip . Reporter well, chris, by all accounts as best they can considering the circumstances, but i want to ask one. Lets ask Lonnie Meyers. This is Lonnie Meyers jr. You have been here since when . Sunday. How are you holding up . Trying to hold up as best as possible. Trying to stay in good spirits. Im here with my mother and im just taking care of her. What has how have these last few days been for both of you . Its been rather stressful, but weve lost everything. But i can honestly say as long as i have my mother, im in good spirits. How are you able to keep your spirits up when theres so much uncertainty around you. Talking with other victims of this disaster, just keeping our morale up talking and just being cheerful and just staying positive. And you said you think your home is a loss. Its destroyed, yes. What was it like when you left it . It was flooded. The waters were waist high when i left and it hit me in the chest after we transported my mother down the street by raft. And you said that your mother has medical issues and thats a real concern now . Yes. She has a broken femur that she is healing from. Its been two years but she cant walk as sturdy as i can right now and my main concern is for her. And you were saying that as you were leaving, you were telling me that your cell phone broke. Yes. Or got damaged. Yes. It did get damaged by water, so im unable to reach out to make phone calls and let everybody know that im all right and that my mother is safe. And you were telling me that you wanted to let your family know out there. I would like to let my sister, sandy, know in new york city and bronx, new york, that i have mom. Were in the george r. Brown and were safe. As soon as i can, i will contact her and call her. And your brother as well . My brother is Quentin David meyers and he is over in the north shore shelter. He couldnt get back from work. The roads were impassable over there. But hes fine and his phone does work and were just trying to keep in contact with him. Okay. So hopefully someone can get the word out to sandy and let her know that everybody is okay because i know thats a big stress in a world full of stress at this point in your life. Yes, sir, it is. Okay. And have they given you any indication as to when you might be able to go check on your home . No, they have not given me any indication yet. Right now weve been essentially with fema and they have given us a card because we preregistered, so weve got checkout status. Once we can check status, well know something maybe today or tomorrow. Im sure your mother appreciates how strong youre being for everyone. A very tough situation for everyone involved. Lonnie, thank you very much. Chris, so many stories like this. The stress of having everything in your life completely gone and on top of that family members not sure of where they are or if theyre okay. So hopefully we can make that connection and we can make that one less thing that they have to worry about. But they mentioned the flooding continues and that means more evacuees will be coming here and they will be calling shelters like this home for the foreseeable future. Are they still processing people, phillip . I know they were expecting 5,000, they had to take 9,000 and they have opened other shelters. If people show up, are they taking them in . Theyre not turning anybody down. If they come here, they will be processed. They have the option of heading over to the Toyota Center where the Houston Rockets play. Thats right next door. Thats another place they opened up to give a little more room because they had only been set up for 5,000 as you mentioned and they doubled the capacity as well as nrg center next to nrg stadium where the texans play. That is another shelter that has opened up. So they are preparing for just another influx of evacuees. Phillip mena, thank you for that. Harvey hovering over western louisiana bringing heavy winds and more rain to an already drenched region just as new orleans is marking 12 years since hurricane katrina. Up next well talk to the man who headed up the federal response to katrina. And suddenly make it all seem worthwhile . Well its you girl, and you should know it. With each glance and every Little Movement you show it. Youre gonna make it after all. It takes a long time to get to the top. Youre gonna make it after all. But with americas best youre gonna make it after all. Bumpertobumper limited youre gonna make it after all. Warranty, the allnew Volkswagen Tiguan will be there every step ow of the way. Heri think i might burst. Totally immersed weekenders. Whatever kind of weekender you are, theres a hilton for you. Book your weekend break direct with hilton. Com and join the summer weekenders. Today in addition to bracing and preparing for the impacts of heavy rain here, we unfortunately have to watch our friends in other parts of texas experiencing a similar hardship. New orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu speaking just before Tropical Storm harvey made landfall for the third time this morning. This time in his state of louisiana. Parts of that state facing record rainfall. Its expected to continue through labor day weekend, but schools and government offices are reopening today after rainfall was less than oer originally predicted. Joining me by phone, thad allen who directed the federal response to hurricanes katrina and rita. That is one Little Silver lining that were hearing out of louisiana, that they may get half or less of what they originally expected. But as somebody who understands how this works and as someone who dealt with katrina, which was what, a 24hour weather event, although very, very deadly, what do you see as you see whats unfolding right now in texas still . Well, good morning, chris. I think the overwhelming aspect of this event is the geograph geographical scope and the fact that there are multiple landfalls. The challenges we faced in new orleans were significant and similar challenges, but the problem was bounded in that new orleans was circled by levees and drainage canals. I think the real challenge right now is you dont know who evacuated and who didnt. How do you methodically check all the ground to see if somebody is out there that needs to be rescued and hasnt been able to contact anybody. Frankly thats almost the entire texas coast so the challenge is pretty extraordinary. We were hearing from one of our reporters who was driving to beaumont that in some of these small towns its just whatever resources they have as a town and theyre trying to evacuate sometimes hundreds of people. Those evacuations have been so extraordinary, the people showing such bravery. Take us behind the scenes. And the coast guard obviously playing a big role in this. They have been integral in rescuing hundreds if not thousands of people both in the air and on the water in boats. Whats going on to address exactly what you were talking about, admiral . Well, until you can get everybody coordinated and run centrally, you have to rely in the coast guard we would call it the principal of initiative or biased reaction. In both katrina and this event we prestaged our helicopters out of the path of the storm and came in right behind as soon as we could operate. The ethos in the coast guard is you dont ask for permission when you have the resources to assist somebody. I think we demonstrated during katrina and again now that ethos is well served for the american people. As you know, the governor called up the entire National Guard. Thats 12,000 roughly. The director of domestic operations for the National Guard said with help from other state guards that should be could go to 30,000. Of course then you also have police, you have fire, First Responders, red cross, salvation army, volunteers. It sounds like a lot of people, but in a situation like what were seeing and you talk about the breadth, the scope of it, will that be enough . Well, you can muster all the resources you have. The challenge is applying them effectively and efficiently. Ultimately i got to new orleans the week after the event occurred to relieve mike brown. The only way we met that challenge was a doortodoor sweep of every building in the affected area. We were able to accomplish that with d. O. D. Support where you had highwater vehicles and communications with security support. So you have to marshal the folks to back you up to do a comprehensive sweep. The challenge is that its such a Broad Spectrum and then you have the difference in abilities of very small cities and large cities like houston. Its going to be a challenge. Former commandant of the coast guard, thad allen. It is always good to talk to you and get the benefit of your experience and expertise. Thank you so much. My pleasure, chris. And happening now, fema administrators in washington, d. C. , about to start a briefing on Tropical Storm harvey. We will monitor it for you and bring you any news that comes out of it, maybe some updated numbers from them. In the meantime, that massive search and rescue operation extends for yet another day in houston. More than 18,000 people have been rescued from the catastrophic flooding so far, and at least 17,000 evacuees are packed into various shelters this morning. That number growing. Nbcs gabe goutierrez is in houston for us. Tell us where you are and what are you seeing . Reporter hi there, chris, good morning. Were here on the west side of houston in a different neighborhood than we were yesterday. We are right along the banks of the Buffalo Bayou. You can see behind me the rain may have stopped but there is plenty of Rushing Water spilling into this neighborhood. This is the water that were seeing coming from that Addicks Reservoir that they had those time releases in order to relieve the pressure on the dams. What we can see is even though the rain has stopped, those releases are still filling many of these neighborhoods. We spoke with several residents here this morning. They say that the water has risen significantly from yesterday. Now, there are several residents back there that weve seen. We expect several more boat rescues today, although were told that over the last day or two there have been plenty already. But it is unclear how many residents are still back there. It is incredible, chris, and you can see in the distance already one boat coming back with at least, hard to see from here, maybe our cameraman can zoom in a little more, at least three people on this boat. Thats incredible about this picture, chris, this is Rushing Water in a suburban neighborhood. The current here, were standing on the street on derry ashford here in houston, and were being very careful to stay on the street but the water is im standing in less than kneehigh water but the current is incredible and it is rushing into this neighborhood as we speak. Many of these homes have at least three or four feet of water. Many of the residents said that they evacuated either sunday or monday. Many of them did monday. And they say that theyre hopeful that the second floors of their homes will be okay but they have resigned themselves to the fact that their first floors are gone. You see that high water sign. When we came here a few hours ago, that water was a few inches lower. It has risen just a bit in the past several hours. If dwayne can zoom in that way, you can see really the extent of all this. A car thats submerged. You see the road closed signs down there. Buffalo bayou is all the way down there, and this is all water that is spilling from Buffalo Bayou all the way to this neighborhood. It really gives you a picture the seriousness of this flooding. Yes, the rain has moved on to the east. Places like beaumont, texas, are being slammed, getting more than 24 inches of rain in a 24hour period. And other areas in louisiana are gonna get slammed with rain today. The sun is still out but the danger is still very present here in houston as we expect more water rescues. As you mentioned, more than 18,000 water rescues so far in the houston area. Chris, its just incredible. Just watching the water, otherwise it would look beautiful with the sun shining off of it. The speed of that water, youre right, is incredible, which has to be difficult for the rescuers. Are the people who are being rescued now being rescued by locals . Are those coast guard . Are they official rescue teams . All were seeing right now, and weve been here for several hours, we spoke with several residents that have come here and they are asking actually we spoke with several volunteers that have showed up here and theyre asking, oh, are there any boats out here, where can we start. Right now were figuring out a place to launch those boats. Theyre private citizens for the most part. We have not seen any local authorities or any coast guard or any army National Guard here at this particular location. But i have to stress this is just one neighborhood in a massive metro area. So we dont know and as i say that, theres a houston Police Officer that is coming here. Im not sure to block off the road or what behind the frame of our camera. But certainly this is something that is going to continue throughout the day. We dont know how many residents are here specifically in this neighborhood, chris. Gabe and dwayne, thank you both so much. Were going to listen for just a minute now to this update from fema. While we continue to monitor the storm as it heads towards louisiana, we remain concerned about houston where catastrophic flooding is likely to persist days after the rain stops. This cooperation between fema, the other federal agencies and state and local officials has been outstanding and we are collectively focused on rescuing those in danger and providing housing and Immediate Care for those who are displaced. Resources from across the country have been dispatched to the area to aid in response and recovery. Finally, the local officials in texas, governor abbott, mayor turner, judge emmitt, chief osavedo and all the others are doing a tremendous job under considerable strain. What we must do in the federal government is to continue to support them and their teams. I want to also thank the men and women who are putting their lives on the line to help the people of texas. Their heroism is truly humbling. Homeland securitys own customs and border protection, u. S. Coast guard and others are working with the National Guard and local First Responders and have saved countless lives. Yesterday we tragically lost one of these local heroes. Houston Police Sergeant steve perez. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and to those who have lost loved ones in this terrible storm. While the focus has been understandably on texas, we are working with the state of louisiana as the storm moves through their state. To the people in texas and louisiana, please continue to listen to your local officials and heed warnings. We expect this storm to continue and our number one priority is everyones safety. We will continue with the life huff s lifesustaining, lifesaving mission for the next few days and then move in for recovery in the area. Ill turn it over to the commandant to talk about our continuing lifesaving missions. Thank you, mad am secretary. We are still very much in the Emergency Response phase of this historic phase. The number one priority right now is recovering survivors. Over thousands yesterday, but these arent numbers, these are people. And i just want to put myself in the shoes of these Community Members whose lives have really been turned upside down. So we will be there for as long as it takes. Now, as the storm is starting to shift to the east, we will be able to shift our resources to the east as well, so we will be able to stay in front of this. Were getting great support from the National Guard, from the state of texas, the entire First Response community. This has truly been a unified effort, and i cant emphasize enough the great work that our Good Samaritans are doing as well. Back at our coast guard headquarters, i now have 32 watch standers standing watch around the clock because the 911 calls have inundated the call centers down in texas. Were taking that overflow and receiving over a thousand calls per hour. So we are not out of this by any long stretch yet, and we will bbe as we continue to watch this storm move on and move to the long road of recovery. Thank you very much. So the whole community continues to descend upon texas. Weve amassed quite the federal government support. Over 12,000 Staff Members and its going to continue to grow. Not only are we pushing people forward through the dhs search capacity, secretary duke proactively put into place and also the commandants people who are risking their lives to save others as well in conjunction with state and First Responders but were also calling on other states through Emergency Management assistance compacts where were asking state support to come down so theyre continuing to amass in texas. So 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 those life safety measures, but the life sustainment mission is huge. Its going to grow. We have over 230 shelters operating in texas with over 30,000 people, but i dont want to get fixated on numbers because those numbers are going to change in the next 30 minutes. But just to let the people of texas know that we are supporting the efforts to provide mass care, not only mass care but also medical care to those who have been displaced and we understand that this is going to be a frustrating and painful process, but were trying to do everything we can to alleviate the situation. Overnight, you know, the areas of beaumont and port arthur got slammed with 20 inches of rainfall. So while were focused a lot of the effort on houston, we have to also have to understand that there are multiple counties, over 50 counties impacted right now. Were continuing to watch the situation develop and citizens in louisiana are not in the clear. You know, youre still under some evacuation warning orders. Make sure youre heeding those warnings from the parish president s. Were ready to support the governor in his efforts to take care of folks over there in louisiana. Weve also turned on individual assistance. Some of the most important youre going to hear about today is from my recovery director. Were providing a central commodity distribution. What that means is we are already providing points of distribution and disseminating lifesustaining commodities. For example, weve been down in rockport, port aransas where the rain has stopped but they sustained category 4 winds and storm surge. Power restoration is ongoing. Were very concerned about the infrastructure obviously. Infrastructure is the key to restoring routine to everybodys daily lives. You know, we will try to help private Power Companies bring the power back on as quickly as we can, but right now many areas in texas still arent out of the clear from the threat as its ongoing. Security is a concern. Weve amassed quite a bit of federal Law Enforcement out of the department of Homeland Security down to our state and local partners again. Theyre working in kuconjunctio with over 12,000 National Guard members that have been deployed by the National Guard in texas as well as the true First Responders at the local level. Again, were supporting medical support. You know, secretary price is highly engaged. Were constantly watching the hospital situations and being able to weve evacuated several hospitals, but were also trying to sustain several hospitals to make sure that theyre up and operational. Were providing a standard of care that everybody deserves. With that, what i would like to do is continue to ask people to find ways to volunteer. You know, when it comes to nvoad. Org or going through the state of texas organizations to be able to organize the volunteer effort. The need to volunteer is going to take place over the next couple years, okay. And the need to volunteer is in let me remind you 50 counties right now. Not just in houston, but everywhere. So that mission is going to continue to expand. But right now what i would really like to concentrate on is how we get disaster survivors to start activating assistance for those that qualify. So alex, my recovery director, will give us some very critical information. Good morning. So as of this morning we have over 195,000 registrations of individuals asking for assistance. Weve provided over 35 million in Financial Assistance to those that have registered. And so our message is clear. If you have Impact Damage from this disaster and have been impacted, find yourself in a shelter, First Contact your insurance company, file your claim, and immediately after that go to disasterassistance. Gov and register for Financial Assistance from fema. Whats important to understand is that our assistance is not designed to make you whole, which is why its important to first register with your insurance company. Its also important that you provide us your location of where youre at during the registration process because we can provide you immediate assistance. We also have the Transitional Shelter Assistance Program were going to continue to listen into this briefing from fema officials but the numbers really are extraordinary. 30,000 plus people in 230 texas shelters, but as was so rightfully pointed out, these arent numbers, these are people. Gabe gutierrez has been watching some of those people going out in boats, some people getting rescued over the last few days. Gabe, when we left you and went to that briefing, you said a houston Police Officer had come into your view. What was he up to and what else can you tell us . Reporter hi there, chris. Well, that houston Police Officer just left the scene. I think he was checking out checking out the scene, to see how deep the water had gotten overnight. Thats something weve seen from many residents as they step out. We spoke with one woman just now who was emotional. She said that she had hoped that her home that the waters might recede a little bit so she can get to the second floor of her home and retrieve some personal belongings. Shes staying down the road with some friends. Hoping that these waters would recede but they have not. They have actually risen because of that time release from those two reservoirs flowing downstream to the Buffalo Bayou. Its really eerie to stand here and see this Bright Sunlight reflecting off of this rain. Yesterday we hadnt seen sunlight for days. It had rained for so long and it just didnt seem to stop. Sometime around yesterday evening, the sun finally came out. This morning it would be a Beautiful Day if it wasnt for all this water destroying this many homes in a neighborhood that residents say never floods. And for those of you just joining us, were here in west houston at the corner of derry ashford and i believe this is river forest road. If you look all the way down there, you can see how far this water stretches all the way to the Buffalo Bayou, which is overflowing its banks and has been for days. It looks like a bayou, gabe, except for a car sticking out. This is crazy. Its just heart breaking to look at it. Reporter the Harris County flood director says that in Harris County alone over a fourday period, more than a trillion, a trillion gallons of water, of rain, fell in this fell here. And now im being told that there is a boat actually several boats in the distance. Its hard to see with all this reflection, its very bright. But there are at least two boats. What we expect to happen throughout the day is that people are going to check on residents, check and make sure theyre okay. Were told in this particular subdivision, though, many of the residents either evacuated yesterday or the day before. We spoke with someone who said that even on sunday that this neighborhood actually had power into monday morning. There was one resident that told us that the water started approaching their front doors on sunday and then had receded a bit, and then all the water started really pouring in on monday. Now, youll recall that is when some of these time releases started happening from the reservoirs in order to relieve the pressures on the dam. So this is one of these neighborhoods that is directly affected by this. The decision to release that water in order to keep not to compromise the dams, in order to keep them functional, those reservoirs were built seven years ago in response to two major floods in the 20s and 30s here in houston. And now this is the result. Of course the residents we speak with here say you have to do it, otherwise you run the risk of the dams spilling over and breaking through, being breached and then all downtown houston is flooded. So this is some of the effects that were seeing of this, and it doesnt seem to go it doesnt seem that this is going to be over any time soon. Authorities have said there are some homes, some parts of the houston metro area, whether it be rural areas or perhaps it depends where you live, but it might be several weeks before these homes are not under water anymore. And again for those of you just joining us, ive got to show you this picture. Its just it is incredible. You see those vehicles that have been abandoned probably for days, but this water just keeps rushing down derryashford in west houston. The makeshift high water sign, dont know when that was put there. What i can tell you that when we got here several hours ago, this water was several inches lower and that suggests to me that this water is rising. Theres no telling when it might come down, chris. Thank you so much, gabe gutierrez. Just worth reiterating what we heard from the folks at the fema briefing that the lifesustaining mission, these rescues are expected to go on still for at least a few more days. Coming up, more on the rescues across the region, but first former president george w. Bush paid a visit to Southern Methodist university in dallas yesterday with some words of encouragement for the members of the Football Team anxious about their homes and families along the texas coast. I know youre going through a really tough time. And just know that there will be a lot of people that are going to help you. If youre from that area, youll be amazed at the people who come down there to help. All kinds of people. And so the days are dark now, but theyre going to get better. So fresh from the farm. Delicious. Perfect. Only one egg with more great nutrition now with 5 times more vitamin d, 10 times more vitamin e, and 25 less saturated fat. Only one egg good enough for my family. Because why have ordinary when you can have the best. Egglands best. The only egg that gives you so much more better taste. Better nutrition. Better eggs. Better nutrition. Super cool notebooks. Done. Thats mom taking care of business, but who takes care of mom . Office depot office max. Order online and pickup in store in just one hour. Taking care of business a trip back to the dthe doctors office, mean just for a shot. But why go back there, when you can stay home. With Neulasta Onpro . Strong chemo can put you at risk of serious infection, which could lead to hospitalizations. In a key study, neulasta reduced the risk of infection from 17 to 1 . A 94 decrease. Applied the day of chemo, Neulasta Onpro is designed to deliver neulasta the next day, so you can stay home. Neulasta is for certain Cancer Patients receiving strong chemotherapy. Do not take neulasta if youre allergic to neulasta or Neupogen Filgrastim . Ruptured spleen, sometimes fatal as well as serious lung problems, allergic reactions, kidney injuries, and capillary leak syndrome have occurred. Report abdominal or shoulder tip pain, trouble breathing or allergic reactions to your doctor right away. In patients with sickle cell disorders, serious, sometimes fatal crises can occur. The most common side effect is bone and muscle ache. So why go back there . If youd rather be home, ask your doctor about Neulasta Onpro. Whuuuuuat . Rtgage offer from the bank today. You never just get one offer. Go to lendingtree. Com and shop multiple loan offers for free free . Yeah. Could save thousands. You should probably buy me dinner. No. Go to lendingtree. Com for a new home loan or refinance. Receive up to five free offers and choose the loan thats right for you. Our average customer could lower their monthly bills by over three hundred dollars. Go to lendingtree. Com right now. I expect a lifetime guarantee. And so should you. On struts, brakes, shocks. Does he turn everything to gold . Not everything. At midas were always a touch better. Book an appointment at midas. Com well, those emergency crews in texas work eed frantically t rescue people trapped in their homes. A number of animal activist groups are scrambling to save pets. Joe frier is in galveston, texas. We know one of the heart breaks for a lot of people is that theyve had to leave their pets behind or theyre going to a place where you cant accept animals. What are you finding where you are . Yeah, thats right, chris. Thats been the situation. Both of those scenarios you describe here in galveston county. We spent some time at Bayou Animal Services which is in dickinson which is hit hard by this storm. More than 40 inches of rain there. Many neighborhood flooded out and thats created the situation with the pets. Now, Bayou Animal Services is in Higher Ground and good place for those pets to be. Typically the Adoption Center there would have no more than 30 dogs and no more than 60 cats. That is if they had litters of cat. Right now 100 dogs and 100 cats. They had to use the neighboring Public Works Garage as an overflow space. The workers there are staying there and sleeping around the clock to feed and care for the animals. Weve seen a number of volunteers who have come in and take turns taking the animals out of their cage to make sure theyre taken care of. Some are strays that they found. Some belong to people who had to evacuate and maybe couldnt take the animals to the shelter or maybe didnt know where they were going and didnt want to risk taking the animal with them. They have dropped them off at the shelter and the shelter knows who they belong to and whenever possible those evacuees will return and come get those pets. There were pets there that were up for adoption. The plan is to get those pets back up north so that they can get to a shelter where theyre more likely to get adopted. Chris . I know groups who transport animals for adoption. I am sure they will be coming into texas when its safe. Joe, thank you for that. Still to come, a member of the cajun Navy Volunteers from louisiana helping rescue people stranded across southeastern texas. Its time for your business of the week. Dunk tanks filled with flames these are the creations coming out of twobit circus. Founded by two friends who love making interactive art. The company now makes experimental entertainment for clients ranging from microsoft to pepsi. 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. Youre a go you got the green light. That means go oh, yeah. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. Were gonna hit our launch date scream thank you goodbye let us help with money and knowhow, so you can get business done. American express open. Words from a doctor. Stage 2 breast cancer. I have three little kids. My babys seven years old. I cant have cancer. We really wanted a cancer team. So we thought that we would travel to Cancer Treatment centers of america and see what they had to offer. One of the things that we loved about ctca was that there is no one option, that they give you a series of options, and you do whats best for you. Every patient that walks through the door is being discussed by this team in various forms. Dr. Fernandez was wonderful. He said it was up to me to do whats best. Its about giving her options, where amy has all the information to make a decision thats best for her. We left the hospital on day one feeling like this is go be okay. Were gonna beat this and this is the place thats gonna help us do it. That feeling is priceless. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Cancer Treatment centers of america. Appointments available now. Are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. Were back with your morning primer. Everything you need to know to start your day. Tropical storm harvey making its third landfall just west of cameron, louisiana, early this morning. Forecasters say harvey could dump substantial rain there today before moving north to arkansas, tennessee and parts of missouri. Early this morning, the u. S. Successfully shot down a Ballistic Missile in a new test off the coast of hawaii. Comes on the heels of north koreas latest missile test tuesday which leader kim jongun said is just the first step of military operations in the pacific. A 16yearold High School Student in new mexico now faces first degree murder charges. Police say he shot and killed two people and injured four at a Public Library monday. Donald trump jr. Has agreed on a day to be interviewed by the Senate Judiciary committee. No one is saying when that date is, though. Don jr. Expected to be questioned about his meeting with a russian lawyer at trump tower in 2016. Defense secretary jim mattis is freezing transgender military ban while a new sixmonth study is conducted on its effects. That will wrap up this hour. Im Chris Jansing in for stephanie ruhle, who will be back in the chair tomorrow. Coming up right now, more news with hallie jackson. Hi, chris. Thank you very much. This morning right now it is bullseye beaumont. The texas town now slammed as harvey hits land for the third time in its pretty long life. Police are warning this city is now basically an island. In the last couple of minutes we got an update from fema. Listen. The operation right now is very clear. Were still in lifesaving, lifesusd lifesustaining mode. Ten people killed, including one mother swept away trying to save her baby who survived. Scrambling to get away after their shelter itself filled with water in port arthur. In Harris County a trillion gallons of rain has fallen in the last four days. That is more than what flows over Niagara Falls in two weeks. Nbc news team is following the developments plus bill karins is in with an update with what the National Hurricane center calls lifethreatening, catastrophic flooding. Stephanie gosk is on the road. This is not easy trying to get to this town which is now essentially surrounded by water. What are you seeing . Yeah, hallie. We have been trying for the last two days to get there. Every route that you can imagine. And what we are seeing is that the flooding has spread all the way through these roads