Weekend about the storm. Plans to visit texas tuesday, but thats not all hes been up to. And last nights mtv video music a weaawards had its share politics, eye popping performances and much more. Early today starts right now. Good monday morning to you. Im frances ra very a. My coanchor is in texas right now covering Tropical Storm harvey and the devastation following the record setting hurricane. Hell join us just in a moment. Right now, the waterlogged city of houston is bracing for even more catastrophic flooding from harvey after the nations fourth largest city was pummelled with up to 2 feet of rain. An unprecedented 50 inches of rain could hit several areas by storms end. And the situation could not be more dire as the National Weather service puts out several tornado and flash flood warnings overnight. Five to ten more inches of rain could hit the area in just the next several hours. And right now the army corps of engineers has begun releasing the waters of two nearby dams in an effort to stem some of the flooding. Overnight voluntary evacuations have been ordered for some houston neighborhoods as police urged the public to stay safe. There have been over a thousand water rescues in the last 72 hours, with more rescues certain as the rain persists. Bill karins forecast is just ahead. First lets to my coanchor phillip mena who is in houston right now. What have you experienced so far . Hey, frances, good morning. I was hoping to talk to you in front of a camera this morning, but the road closures from all of this flooding made that impossible to meet up with the crew. So, right now i am in the northwest part of town. I was coming from dallas taking the main freeway which is the i45 and by the time we got to houston, roads were closed in all directions so essentially whatever part of houston youre in is quickly becoming an island as the waters continue to just wreak havoc on the roadways here. That is to speak nothing of like what you saw the rescues that have been going on. 25 inches of rain in certain parts here, just over the weekend, has just completely drowned out the city. You mentioned the dams at the beginning of the show. That is the major concern right now. There are two major dams that protect the city of houston. They flow through the city. And the army corps of engineers has decided to release them, control release some of that water to alleviate the pressure because if that breaks that could leave half of houston under water and obviously they do not want that. So, they are going to release these waters, its going to come at the expense of the several thousand homes that are right along those dams. But theyre really left with no other choice right now. So, that is the main situation right now, trying to get some of those people evacuated as they start this controlled release of the dam. Unbelievable to watch these images. All right, philip, well check back in with you in a little bit. Thank you. Victoria, texas is still reeling from Tropical Storm harvey. The city of 85,000 people was put under mandatory Evacuation Order when harvey first hit, slamming the area with extreme winds and rain. Now residents are being warned not to return unless they bring enough food, water and gas to last three to four days. Local officials call the damage devastating and said residents could be without electricity for several days or even weeks. Nbcs Kerry Sanders is in victoria, texas this morning. What is the latest on the rescue and Recovery Efforts there . Reporter well, good morning, frances. As you can see over my shoulder, there are electrical trucks here. That means there are power crews that have made their way to this city now which is a good sign. The power crews have started work, in some cases the power has returned to a portion of downtown. Primarily in an area where the authorities who are conducting now the direction of the Recovery Efforts have based themselves. The shelters that are here in town are beginning to close. Thats a good sign. It means things that people are going to have a sign of going home and maybe reestablishing what semblance of a normal life they can without power and without food. But in some cases as you can see here, when people left the shelters that are closing, they wound up finding that they had nowhere to go. And this is because of a fire that burned down an apartment complex. The apartment complex catching fire during the hurricane, the suspicion is that there was perhaps a lightning bolt that caused the fire. As you noted, the people are being told that if they return home, they need to have food. Well, yesterday the largest grocery chain here in town, heb, thats across the state actually, decided they would try to do their best to get food to people. So, they brought in their disaster kitchen to start feeding people. At the same time, brought in 15 trucks from san antonio, texas where they were able to restock a good portion of the grocery store. The Power Company has some power in there. They even had the credit card swipe machines working so people were able to get some food. But the real concern here is as you can note, its still raining here and the river, that is the Guadalupe River is still swelling and they believe by wednesday we may actually see what appears to be a flood along the Guadalupe River. Frances . Wow, all right. Kerry sanders for us with that update. Kerry, thank you. The mandatory evacuation was never issued for several parts of texas so scenes like this were widely seen across the state as troops and helicopters pulled people from danger, lifting them to safety. Overnight one Traffic Camera in katie texas saw this dramatic rescue a driver engulfed in their vehicle. Thankfully they made it out alive. Nbcs Jacob Rascone now brings us more. Reporter it is a colossal rescue effort. Thousands stranded, taken by boat and helicopter. Water so high boats are going over the top of cars. Reporter saved using anything that floats. Their faces tell the story of anguish, anxiety and fear. The water was up to here. I walked out and i was just like screaming. I seen somebody they tried to put us on air mattresses, it didnt work. They had to put babe ids on air mattresses. People were carrying babies on their shoulders. Reporter with Emergency Responders overwhelmed, the mayor is asking people to call 911 only if their life is in danger because he defended his decision not to issue a mandatory Evacuation Order. I want to thank those thousands, thousands, in fact, millions of houstonians who heeded the advice and did not get on the road. Reporter the city has now opened its Convention Center for evacuees as rescue teams plead for the publics help. Those of you who have boats and highwater vehicles that can be used in neighborhoods to help move people out of harms way, we need your help. Reporter and houstonians have responded en masse. If they need my help im going to do what i can. Reporter back in southeast houston, frank pena woke up surrounded by water. The beds, everything, trying to clear. All gone. All gone, everything is gone. Reporter he moved into this apartment just three days ago. His neighbor upstairs took him and three other families in. Are you going to stay until the water goes away . Might. Proschably not if they come get us. We need help. Whole bunch of families displaced. Theyve lost everything. Reporter the morales family lost everything, including their stove and much of their food. You cant eat your food . No. Reporter this bayou is usually nearly empty. Within at matter of hours its 30 feet over flowing into these apartments and all these people are trapped. While scrambling to save her mom from flood waters in a nearby city, samantha caught on a flooded interstate herself, climbing to safety. My ma said there is water going in there, 30 inches deep. I didnt think it was that deep. Reporter americas fourth largest city fighting to survive a still unfolding calamity. Frances, the community here is incredible. You see people coming and going. They have been rescued from back in the neighborhoods by boats that belong to the residents. They believe they have rescued four, 5 or even 600 people since midnight last night. Frances . All right, jacob, thank you. Certainly it will be a scene in the days to come. Want to check back in with philip mena who is in houston right now. So, philip, its one thing to have this storm come and go, but with the rains expected, how is it out there right now . Well, mercyfully the rain has slowed to a drizzle. It is such a welcome relief. For the moment, because it was pouring all night. Im talking about blinding rain at times. So, we are not expecting this lull to last very much longer, but for a look at how the rest of this region is looking lets go to meteorologist bill karins. Good morning, bill. Good morning to you, philip. That is exactly the case. In houston it poured for a short period of time. That has moved out and now towards the bow mont area. Of course the flash flood warnings and the emergency flash flood emergency still continues through the region. From lake charles almost to san antonio under flash flood warnings and that heavy band around 10 00 p. M. Last night right over the top of houston, now it has shifted over the bow mont area. Unfortunately it is not moving. It is just sitting over the same location there. Theres beau mont right there. You can see the thunderstorms coming in. Those areas have had 20 inches of rain. 4 inches per hour. In some of these bands. If were going to have horrific new flooding its going in that band to the east. Our short range computer model predicts its going to stick around that area around beau mont just about all day with hit and miss showers around houston and galveston area. Short term computer models as far as the rainfall in the next 36 hours has that 10 inches still around houston to galveston. Look at the beau mont area, 10 to 20 inches in the area near louisiana, texas board. That wil x6 ahead on this special edition of early today. Light, transitions® lenses help protect from uv rays and harmful blue light. Both indoors. And out. They seamlessly adapt. So you can live the good light™. 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Details for the visit are still being finalized, this comes as the administration prepares to announce plans to resume the transfer of surplus military equipment to Police Departments across the country. A practice restricted by an obama era executive order. Nbcs tracy potts joins us now with more. Tracy, what do we know about the reversal . Reporter well, we are expecting attorney general Jeff Sessions will announce it at a fraternal order of Police Convention in nashville this morning. It is something the police union has pushed for and President Trump promised during his campaign. Some military equipment that had been given, essentially, to Police Departments, they only had to pay for the shipping, was restricted by the Obama Administration after the Michael Brown incident in ferguson where lots of militarytype vehicles were pointed at protesters. Armor also being used by those local Police Departments. But the president says there is evidence that it actually protects officers in situations like florida, the Pulse Night Club shooting, and in san bernardino. So, it looks like theyre going to revive that. The president also dealing with the response to Hurricane Harvey. His fema director and others saying that this is going to be a prolonged, a very quick response, but also a prolonged response that could take years. Frances . All right, tracy potts, thank you. Just ahead, a troubling new storm churning off the South Carolina coast. And the most outrageous and inspiring moments from last nights video music awards. Bies. We run marathons. Companies. Solve problems. How . We eat. We eat almonds. Strawberries. Quinoa. And yeah. We eat chocolate. We eat in sweatpants. In skirts. We eat alone. And together. Women are strong. We eat, and we own it. Special k. With pantene 3 minute miracle daily conditioner. S. A super concentrated prov formula makes hair stronger in just 3 minutes. 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Were going to come out of this stronger than ever, but were going to need a lot of money to help these people rebuild. Thats houston texan star j. J. Watt announcing a fundraiser to assist with Recovery Efforts in the houston area and asking fans to donate if they can. Watts is contributing 100,000. So far more than 250,000 has been donated. The 2017 mtv video music awards, the nights big winner was Kendrick Lamarr who took home six moon people including one for video of the year. Ed sheeran won the first ever artist of the year a war created when mtv eliminated character this year. Pink was presented with this years vanguard award. She opened up being bullied for her looks, something her 6yearold daughter faces as well. Do you see me changing my body . No, mama. Do you see me changing the way i present myself to the world . No, mama. Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world . Yes, mama. [cheering and applauding] okay. So, baby girl, we dont change. We take the gravel in the shell and we make a pearl and you, my darling girl, are beautiful. And i love you. [cheering and applauding] that also got political, six Transgender Military Service members walked the red carpet days after President Trumps controversial ban. They sent a message anyone willing and able should be able to join the arld forces. A descend ant of general ehle spoke before introducing the mother of Heather Heyer who died in the violence in charlottesville. The hegtser hiather heyer found will help those with social justice issues. Everyone at the awards sends their love and prayers. Well have more ahead on Tropical Storm harvey. Well go back to houston for the very last latest on the devastating floods. Youre watching early today. Shawn evans its 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. And at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. 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Finding a way to get officers around after a man goes on a tire slashing spree. A lot to get to this morning. Good morning. Nbc 10 first look at four. Im tracey davidson. Im katy zachary. Lets get right to bill henley. Good morning. Cool start this morning with clear skies. Dropped into the 50s and 60s. Low 50s for the suburbs. Philadelphia is at 61 degrees. A lot of sunshine to starlet with. Afternoon to see high cluouds moving in. 55 now in the lehigh valley. 50s also for delaware. Warm into the 70s this afternoon. Upper 70s. The sky is becoming partly sunny late in the day for delaware and new jersey. Mostly sunny sky ifs r the suburbs and philadelphia. Break it down when i come back. First, Jessica Boyington has first alert traffic. To start, on the schuylkill expressway. Heres the camera from the westbound side actually from the boulevards camera thats zoomed in on city line avenue. See the lane restrictions up here. City line avenue exit is open. Lanes are closed. Dealing with that there. This is the westbound side here. Westbound side too has construction so anywhere in between city line avenue and conshohock conshohocken, we are seeing restrictions. Typically cleared around 5 00. At least another hour or so still there. Still get by the scene, just may be slower than normal. Construction on the vine street expressway. Its open. In between broad and schuylkill were open there not dealing with construction this morning. End at the 42 freeway over in new jersey northbound from walt whitman bridge. It is 4 00 a. M. , breaking overnight, Tropical Storm harvey continues to batter houston and texas. Water continues to arrive. Reaching those in need is getting more difficult as hundreds of roads are shutdown. The worst is yet to come. The storm remains spinning over the hard hit area and rain is expected to continue for days. Nbc 10 matt delucia joins us live in the studio. Katie and tracey, rain continue this is morning in the