more on the recovery efforts. reporter: this recovery effort will be ongoing for months and years to come. right now, the stage that we re in is the piles of trash that you see in neighborhood after neighborhood where we are as an area northwest of houston, a neighborhood called nor chester, and if i could, i want to point out right over here, this home was built up, specifically so that the flooding would not hit it. it was built up several feet, but like all of the other homes in this neighborhood, it still got water inside. the latest numbers from fema are that 573,000 people, more than a half million, have requested assistance, that s for their homes, that s for their cars, and other things. i believe near 200,000 have been approved. this is going to be ongoing for months. and for years. we know that congress, the aid is pending there. they ll need more than that. 190 billion i think was the latest estimate that the governor gave, which would be, like, katrina and sandy
continue and the owners of the colonial pipeline, the largest fuel transporter in the united states, say they are making progress on repairing damages from the storm. national gas prices are up an average of 30 cents in the past week. nbc s jacob rascon in houston, texas, with more. jacob. reporter: in west houston, neighborhood after neighborhood still under water. mandatory evacuations for 4600 homes. after their owners thought they had escaped the worst. it s sad. i feel sad for us. i feel sad for everyone. families like romos told they can t return to their homes for nine more days while the city releases water from overflowing reservoirs. the few stuff we have left that s not been flooded out, that s all we want. throughout the region the damage is overwhelming, street after street looks like this. the cleanup and rebuilding may cost up to $190 billion, more than hurricanes katrina and sandy combined. a day of prayer in texas and
hurricane katrina and super storm sandy. now a new estimate that says that harvey s damage could cost more than both of those combined. $190 billion is the total coast. now dr. joel meyers says that business leaders and major banks, the federal reserve should factor in the negative impacts this catastrophe will have on business, corporate earnings and employment. that s consistent with president trump s guess that there s never been a natural disaster like hurricane harvey. some businesses won t be able to get back the money they ll be losing the next few months as mold is removed and drywall is replaced. many businesses won t get the money they ll lose. part of the calculation is like
the ability to reach not just japan and guam but the continental united states. you can see here that the missiles as calculated could reach as far as chicago and over to the east coast. so this is what is worrying a lot of people. coming up more than a week after harvey made landfall texas still reeling from the aftermath of the devastating rains and floods. a mandatory evacuation order under way for 4600 homes in west houston, 18,000 homes damaged in texas. by the time its over cleanup and rebuilding cost could reach $190 billion. we re going to have much more including a report from houston after the break. this is the story of john smith.
came from nowhere to risk their lives to save people. a lot about the spirit of texas. trish: i hear you it says a lot about the spirit of texas and the spirit frankly of americans. i mean, i think we ve been so divided and we ve been bickering on so many levels as a country and it s really a wonderful testament to who we are to who the people of texas are that they were going door-to-door and there was so many volunteers and you ll see this coordination of local communities, businesses, businesses have done their part and the government, state, municipal, federal government coming together and that s really i think a testament to all of us as a country. let me ask you in terms of what you re going to need. people are saying this is potentially the most costly hurricane in history. there have been estimates pegged anywhere from 125 billion to 190 billion. do you have any sense of what it s going to take to rebuild texas? look that s a large number, i