you ve been hearing all about the reservoirs. the mayor went on and on about them and how it was the right thing to let the water out. well, in fact, now we know that it was, because the reservoir called addicks, already to the top of the overspill, anyway, and is just running over the top. had they not let it out anyway, it would be going over without any resistance whatsoever. get you here. this, john, is addicks reservoir. about 20 square miles, 65 billion gallons and it s green right here. because it s a park. there s never water in here. it s not really a reservoir. it is a catchment for flood. well, all of these rivers have come down and flooded it. so it s coming chad, i need to interrupt you. sorry the governor, abbott, is speaking now. straight to that. everybody watching with relatives in houston right now.
this hour you have a dam in houston dangerously close to spillover. pete: the crisis situation could cause uncontrolled releases, which is spilling over the top at any time. ainsley: griff jenkins joins us live in houston near the addicks dam where everyone has been tolded they need to get out of their houses. it s not dangerously close, guys, it s eminent if not already coming over the top of that addicks reservoir dam. we were here yesterday when the u.s. geological survey folks came out to take measurements in fear of what is about to happen. take a look. we re at addicks reservoir one of two reservoirs doing the controlled release waters sure to further flood houston during this epic flood event. they are taking measurements and we will follow them as they do their work in this critical situation. we re going to use a doppler radar device to measure the velocity and area of cross section of the water. and we will use that compute a discharge in cubic feet
108.7 feet. rise throughout the day here, the water will now flow into which is why people are out here, launching into these neighborhoods and trying to get areas around the dam. people, pets and whatever president trump flying in with belongings they can grab out of the first lady to survey there. you are to the north of recovery efforts. the president was greeted by addicks reservoir, that s texas governor greg abbott. overtopped it s boundary, and after meeting with officials, that s why you re seeing all the president trump spoke to the water coming in there. crowd outside. this has been a total how many people are coming in on cooperative effort. again, we will see you soon, boats right now? reporter: i would say about a this is historic, it s epic, half a dozen coming in, but you what happened, but you know what it happened in texas and texas have people coming in, going can handle anything. thank you all, folks. thank you. out, you have high water thank you. vehicles, and
major reservoirs just west of houston, the addicks and the barker dams were built to protect houston. the army corps of engineers has already opened the gate for controlled releases but it s not working and now they re dangerously close to overflowing uncontrollably. let s talk about that. how is that all supposed to work? reporter: you know, it is beginning to overflow now and go right over the top of this dam at its lowest point and that, of course, is a concern when you look at the broad perspective of everything. with tropical storms, it comes down to three elements. the wind speed, the landfall, and then a widespread rain event and then when it s all tapering off, the flooding sticks around and that s exactly where we are at part three of this story. here is the addicks dam right here, holds about 65 billion gallons of water. look at the outer edge, there are seven areas of neighborhoods there that make up 3,000
half a foot above the 500-year flood plain. we re trying to make sure that we monitor that as we move forward. flood control is again monitoring those and we anticipate getting additional information moving forward in the next couple days. okay. we re monitoring carefully those two areas from kingwood into the areas that will be impacted by the release of water from the addicks and barker dam, and as a precaution, we are looking at setting up an additional shelter in the west, on the west side of houston, and i ll make that announcement sometime today as well, as a necessary precaution. what i will say to people throughout the city of houston is that, please, please, be alert. please be on notice. situation still remains dynamic and will be dynamic throughout the next 24 hours. but we are monitoring the situation carefully. if, based on the models of things we see, we think there s