conditions. the disaster spreading into east louisiana, parts of the state are bracing for more heavy rain and flooding in the hours ahead. tonight president trump is promising that storm recovery under his administration will be better than ever before. he made a quick trip to texas meeting with officials in austin and corpus christi. the white house says that he stayed away from the flood zones to avoid getting in the way of those rescue efforts. this hour i ll speak with texas congressman joaquin castro and new orleans mayor, mitch landrieu. correspondents and specialists standing by. first cnn s brian todd in houston. i know you ve been out with the customs and border officials air lifting victims to safety. how many did you see in need out there tonight? reporter: jim, we saw dozens in need, and this unit has rescued hundreds of people from flooded homes. we ve been flying all day with this unit. the air and marine operations unit of customs and border
the white house to make sure that we are prepared, but we feel like we re in fairly good shape. but you always knock on wood when you say that. we ve seen what can happen 12 years ago and unfortunately houston is suffering the worst of it right now. sadly storms turn. they change direction. they can strengthen, i suppose. i know that during katrina, and i don t always look back, but i know you learned a lot of lessons from katrina. those famous images of people packed in the super dome to find shelter. does new orleans have the shelter resources it needs if evacuations are called for? yeah well, firstful all, the entire state does. of course, we don t expect to have to call an evacuation, voluntary or mandatory based on the weather patterns that we see right now. but in the event that the storm should turn, or if that thing backs off the coast and turns into something else, we feel like that we have the time to prepare for it. but as you can see, the weather patterns right now we
overnight last night. they ve been sandbagging in parish. maybe an inch or two. some of the severe weather slides to coastal mississippi in toward alabama where 3 to 6 inches could fall in that region. it continues to spin counter clockwise. houston, you are going to see the rain let up in a matter of hours. as soon as we have land fall in the morning and that sis december moves to the north, it will become try. nothing more will fall from the sky. the concern will be rising waters in the weeks ahead. the rainfall, jim, really, getting the aid and the emergency services for rescues that are being needed in eastern texas, port arthur, beaumont into the parishes of western louisiana and southwest louisiana. our systems drop another 10, 15 inches in this area on top of the 12 1/2 that already has dropped in beaumont today. we thought one land fall was enough. another land fall coming. tom saider, thanks very much. tonight new orleans at risk nor devastating floods exactly
north of houston. picked up nine people, cramming everybody they can into this chopper. reporter: one 80-year-old victim told us there is waist high water in her house and she lost everything. she was evacuated by boat to a collection point, then by helicopter from there. what would you have done if these guys hadn t shown up? we would have had to go to the attic. i don t know what would have happened. they re life savers. reporter: aerial rescues like this operation using a hoist and a basket are particularly challenging and in these conditions with each flight, these agents have to deal with significant danger. you have multiple aircraft doing the same thing in the same vicinity, right? low visibility, and then also, you know, going in there and pulling the people out of the, you know, water that s 40 feet high. reporter: crews have rescued 45 people in houston alone as they race to save as many victims as they can, authorities are telling victims hang in there. don t g
jim, thank you so much. we appreciate y all s support. just ahead, more breaking news, an urgent struggle under way to rescue people from the flood waters submerging much of houston. after record rainfall, more rain on the way. and president trump responds to kim jong-un s latest missile launch, warning that all options are on the table. but now north korea is upping the antti, calling its launch a prelude to more military options aimed at the u.s. territory of guam. mind if i sit here? not if you want your phone to work. let me guess, you can t livestream your lobster roll. and my mobile pay isn t connecting and i just got an unlimited plan. right plan, wrong network. you see verizon is america s largest most reliable 4g lte network and now unlimited plans start at $40 per line, you know what i am saying? (laughs.) oh this is your seat. definitely. yep. just tucking it in. nah, i wasn t going to pull it out. (vo) when it really, really matters you need the best network and the b