when people are watching, people are saying get out. but it s an emotional decision to leave your home even when people are telling you to do that. now to nbc meteorologist bill karins who has been standing by. good morning to you, yasmin and ayman. we are watching the storm carefully. for the last 48 hours, the storm has sat within victoria texas, within 60 miles of there. 000 we ll watch it drift today and tomorrow. we start to move the storm throughout the week, then we ll start to see the rain heading out of the flood zone around houston and into other areas. let s give you that forecast there. this is over the week. by tuesday and wednesday starting to send the moisture further to the north and that will help areas to the south. rain bands continue to develop off the gulf. the torrential raen will continue throughout the midweek. hopefully we can put it in a
the caption, all hands on deck. rescue of a 71-year-old vietnam vet with muscular dystrophy taken to safety along with his three cats. the you can see one official swimming in what is reported to be eight feet of water. the person being stranded there for about eight hours. you can see all these efforts to save lives. for more, let s bring in nbc reporter julia bagg live in houston. what have you seen in the last couple hours in terms of rescue efforts, evacuation efforts by folks and how it s unfolding right now. reporter: ayman, it s been raining off and on in the
welcome back everybody. you re following special coverage of hurricane harvey. i m yasmin vossoughian alongside ayman mow dean. houston, the nation s fourth most populated city swamped and under water. two people confirmed dead. 262,000 waking up without electricity. equipment coming from as far away as maine. they ve spent the weekend plucking people from cars and homes to safety. we currently have 19 coast guard helicopters in the region and one fixed wing aircraft. we have already assisted on the air side, executed over 200 rescue missions. also, we have, on the flood side, they ve actually rescued over 1,000 people at this time.
vehicle. is it that the water came very quickly and some couldn t make it out. why are we seeing people trying to dry out of what seems to be a very perilous situation. i think it s a combination of the two, ayman. in some cases the water does come in quickly. i can tell you we ourselves have been bouncing around like a peng pong ball when we hit each of these water areas that are here. that s what s making this such a dangerous situation for people out on the roads. julia, we ll check back with you later in the show. as we heard, this will go on until wednesday. want to bring in msnbc meteorologist bill karins who has been standing by.
good morning, yasmin and ayman. in some situations thinls are getting better and in others things are getting worse. the red is the flash flood warnings and emergencies still in place. in central louisiana almost into san antonio. this is a catastrophic flooding event. some of the flash flood watches that go from southern louisiana, and some will last through the middle of this week. as far as the forecast went last week, the heavy rain band did set over the top of houston. it did move in and move out. did every mane stationary. the current radar shows the huge fire hose. torrential rain and thunderstorms coming off the gulf. it is in beaumont and port arthur, picking up four to five inches in an hour s time. that s where the worst of the