this enormous, devastating event that i think the state has never seen before. eric: the dimensions are beyond comprehension. but we also heard in the news conference something called google heat maps. there are people trapped. you have flooding in port arthur and beaumont and flooding in a shelter but using new technology to try to get a handle on it. a new color code. pink, 50 inches of rain. never contemplated before. i m traveling from austin to houston to see the devastation. it s important to remember a lot of people are hurting right now and out of homes, flooding in homes, massive. it is going to out to port arthur, beaumont and now louisiana. i think the petrochemical industry was mentioned. that s a critical infrastructure asset for national security as it provides a third of the nation s energy supply. so there are a lot of moving parts here but i have to say
if you are in one of the counties that s part of the federal disaster declaration, you will be eligible for immediate support from fema, that you can register to receive at disasterassistant.gov. let me talk to you a little bit about weather, where we are, and where we re going. first as you know, the rain that was received in the greater harris county area has set an all-time record. now that rain has moved to the beaumont region in southeast texas. approximately 15 inches of rain have already fallen in the area and there s more to come. the worst is not yet over for southeast texas as far as the rain is concerned. there will be ongoing challenges both during the time that rain continues to fall as well as for
working with state and local partners, some good samaritans helping out, about 11:00 last night, our phones started ringing off the hook, they re in beaumont. we pushed a couple of precluded getting on scene but more favorable conditions today yet very challenging conditions to get into air rescues. but we have a formidable force down there contributing to efforts to support the state and fema on responding to folks in need. vice admiral, thank you so much again for your time and best of luck on all of your rescue efforts today. i want to go now to austin, texas, where governor greg abbott is briefing the media. in the state of texas, while at the same time we are beginning the rebuilding process around the coastal bend region. and while we are dealing with what is now receding waters in harris county, and the ongoing
rainfall that occurred in port arthur and beaumont as well. this isn t like 5-year-old soccer everyone clustered around one point. we re looking across the entire metro area to make sure we have resources allocated. it is well coordinated with first responders and national guard and coast guard. the areas that they re clustered that people can get help and how many areas we re talking about? we re talking square miles, not down to blocks. so we re talking the entire houston metropolitan area. others more impacted than others but we are seeing a lot to the west and southwest of the center of houston proper itself. can you tell us what it will take to get the infrastructure coming and industrial facilities including the tem call chemical plant that had to be evacuated? they were able to restore
also medical care to those who have been displaced and we understand that this is going to be a frustrating and painful process but we re trying to do everything we can to alleviate the situation. overnight the areas of beaumont and port arthur got slammed with 20 inches of rainfall so while we re focused a lot of the effort on houston we have to also understand there are multiple counties, over 50 counties impacted right now and we re continuing to watch the situation develop. citizens of louisiana are not in the clear. you are still some evacuation warning orders. make sure you heed those warnings from the parish presidents and we re ready to support the governor in his efforts to take care of folks over there in louisiana. we ve also turned on individual assistance. some of the most important information you ll hear about today is from our recovery director. we re providing essential