On down to wharton, they say. We can use every hand. Reporter martin savidge, thank you very much. And thanks to you for joining us. Our breaking News Coverage continues now with ac 360. Houston. A week after Hurricane Harvey came ashore, the reminders that this is not over keep coming and theres a new one that just happened. Explosions and a massive fire at the Chemical Plant 25 miles northeast of houston. It began with flooding, followed by a power outage, and the equipment to keep explosive chemicals cool shut down. Early yesterday morning came the first fire. Late today, a large explosion, followed by the large fire that has thankfully died down again. For obvious reasons, cnns brian todd is not here but joins us with the latest. What do we know exactly about this fire . Reporter we can tell you that officials have told us for
most of this week they expect that incidents like this to occur and they just posted a statement moments ago saying that the redundant Refrigeration Systems
218 projects have been funded out of more than 1500 requests. compare that to florida where fema funded more than 3700 long term projects and about 3700 in texas as well, that was two years after hurricane harvey hit. as the new york times first reported, these numbers illustrates the disparity in support citizens in mainland u.s. with voting representation in congress received compared to citizens living in these u.s. territories, although we should point out obviously it is going to be a tougher battle recovering on these islands. still though, there is quite a gap. but fema is defending its recovery response saying in a statement, quote, every disaster is different and the length of the recovery process will vary based upon the unique sixes of the particular event. as such, comparing disasters misleads the american people. each event has a unique set of
hours of volunteer work have been done. reporter: h.w. bush became great friends with the man who beat him in 1992 when mother nature devastated this country and others, former presidents bill clinton and george h.w. bush came together time and time again. they raised millions for relief efforts. presidents all got together to raise more money when hurricane harvey hit, dana. bush is being described as so many things today, but selfish is not a word we ve heard. dana: never. thank you, ellison. and we ve got one more hour of this special edition of the daily briefing. karl rove, brit hume on deck, and we have a very special interview that my friend tony snow did with president bush in 1999. come. -[ gasps ] a bigger room?! -how many of you use car insurance? -oh. -well, what if i showed you this? -[ laughing ] ho-ho-ho! -wow. -it s a computer.
the coast guard has been something incredible, what s happened. saved 16,000 people, many of them in texas for whatever reason that is. people went out in their boats to watch the hurricane. that didn t work out too well. that didn t work out too well. that didn t go over too well in texas where, yes, there were rescues in texas because that s where hurricane harvey hit. a local houston-area sheriff, who was interviewed tonight, said he had no idea what the president was talking about. officially and for the record, the coast guard performed a still astounding and heroic 11,000 rescues in the aftermath of harvey. but people getting in boats to go out and watch the hurricane was not an issue during harvey according to local law enforcement in texas. having cleared that up, that is our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you so very much for being here with us. good night from nbc news headquarters here in new york.
fema talking about the start of hurricane season, it was noted that he said nothing about the loss of life in puerto rico. puerto ricans are, of course, american citizens just like the people of texas. the president was all too happy to talk about texas yesterday. it came up when he was paying tribute to the united states coast guard. it was followed by a reference to something in texas no one understood. i don t think the coast guard gets enough credit. i ve said it, and i even say it to the army, navy, air force, marines. i said, i think this year the coast guard may be, in terms of increased branding, the brand of the coast guard has been something incredible, what s happened. saved 16,000 people, many of them in texas for whatever reason that is. people went out in their boats to watch the hurricane. that didn t work out too well. that didn t work out too well. that didn t go over too well in texas where, yes, there were rescues in texas because that s where hurricane harvey hi