key cabinet members are on the call, most concerned about the people suffering from the hurricane. wanted to express his concerns and inquiries about life and safety issues. secondly, our response in support of governor abbott of texas. elizabeth: do you feel like you re getting what you need from the administration? i realize it s very, very early, it s up to local and state officials. do you feel they have your back? absolutely. the president s signing of the declaration, major disaster last night was huge in helping us prepare for this morning and helping governor abbott prepare for this morning. obviously, the department of homeland security everseas oversees fema. where are they now? are they inhibited by the fact that the storm is hovering over much of that state? are they waiting for requests from state and local officials? governor abbott, through his request for a disaster declaration, the official
size storm. we re preparing a texas sized response. is there enough resources to flood the zone or by the time you ve got the flooding, therefore, you can t bring in heavy equipment. you probably can t get across some of the roads here, especially, out into these areas right next to the water on the shore and you don t have communications. what specific resources does the federal government bring to that that even the state of texas can t? well, they can use the heavy lift helicopters to get resources in there if need be. they also can do cell on wheels, cell towers on wheels to get in there to put up cell towers so they can have communications in these local communities that the cell towers are gone. so, there s a lot of availability in technology that they can use to get that back up pretty fast. and it s important that they can communicate with the local officials, particularly in the
more about the the local response and reinforcement they re getting from the trump administration. we ll get an update on where the storm is headed and how it will affect a huge area of texas residents. we will be right back. what was the worst thing you saw?
to dump more and more water, up to 30, sometimes perhaps forecast up to 50 inches. how much does that complicate the typical hurricane response that you just talked about? it really complicates it. if you remember hurricane floyd that came in to north carolina, it was a flood hurricane. i mean, it literally flooded almost that entire state. it just dumped inch after inch of rain. we saw pigs on top of barns, it was so deep. and this is a challenge they re going to have here. and the challenge here is you ve got you ll have a lot of infrastructure damage that you cannot see right now. and it s going to take weeks, months, and years for the full recovery of this, and it s really important that the president signs a declaration and more importantly that he appointed brock long, the new administrator of fema. he s an experienced state director of emergency management and i know for eight years i was
storm. at this time it s a case of all the kings men may not be able to do anything so now we are waiting for the storm to start. the storm in the water far out there on the beach in galveston. nile, as you point out, the political analysis will come out in the coming weeks and months. we ll have here to talk about it. we appreciate your insight. allison: residence in houston are bracing for heavy rain and massive flooding which they are seen. as the hurricane ripped through coastal texas. were live from houston with the latest, i can see behind you that we are seeing a lot of flooding. you are. i talked in the last hour about the bayous in this is keegan s