letter drafted by the president that could shed light on his intentions for firing former fbi director james comey. but first, right now, the president is in houston, texas. air force one arrived earlier this afternoon at ellington field. and within just this past hour, we ve been showing you the president meeting with flood victims inside houston s nrg stadium. a bit later this afternoon, the president and first lady are planning to stop in lake charles, louisiana, to survey the damage there. just a message that things are working out well. really, i think, people appreciate what s been done. it s been done very efficiently, very well. and that s what we have found. we re very happy with the way things are going. lot of love. what did the family tell you earlier. they were just happy. there was a lot of happiness. it s been really nice. it s been a wonderful thing. as tough as this was, it s been a wonderful thing. i think even for the country to watch and for the world to wat
second trip to texas. unless he does the costume change on board air force one, i don t see that moving of debris in that suit and fine wear that they oaf got on there. but we ll see what happens. thanks so much, athena jones. as tens of thousands of people return to their homes to assess the damage, houston s mayor says his city is, quoting, open for business. small signs of recovery are beginning to e emergency with fewer people in shelters and power being restored in many areas and many residents are now wondering what their next steps are. cnn s stephanie elam the live for us in houston at the nrg stadium, the center where a whole lot of people were taking refuge. what s happening now, people have been leaving, heading to their homes? reporter: we have seen some people leaving this morning, fred. we of soon people finding their way out, getting in taxis and going someplace. maybe they re going home or with friends and family. we did get some updated numbers here as of 5:00 th
army of compassionate soldiers, we have seen it whether it s the cajun navy or donations that are coming through monetarily and humanitarily as far as supplies and americans don t have to be told by the government and we know what to do and we come through. we have seen so many people come through. you mentioned the cajun folks and folks that got in fast boats and went into the storm, you had guys pulling up and throwing their boats in the water in the middle of torrential downpours and uj imaginably waters to go out and say perfect strangers, they would drop the strangers and come back and go back out into the neighborhoods, sometimes 2 or 3 miles into flooded neighborhoods. president trump is going to meet with some of those folks on his next stop in lake charles, louisiana, two things to bring up that happened at nrg stadium while we saw the president visit
absolutely. mayor turner is with him as you know. a part of houston in my congressional district. i met yesterday sorry to interrupt you but as we re talking, the president is now walking into the nrg stadium. these pictures from our pool cameras, he and lawn ya. we see him shake hands with people, perhaps some volunteers, perhaps some are harvey victims but everyone is in this boat together. continue your thoughts. sorry to interrupt you. it s quite all right. i m honored to know that the president is attending an event at the nrg. asing i met with the fema administrator yesterday, we had a great conversation and we re improving our fwoilt communicate with each other. it s important we be able to do so because there will be things that will be unexpected that will occur and we need to get those to top as quickly as possible.
point i think most notably for all of those inside the nrg stadium that he has signed a relief effort bill for $7.9 billion which he hopes congress takes under their belt and approves and distributes very, very quickly. also noted that they re working very well with local, state and federal officials. they re all working in unison on this. with regard to what the president also said via twitter, i was going to just bring that up, sir. he said shortly after landing in texas, texas, we are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, we will be with you every single day after to restore, recover and rebuild. people are going to hold him to that promise, aren t they? well, and they absolutely need to. one of the things that i heard the president say in that brief little video clip was he used the past tense. he said this was a traumatic event. no, this is an unfolding traumatic event. this is going to go on for a long time and perhaps that s his inexperience in wanting to put this in the r