my baby kept me alive. so emotional. many of the people stranded in houston, though, still waiting to be rescued. city officials say they have responded to more than 4,000 water-related calls. they have performed 209 water rescues just overnight. and at a press conference this morning, officials said there were still 185 critical rescue requests still out there. houston issued no evacuation order in advance of the storm. mayor sylvester taylor defending that decision sunday. you cannot put in the city of houston 2.3 million people on the road. that is dangerous. if you think the situation right now is bad, you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare. let s bring in nbc s phillip mina and kia collier, a reporter for the texas tribune. phillip, i want to go back to you. we saw there was a lot of activity there where people are coming for shelter, some just
because the roads are so clogged. you mentioned that that is what you guys are seeing there. yeah, it s the reason why i m speaking to you in this parking lot in northwest part of the town. we wanted to be by the buffalo bayou to show you how the center of town and how that s impacting there. there was simply no way there. when they talk about the evacuations whether they re mandatory or voluntary, they have to go somewhere.logistics are they going to get there? they have the resources to pull them out, but then where do they go or how do they get there? there are road blocks every step of the way here. this is not a simple solution to this because it s so widespread and every problem seems to create another one. phillip mina live in texas. i ll say to you, please, be safe and thank you for joining us on this program. i want to go to the mayor of dallas. the city opening this kind of
there are 3,000 people that are here and i think they have a capacity to hold a couple thousand more, and from there, they ll be also shipping sending people up north to dallas. in all, i believe mayor turner said they had 5,500 in all, and that number is only going to rise. chris? i have to say a couple things. one, how composed mia is . and how she points out so rightly how many people have been out there through all of this, rescuing people, donating their time, donating their efforts. can you just, phillip, show us around a little more, what you re seeing inside of the convention center there, and exactly what s going on? we saw for a second, for example a man who you might not have seen. there was a man in a wheelchair going by you, behind you. reporter: yeah. we have seen several people in wheelchairs, and we think that they seem like they re
that were intentionally set that way just so that it could be for the greater good and so that they re not putting at risk millions instead of thousands. phillip, hang tight for a second. one of the boxes we re looking at on the screen is live pictures where we expect to see the mayor of houston come out and give us an update on what s happening. the governor of texas was giving an update and i want you to hear what he had to say because it relates to this conversation. listen to your local officials. and any warnings they may have to evacuate. if the issue of evacuation orders, heed those evacuation orders. watch for rising water. you need tee sto stay off the rf there is not an evacuation order because so many deaths that occur because of people driving into rising water. and one of the other things the governor talked about, phillip, the idea that people might need to be flown out to try to get out, essentially,
arpiao is tritt the guy couldn t get re-elected in maricopa county, he s 85 years old. he s clearly on the back necessary to run an in a state as expensive at arizona. you guys are all great. thank you so much for taking the time today. we do want to go back to the coverage of harvey, because nbc s phillip mina has made his way to the convention center in houston. what s the situation on the ground there, phillip? reporter: well, chris, we just arrived at the george r. brown convention center. there are nearly 3,000 vaccees brought here and many more that i want to introduce you to. mia wattler. she is not staying here, but you came to get some supplies. tell us how it is you came to be here. so i left my house at, like, 5:00 a.m. on a boat from the fire department.