neighborhoods under water. roads turned into rivers. tens of thousands displaced. many of them shocked by how fast things moved from a big challenge to a life or death crisis. toilet started overflowing. oye. that was the first indication something was going wrong and then water started coming in through the door and my mother said within 10 to 15 minutes, waist deep. they had 10 to 15 minutes before entry and waist-beep water. rain continues to fall and some areas could reach a record 50 inches. the response now and for years to come, a major test for the trump administration and its new disaster response team. help in texas overcome this disaster is going to be far greater than fema coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. we need citizens to be involved. texas, this is a landmark event. we have not seen an event like this. you could not draw this forecast up. you could not dream this forecast up.
it was up to six inches but went down all the way to one inch right now. but the streets out here are still like waist deep. we can t get out. we are still stranded out here. so feet of water there where you are. what part of houston are you in? right now, we are southeast next to bellway and 45 right close to 30. over here down southeast. it s pretty full. we are all standing over here. the whole block is over here. are your neighbors out and what conversations are you having? are you helping each other? my neighbors actually talked to them. they had they are okay. they are safe but, like i said the whole block is just full of water. we were all stranded over here. jesus, have you had awith th
i want to send my concerns as an organization for all that was injured tonight at shuckers restaurant. reporter: really helping the situation turn into tragedy last night was that the biscayne bay waters here are very shallow, just waist deep. so everybody was able to stand up rather quickly and get out of the water, and now people who were here last night are coming back trying to find their personal belongings including one woman whose passport and her purse are underneath the water. she s due to fly out of miami tomorrow. back to you in new york. jenna: wow. good thing a bad situation wasn t worse though. we ll continue to watch this story. phil, thank you. reporter: absolutely. jon: whistleblowers and leakers are pulling back the curtain of secrecy on the widespread surveillance of u.s. citizens by our government. edward snowden just the latest. he s revealed new details about how the national security agency collects massive amounts of data on americans and their phone
for 6-year-old joey welch, those are no boo-boos. this is probably, the edge of his mouth. reporter: they re survival scars from the grip of an alligator s jaw. the alligator went, grabbed my arm. i couldn t get out. i immediately heard these shouts and these blood-curdling screams. i ran down the hill and i saw this gator that had his right arm in its jaw. reporter: last friday afternoon joey and his father were supposed to go canoeing in boynton beach. joey wandered a bit and stumbled to the water s edge. that s when joe s father heard his son screaming. i ran in the water. it was about waist deep. i had my son like this right here, because i didn t want to play tug-of-war with the alligator. i didn t want to get his arm ripped out. so while i m doing that, i m punching the alligator on top of the head hard as i could. reporter: joey was stuck when the good samaritan rushed over.
that. quick-thinking adults may have saved the life of a 6-year-old florida boy. joey welch was attacked by an eight-foot alligator on friday. he fell into the water while waiting to go canoeing with his father in boyton beach. his father heard joey scream. i ran into the water, it was about waist deep. i had my son like this here. because i didn t want to play tug of war with the alligator. i didn t want to get his arm ripped out. you can imagine that? while joseph welch struggled to release his son a good samaritan stopped to help and kicked the gator in the stomach. the child was saved. he only suffered minor injuries. wow. so we will hear firsthand from joey and his dad about those really scary moments. they will join us later on starting point at 8:30 eastern. coming up, we ll go back to boston for the latest on the investigation and the surviving