Were lye in the cnn newsroom. Thanks for being with us. It is a storm for the record books. Harvey living up to all of the fears and the predictions by bringing catastrophic flooding to parts of texas, including the nations fourth largest city. Around 3,000 National Guard members have been activated as water fills home and streets. Some families desperate to get to Higher Ground for forced to use axes to chop their way out of their attics and on to the roofs of their homes. Pets are being carried in coolers as people with forced to wade through waist high water trying to get to safety. The two major airports are closed, every single highway in the state is under water and its only going to get worse saying that the breadth and intensity of the rainfall is beyond anything ever experienced before. Cnn was there when an a dramatic
rescue took place in dickinson. Were live. Ed, what is the latest that youre seeing . Actually were going to show you the video of the moment when it happened. Try to get them in the boat so we can get them out of here. Im going to put the mike phone down while we help them get into the boat. How are you doing sir . Might be better to get in on that side there. Let me see if i can get something for you to you want to give me your hand, sir and i can try to pull you up. How are your arms feeling . Okay. Jason, you want to come up here and help . I can help lift you if thats okay. You ready . One, two, three. Got it . Yeah. Get that foot in there. Its not too bad. Just sit wherever you feel like, you know, is the most comfortable for you. Just sit right there on the edge and well take care of you. Are we taking on water . Its all of the rain we had earlier today and i never bailed it out. Its not a problem, though. You doing all right . Yeah, i think so. Long day . Yeah. Hey, weve got this gentlemans wife and their daughter that
still need to be pulled out of here, so austin and seth, the volunteer i want to bring in ed now live for us. Ed, youre off of the boat. What is the latest . What has happened sense that moment that you brought us that rescue live here on cnn . Reporter well were out here on Interstate 45 now. Pam jones and their mother being treated now. Theyre waiting for a vehicle that can drive them off and get them to safer ground. Were out of the neighborhood. Shes finally being treated here. So everything is going to work out just fine. But to give you a sense, the rescues continue. It just Isnt The Boat that we were on. There are hundreds of volunteers fanning out in this one particular area of dickinson, texas, south of downtown houston. The city of houston. I think were 25, 30 miles ousoh
of houston. This entertain has essentially become a Boat Launch Fb volunteer rescuers taking flat boats out into the neighborhoods with f , fanning out into the neighborhoods and rescuing people. This is austin seth who was manning the boat. Heck of a day for you . It was definitely an interesting one. Wasnt what i was planning on doing when i woke up this morning. Reporter you pulled about 15 people probably total out of these neighborhoods today. I think thats what it ended. Being, about 15. Reporter your emotions after finishing up a day like that . Theres not words like this. Seeing it is sad but i cant imagine living it. Its unreal. Reporter many people are grateful to people like austin seth who lives an hour away, came down here, brought his boat and pulled people out. This has been going on throughout most of the day. Kind of a little bit of a race
against the clock because as you might remember from pam jones, the woman we were in her house, she was worried that many boats were passing by and she wasnt going to get on a boat before nightfall and having to spend the night in the house. Oddly enough, that neighborhood actually had some power. They actually had some air conditioning. As devastated as that neighborhood looking, oddly somehow the power stayed on perhaps making it slightly more comfortable for them while they waited. The good news is pam jones, who you see standing there, her mother and father out of the neighborhood. Theyll be loaded on to a bus or some other vehicle to take them i think they were trying to get so some relatives homes tonight. The work continues to intensify here in houston. One part of their journey has a happy ending but really its just beginning for a lot of the people there. Thank you. Moments ago, President Trump tweeted about the storm recovery
saying quote, historic rainfall in houston, all over texas floods are unprecedented and more rain coming. Spirit of the people. Is incredible. Thanks. Brian todd is in houston. Shes joining us now. Youre with more rescues under way. Reporter thats right. We hitched a ride with two of the private rescuers. Weve been pulling people out of the omni hotel. This is the entrance of the lobby. Youre witnessing a rescue life. Theyre pulling people out of the omni hotel. Look at how deep the water is. Heres a group of people being pulled onto the boat right now. This is brian meadows, one of rescuers. His partner is here hole. Ing people get onto the boat. Maybe we can talk to them. Weve been at the staging area where theyve launched these boats for the last hour and a half, two hours. And there have been several people pulled out and taken to
those areas and shuttled to safety in other hotels. These people elected to come. Were tolds that some people are electing to stay at the omni hotel even though the water, as you can see, is past peoples knees. And its were told that its rising. You can see in the lobby, i can see a staircase with the water going up the staircase a little bit. The water is rising. Were getting a break in the rainfall right now. It has not rained for at least 45 minutes. And so but they continue to pull people out. Were told that between 60 and 80 people were stranded inside here. The hotel staff has kept everyone calm. They said the people can stay for as long as they want. Maam, hi, can you tell us what your name is, please . Marion washington. Reporter describe what the conditions are like. Theyre bad. The whole lobby is flooded. But were associates. Reporter you work here . Yes. Reporter whats the hotel doing to, i guess, make people comfortable. And some people are actually staying, correct . Im not sure. All i know is theyre trying to make us comfortable. Theyre taking us to the hotel. Reporter good luck. Seth roberts is here, one of the rescue rescuers. Tell me some of the logistical problems youre running into. Theres water in some places and theres not water in other places. It makes it a little tricky. Weve got a lot of calls coming in on facebook right now. Were trying to get to people and trying to get everybody out of here safely so that we can get other people that are families and kids and elder folks that need to get out of the house. So were just doing our best to get everybody safe right now. Reporter seth, thanks for talking to us. I know hes got to do his work and climb back into the boat. Were told about 60 to 80 people have been stranded in here. And seth told me a minute ago
that they want to get as many people out of here as they can because there are other people in residential areas behind this hotel who need rescuing from their homes. Of course its been a recurrent theme all day here in houston. People needing to be pulled out of their homes. Officials telling them dont go to your attics. Get to your roof top. If you have to go to the attic, bring an ax or another heavy piece of equipment to punch a hole through. Thats how dramatic it is here. There are some other boats that have come to pull some others out of here. Brian todd in houston during more rescues taking place at this hour. Thank you. Joining u now, the texas governor, greg abbott. Thank you so much for taking a moment to be with us. Seeing those rescues taking place, you must be proud of the citizens of your state right now. Texans are the best. I am so proud of my fellow texans and the way theyre
responding. Thankful for the First Responders and the terrific work theyre doing. Were working to aid them by deploying 3,000 National Guard members as well as providing about 200 or so boats and helicopters for emergency rescues. But its these First Responders who are making life and death decisions, who helping so many people live. Im so proud of them and what theyre doing. I want our fellow texans to know well continue to effort until we get to every single person. Downtown houston is obviously under water. People are having to use axes to chop their way out of the attics onto their roofs. Im not sure if you saw some of the people rescued live here on our air. Im wondering why there wasnt a mandatory evacuation issued for the houston area. Can you tell us about that . Well, of course those decisions are made at the local level by law here in texas. But listen, now is not the tame
to do any secondguessing. Now is the time for all of us to come together and work to save lives. This is a matter of moments and we need to use every moment we have to rescue innocent lives, to get them to a safe place and then to begin the rebuilding process. E with eve seen private citizens using boats to rescue people. Do you think there were enough resources in place ahead of the storm . Well, again, those are decisions made at the local level. We have a raid put together, about 250 boats, and sent them to houston, texas to make sure they will have all of the boats that they should be able to need. Its great when we see so many texans this is really typical of what we see of our fellow neighbors. Theyre going to come out and help others. So many people in texas, theyre not going to wait for some Government Official to come by. Theyre going to take matters into their own hands and do what they can to help their neighbor. Do you know how many people
have within rbeen rescued today within the last 24 hours . I have not seen a count but it is 0 ur canning by the minute. I want you to know and i want hugh stone i houstonians know were going to continue this around the clock. Do you know how many people have died . The last number we had were at least two people confirmed dead due to the storm. There are reports of people who have died but we dont know if its as a result of the storm. We need to wait for confirmation of that. We want to safe all of those that need to be rescued. What do you say to somebody who may be trapped in their home right now watching the water level inside their home slowly kri croup creep up . They need to get higher in
the house, part of it could mean signaling outside so that rescuers will know that theyre in there. There will be different types of rescuers constantly working, some by boat, some in the air, some trying any way they can to get to every home. And so if youre inside a home, try to make it visual on the outside to let someone know that you are in there. Were hearing from meteorologists there could be an additional 20, 25, 30 inches of rain that falls in this area thats already flooded out. Whats happening right now in terms of coordinating with the Emergency Responders in your state to prepare for the additional rainfall thats still coming . Right. We have the state Emergency Responders kooshd nating with the county and local Emergency Responders. And understand withe only part this involves houston. A lot of The Rain Is Falling in more rural areas where theres still a whole lot of population
that were involved in trying to protect and save. This is a really massive effort responding to a massive storm. And do you feel prepared . We have so many assets that were able to provide to this. And because weve gotten the approval of the president ial declaration, we now have this work and aid of fema in this process. So were going to be adding more personnel and assets on top of the 3,000 National Guard there will be many more coming in to aid in this process. Governor greg abbott, thank you again for spending time with us. Best of luck to you and your state. Thank you so much. I want to go now to a Press Conference being held by the mayor of houston. Lets listen. Let me talk about the assets that were working with. There are 22 aircrafts that are
working with us in terms of identifying people who are stranded maybe on their roofs. 16 of the 22 are from the coast guard. They have been flying about. And in many cases actually taking people off of the root, taking them to some other location. Certainly want to thank the coast guard for its work. The Fema Task Team force is now on the ground as of today. Fema has 16 assisting in search and rescue. Four of the teams consist of 80 members and two of the teams consist of 60 members. So they are assisting. With regards to additional assets, were operating with 35 boats, high water rescue boats and then 93 dump trucks, high Water Rescues. 49 of the 39 came in today. 20 from the Texas Military and
then another 29 later on today as well. So we recognize that we have a number of needs exist across the city, across the city, so im very grateful to that. And then i certainly want to acknowledge calls and support that we have received from mayors across the country. The dallas mayor, san antonio, columbus, new orleans, baton rouge, boston, los angeles. And i especially want to thank all of the mayors, new york, and then i just got off of the phone with mayor watch out of boston who will be sending, you know, clothes for adults as well as children. He just wants no know what ages are most in need. Hes also sending some high
water rescue vehicles as well, as well as cots for those in our shelters. I want to thank all of the other mayors, san antonio, l. A. , dallas, all of them have indicated that they will join in and asseist and i certainly appreciate their support on multiple levels. Let me call on the chief for comments that he might have. Thank you, mr. Mayor. So again, i want to echo the mayors sentiment. We really appreciate everybody thats stepping up to help us today and throughout this event that were trying to manage here at the city. We have, as of right now, we have imagined to cut most of our calls for Service Holding in half. I think were down to 400, last check through our cad system and verified 105 calls for water rescue. Were steadily working and whittling away at all of those people, all of you all who have
been calling for our assistance, we have more resources in the field now than we did earlier. As we get more Partners Join in to help us manage the situation. If you do not have to leave your home, if you do not have to get out on the roadway, please do not do so. Call us. Well be there. We have more boats in the water. We have more high water rescue vehicles now. Weve almost doubled our ability to respond and well get to you. And again i want to also emphasize, please do not go up in your attics if youre trying to escape water because that could be a trap for you where you may not be able to get out. Attics are not the place to retreat to if youre in your home and your home is taking on water. You need to get out where you can be seen and we can respond and find you. As far as our Sister Cities, were leaning forward in terms of reaching out and developi ii
mous. Our officers are leaning forward, doing a fantastic job. Everybody is here, almost every officer is here and accessible and able to go out to do their job and protect the city, even in the face of their own families being home and some of them having the challenges that theyre having to imagimanage. But were out there. We will be leaning on our Sister Cities for additional help in managing and assuring that the public is safe. That no one is missed and that we are also sure that peoples property is safe when they do leave their homes. Well lean as far forward on that as we can. Its an ongoing project, challenge that were going to face here. But we have the people committed to do it and we will continue to do so. So thank you. And i certainly would be remiss without acknowledging and thanking all of our first
responders, Houston Police officers, Houston Fire Department who have been out on the front line and have just done a yeomans job. Theyve demonstrated their commitment and love for the city. Theyve been out there in the water. I certainly want to thank them as well. Chief with the fire department. Thank you were mayor. I want to first thank certainly the office of Emergency Management for really the hospitality they provide us for the last three days here and will continue to host us for the foreseeable future here as were still not Out Of The Woods. We expect heavy downpours at certain times. So we want to encourage the public to please be mindful that standing water is extremely dangerous. Its extremely dangerous. You cant tell what youre stepping into. So please, if you dont have to be in the streets, dont be out in the streets. And please, please dont drive. The Houston Fire Department has been working tirelessly, as has the Houston Police department to try to effect rescues and keep the public straight. Were working to switch personnel, keep them fresh. Keep their head in the same, so to speak, and keep their Situational Awareness where it should be. Were going to work with our partners. We do have state assets now in place. We are more efficiently being able to affect the rescues and the demand for service here in the city of houston and were going to continue to really provide a presence out there and ensure that were doing the right thing for this community. Thank you. Thank you, chief. Dennis, the rescues of homeland security, weve been housed here for the next several days and well be housed here for several days to come. Dennis. Thank you, mayor. So the citys Emergency Operation center is operating at a level 1 which essentially means that all City Departments are represented here, along with our partners both at the state and federal level. Weve got resources from all of these differe