Ago flanked by a number of federal fishes. Theres texas senator ted cruz, also senator john cornyn there as well. We saw health and Human Services director, excuse me, hud director dr. Ben carson a few moments ago there. President trump traveling to to Corpus Christi, texas weather first lady melania trump. After Corpus Christi were told he is going to be spending some time in austin, texas, as well. Meanwhile, in houston, officials there saying this is still very much a rescue operation. We have watched rescue after rescue after rescue play out over the last few hours in americas fourth largest city. Houston police have rescued more than 3,500 people so far. The National Weather service says the storm has dropped more than 25 inches of rain since thursday night, more than 2 feet since thursday night, another 10 to 20 inches is expected. Now one of the two rez soirs there in that city designed to control flooding has overtopped its banks. The storm so far has been blamed for at least four deaths. That is a number that Officials Say they expect to rise. Officials fearing that its going to rise considerably higher. At this point still not clear how many people remain trapped by floodwaters. They dont know precisely how many people evacuated. Some 9,000 houstonians have taken refuge at the citys Convention Center, many of them sleep ong the floor. There have not been enough cots to g around just yet. We heard from a News Conference a short time ago, houstons mayor said that was one of the things they were working on getting more emergency supplies, including cots, 10,000 more cots was the request made to fema. Houstons police chief said a short time ago theyve made some robbery arrests. He went on to say they will not tolerate people victimizing people of our community. Theyve officially asked the federal government for help and everyone sized the enormity of the crisis. Nbcs Gadi Schwartz is in baytown, texas, just east of houstons city center. Gadi, we have been watching you over the last hour or two. Rescue after rescue. A few moments ago you mentioned that there were some boats on the way to what had been turned into an evacuation center. Reporter thats right. This is a Critical Rescue Mission unfolding as we speak. There are boats, loading these boats in the water and over here there are boats lining up on this bridge. Theres boat here and over here another line of boats. Basically 360 degrees of boats all coming here because on the other side of this overflowing bayou, an evacuation area, an Elementary School where people had evacuated is now evacuating to here. So its a lot of people that need to come over here very quickly. Youve got people that are going out. We of soon a lot of people that have come in. They said that mandatory evacuation came before they could get out. The next thing they knew they had water up to their waists inside their homes. And so weve seen probably a dozen or so rescues so far in the last hour. We of been talking to people who have been out here for the last couple days and theyve rescued anywhere from 200 people to 3 Hurricane Katrina people just within these particular boats out here. Those rescues are not counted in the thousands we of heard from the authorities. Those are rescues that are happening, neighbors helping neighbors out here. But you see boat after boat being loaded in. And in just a little while well start to see lot of the boats coming in, bringing people here so that they can be bussed to another evacuation shelter because the shelter over at that Elementary School on the other side of this bayou that you see thats basically flooded out has now water encroaching on that shelter. So thats what we of got going on. Back to you. Gadi schwartz in baytown. We just saw the president of the United States, donald trump, enter the room there in Corpus Christi, texas. He is set to get a briefing from fema officials flanked by texas goc nor greg abbott as well. Lets listen in if we can. Welcome to president of the United States to great state of texas. I want to express my gratitude for our fellow texans and especially the people of Corpus Christi for giving the president such a warm welcome on his ride over here. Showing the gratitude that we all have for the president. I want to express my deep gratitude to the president for him and his entire cabinet and staff for what they have done in the past couple weeks. A lot of people see what happens in front of the camera. I want to reveal in just one minute whats been going on behind the scenes, behind the counter for the past two weeks. About ten days in ood vanadvance hurricane even coming into the Corpus Christi area. Members of the president s cabinet and the president himself were in contact with me and my office prepreparing for this catastrophe coming our way in every step of the way as the hurricane came across the shore, as the flooding began in houston, texas. The president and his cabinet remained in Constant Contact with me and my staff and they all had one thing to say texas, what do you need . How can we help . You can count on have learned count on the president of the United States and his staff for helping texas. Texas has been tested, but our response to this challenge has been made much more effective because of the very effective way the president and his staff has helped texas respond to this challenge. So, mr. President , thank you. Thank you. Welcome to texas. I appreciate it. Its so nice, governor, and its really my honor. This is a very special place and a special state, and senator cruz and senator cornyn, thank you very much, senator cornyn, for being here. We appreciate it. I know it was hard to get here for both of you. You were trapped in various locations, but we e appreciate you both p being here. I want to thank my staff, my cabinet. We have quite a few of our cabinet here, ben carson, obviously, from hud and tom price and linda mcmahon, Small Business, which is now big business because when you add them all up youll be helping a lot of the people in texas and doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much. We have had a tremendous group of folks, our acting director, thank you very much, for the job youve done. And a minute whos really become very famous on television in the last couple days, mr. Long, we appreciate it very much. You have been just outstanding. I can tell you my folks are telling me how great your representatives have been in working together. Its real team. And we want to d it better than ever before. We want to be looked at in five years and ten years from now as this is the way to d it. This was of epic proportions. Nobodys ever seen anything like this. And i just want to say that working with the governor and his entire team has been an honor for us, so governor, again, thank you very much. And we wont say congratulations. We dont want to d that. Well congratulate each other whenitis all finished. But you have been terrific. And youve been my friend. And with that, maybe thank you, mr. President. So the whole community is coming together. You know, right here we e ear in the brunt of the category 4 came in, were starting to effect recover. Recover is a slow process, but rest assured were doing everything we can to unify our efforts now to support the local responder, the First Responders we have here. Yesterday we put eyes on the ground down in rockport. We already have points of distribution flowing. Were working in conjunction with the Governors National guard where fema is supplying meals and water and the National Guard is helping to run those distribution points. Thats how this system works. All eyes are on houston and so are mine. We have a long way go. Well have to set up expectation for the citizens and have to continue a unified effort down to help the state of texas ultimately recover. So very quickly, the objectives stay the same. The event unfortunately to north of us is not over. Were still in a lifesaving, lifesustaining mission. Were aware of the issues at the convent sent, but let me be clear. The convent center, we are sustaining food they have food. Security. I have an Incident Management Team inside the city of houston as we spook. And more and more people are being moved to shelters to stabilize the situation. The next thing is, is that were pushing xholdies, once the water goes down, well continue the push not only commodities but also help to get people registered in the system to receive assistance from all of us. Its assistance doesnt just come from fema. It comes from Many Organizations who are represented here today by secretary price, secretary carson, and others. The next thing is were looking at power restoration. Were maintaining security. Mobilize the Homeland SecuritySearch Capacity force. With that comes Law Enforcement to make sure were overcoming and anticipating any security needs that we have. And also with secretary price over here, were working with not only the governors disaster medical teams but were also sending federal disaster medical teams not only to the Convention Center today, theres already some on site, but theres going to be multiple areas, not only for crisis counseling but also to make sure that were meeting access and functional needs. The access is a challenge to getting all the supplies in. Once the Roadway Systems come out, weve amassed quite the federal force to be able to support the local and state efforts. For example, the governor moves 12,000 National Guard troops in. Were pulling units out of fort hood at the federal Government Forces coming in as well. We pulled several hundred trucks and staff just from assets in the state of texas and theres how the system works. This recovery is going to be frustrating. Were going to be here with you to help you guide through it. It will be tough to navigate all of the programs that become available, but were here to help. So with that, id like to pass it along to our friends at the coast guard. Mr. President , good afternoon, sir. This is where your coast guard is at its best. We have a bias for action. We are here in the state of texas to support the state of texas, the federal Emergency Management agency. We have coast guard men and women from across the country, capabilities, response, management specialists and theyre on deck, sir, to get after the task at hand. It would be remiss for me not to tell you that. You look at landfall, phase one, weve seen local folks. Well speak more about that. Up in houston, we are all ware of the challenge there. Dealing with the weather in the next couple days will be a challenge. Average rainfall for the year is 50 inches. We know what that looks like. I can tell you the coast guard, department of Homeland Security team, the dodd, National Guard has e spent sunday and monday with the governor in different locations. We are Getting Better at every day. This is catastrophic proportions weve dealt with before but were all in and im very encouraged. But obviously its going to be difficult. With that, sir, id like to give captain tony hahn a couple moments here for perspective. Good morning, mr. President. Captain tony hahn. Unified command. Our unified command comprises over 150 federal, state, and local agencies and we also have partners in those covering all the bases. I want to walk through a time line of our activities that weve done over the course of Hurricane Harvey to let you know where were at. Tuesday the storm shifted and became a hurricane. Our job is to assess the [ inaudible ]. Thats what we started doing on wednesday. We started making preparations and lock down facilities, get vetsz vessels out to sea. Thursday we pushed our force out of harms way and our people so we could come back in after the storm to help as soon as we can. On friday, we moved our boats and aircraft away from the storm so we could immediately respond. So now harvey was upgraded to a category 4 hurricane, our team focused in texas, we have continuity of operations 20 miles or so from here. When harvey made landfall, several shifts were [ inaudible ]. At that point we had to wait for [ inaudible ] and sent our helicopters north and saved 19 lives that night. Later on saturday morning conditions werent good for boats on the water but among the damage we [ inaudible ]. We continued over to respond to search and rescue calls on saturday. The weather conditions wouldnt allow us on the water but were working on that. Sunday now the storm shifted up to houston. So we put all our search and rescue resource out of dallas, texas, up to houston and helping everyone we can that effort. Were using our assets down here to run lo gist you cans all over the state to make sure the Operations Management teams continue. We brought our boats up from the south to start our operational activities here. So monday we started our water operations. Its a huge emphasis but we of made progress. Our partners at the army corps of eng noors began their surveys, channel checking, constructions and starting evaluations of the buoys and channel markers just to make sure we opened safely. So far weve got over 180 ground vessels and our major concern is that large [ inaudible ]. Last night the tide came up, the winds came from the storm and actually raised itself and drifted to the other side of the channel. Additionally, were working with texas General Land Office on all the pollution activities. The good news is we of not seen anything in terms of pollution nuisances. So in close, about onethird with our Channel Service with the army corps. Once we complete the survey and salva salvage, well be in a good position to open port. Right now our biggest challenge is [ inaudible ]. I want to tell you, and i can speak for the governor because we spoke about it here, very proud of the coast guard, the job theyve tone, the lives they of saved. Were very, very proud of you. Thank you very much. Mr. President , a couple thousand rescues a day. We are in the Border Protection agency, in with the facilities owners, the pilots on the waterways. Conditions right now are not amen to believe gettiable to ge. As soon as possible. Fantastic. Thank you. Mr. President , at this time, before the press pool pulls out, theres information id like to share in regards to how citizen can get involved. The community, neighbor helping neighbor is going to be needed in helping texas overcome. Very quickly, if you would like to register for assistance underneath the governors declared county, theres 18 declared counties for individual assistance underneath the president s disaster declarat n declaration, thats disasterassistance. Org. Skutz me. Disast disasterassistance. Gov. I apologize. Thats the fema individual Assistance Center system. Theres also ways if youre looking to volunteer, also within the state of texas onestarfoundation. Org. Well leave it at that. Or redcross. Org as well. Thank you, at this time this concludes the press briefing. All right. There you have it, President Trump and a number of other federal officials there receiving that fema briefing. There was some information shared at the end of that briefing about how folks in texas who are covered under the emergency declaration, how those folks can get some help. We are efforting to get that information up on the screen for you. I can tell you that the first web address was disasterassistance. Org. Again, disasterassistance. Org. If you or someone you know in texas needs help, we heard from brock long there, the fema administrator, that is where you should start. There were a couple other websites there. Well get that information up on the screen. Meanwhile, though, President Trump flanked by the governor of texas, greg abbott. Brock long, the fema head, saying at one point this is not the superdome, referring to Convention Center there in houston, promising food and security. In fact, saying that those things already existed there. And President Trump, in classic trump fashion, if you will, saying at one point, with regards to the recovery effort, the federal response, quote, we want to it better than ever before, going on to acknowledge that texas is a special place and a special state as well. President trump there again in Corpus Christi. We heard from Governor Abbott earlier about precisely why it was that the president did not go to houston and he explained and it makes a great deal of sense if you think about it, that the president did not want to be in houston and serve as distraction and a number of people, the number of other officials that that would take away from the recovery and rescue effort. That would be problem mat toik s problematic to say the least. From Corpus Christi, he is going to be headed to austin. We also saw of course senator john cornyn, senator ted cruz as well, tom price with health and Human Services secretary, ben carson as well. Acting secretary elaine duke. President trump also promi