the interstates are, the major highways, state highways are shut down. we keep on trying different routes. and we come to the end of the road where it's flooded and then we see rescues. we see the same kind of scenes unfolding in these small towns in east texas that we saw unfolding in houston. and there are real fears that the kind of flooding they're talking about in beaumont is going to be even worse than what we saw in houston. and there is a perilous situation unfolding in port arthur, which is just slightly east of bomon. there is a city center there that they're using as a shelter for hundreds of people. that civic center is filling up with water. officials have to figure out not only how to get those people out of there, but where they're going to go. these roads are impassable. they are limited. and to give you also a frame of reference, we had a crew of ours that was staying in a hotel in beaumont. they had our satellite truck. that crew is now surrounded by water, as well. so, you can see that it continues to fall here. it is torrentially raining right now as we drive along. it's just getting worse and worse. hallie? >> stephanie gosk, be safe out there. we'll talk to you, once you do, if you make it to beaumont. i want to bring in somebody who knows that place well. jefferson county includes both beaumont and port arthur, as well. you can see it on the map there. deputy mcclellan, thank you for being with us here. you just heard stephanie talk about this city, this town is now an island, essentially. so, how are you getting help to the people who need it there? >> right now before we got cut off, we did request for individuals with boats that could get over here because we were anticipating what we got with significant amount of rainfall. and then once we got that rainfall, we were cut off. the only way in and out is interstate 10 east of us. >> and is that still passable at this point? >> right. once you geet tt to the city of bomob beaumont you can't go any further to the rural areas because the water through the bayous are over the highways and over the interstate. >> do you have enough boats? are you satisfy would the ied w people who are coming out to help? do you need more help? >> we have a tremendous turnout with boats. we have some of the boats that went over to houston and assisted over there are now coming over here. so, they're helping on that west, that far west side where a lot of our water is. they're assisting the volunteer fire departments and the emergency services district and our officers on that side getting people out of their houses that are flooded and we've had boats come in from louisiana and tennessee that are coming in this way and we're getting them pushed up to the north end and helping out the bevel oaks area that way. >> you called it a significant amount of rainfall. that was the expectation. did you expect this? have you or your county ever had to deal with this magnitude before? >> not to this magnitude. back in 1994 we had significant flooding in the bevel oaks area and a little bit of the west county, north county area. but this, i mean, this is unbelievable. >> it's, obviously, taking an emotional and physical toll on you and your folks in the sheriff department, i'm sure. >> yeah. we have a number of our deputies who have between two feet and six feet of water in their houses. our sheriff alone, she has three feet of water in her house and none of them are taking time out to attend to their own personal matters. they're getting out there. getting involved and doing their job and getting the citizens of jeff jefferson county in the rural areas out to safety. >> it seems the rural areas are the real concern here. we have been looking at some images of this evacuation shelter, itself, that was flooded. people trying to get away from the flooding and instead found themselves standing in water at a shelter. what are you doing to relocate those people? what is the process? >> the city of port arthur's emergency office is handling that situation down there. they're scrambling trying to find another location to move those evacuees to an area where it will not have that issue of flooding and then, of course, tropical storm harvey has made landfall and has pretty much almost passed us now. so, hopefully we'll have some dry skies ahead of us. >> deputy marcus mclelen, thank you very much. good luck to you and to the people in your county. in your town who are dealing with this flooding, including the sheriff herself, as you mentioned. thank you, again. i want to go now to bill karins. let me pick up where the deputy sheriff left off. they're hoping and praying this tropical storm moves out so they won't get more of the torrential rain that stephanie gosk ref rensed. how much longer do they have to hold out? >> not much longer. here's the beaumont area. houston cleared out last night. no rain whatsoever on the way to beaumont. this is the last bands. the center of the storm now starting to move up here north of lake charles and eventually this afternoon it will pull this huge rain shield away with it. it's still pouring. i'm glad we have stephanie gosk driving through the small towns north of i-o10 here in this region. these little small towns have the same stories as all the big cities do. i'm glad she's out there witnessing some of the rescues in the small towns. i want to update you what happened in beaumont last night. it's unimaginable. the rainfall that fell in the last 30 hours in beaumont was actually heavier than what fell in the houston area saturday night into sunday when we had the crazy total. this was almost 27 inches of rain and now beaumont has a rainfall total of 45 inches closing in on it. that is more than what downtown houston got with those storms. that's why we're hearing about all that bad stuff. when the sheriff deputies and the police officer was telling us about how many other deputies and sheriff have water in their homes. i think the concentration of houses that are flooded will be much greater when we get the pictures in of beaumont and port arthur. harris county which is all the greater houston area. they estimated 20%, 5% of the homes got water in them. i think it's 50%, 70% in areas when we get those images in. show you some of the other maps. track where we are with those storms. the storm total went from the houston area to beaumont. we continue to update these numbers and, of course, we had that one spot that was about 51 inches. just to keep it in perspective. 21 trillion gallons that's how much they estimate fell in the greater area and that's the volume of water over niagara falls in one year. have you ever been to niagara falls and how much water is flowing over that. that is an incredible amount of water that has flown over that region. unimaginable problems. we're not done. the storm is heading north. as we track it north, it still has this big rain shield and moving and making progress but starts going over hillier terrain and funnel the water into the smaller areas. areas of northern mississippi and also up here. watch out around greenville and also the memphis area. still the potential for up to seven inches of rain in west tennessee. if it wasn't for what already happened, this is a big deal. wait and see how much destruction takes place. >> bottom line, bill karins. this is not over yet. this seems like the end of it. we have been covering it since friday. but this really is -- >> i don't think we'll get people on the rooftops like we have now down in beaumont and port arthur. we may get more typical, some cars flooded a couple homes here and there. what you would expect, not what we've dealt with. >> thank you very much. i want to go to garrett haake in the neighborhood where the flood waters have risen quickly forcing more people to evacuate. garrett, you're shin deep in flood water. what is going on? >> it gets that deep pretty quickly, hallie in the back end of this and they had a double whammy. they had the rain that the rest of the city dealt with and this neighborhood backs up to the buffalo bayou which is the drain and getting all this water back out of the city. first come through here after it comes through those dams that we were talking about all morning. i am here with jeff who lives to the house just to our left here. your house is still dry, but barely. >> barely. >> how quickly did this water come up yesterday? >> so, starting about yesterday morning it came up about a foot, foot and a half pretty quickly. >> this is mostly after it stopped raining, right? >> yes. after it was raining. this has all been from release or overflow or whatever is coming from the dam. >> you have been here for 20 years. you were here for alison and ike and all the great soakers. have you seen anything like this? >> never anything close to this. yeah. >> i know you said you and your wife left last night. what has it been like coming back and talking to your neighbors about coming back tan not being so lucky. >> we haven't had any water in the house. it's guarded because depending on how much they release further, we still could get hit. they are really close there. some of our friends behind us, all the neighbors that we have known for a long time. there are several people that are flooded out. you know, several people further in the neighborhood who have six, eight feet of water in their homes. >> you told me earlier some people back there still waiting for a boat ride to get out of this neighborhood. >> yeah. more so on these two streets here that just came up yesterday. and, you know, they were going to ride it out. and now they've got water in their homes and there's no point. >> jeff, i'll leave you here for now. thank you, good luck. stay dry. hallie, i just wanted to show you what we're talking about here. how quickly the depth has changed in this neighborhood. to my left, you know, it's ankle, knee deep. as you get out into the street here. you see this, i want to draw your attention to this mercedes-benz here floating in the street. this is somebody who came back into the neighborhood yesterday and thought it was still only knee or ankle deep. obviously not. it looks like a scene of a ship sinking here. pieces of driftwood floating by and some cul-de-sacs are just completely under water and unsafe to wade or wander through. we'll try to get further back into this neighborhood, hallie. this is still a developing situation. the water still rising even after the rain stopped falling yesterday afternoon. >> garrett haake thank you. live from houston. we'll check back in with you. joining me on the phone is john, former fema director for the southeast region under former president bill clinton. thank you very much for joining us here, john. i know you have been listening to what we have been discussing and it seems like the area of intense focus now is beaumont, in addition to houston with torrential rain happening in the beaumont, port arthur area. can you talk about where fema's efforts need to be focusing right now? >> hallie's, fema's efforts need to be expanding. they can't stop responding in houston. they have to continue to be there for quite some time. the situation there is, no pun intended, still fluid. still an awful lot of water and rescues that need to be made and much to be done. but as the rainfalls accumulate in beaumont and as the situation of severe flooding shifts to the east and north, fema is also going to have to be augmenting state and local resource in those areas. they're going to have to be as the area of focus increases, they're going to have to be stretching to accommodate it. so, they're going to begin to get a little bit thin. even though they have an awful lot of people who are there or on their way. >> we just heard from fema a couple minutes ago which said this may end up being the greatest single response the federal government has ever had to launch to a natural disaster. from what you can see and from what you have been watching, do you think that is the case? >> my guess would be that when all is said and done, this will be the greatest response. the most significant response. both in dollar terms and in terms of number of homes impacted either damaged or destroyed. people affected. >> more than katrina. >> the geographic area that is being covered is huge. >> you think it's more than what we saw from katrina? >> i think that in katrina you saw a significant, a significant area, but just in terms of how big the area was. if you look at the area in houston and in and around houston. i think they compared it to somewhat the size of the state of new jersey. that's huge. that's almost unfathomably large. >> and it's, obviously, critical. sort of mission critical here for brock long who is the current fema director. can you provide your assessment of how director long is doing right now? i know it's still early, but i'm wondering from what you have seen what you take away from his leadership and his response here? >> administrator long came to work for fema in the atlanta office of fema. right aboutthe time that i was there heading up the atlanta office. he has a tremendous background in emergency management has seen, obviously, lesser floods. but many, many of them. i think that he is doing an outstanding job. i sincerely hope that he is being made to get a little bit of rest. i know brock well enough to know that he's not going to get want to get any rest. but he has to get some rest. a number of the positions underneath him have not yet have been filled. so, the staff at the very top of fema is a little thin right now. but brock is tremendously capable and i have the confidence in the world in him. >> john copenhaver, thank you very much for joining us here on the phone and for that perspective. i appreciate it. we're following this developing story as it continues, including how you make sure that the tens of thousands of people who lost everything have enough food and clothes and a place to stay. that is the biggest challenge facing groups like the salvation army. so, we're going to ask one of the group's coordinators how that's going and what you can do to help after the break. take a look at this. live pictures of houston. we'll take you there with gabe gutierrez who has been on the ground for days, next. so, your new prescription does have a few side effects. oh, like what? ♪ you're gonna have dizziness, ♪ nausea, and sweaty eyelids. ♪ and in certain cases chronic flatulence. ♪ no. ♪ sooooo gassy girl. ♪ so gassy. if you're boyz ii men, you make anything sound good. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. next! ♪ next! i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424. we are back now with continuing coverage of harvey in houston and beyond. you are looking live now at a picture of houston, where we find nbc gabe gutierrez. that flood water rushing past a minivan that has been sitting in the street. gabe, this is the location where yesterday we were watching live on the show as people were coming and essentially a convoy of boats getting rescued from their houses as the waters were rising and compared today with what you were seeing now compared to 24 hours ago now. >> actually, hallie, this is a different location. this is on the south side of the reservoir. the reservoir where those time releases are spilling all this water into this neighborhood. yesterday there were evacuations we're told by residents. but that was just, so we're clear, this is something that is happening all over the houston area. i'll walk over here pretty quickly, if i can. we have some of the volunteers here that are coming out and starting another day of rescues here. just ran across this gentleman a few minutes ago. and he says that he felt compelled to come out here and help out some of these folks. what is your name. where do you live? >> in katie. >> you don't live in this area. >> john does. >> hi, john. how's it going? >> why do you feel compelled to come and take your boat out and check on people? >> he has a situation at his house. >> let's walk over here and make sure this water is not too deep here. we should be all right. so, where exactly, you live down there or over here? >> we live down brierpatch. it's towards the dam. >> oh, really. so, really, right up close to buffalo bayou. and when did you see this water start rising? >> i've been out with work. they made me leave. so, this is the first time i've really gotten to come back and check it out. >> this is the first time you've seen this street? >> yeah. but i've seen pictures all along, so i knew it was bad. >> do you have any idea how many feet of water in that home? >> there is a stop sign and my house is roughly the same height as that. it is about a foot below the stop sign. >> so the first floor of your home is destroyed. >> probably destroyed. >> did you ride out any of the storm here? >> i was up on lake conro which almost flooded. >> you're on this boat and want to go in and check on your house. >> go and check on a couple neighborhoods and i have a couple cats in the house. >> hope they're okay. hallie, this is something we saw over and over again. we saw it in our location yesterday and clay road and highway 6 rather. just a little west of here on the north side of the reservoir. people have been coming over and over again. private citizens. not just law enforcement and coast guard and private citizens coming in to check on their neighbors. what do you think it says that so many people have come out just to check on each other? >> i think it shows great for the spirit of the city and, you know, people want to help each other out. >> how surprising, though, we spoke with some neighbors and you said you haven't been here for several days. but the water is rushing. >> i've never seen it like this. >> how long have you lived here? >> i've lived here for about 15 years now. >> 15 years. hallie, just so you know. take a look over there for those of you just joining us. the water rushing over this neighborhood. >> that's the bayou. never gotten a couple feet out of the banks of the bayou. >> if dwayne scott my cameraman can pan down. this is completely under water. buffalo bayou one of the main artery flooding its banks. all this water being released from these two reservoirs in houston in order to relieve pressure on the dams. this is the effect we're seeing. the rain has stopped. and the sun is out. but now we're seeing the effects of what's happening here. some of these residents like john here who has been so kind to give us some of his time. this is the first time he's going to see his house. seeing live pictures there. another boat coming in and more people trying to check on their neighbors. john, really amazing to see. >> definitely is. >> thank you so much for sharing your time with us. i'll let you get to work and check on your neighbors and i hope, can you come back with us and tell us how your house is. >> yep. >> that would be awesome. thank you, john. appreciate your time. look at that. something we're going to see over and over again today we expect. it's getting warmer here. yesterday was rather chilly sometimes because, you know, we hadn't really seen any sun for days. this has been a storm that's just meandered here and just lingeri lingered for so long. now the sun is out but this rescue effort is far from over. hallie? >> keep an eye on john, we would love an update. he seems remarkably composed for being in such a difficult situation. >> you bet. >> gabe, thank you very much. as you saw from that live shot there, the rain has stopped, at least in houston, but the work there has not. the priority is pretty simple, but monumental. food and shelter. for tens of thousands of people. i want to go now to nbc philip mena at the george r. brown convention center and that's where, philip, some 9,000 people are trying to find some safe place to stay, essentially. more shelters are opened and you've been hearing these stories from folks there for the last several days. >> yeah. every single person, each and every person who has been rescued has a story. it's a day in their life that they will never forget. like to share another one of this young family. this is jennifer, 12 years old and her family here. how has it been the last couple of days having to be in the shelter? >> well, it doesn't feel because we don't have all of our stuff and they had to lend us and give us food every day. and the food here isn't good. and the clothes. >> the clothes. so, the clothes. that's a big thing. you had to just take everything you had and now your mom was telling us that the house is under water now, right? you have none of your things and have you been in contact with any of your friends or neighbors about how they're dealing and where they're at? >> yeah. >> where are they? >> well, their houses aren't flooded. i think it was just our neighborhood. >> well, how do you feel about that? all of your things. they are things. when i was 12 years old all my things were so important. how does that feel to not have any of those things any more. >> well, feels kind of sad because, i mean, i lost everything that i had. >> getting out, though, how was that situation for you? with the boat. you said you got out with a boat. >> it was kind of hard because the water kept on pushing us back and we were scared that we were going to just turn around. >> i just want to ask mom real quick. this is 1-month-old baby here and you had to carry her out, mom. you had to do this. what was it like carrying a 1-month-old baby out? >> it was bad. i feel very bad for the baby. >> for the baby. >> i had to carry her. >> you guys are okay? >> we're okay. you just don't know when you're going to be able to go home yet. the food may not be as good as you're used to as well as mom usually makes it, but, thankfully, there's? food he some food here for you guys. everybody's story. like i said, this experience is unique to everyone and it's a week, a day that they'll never forget. >> that's for sure. i want to go now to the phone where we have kevin smith, the emergency disaster who is joining us from texas. i understand you are 50 miles west of houston organizing relief efforts from there, kevin. let me go through the numbers here. my understanding that the salvation army served more than 18,000 meals and sold food units and ready to send another 29 to louisiana. given that, are you confident that these are enough resources from the red cross and other aid organizations that can keep up with the need that we're seeing on the ground? >> hallie, thank you for asking that question. because the truth is, that is the beginning of the resources we need to accomplish. i mean, we are moving through truck loads of supplies every day. and the feeding effort that's in front of us is, quite frankly, overwhelming. the need is going to be going on for a long time and the trucks in the pipeline continuing to support this operation. but to say we have enough right now, this is going to be going on for a long time and the need is so great here. as you've heard those stories just now. we're just grateful that you were telling that story for these people because it is amazing how ne'er all coming together from the local government. from citizen to citizen and around the world right now helping to care for the folks of texas and louisiana. >> i know the salvation army has said this is one of the biggest relief efforts in the history of the group. of the salvation army. you are there. you're on the ground in texas. give me a sense of what you've been seeing. do you think when this is all said and done this is going to be the biggest undertaking you have done? >> there's no doubt that this surpasses anything that i've done and i've been doing it for 20 years. i was at 9/11 and experienced hurricane katrina and the experience we had there. this goes beyond anything i've seen before. the magnitude and the widespread nature of how many people have been affected by this. it really is overwhelming. and this is going to last for a very long time. and we're going to be here hand-in-hand through texas and louisiana helping to be side by side working with them. >> you talk about being hand in hand, how are you being hand in hand with other groups like, for example, red cross. how do aid groups in a situation like this coordinate and what are you seeing now? is there enough of coordination? does that need to be strengthened so you can get the resources to the people who need it? >> we are coordinating working with local emergency management and our partners like the american red cross and southern baptist who have an amazing capacity in their ability to prepare food to help to get to these shelters and these locations. as you can imagine, the logistics to make this work is very complicated. that coordination is critical. what i'll tell you is working with the local emergency management and the state emergency management and fema. we're coming together and tackling this. but it is very difficult and there is going to be a few bumps on the road, but we're all doing it hand in and hand and that's very important. >> kevin, when people hear this, there is a natural inclination to help and do something. what do you tell people when they ask what they can do and what is the priority and what is the priority three months, six months from now? >> go to helpsalvationarmy.org. financial contributions, obviously, are the best way to help. matter of fact, the genrerosity of the people so far have overwhelmed our shelters with large amounts of supplies on scene. we are purchasing the additional stuff. the gaps of stuff that aren't there like baby food, baby supplies that we can buy by the tractor trailer load to get to these places where people are being pulled out of their homes and they have nothing. we are purchasing get those supplies in hand. the more people around the world are able to help us to financially accomplish that mission, that's why we're asking for those cash donations. that is a huge role of helping us for not for the days or weeks but for the months and years to come throughout texas. >> kevin smith, the emergency disaster services coordination for the salvation army. thank you very much. good luck to you, stay safe. we know that these rescue efforts we have been talking about along the gulf coast are spreading to louisiana now. we are keeping a very close eye on beaumont and port arthur. that is the center of the focus now with torrential rain in those parts. you've got a 73-year-old woman who is rescued by a group of volunteers known as the cajun navy. team of people who have shown up in times like this, including after hurricane katrina and including the person who is joining me on the phone. john is part of that cajun navy the grassroots team of folks helping to rescue people. josh, thank you very much for being with us here. i understand you're north of houston. tell me what you are seeing currently on the ground. >> currently on the ground, you know, we've got a lot going on. we've got, we've got supplies coming in. we've got boats coming in. high trucks coming in. a lot of resources coming in to the areas that need the most help. >> and these are resources from just regular folks like yourself. talking about government resources you're talking about people in this cajun navy just driving in, boating in to help out, basically. >> we've recruited people from all over and we have people en route to beaumont from a bunch of different directions. the high priority areas are getting attention and we're getting boats to those areas. >> we're looking at live pictures, too, of houston, josh, just south of where you are right now. so folks know what they're seeing on the screen to help out people in neighborhoods and i want to talk about this picture. this 73-year-old woman that you rescued that sort of went viral. you were one of the people who helped her. how did you find her? what was that like? do you know how she's doing now? >> she is doing fine. the way that we found her was we were one of the first boats in the water at 4:00 a.m. yesterday morning in a heavily affected area. probably one of the areas that you have seen most on the news. >> yeah. >> and as we got into the water there was a vehicle that got caught in current with an elderly gentleman in it flying by us as we were launching the boat. you know, it's dark out. >> yeah. >> so, we had to -- we rescued him before we got the boat in the water. so, we got the boat in the water. we were heading to, two people on top of, stuck on top of an suv. we couldn't get to the two people on top of the suv. so, we stopped at the first home we stopped at a 90-year-old elderly woman, we were going to take her out, but it was not a medical emergency, so we had her stay there. we made another attempt to get to the suv, could not. so, we decided, hey, let's go back, for some reason. decided, hey, let's go back and check on the elderly woman. at that point, she said she wanted to stay home for some reason she said, i want to stay home. so, we pulled out of their front yard, took a right into the really, really heavy current and as we went forward about 100 yards we saw what looked like a trash bag floating in the water. and as we got closer we realized it was a body. instantly two other guys on the boat jumped out against the current. pulled her up to higher ground and started to do compressions to resuscitate her. she had a pair of dentures lodged in her throat that had to be removed. >> and to your knowledge, she's doing okay at this point? >> she's doing fine. but here's the thing. we don't know where she is. what shelter she's at. i have three relatives that are trying to find where she is. so, if anybody knows where she is, they can find me on facebook joshua k. lincoln and help me put the family in touch with her. >> where did you take her after you helped her out? >> we took her to the nearest dry land and turned her over to a large group of people and a gas station owner that got her to shelter. >> i can't imagine what it's like to be traveling in these boats, coming up on these victims, looking to help them. i know that this group, you don't know how many people are involved in this cajun navy. i know it's a group of volunteers. do you have any rough estimate on numbers? >> we've lost count. but at this point i would imagine it's 1,000 plus boats involved and countless people. it's just your average everyday citizens. we're not professionals. you know, but we're handy with boats. >> you guys did a lot during hurricane katrina, i know. i know you've been credited. the cajun navy with saving lives that might otherwise not have been saved. what are you taking from that experience versus what you're seeing now. can you give me any context to the two different disasters? >> i'm not exactly sure. i didn't hear everything that you said. my cell phone cut out. >> no worries, josh. just asking about the cajun navy being involved during hurricane katrina. >> during katrina, during katrina there really wasn't a cajun navy. no official name, but as things progressed, you know, it started to get a little nickname and they've been responding to floods all over the place. any time floods come up, they just mount up and get out there with boats and we get people to safety. >> joshua lincoln, a member of the volunteer cajun navy as they call themselves. josh, thank you very much. keep us updated on whether you find that woman, any of her family members. that is certainly a story we want to be following. i want to go now to nbc garrett haake. you have been watching live pictures of people coming with boats and coming into these flooded streets. what are you seeing? what can you tell us? >> well, hallie, if that was the cajun navy, this might be the texan marine corps. we're sort of sitting here in the back of a very large king ranch truck working the way back to the memorial neighborhood a little deeper and people are coming out to us as we've been getting close to their homes. we just picked up an older couple who has lived in this neighborhood for 36 years. they weathered the storm in their home and then had to be brought by boat with their three cats who are sitting in the back of the truck with us after the water continued to rise quickly last night. even after the rain had stopped. right now we're at the limits of how far this truck can go. we're waiting for their family members and a couple other folks to work their way back down to us to try to get one big bulk load of people back out of this neighborhood. but, hallie, it's incredible. we were two blocks away, maybe three blocks away when we talked 20, 30 minutes ago. the water was up to my knees and we're maxed out here at three feet of water. as far as we can go with the truck that wae have and it just gets deeper as we get closer to the bayou here which is the cause of the problems for the folks here in western houston. >> are these people now just for the first time getting out of their homes and people who are rescued and going back in to get their belongings? explain that. >> the folks we picked up had stayed in their homes through the duration of the storm. essentially they used their car port. this is the first time they're coming out. yeah. they had used their car port as almost a staging area when they thought their driveway and their garage might stay dry enough to help people come and go. again, in these neighborhood back here by the bayou, the water just continued to rise yesterday, even after the rain part of this event had stopped. so, a lot of people got caught off guard by that. so, you know, again, this is sort of an elderly couple we just picked up. understand their sons are still here in the neighborhood. we're just seeing. if we can pan around a little bit, you can kind of see, hit or miss in this neighborhood. there are spots that are bone dry and there are spots where it's chest deep water and you just can't move. it's not a huge neighborhood, but it doesn't take a lot. maybe a block and a half of that chest deep water and you're not going anywhere unless somebody with a boat comes and gets you. here's a group of guys we saw earlier bringing out some folks heading back in. guys, any idea how many folks are still back there? >> i don't know. taken hundreds out. >> hundreds. good luck, guys. >> by ourself. >> so, i think you hear it there, hallie. frustrati frustration. saying they're taking hundreds of people out here by themselves. i can't speak to what law enforcement or military, national guard or anything like that has been back here in the hour or so we've been back in this neighborhood. i think we saw a sheriff deputy drive by. but the folks out here in the water, these are friends and neighbors. these aren't professionals. >> we'll keep an eye on this shot and check back in with us. please, if you see anything else in the next few minutes here. when we look at this, it's rescuers like the ones we just saw kayaking by who are heros and every day hus to houstonian. they're forming a human chain to help one of their neighbors, she's pregnant. get out of the flood water and am into that truck. rescues like this one throughout the hour. some of the other headlines happening here in washington. defense secretary james mattis weighing in on president trump's ban on transgenders in the military. we'll have more on that after the break. ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ putting new public break with president trump. we saw the secretary just a coupcu couple a minutes ago over at the pentagon. north korea clearly one of the topics in the headlines, but so is something else. a decision overnight from the secretary to put the brakes, for now, on that transgender ban the president wants in the military. hans nichols, what is the secretary saying about thiz transgender ban? >> he wants to have an independent panel study this issue on how transgender individuals could potentially serve in the military and what to do about those transgender individuals, men and women that are serving their country, that have already been told by the previous administration that they can join. and i have to say, hallie, throughout all of this what the secretary of defense has been saying is that he wants to focus on luthality. here's a statement that he put out last night. listen to what he had to say once the panel reports its recommendations, i will report back on the implementation process. our focus must always be on what is best for military's combat effectiveness leading to victory on the battlefield. hallie, this is a secretary of defense who has said in public hearings of the past he doesn't care with who anyone sleeps with or personal lives, he kicares about their ability to kill the enemy. secretary mattis put a pause in there and frozen this policy. in a lot of ways what happened yesterday is what officials have been telegraphing all along. they're going to study this issue and try to do right by all the servicemen and women who are in the united states military. >> hans, stand by for one minute. i want to bring in foreign policy reporter for the associated press and national political reporter iliana johnson. quickly on what secretary mattis did overnight. not surprising? >> i don't think so. it is a reversion to the status quo ante before the president's announcement that he was banning transgender military service. mattis had initiated a study about transgender military service after the obama administration had ruled unilaterally that they can serve and he wanted that study to go through and the president's announcement, the president became inpatient and he issued his ruling on twitter and, yeah, mattis' announcement is a rebuke of that and an indication that he wants to study the issue thoroughly and report back to the president on it. >> josh, i want to get your take on another big headline coming out of the white house and what is happening with north korea and the president was tweeting this morning that talking is not the answer, he says. >> well, we heard that from the president before. we also heard the president even make more rhetorical, fiery comments. what we're hearing from the secretary of defense is this idea and we hear this throughout the pentagon that it is a diplomacy first strategy. now, that said and cruiser base, intercept missiles and knocked a test mising out of the sky. what you're seeing throughout the pentagon is a posture on defensiveness and how to protect the homeland, as well as this idea that it's really diplomacy that should be the forward leaning posture. waiting to see whether or not mattis said anything. he's meeting with his korean counterparts. they can go through options. but i think it's very important what secretary mattis says when he's meeting with his korean counterparts. >> i'm in the position, but you're at the white house lawn. we have been listening in to his remarks. jog, the secretary of defense says we're not out of diplomatic solutions which is another potential break what the president sees here and his tough talk. >> i think the way you're going tasee the cabin to see the cabinet, tillerson and mattis and talking for talking sake is not a solution and that's why we've been pursuing trying to ramp up the stringent, the economic sanctions, the toughest actions against them. so, we're doing all these things thought are not talking so we can force them to some type of solution that doesn't involve a major military confrontitation. involved. even if they are able to find a way to say this is part of some strategy, you can't help but acknowledge the fact when trump comes out with these kind of tweets it does seem to undermine his cabinet members talking a very different message. >> thank ug for joining us on the brief discussion on politics as we continue to cover what's happening in harvey in texas. the construction equipment behind him, hans, thank you for being with us as well. i want to go back to the story, what is happening in texas and east texas and specifically in houston. it's where we find jacob rascon. i know you have been working around the clock on this. tell us what you're seeing and what's changed for you in the last 24 hours as we see you on the bridge there. >> reporter: the sun is out. that's what has changed and skies are blue. an amazing sight to see. a lot of areas are still flooded obviously but much of downtown houston is dry. where i am is just a bridge near downtown houston and the bayou is below me. you can see it, it's running pretty well. there's a good current but it used to be way above my head, like up 15, 20 feet. this area under here is a park. there's a park under there. the bayou is still flooded like crazy but we've been driving around houston and most of it is actually drained. that's how it's supposed to work. up there, i don't know if you can tell, the freeways are back open. many of the freeways and cars are on there. that's the first i've seen that in five days or so. i'm going to walk over here to show you that some of what's left over is a bunch of mud. that's a problem. this is an area where the water has gone down substantially. the problem for those who are downstream is that all of this water will go to the brazos river or much of it. that's along fort bend county area. that river is expected to rise another 4 feet before finally starting to go down i think on friday. and so while much of houston may be dry by the end of the day, there will be areas along the bayou and especially down in fort bend county along the brazos river that will be flooded and where the water will continue to rise and evacuation orders are still in place through friday. hallie? >> jacob, it's dramatic stuff on the ground there. thank you very much. i want to go back to garrett hake. you've been walking these kayakers and other folks in boats going into neighborhoods to help folks. what have you seen in the last few minutes? >> reporter: yeah, hallie, you're looking at pictures from our truck as we're backing out of this neighborhood to drop off this couple we picked up earlier. we're getting a little bit of additional help here. we have other boats out here and hallie, it's amazing, it's not you're sort of flat bottom boats -- like some kind of professionalized operation, we've seen people in plastic kayaks and saw a dad tow his children out in an inflatable raft. some of these folks are happy to talk to us and some are talking about -- how their house is doing in wet and keep walking. a lot of people don't want anything to do with us right now. you're talking to people on one of the worst days of their lives. a lot of folks thought they would have a few inches of water and this elderly couple said they had it come up and recede and they thought they were through the worst of it. this was the double whammy of not just being terrible destruction to their homes but false sense they had gotten through it okay and now experiencing something on the back end. the flip side to that, look around, this is all friends and neighbors helping people. this is fellow texans and folks who drove in from other neighborhoods because they had a truck they knew could get through 3 feet of water or so and wanted to help out. i've been struck by that attitude. these aren't refugees or survivors these are neighbors and texans and you're seeing a lot of that here from people who don't know each other. >> can you -- i think with your tony, can you have him pan around. i'm curious what it looks like around the neighborhood. what else are you seeing? >> reporter: so, yeah, if we look back where we were, we were coming down this street here, the street that aims back towards the bay ou. the further you go the deeper the water gets. look, if you turn here towards -- this is the cul de sacs here, basically south, back here flooded. if we finish spinning all the way around. halfway up the block and these streets are completely dry. this is what jacob was talking about. if you drove past this neighborhood going the speed limit and going 35 or 40 miles per hour, you would not have seen this. from the street this looks like any other normal neighborhood. you get a block or two in and realize it's -- it's water world, completely submerged and folks who are back to normal. you can get around on the highways and on the major streets. then you've got neighborhoods back here completely water logged and not getting anywhere without a truck that's taller than me or boat. >> garrett hake thanks very much for that. thanks forgi thanks. we appreciate it. we'll be back with today's big picture. we want to show you a u.s. navy rescue, looking at damage in beaumont, texas, that is the focus of operations looking for anybody who might be stranded. this is from our own miguel almaguer who will be reporting this out on nbc nightly news today and throughout the day. irt it was love at first touch and all you wanted to do was surround them in comfort and protection that's why only pampers swaddlers is the #1 choice of hospitals to wrap your baby in blanket-like softness and premium protection mom: "oh hi baby" so all they feel is love wishing you love, sleep and play. pampers take the zantac it challenge! pill works fast? zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. take the zantac it challenge. we have seen a lot of powerful images in the aftermath of harvey. comforting her lifelong friend loretta in a small town north of corpus christi hit hard by harvey. her message to loretta, be strong, she says, the photographer here nick wagner for the austin american statesmen via the associated press. so much emotion unfolding in texas. i'm on facebook and twitter and snapchat and instagram and we'll report back after this program. we'd love to see you online and right back here tomorrow at 10:00 eastern, 7:00 pacific. for now i'll turn it over to ali velshi in new york following more of this. >> we'll pick it up where you left off. thanks very much. good morning, i'm ali velshi. ste stephanie ruhle is off. we have breaking news on harvey. let's get started. >> the tropical storm back on land after making its third landfall early this morning just west of cameron, louisiana. >> overnight the flooding turned much worse in beaumont texas. >> there are staggering amounts of rain. look at this, in the last 30 hours we picked up more than 26.5 inches of rain putting storm totals up to 43.67 inches of rain. >> port arthur as water comes into a civic center there where

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