Donald Trump on Storm Response: I'm Very Happy With How it's Going; Beaumont Families in Desperate Need of Clean Water; Estimated 30,000 Houston Students to Move Schools Temporarily; 53 Public Schools in Houston Sustained Major Damage; President and First Lady Visit Storm Victims in Houston.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Hello again, everyone and thank you so much for being with me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All right, we begin this hour in Texas, just a few moments ago, the president spoke at a hurricane Harvey relief center. He gave his thoughts on how the relief efforts are going so far.</s>DONAL TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing. I think even for the country to watch and for the world to watch. It's been beautiful. Have a good time, everybody. I'm going to be doing a little help over there. Say?</s>TRUMP: They're really happy with what's going on. It's been something -- it's been very well received. And we're signing a lot of documents now to get money into Houston. $7.9 billion, we signed it and now it's going through a very quick -- hopefully quick process.</s>WHITFIELD: The president also putting smiles on the faces that so desperately need a sign of hope, holding little kids there, embracing, he's been taking selfies, and sitting down with kids in the kids' zone area of the hurricane relief center. And that's just a first stop in this jam packed day for the president and first lady. Later today, they will greet and sit with Texas congressional delegation members before heading off to Louisiana. And then the two will be meeting with the Louisiana delegation, visit with the National Guard, and with the volunteered group known as the Cajun Navy. The president and Mrs. Trump have a long day ahead. Let's check in with Athena Jones in Houston. So, this was stop one. What's next?</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. Well, he's headed to another location that we'll be able to tell you about when he gets there. The reason for that of course is security, but you mentioned the pictures we just saw and the last ones we saw were of him and First Lady Melania Trump handing out food. According to the pool, it was a meal of hotdogs and chips and the like to the folks there in NRG Center. And you're right, there was a lot of smiles on the faces of the people there being able to interact directly with the president. And Fred, this is the kind of trip the White House wanted for the president, but they said they could not do that on Tuesday when he first came soon after the storm -- well, in many ways, it was still raining, there was certainly still flooding, but soon after the storm's impact on Tuesday, the president and the White House said that they didn't want to take away emergency resources that could go to search and rescue efforts to support the president's visit. And so on Tuesday, we saw him meeting with state and local officials touring an emergency operations center, but he didn't have this kind of personal interaction that we're used to seeing from presidents when dealing with a crisis like this. And Fred, we've been talking a lot about how the president's been eager to show a high level of engagement in this first big test, this first big natural disaster that as we've been saying, it's not only massive affecting millions of people at a very important big city and infrastructure when it comes to energy and oil but also it's going to be an ongoing one. And this is the sort of thing that adds to this idea of engagement. He has with him several cabinet officials, several cabinet officials traveled with Vice President Mike Pence a couple of days ago when he was here. And so the White House wants to show that they are going to be here for the people of Texas and Louisiana, not just today and tomorrow but until this area can rebuild while acknowledging that it's going to take a long time, but we also heard the president focus a lot on the positive. He's saying things are going well, the relationships between state and local and federal government officials are going well. The big question though is, you know, will that continue going forward? Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Right. Right. And when congress, you know, reconvenes on Tuesday, how will that nearly $8 billion package be considered? Will that relief come right away? All right, Athena Jones, thank you so much. All right. I want to turn now to CNN's Stephanie Elam. She was inside that building and saw it all happen as it was unfolding because it was a surprise to most of the people at the NRG Stadium that the president would be visiting that relief center.</s>STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Fredricka, it was a surprise here at the NRG center that the president was coming there. Some little differences that we notice, but for the most part it was business as usual all morning long. And then we saw the president make his way in first to the kids' zone and play with some children there along with the governor of Texas. We saw them there and then they left and we thought they may be leaving, but they didn't. They came here, and it was here that he was serving the food that you saw, the pool video that you were able to see a little bit closer than we were able to get.</s>ELAM: But one woman hat we spoke to actually saying that this took her mind off of things a little bit, the fact that the president did show up here after this week that has just been so tragic and hard for the people here who are still trying to figure out what they're going to do next after Hurricane Harvey. So people saying it was a nice diversion to see the president come here and spend some time within this evacuation center, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Well, there was a lot of excitement. It was nice to see, you know, because people have had a very tough week, and the days ahead and weeks to come will still be very hard, but it was just nice for a moment to see so many smiles, hearing the squeals and seeing people trying to take all those selfies. All right, Stephanie Elam, thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. Now, let's go to CNN's Kaylee Hartung in Beaumont, Texas, where there are smiles in a different way because people are receiving food and water after many days after the city's water pumps failed there and so many folks had expressed feeling like they were on an island, you know, and they were wondering when they were going to get some running water, some fresh water. So, Kaylee, what are folks telling you today?</s>KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, we just heard a round of applause break out behind me as a family walked up and got a hot meal. So much gratitude from the people of Beaumont here to the H-E-B grocery stores as they are providing breakfast, lunch and dinner for people here. One more hour of lunch service here before the crew takes a break to gear up for dinner starting at 5:00 pm. We're at the H-E-B in Beaumont on the corner of 11th and College Street. These trucks have traveled across Texas this past week. They were offering meals in Victoria, and in Rockport, Houston, now Beaumont. A little bit ago, we had a pretty special moment with a family that we actually met yesterday at a church who was offering water that didn't show up.</s>MARGARET, HURRICANE HARVEY VICTIM: Disappointing, but we tried to go and get in another line. And by the time we made it there, they ran out there too.</s>HARTUNG: So did you have any clean water for your children to drink, to brush their teeth, to bathe last night?</s>MARGARET: The day before, we had gotten a case of water from one of the churches that was giving it away, and that's what we used to kind of clean the boys up and let them brush their teeth and stuff. Yes.</s>HARTUNG: So how needed are the supplies you have in your hand right now?</s>MARGARET: A lot. Good, bad, because it's a warm meal and we couldn't hardly cook because of course we -- they shut all the water off in Beaumont. Yes.</s>HARTUNG: So when I first got here, I met Ruby, who I now know is your mom who said her daughter was on the way. Ruby, how do you describe the emotions you have as the matriarch of this family as you all just try to make it through this difficult time?</s>RUBY, HURRICANE HARVEY VICTIM: I'm telling you, with all of us working together, we can do it.</s>MARGARET: We can do it.</s>RUBY: We could do it. And my emotions are pretty good right now because I got this right here on my side because she tells me, "Everyone -- momma, get up, go do this, go do this." And that helps me because I got four kids in my house. So I'm running for them as long as the Lord give me strength to get up and go and do, that's what I'm going to do.</s>HARTUNG: What were the emotions like Tuesday morning when you realized the situation you were in that there was no running water?</s>RUBY: It was -- it was, it was horrible. I just didn't know what to do. So my daughter said, "Momma, come on, let's go get some water and we could work with that." And that's what we did.</s>HARTUNG: Where'd you get it from? You were telling me a story yesterday about going to a canal.</s>RUBY: We did. Just to flush the toilets, we went to a canal and filled up a few of the buckets to just flush the toilets, you know, to keep it clean in the house, you know.</s>HARTUNG: Margaret there told me she thinks she went to 13 different places yesterday as she tried to search for water for her family. But Fred, after I saw her yesterday in a moment when there was no water to be found, I was at a distribution site that I spoke to you from that the city is running near an old high school football stadium here, when I told Margaret about that distribution point at the end of that conversation, she said we are headed to our cars right now to get some clean water there.</s>WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness, I'm glad so many got the delivery today. All right, Kaylee Hartung, thanks so much in Beaumont, Texas. So one devastating effect of Harvey is the impact on the school system. CNN has learned that there's an estimated 30,000 students who will need to be temporarily moved to new schools. I want to bring in Richard Carranza, he's the Houston School District Superintendent. Richard, good to see you. 30,000 students? That is a huge number. How in the world are you going to be able to relocate so many kids?</s>RICHARD CARRANZA, HOUSTON SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT: Well, it's a day by day situation analysis. We have about 300 schools in our portfolio schools, we've completed assessments of about 250 of those campuses. The rest, we're trying to get into and in some cases, we just can't get to because of the water.</s>CARRANZA: So once we have the full scope of the condition of all of our schools, we'll be able to decide what we're going to do in terms of housing or co-locating students in other buildings. This is a massive undertaking as I'm sure you're aware of. And the last thing we want to do is put students or staff in the facilities that are not safe and conducive to teaching and learning.</s>WHITFIELD: And then how are you going to get this message out? How, you know -- I mean, for so many families, they're trying to figure out, you know, where they're going to live. Of course they want their kids in school, but communication is tough. How are you going to convey the message? How do you find these students and families to let them know that school will be opening albeit a little bit late for some school districts but that it will be opening and kids will be relocated?</s>CARRANZA: Well, we know that one of the best ways of getting students and families to heal is to get back on a routine, so that's why we think opening school is so important. But we have a presence. We have a presence at all of the shelters, we have a presence here at the George R. Brown, we have a presence at NRG, we're registering students so that we know where they are. We're also reaching out to all of our faculty members and our staff members because they've been negatively impacted as well. We have 31,000 employees in the Houston Independent School District, so we know they've been touched as well. So we're out there making sure that we know who they are and where they are. More than anything, though, we have an incredibly robust communications system, we are sending text messages to all of our students and all of our families that are registered. We have a Twitter account, we have a Facebook account, we're working hand in glove with all of the media outlets here in Houston. I also have a Twitter account where families can get up to the minute developments, that's HISD underscore superintendent. So we're trying to reach out in every conceivable way and also be present where some of our students or -- and families are being relocated in the shelters. So far, the messages are getting out. So folks know that September 11th is the first day of school, but we've been always very clear that given the conditions of the buildings that may or may not continue to be the first day of school. Up to this point we think we can still make that that date.</s>WHITFIELD: And Richard, you mentioned you're there at the NRG Center. Just moments ago, the president of the United States, you know, was all the buzz there and the first lady there with folks taking their selfies with them. The president having a very optimistic view of things saying things are going very well. What's your point of view on what this does, what this did to the crowd there for the president and the first lady to arrive?</s>CARRANZA: Well, you know, the community is suffering. This has been an unprecedented event for Houston. So the community is suffering. I just came from a school that I looked at for the physical aspects of the school and driving to the school saw some of our students dragging stuff out of homes that they had just gotten back to that had just come up from the water, and, you know, dragging all their possessions out. I mean, this is a heartbreaking time for Houston. But in order for that to bring some healing, we're doing some things that we can do as a school district. This year every student, the 218,000 students at HISD were going to get free breakfast, free lunch and free dinner. We've been able to work that out with the agriculture department, both at the state and local level. So it's been literally free food for every one of our students, that's one less thing people have to worry about. We currently, right now as we speak, we have nine of our schools where we are cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner and giving it free to the community because some communities just don't have a way to eat. We have a massive clothing and supply drive in our sister school districts from across the country are doing school supply drives and clothing drives for our students. Trucks are starting to arrive at our central warehouse full of supplies for our students. And more than anything when school does start, we're going to have a comprehensive crisis counselling protocol for every one of our students so that students that need to talk because they've gone through this crisis, this traumatic event, will have somebody to support them and they'll be able to talk to. In addition, Fredricka, our sister school districts from across the country are identifying crisis counselors in their school districts and if and when the need arises, they will come to Houston and help support our very own caregivers, our teachers, and our counselors, and our administrators. So we're being -- trying to be as thoughtful and proactive as we can. So when students come to school, they find that safe haven in the midst of this tragic event.</s>WHITFIELD: There has been a lot of trauma. It has been extremely traumatic for so many. All right, Richard Carranza, thank you so much for your time. All the best during all of this and the school year. Appreciate it. All right, so we put together a list of ways that you can help those dealing with the flooding. Just go to cnn.com/impact.