Harvey Pummels Texas, Brings Catastrophic Flooding
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to viewers here in the United States and around the world. We continue following the breaking news this hour here on CNN. The devastating floods playing out in the U.S. state of Texas. I'm George Howell.</s>ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Rosemary Church. Torrential rain is barreling down along the coast bringing catastrophic flooding to parts of the state.</s>HOWELL: Just consider what the U.S. National Weather Service is saying about this storm. They say it's "beyond anything experienced before." And here's the kicker, they warned the worst may still be yet to come. At this point, more than 300,000 people are without power. Power outages expected to last several days now. Take a look at the city of Rockport, Texas -- devastation. You can see exactly how strong, powerful this category four storm was when it came into Texas. Destruction where Harvey struck on Friday night. We understand that one person was killed in that town.</s>CHURCH: And another person was killed in the city of Houston after being swept away by flood waters. Cars could be seen submerged and many roads are simply impassable at this point. Commercial flights in and out of Houston's two main airports have been halted. Meanwhile, frantic search and rescue operations are underway as the deadly flood water continue to rise. Around 3,000 National Guard members have been activated to help with the rescue effort. U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to tour the devastation on Tuesday.</s>HOWELL: All right. So, let's see what's happening in Houston, Texas right now. On the ground with us Meteorologist, Derrick Van Dam, live there in Houston. And Derrick, it is the middle of the night there -- midnight in the state of Texas. And all day, you've been watching these rescues that have been playing out, and they continue through the night.</s>DERRICK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely, George. In fact, we joined the Harris County precinct one constables on a search and rescue boat just a few hours ago, when some of the heaviest rain that we have ever experienced was fallen at that moment in time. And let me tell you, that was quite an experience. These brave men and women are going door to door across the Brays Bayou region -- this is south and west of the city center of Houston. The Braeswood Community has flooded considerably, and we went out on this search and rescue mission with them. We have all kinds of obstacles to navigate tonight as these rescues are still on going. The water is rising quickly because of the recent rain that has come in within just a few hours and the rapid, believe it or not, across some of these streets and roadways was intense. We had to navigate fully submerged SUVs, road signs, trees, fallen trees, lots of debris, and the water up to -- close to some of the awnings of a first one story building. That kind of pains the pitcher of what these people are navigating. They have rescued elderly, children, pets, adults, anything you can imagine. They are going door to door. They're getting tweets from residents pleading for help, pleading for support, and they are doing their best to answer those calls. And when we were on the boat with them, it was unfortunate because we were not able to cross one in the flooded roadways that were rushing so quickly. So, they had to move on to the next rescue because that's all they could with the equipment that they had on hand. George.</s>HOWELL: Derrick, look, you're our meteorologist, clearly, you know the science of this, you've been explaining that you know that details, the particulars of what's happening there in Houston. But I want to ask you anecdotally, what has stood out to you, just of the people you've met, the places you've seen so far? Any story that stood out to you.</s>VAN DAM: I'll tell you what, I've been completely amazed by how the community has come together. I saw a man come up with his boat, a small dingy but it had a motor on it and it had the ability to perform search and rescue operations, and he went to one of the chief constables in the precinct one for Harris County and offered his boat for any search and rescue efforts that they needed. So, I think it's just the community coming together and recognizing this disaster and doing what they can for each other, hugging each other and crying one they are rescued because it's a tight-knit community, they all know each other, they're seeing friends and family being rescued, and that's quite an emotional side for them.</s>HOWELL: Derrick Van Dam, live for us in Houston, Texas. Derrick, thank you for the reporting.</s>CHURCH: And there are so many rescues happening, hundreds of people hoping to get help; stranded in their homes in many parts of Houston. The flooding was so bad, workers used boats to get residents to safety, and there were even residents of those communities using their own boats to help other residents, to help those in need.</s>HOWELL: The American Red Cross estimates that 1,800 people stay in shelters across Texas on Saturday night. A number of rescue teams have been flown in to help with this disaster, and helicopters have been rescuing stranded people around the clock. The mayor of Houston, Texas says that more than a thousand people had been rescued across the metro area so far, though with so much destruction many people are asking why there was a mandatory evacuation order. So, on Sunday, the mayor defended that decision.</s>SYLVESTER TURNER, MAYOR OF HOUSTON, TEXAS: The decision that we made was a smart one, it was in the best interest of Houstonians, it was the right decision in terms of their safety, and always, we must put the interest of the city of Houston and Houstonians first. That's exactly what we did. Absolutely, no regrets. We did what was the right thing to do, and we act according to the plan that we've laid out.</s>CHURCH: Well, joining us now is Deidra George, she is the Public Information Officer for the Texas Department of Transportation in the Houston District. Thank you so much for talking with us. Let's talk more about this discussion about whether a mandatory evacuation should've been ordered. You're with the Transport Department, so you would know how the transport system would've dealt with more than two million people actually hitting the road and trying to get out. So, is there a feeling that this was the right decision? I mean, you could second guess just because you saw of, either way, couldn't you?</s>DEIDRA GEORGE, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION HOUSTON DISTRICT (through telephone): Well, I can't speak on the mayor's orders -- decision to decide not to evacuate but what I can say is we experienced a record setting amount of rainfall in our Houston District, and there was not one freeway on our system was not impacted by the rain. So, I think the decision that the mayor made was good decision. But what our message was, was basically to try to talk people to make sure that they were not the roadways when the rain started. Because once it came in, these roadways were going to be impacted, and they were going to be impacted very quickly.</s>CHURCH: That's the problem, isn't it? So, people then stayed in their homes, they hunkered down these rescue efforts to continue into the night, which is extraordinary. It's nearly 1:00 in the morning, or actually, it's just after midnight there at Central Time. But talk to us now, as we look at these pictures of the roads submerged now, and so many vehicles submerged. What is this going to mean going forward for the transportation system there?</s>GEORGE: Certainly so, as for now, we have over 332 high water locations on our freeway system. So, what that means is that it is very difficult, if not, impossible to get through. Very -- a lot of freeways on our system, and so what that means is we are trying to tell people to stay inside. Let emergency personnel get to you. Do not attempt to get out, especially now. It's dark outside. The event is not over; don't be</s>CHURCH: That is very important. We'll get that message out for people to stay put, do not move out of your homes. Of course, any rescue that's needed will do going forward. Deidra George, thank you so much for joining us from the Department of Transportation in the Houston District. Many thanks. Well, officials say many emergency phone calls are going unanswered as operators try to give preference to life-threatening calls, but they are struggling to keep up.</s>HOWELL: One reporter was describing the situation earlier when he saw people being airlifted to safety. Take a look at this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the sun goes down, of course, the need just becomes even more, because these people don't have any electricity right now. They are in the dark. When it gets pitch black inside -- outside, this could be pitch black inside. And I don't what other medical situation that they have, but look, they're flashing I think they probably want us to maybe get one of those people that are up there. We could take you guys if you need.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An elderly sick.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An elderly sick person? Yes, bring --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two handicapped, two sick and disabled, and two on wheelchairs right now on the top of that roof. I have no idea how they got them on top of that roof.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you come closer?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We're going to try to get closer. She wants us to get closer right now. Yes, we're going to get closer. You guys can bring him down to the boat. We're moving them slowly, and obviously very, yes, very difficult, because he said he has a pacemaker on his left-hand side near his heart. So, we're going to have to stir clear of that, obviously. And let me try and get him on the ledge here so we can have him sit down, and then we're going to take him off, but this just shows you how critical these patients are, how critical these people are. They need the help right now. There's just not enough boats. There are not enough helicopters. There are not enough first responders, obviously, to get every single person as you heard. There are 300 people in this apartment complex, a lot them -- a lot of them need the help here because they are, they're elderly, some of them, obviously, have medical conditions that they need to -- they need to be on dry land.</s>CHURCH: We were watching and listening to a KTRK local reporter there in Houston, Texas as that rescue operation was playing in. Of course, he spotted those people on the roof. Unbelievable.</s>HOWELL: Yes, it is incredible. Let's bring now our Meteorologist, Karen Maginnis, on exactly where this storm is going, the people that are being impacted right now, Karen, what can you tell us?</s>KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right. We take a look at different computer models. And this one happens to be the European model, but I will tell you the North American model and that's all these computer-generated ideas, the scientific ideas about where this system is headed. If we put this in the motion, we've got it moving towards the south back out over the Gulf of Mexico, picking up that deep tropical motion composite right there. Michael, he is Producer tonight and Meteorologist, and this is where we're looking at yet another bullseye. A precipitation is going to be heavy again; another round of very heavy rainfall, and then it shifts a little bit further towards the north and towards the east. I want to back up a little bit and just show you this broad view. This is where we've got some of the flood warnings out. This is Harris County, I know this looks kind of blurry, but where you see all these red shaded areas, these red exclamation points, that's where the water had topped the road, topped the bayou, topped the creek, and there are hundreds of these all across Harris County. That's just Harris County. Now, I talked about this in the past hour, take a look at this video -- it's in black and white, it's obviously a Houston video. Look at this vehicle in the water, the water is rising up the wind shield. There's a man standing behind his vehicle here. This is an SUV. This, not a small vehicle. Then, a dingy comes in a small motorized boat. They load the man into the dingy -- there, you can kind of see that. Now, this has taken place at night. It looks as if this is near I-10 in Katy. Katy is just about 30 minutes' drive to the west of Houston, Texas. It looks to me that that man was safe, but that is going -- that's happening over, and over, and over, not just in Harris County, but in all these other counties surrounding the Houston area. Pretty much along that interstate, that corridor of I-10, and then further to the south. I'm not saying that those are the only place, certainly, it is not but thousands upon thousands of people. All right, this is the broader view, and there you can see some of these theater band</s>HOWELL: OK, Karen.</s>CHURCH: Thank you, Karen. We appreciate it. We'll take a short break. But coming up: much more on the catastrophic flooding in Texas; we will speak to one woman who's still stranded with her six children in Houston.