Nation's 4th-Largest City Facing Epic Flooding
CABRERA: It has been a traumatic 24 hours along the gulf coast of Texas with so much more to come. Harvey is bringing epic flooding to community sparing no one, not the elderly, not the young, not pets, no one. CNN's Derek Van Dam is joining us now from Houston. Derek, where are you? What are you seeing? Le</s>DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ana, we are near the Brays Bayou, just southwest of the city center of Houston and we're actually at a Harris County search and rescue staging operation center. There have been large military-type vehicles that have collected people that have been coming in from boats. We've talked to some of the constables here. They have rescued over 100 people, some of them with medical conditions. We talked to an individual who actually rescued somebody who just had surgery, had a feeding tube within the past 24 hours and their house became flooded and needed to move immediately. He was basically bedridden, stuck in his house with rising floodwater. So it's a dire situation here. And we've seen families that have been rescued. We've had several kids and cats and animals that have also been loaded on to some of these large military-style vehicles. We actually have one of the multiple rescue boats that continue to come in to this point. It really is just about a quarter of a mile away from here where the Brays Bayou actually gets its deepest. And we're hoping to head out there soon, but apparently the water is rushing extremely fast and conditions there are very dangerous. We've heard that water levels have easily climbed to the first level of apartment buildings. So a lot of people in apartment buildings down this road had actually gone to second and third floors to seek rescue or seek shelter from the rising floodwaters. We are currently in one of the feeder bans at the moment as well. Again, we're just south and west of the city center of Houston and we've looked at the latest radar and the heavy rainfall. I mean, it's easily coming down 2 to 3 inches an hour right now, which is the worst timing, the last possible thing that we could have right now because just when the water started to slowly recede across this area, it looks as if it's just a matter of time before they start to rise again. Ana?</s>CABRERA: And sadly, it's just at night fell as well there. Derek Van Dam, stay safe. Thank you for that report. Let's turn to our Brian Todd who is out in it as well in Houston right now. Brian, we can actually hear that water coming down as it is dumping.</s>TOOD: A feeder band light up a little bit earlier and it looks like the water was receding, as Derek alluded to where he was, that looks to be the case here as well but it's coming down again very heavily.</s>CABRERA: Brian, I'm sorry, we can't hear you. We're having some audio issues with you, Brian. We'll come with you in just a moment, but we have more live images again this high water rescue vehicles that are on scene. Let's go back to Derek. What exactly that you're witnessing there, Derek?</s>VAN DAM: All right, Ana. So, what you're watching is the District 1 in Harris County, the constables with one of the high water rescue boats. And, basically, they've used this as a staging point for the rescues. So they go out to all these individual homes, everybody impacted by the rising flood waters. And you can see that they're saving anyone from small children to full adults and even their pets as well and their most important belongings. You can see just people are relieved to at least be to dry water. You can imagine just what they've gone through over the past 12 hours as these floodwaters continue to go. We've heard about the medical concerns. There's some people -- there's elderly woman that has literally running out of oxygen. So, we're hoping to go to her next because she has actually been calling for help here for the past couple of hours. Ana, you can see people just relieved to be on dry ground.</s>CABRERA: Yes. So good to see that smile on that woman's face, I was taken by that. And you see these children being rushed off, being held and to think that they have been stranded and how scared they must have felt as they are watching the water creep up wherever they may be. So, you're at one of the shelters, is that right, nearby one of the shelters where these people are being dropped off, Derek?</s>VAN DAM: I'm at a staging area. So this is for the Harris County Constable. This is an area that is a makeshift region where boats have been able to access. So we're actually outside of a shopping district just outside of Brays Bayou. And the water here is deep enough so the search and rescue boats can actually make it to a dry spot, but still go out to the bayous and the affected households in this area.</s>CABRERA: Do you know where those people are going from there?</s>VAN DAM: Are you talking about the search and rescue teams?</s>CABERA: Those who have been dropped off and just rescued. Yes, where are they headed now?</s>VAN DAM: Well, it's amazing because we've actually run into some of the drivers of these military-style large SUVs. One is off in the distance there. You can see with some of the flashing lights. And they load the families on to that and they brought them to dry locations where they can pick up -- have family and friends pick them up. They can get fresh foods and water to drink and at least a little bit of safety from the rising flood waters.</s>CABRERA: All right, Derek Van Dam again in Houston, thank you very much for that. Great to see that rescue happen again right here on live T.V. The people who are now hopefully off to a better place. Brian, I know we've got the audio issues worked out. What is happening where you are right now? Another scene of many a rescue we've witnessed today.</s>TOOD: That's right, Ana. This is a very busy staging area here not far from the Omni Hotel where hundreds of people were stranded earlier. They got more than 100 people out of there. We believe they've gotten everybody out of the Omni Hotel where the water was basically waist deep. We rode along with some rescuers who pulled people out of the lobby of the Omni Hotel. Some of them had to go up to the substaircases to get to some of these people. Just hundreds of people were brought right here to this staging area including one woman who had back surgery who was really in pain here. Being tended to by people. She was taken to a stretcher. She had been evacuated from the Omni Hotel. People there were telling us that the water was rising. There was gas fumes on the hotel so they felt like that had to leave, including the one woman who had had back surgery and was carried out in a stretcher. The Houston police asked people anybody who had a boat to come to some of these areas and call them and coordinate with them. And we saw that in droves here. I'm going to talk to a gentleman who organized some of this. His name is Ty Solsbery. Ty was here and called a local radio station when he saw one of the boats pull up. Ty, what made you think that this would be a good place to stage and the people needed rescuing here?</s>TY SOLSBERY, HOUSTON: Well, I live just a quarter of a mile right down the road. And I came down here to assess the amount of water and how much it was rising.</s>TODD: Move this way a little bit. There's a car. So, go ahead Ty. Keep going.</s>SOLSBERY: And there was a gentleman came through the boat and said that there were people at the Omni that was stranded that I get some more boats there. So, I tried to call 911 and 311, the city emergency numbers couldn't get through. So I called the local A.M. radio station that does weather and fishing repots and asked them if they would go on the air and to -- I gave them our location. And within an hour, we had over a dozen boats here, gentlemen from all over. We had two jet skis and an air boat.</s>TODD: Well, Ty, great to do that because we witnessed a lot of these boats, these private rescuers coming and doing this.</s>SOLSBERY: They were all private. They were all private guys. They came from everywhere, even as far as South Texas.</s>TODD: Thanks for talking to us. Good luck toy you and the neighborhood. Hope your house stays intact. Thanks very much. Yes. I mean, it was an amazing effort here guys. You know, you had dozens of people in boats and in jet skis and in wave runners pulling people out of the neighborhoods there and and out of the Omni Hotel. And again, these feeder bands are coming down. Their night is not over yet.</s>CABRERA: Brian Todd in Houston. Boy, you guys are out there in the thick of it. Thank you very much. Quick Break, we're back after this.