Page 9 - Interstate 45 News Today

First responders were capable of handling. so they called in essentially a fleet of volunteers to help with these boat rescues. and here you see interstate 45 here are some of the boats people showing up in wave runners, boats on their own, trucks, cars, as many people out as possible. as we went through the neighborhood, a few hours ago, and saw inside that neighborhood, dramatic to see the number of people who had clearly made their way to their rooftops to be able to get away from the floodwa...

This is the exit ramp off of interstate 45 headed north towards houston. you cant even get passed here because the water is so high and it is covering the roadway. you can only reach the area by boat. and one of our photo journalists jeremy went out with rescuers yesterday through the neighborhoods and the streets of dickinson looking more like rivers as people were just waiting patiently to be plucked out of there to safety. we have a whole mix of people here. youve got search and rescue profes...

Higher ground, but they are waiting to start moving this convoy in to the neighborhood here in leak city. you get a sense of -- how all of this will work and some of the trucks that will be used. these covered trucks. were in an open-air truck but this one here weve seen over the last couple of days the soldiers transporting evacuees putting them in these types of vehicles, getting them to higher ground here along interstate 45. and generally there have been either a number of buses that have be...

Way through some of these neighborhoods, and we are definitely -- were heading noth no north towards that area of leak city. not sure how long it will take to get there, but these are all kind of shopping centers just along the service road of interstate 45. you can -- see what the parking lot conditions are. and this gets much worse once you get beyond this road. buildings and into those trees you see in the distance, that is the areas where these bayous and these creeks run through in the sout...

Go to cnns ed lavandera, seen one rescue after another from his vantage point. with the national guard headed into league city, south side of houston. tell us more about what youve seen. >> reporter: we are in this convoy with national guards soldiers. a unit deployed oust dallas known at the wolf pack. were in a convoy of four of these military-style trucks. we are standing along interstate 45 right now. this is in the town of dickinson, thats been, this area, several towns, dickinson, leak cit...

When he made it back it land he was able to send us this report. >> dave and christine, we are standing on not just some small country road that has been flooded out, we are on interstate 45. it connects galveston island south to the city of houston. this interstate has been shut down because of the floodwaters. we were able to get on a bet and make our way into some of the subdivisions back behind the tree line where hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated throughout the day. mainly...

>> again, that moment just a couple of hours ago. cnns ed is joining us live now from galveston, ed, wow. describe what that moment was like. >> oh, absolutely surreal. you know, weve been standing here, and we are kind of where we started the day. standing on interstate 45, which is just staggering to think about when you -- this is i-45 northbound, pretty much i think about half way between galveston island and the city of houston just over that overpass where you see a lot of the emergency ve...

South of houston. follow me over this way, if we can show this. i was sitting here this morning, and i thought to myself, it is monday. a lot of people probably would be headed to work at this time. i visualize this intersection, you see the road signs there. interstate 45 north, ironically the sign on top of it, evacuation routes. while, you cannot go much further north on interstate 45 because it is shut down. and i thought that this would normally be on monday busy with people heading to work...

We were able to get on a boat and make our way into some of these subdivisions back behind the tree line where hundreds, if not thousands of people have been evacuated throughout the day. mainly rescued by a fleet of volunteers who showed up here along the interstate and basically turned this roadway into a boat launch, sending their boats, their private boats out into neighborhoods, pulling off two, three, four people at a time to rescue them from their homes. theres been an unbelievable sight ...

Or get out and about to get food and other essentials. >> were southwest of houston where evacuations are underway right now. ed give us an idea how the conditions deteriorated overnight as a result of tropical storm harvey. >> were about 20 miles north of galveston. were trying to make our way to houston. were standing on interstate 45. this is the interstate, if you look up this way, that takes you straight into downtown houston. it is completely shut down at this point and weve been here for ...