until waters recede. again, please stay home. the rain may have stopped and the skies are clear, the waters have not receded. flight conditions around rivers and water ways are expected to continue throughout the day. if you must travel today please exercise caution. aside the most affected areas. because of the significant impact of the storm across the city and the region, and the ongoing flooding hazard, all city offices will be closed to the public today. you can still access resources through the city s website. the city will be operating essential services only and employees that can work remotely should check with their supervisors should do so.
efforts. reporter: when life is saturated by loss, when words fail. reporter: sometimes music speaks. hymns of hope inside a houston house of worship. songs replacing sorrow. i remember when my town, not too many towns away from here, got devastated by hurricane katrina. reporter: almost 12 years ago to the day singer harry conic jr. led compassion to a devastated new orleans. good luck to you, baby. good luck rsh wrinchts now he is one of thousands helping houston rise. a city that once opened its arms to katrina victims. this was the way to pay it forward. oh, yeah. i ll never forget houston for that. i have always loved houston. reporter: as the waters recede, volunteer efforts have flooded in. thousands showing up day after day in shelters and neighborhoods left in sham bells. i really appreciate that because we are really hungry.
allergytry new xyzal®.ou have symptoms like these for relief is as effective at hour 24 as hour one. so be wise all take new xyzal®. we re following breaking news. multiple ongoing rescues in houston as well as the southeast texas cities of beaumont and port arthur all caused by harvey which made a second land fall. officials say 28 people are dead. the sad fact is that toll may rise as those waters recede. cnn anchor anderson cooper is in houston now. anderson, i know you were there for katrina. we heard the texas governor today say that this is bigger than katrina. as you have arrived there, just describe the scale of this that you ve seen. reporter: yeah, it really is kind of hard to wrap your mind around the scale of this. i mean, harris county is enormous compared to new
back on. reporter: the cost is immense and getting it reopened will not be easy. people taking a part in this, we want to make sure it s safe but it s a task. reporter: governor nikki haley warning residents to not take risks. people are starting to go around barriers. this is not safe. we are doing those protect you. reporter: waters recede and authors calculate the financial toll, the loss of life is staggering. and as crews get to areas previously under water. they fear the death toll could rise. what i saw was disturbing. and it is hard to look at the loss that we are going to have. but everything will be okay. reporter: boris sanchez, cnn, manning, south carolina. democratic congressman james clyburn of south carolina, district includes many areas affected by the floods. thanks for joining us. if you spoken with president obama, vice president biden, in the aftermath of the historic
can and as safely as we can. patience is of course very much appreciated as we go through that but we have a lot of people working hard to try to get things back on track. we have our meteorologists saying that the rainfall is expected to stop within midweek and when those waters recede, hopefully by midweek. do you expect is that too soon to say that you may restore some power for people? well, we re going to get to it as quickly as we can. again, i think safety is going to be the number one priority. as soon as we have the ability to get into the areas where we have to do that work and start safely responding to each individual situation, we will do that. i know these are tough times for a lot of folks. a lot of people obviously had their lives devastated by what s happened here. but south carolinians are very resilient and we will continue to grind through this and