Being forced to leave and leave right now. All of this as President Trump tours the devastation beginning in corporate us krity Vice President pence will head to texas later this week Contessa Brewer will get the latest on relief and recovery earnings there lets go to john kern an, pretty dramatic scenes in dickinson, a lot of water between here and houston, turned into a bayou. I wish i could say that was the end but apparently not after opening down triple digits, the dow is positive. And investors brushing aside fears about north koreas latest Missile LaunchUnited Technologies and caterpillar and apple leading gains and financial and material stocks the biggest laggards right now. Lets get you caught up on the latest on harvey the storm setting a rainfall record for tropical cyclones in texas. The National Weather service just over 49 inches of rain has been observed at locations southeast of houston flash flood warnings remain in effect throughout houston, about 300,000 people by the way still without power in all of texas. And the list of Companies Making donations is getting longer. Hca health care promising to give 2 million for Hurricane Relief kroger, exxonmobil and facebook also pledging money. President trump now on the ground in Corpus Christi, texas and beginning to tour the devastation from Hurricane Harvey eamon javers has the latest from washington its afternoon, i think. The president is in Corpus Christi where hes expected to arrive any moment now at fire station number 5 where hes going to meet with fema officials and coast guard officials. You can see some of the local political leerdship is on hand as well. Thats texas senator john cornyn on the left hand side of that shot in the blue shirt texas senator ted cruz in the green pullover awaiting the briefings alongside local and state officials. The president expected to make some remarks here along with Texas Governor abbott who is also going to speak to the assembled folks there. Fema very much a presence there in Corpus Christi but earlier today Texas Governor abbott spoke with reporters at the Corpus Christi airport and explained why it is that the president is not going to houston today. Heres what he said. Hes coming here as opposed to houston right now because in houston, the most important thing is rescuing and saving lives. So he was very smart and strategic not to go to houston right now. Right now we already in the cleanup phase in Corpus Christi. There are other parts close to here such as rockport, where it would be in the way if he went there right now. So the president will leave Corpus Christi later today where you can see in some of the live pictures weve been showing, blue skies and just a few clouds overhead in Corpus Christi where the reporters say it is humid but not raining now. A much different picture than further southeast in houston where youve seen devastating pictures of houses and biszs completely submerged the president will not see that kind of damage here in Corpus Christi but will have an opportunity to talk to First Responders and people on the scene, joe thats right. Eamon, fblue skies somewhere lets hope it spreads. Lets get back to brian in galveston. Im back to you. You came to me and now back to you. Reporter there you go. Its hard to imagine blue skies. Wed like to have some here the people in this part much texas deserve it in. In our free time weve been trying to go out and talk to people and interview people and im going to tell you something, about two hours ago we went out and we drove up to where near where you saw the rescue, jody and jerry kept going and oscar and michael and i were went around galveston they got crushed, got to the point we got so nervous and turned around and came back. We saw a lot of flooding and high winds and some guy left his dog on a second floor porch which ticks me off but the gate was locked we told emergency workers by the way. I would say probably 10 to 12 inches of rain im guessing were going to go live to the president of United States in Corpus Christi president. Such a warm welcome on his ride over here, showing the gratitude we have for the president. I want to express my deep gratitude to the president for him and his entire cabinet and staff for what they have gone over the past couple of weeks. A lot of people see what happens in front of the camera i want to reveal in just one minute whats been going on behind the scenes, behind the camera for the past two weeks. About ten days in advance of the hurricane, even coming in to the Corpus Christi area, members of the president s cabinet and the president himself were in contact with me and my office, prepreparing for this catastrophe coming our way every step of the way as the hurricane came across the shore. As the flooding began in houston, texas, the president and his cabinet remain in Constant Contact with me and my staff. And they all had one thing to say. Texas, what do you need . How can we help . You can count on us. What ive learned is that we can count on the president of the United States and his staff for helping texas. Texas has been tested but our response to this challenge has been made much more effective because of the very effective way the president and the staff has helped texas respond to this challenge. So mr. President , thank you. Welcome to texas. I appreciate it its so nice governor and its really my honor this is a very special place with a special state and senator cruz and senator cornyn, thank you very much for being here, we appreciate it. You were trapped in various locations and we appreciate you both being here. I want to thank my staff and cabinet, we have quite a few of our cabinet here from hud and tom price and small business, which is now big business when you add them all up, youll help a lot of people in texas and doing a fantastic job. We have had a tremendous group of folks, our acting director, thank you very much for the job youve done. And a man really become very famous on television over the last couple of days, mr. Long, we appreciate it very much you have been just outstanding and i can tell you that my folks just telling me how great the your representatives have been in working together, its a real team and we want to do it better than ever before and looked at five and ten years from now this is the way to do it. This was of epic proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this. And i just want to say that working with the governor and his entire team has been an honor for us governor, again, thank you very much we wont say congratulations, we dont want to do that, dont want to congratulate well congratulate each other when its all finished, but you have been terrific. Youve been my friend too for a long time. With that, maybe you could say a few words. Thank you, mr. President. The whole community is coming together right here where the brunt of the category 4 hurricane winds came in north of Corpus Christi, were already starting to affect recovery recovery is a slow process but rest assured were doing everything we can to unify our efforts down to support the local responders and First Responders that we have here yesterday put eyes on the ground down in rockport, we already have points of distribution flowing and working in conjunction with the Governors National guard where fema is supplying meals and water and the National Guard is helping to run the distribution points. All eyes are on houston and so are mine we have a long way to go, well have to set up expectations and continue a unified effort down to help the state of texas ultimately recover so very quickly, the objectives stay the same. The event to the north of us is not over were still in a life saving, Life Sustaining mission. Were very aware of the issues at the Convention Center but let me be clear. This is not the super dome the Convention Center we are sustaining food. They have food, were in security i have an Incident Management Team inside the city of houston as we speak and more and more people are being moved to shelters to stabilize the situation. The next thing is is that were pushing commodities once the water goes down, well continue to push not only commodities but help get people registered in the system to receive assistance from all of us assistance doesnt just come from fema. It comes from Many Organizations who are represented here today by secretary price, secretary carson and others. The next thing is that were looking at power restoration, were maintaining security mobilized the Homeland Security as much as capacity for us, with that comes Law Enforcement to make sure were overcoming any security needs that we have. And then also with secretary price over here, were working with not only the governors disaster medical teams but sending federal disaster teams in not only to the Convention Center today, already some on site but theres going to be multiple areas. Not only for crisis counseling but make sure were meeting access and functional needs. The access is a challenge to getting all of the supplies in once the Roadway Systems come out, we have amassed quite the federal force for the local and state efforts. For example the governor pulls 12,000 National Guard troops in, were pulling units out of fort hood as the federal government and federal dod forces are coming in as well. We pulled several hundred trucks and staff from assets from the state of texas and thats how the system works this recovery will be frustra frustrati frustrating. Well be here to help you guide through it its going to be tough to navigate all of the programs that become available. But were here to help so with that, id like to pass it along to our friends at the coast guard. Good afternoon, sir, this is where your coast guard serves at its best, were here in the state of texas to support the state of texas, federal Emergency Management agency we have whole coast guard men and women across the country, capabilities, response instant Management Services and getting at the task at hand. I would be remiss to tell you as we look at the landfall here, phase one and weve seen the effects there on local folks, speak more about that. Were all in a challenge in houston, we brought everything to the plate the weather for the next couple of days will remain challenging. Well probably see average rainfalls for the year at 50 inches in i dont think we know what that looks like. The coast guard and department of Homeland Security team and National Guard have spent sunday and monday with the governor at different locations. Were Getting Better at every day. Theres a problem of catastrophic proportions i dont think weve done before but were all in and align and im very encouraged how this thing will go forward. With that, sir, i would like to give the captain a couple of moments here captain tony hahn unified command. Unified command comprised of 150 federal state and local agencies and i want to walk through the time line of our activities weve done over the course of Hurricane Harvey, just to let you know where were at. On tuesday the storm shift and became a hurricane our job was to assess and get asse assets thats what we started to do on bens we started to make preparations to lockdown facilities and get assets to draft ves sells out to sea and thursday we pushed our forces out of harms way and people to come back in after the storm to help as soon as we can. On friday, we moved our boats and aircraft away from the storm so they immediately respond. Now harvey was upgraded to a category 4 hurricane, our team bunkered down in texas, robstown, 20 miles or so from here, ready to be there. When harvey made landfall several ships and mariners in distress were calling us for help at that point we had to wait until the perimeters change to send helicopters north and saved 19 mariners lives that night. Later on saturday morning we began our assessments and the conditions werent good for boats on water we know that the front of the Corpus Christi channel thats a major challenge respond to search and rescue calls on saturday and weather conditions wouldnt allow us to be on water. On sunday now the storm shifted and we searched all of the search and rescue out up to houston. Were helping every way we can with that effort by certain resources. Were ugsing our fixed wing assets to run logistics all over the state to make sure the Operation Command is additionally we brought our boats up from the south to start our operational activities here. So monday, we started our water operation, its a huge emphasis to get the port so our partners at the army corps of engineers began surveys on the channel and checked for obstructions and navigation started their evaluations. The bueoys and channel markers so so far we have done 180 ves sells, our major concern is that large last night the tide came up, winds came out of advance from the storm and actually raised itself and drifted over the other side of the channel. Additionally were working with texas General Land Office on the activities so far the good news is we have not seen anything major. So to close about one third done with our Channel Service with the army corps once we complete the survey and salvage the ground, well be in good position to open the port right now the biggest challenge is potential potential dre dredging operations. I want to tell you and i can speak for the governor, were proud of the coast guard, the job theyve done and lives they saved thank you very much. Mr. President , couple thousand rescues a day rolled up with everybody else in the economic issue in the ports with Border Protection agency and in with the facility owners and pilots on the waterways conditions are not amenable to getting ports open we recognize thats a National Priority and well achieve that as soon as possible. Fantastic thank you. Mr. President , at this time before the press pool pulls out theres information id like to share in regards to how citizens can get involved here again its the whole community. Neighbor helping neighbor is going to be needed very quickly, if you if you would like to register for assistance underneath the governors declared counties, theres 18 declared counties for individual assistance underneath the president s disaster declaration. Thats disaster assistance. Org that puts in disaster assistance. Gov, i apologize. Thats the fema individual Assistance Center system theres also ways if youre looking to volunteer invoad. Org. Theres also within the state of texas one star foundation. Org. Theres also and well leave it that red cross. Org as well. So thank you and at this time this concludes the press briefing thank you very much thank you. We have been listening to President Trump, his first stop in the tour of texas thats taking place in Corpus Christi. Also speaking with the governor of texas greg abbott and fema administrator brock long getting an update from members of the coast guard about the conditions in the area. The president deciding not to go to houston because all of the resources in and around houston area need to be reserved for search and rescue at this point. Not today anyway. Not today exactly interesting we noted that no things maybe are looking a little bit more positive its always great to see the people involved, and this just gives you a better feeling knowing that they are all in the same room trying to figure this out. But no back patting whatsoever. No assumption that no heck of a job. That they are through the woods. They made the fema administrator brock long made a point to not do that weve seen that movie before. And it didnt end well. Exactly well, they are talking about search and rescue but of course, all eyes are on recovery and how the area will dig out. How will officials manage the situation moving forward at this point . What are the Biggest Challenges to recovering from the crisis. Were joined by the former Homeland Security who was the first person to serve in that position george, great to have you with us. Good afternoon, melissa. For the next 48 to 72 hours, the focus will be on life safety issues but beyond that, what can happen can anything happen while theres still water in the streets . Melissa, its going to be difficult. As weve talked about, this has been such an extended eye vevent it makes difficult for the state and local authorities to assess the scope and scale of how much damage there is out there. They are going to have to wait for the water to recede to get an accurate assessment of whats the impact on homes and businesses and what is the Overall Economic impact. Weve gotten