rescue. cnn's brian todd flew over part of that area. seeing it from the air is really overwhelming. tell us what you saw as those rescue crews were going to work there. >> reporter: overwhelming is a very good word to use, jim. we took off and returned just a short time ago, flying with the border protection, they're air and marine praoperations unit. from the air it's just a jarring sense of the scope of the devastation here. we flew to an area called kingwood. it's northeast of houston and completely devastated. the water levels there are astounding, and from the air you can really see it as far as just how far it goes. you can't see the end of it, essentially. water to window levels on second floors, water up to roofs on some occasions. forget about using a road because they're completely under