Cooperation with the Houston Police department and our partners have effected 290 water rescues since midnight last night. Neil all right. Epicenter financially, just sheer breath and scope a incredible storm, houston, texas, that is where you find our jeff flock. What is the latest there in. Reporter neil, here is the problem, we had a break in the rain. Seems things improved. They have releasing water out after couple different reservoirs so they dont compromise the dams. These people have never had flood problems before, but you now think you might be on the edge of a problem . Very much so, actually with the dam releases this is all from the dam releases, because they dont want the dam to breach. This basically has come overnight. We never had water anywhere close to this house. It is very close now. Reporter if they dont release on the dams they may potentially lose the dams and downtown understand. Absolutely understand. It is just scary. Reporter you said you heard they will release water again at this hour. That is what a friend of mine told me. I wasnt watching news. I have been watching out here. A friend of mine said they would release at 11. Reporter could mean higher. Double the amount of water this time from what we understand. So were, were hoping were sitting high enough. But it is hard to say. Reporter that is the headline, neil, at this hour. Spin around here, laurie, we were here this morning. We were walking in the street this morning out here, if you look, i dont know if i can walk out into it or if you can see. Down there now, we got people with water in their houses up halfway. You know, just when you think maybe you get a break, not so. This is a tough one. This is a tough one, neil. Neil thank you very much, jeff flock. As jeff intimated this could stick around for couple days. Another 30 to 40 inches. Talking biblical proportions here. In terms of katrina that will likely be more expensive. Katrina of course had many, many more deaths, excess of 1200. Blessedly theyre not looking anything like that for the timebeing in this storms case. Fema director saying it is unprecedented. Helping texas overcome this disaster will be far greater than fema coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. We need citizens to be involved. Texas, this is a landmark event. We have not seen an event like this. You could not draw this forecast up. You could not dream in forecast up. Neil lets get the read from former fema director james lee witt. Very good to have you. How do you think authorities are doing thus far . I think that brock long and fema and working closely with texas. Provide resources texas asked for. I think they will do a great job. Brock long is great administrator. A former state director and i know him well. The eight years i spent at fema, i know how dedicated fema employees are as well. I think they will do a great job. Getting through the response first is the critical issue right now. Neil james, for a storm like this will hang around a while for few more days, another three feet of rain . How do you prepare for that . What does fema do, besides orchestrate these evacuations and the like to get people out of harms way . Its a pretty big area of harms way, right . Well, that of course is the first priority, is to get people out of harms way, and shelter them, try to keep them fed and get their medications that they need and doctors, nurses and so you know, its a huge, huge, job and you know, you have got the red cross an salvation army, many other organizations to help take care of that, which is very important as well. Neil, this could be the costliest event weve seen in the United States in a long time. It is, it is a catastrophic event. It will take a long time to recover from this ive seen it so many times. You go into thighs areas, that have been flooded and water goes down, you have to rip out sheetrock from walls. Debris will be massive. The other thing around is the Hazardous Material in homes and other places they have to dispose of in a special location. Its a lot of work and a long time to get this done. Neil would you urge those in the flood zones, those already flooded, just get out of town, might be a little late after the fact after the storm but a lot worse is colling so leave . Absolutely, if you have family members you can stay with, have to go to a shelter, do so. Dont go back into the areas until the local governments say it is safe to go back in. You could have downed power lines. You will have a lot of infrastructure problems. What is really, it is going to be, when this water goes down, they start gathering debris from all the homes, worse in there, the mayor and county judges and all will have serious road problems because of big trucks and quilt going over those roads that has been saturated with the base. It will, it will demolish some of those roads. Neil you know maybe you can steer me through the process here, james, when it comes to where does femas responsibility end when it comes to homeowners, more to the point, and those who purchased government insurance, or some type of insurance . I was surprised to find out even in the floodprone areas, one out of five homeowners in the houston area had such insurance. But those who did, it is backed up by the government, by fema, how does that work . Yeah the Flood Insurance program is under fema and, you know, i hope, most people do have Flood Insurance because that will help them to recover. Neil what if they dont, what happens if they dont . Well then, fema can come in with individual Family Grant Program. They can provide temporary housing up to 18 months if that is the case. If that is the need. They have the Family Grant Program which can provide, i dont know what the number is today. When i was there is was 10,000. I think it is more than that today. If you can make your home habitable. So there is a lot of different programs in there. Neil sounds to me four out of five homeowners who dont have such insurance, rolled the dice, didnt purchase it, maybe it was expensive, i dont know they will be if they dont individual now and get federal assistance, then they are required to have Flood Insurance from that day on. Neil if they dont, then, theyre on their own, essentially . Theyre on their own, yes. Neil okay. Who is in charge with this . I know authorities are saying, even acting fema administrator heads were talking about local authorities are in charge and calling the shots in those communities. What is femas role then . To avoid the duplication and confusion of Services Like we saw with katrina in 2005 . Well, what happens is, your local Emergency Management office in conjunction with the state office, they will request type of resources they need immediately. If the state does not have those resource, then fema will fill that gap and provide those resources. So its a partnership from the local, state and federal. And, if it is working well, then, it will be seamless. And so far it looks like it is seamless. So far it looks like it is going extremelyathathathath we find ourselves in different situations between hurricanes rita and katrina because were producing so much oil and natural gas in this country. We have a refining problem, we have 24 days of gasoline in storage. We have natural gas in storage. We have a Strategic Petroleum reserve. We have supply. One of the questions becomes, can we move it around . That became a big problem 12 years ago. We have to keep the electricity on, so we can move product through the pipelines. Unfortunately they havent lost a lot more pipelines yet but underscores the need for infrastructure in days to come. Neil interesting that the president would look into infrastructure that would be included in that. Meantime we know harvey close ad great many ports, a lot of refineries shut down, disabled for a while. Obviously the longer theyre disabled, potentially more aggressive rise in gasoline and related prices, right . Youre absolutely right. So much of our Refining Capacity is in the gulf coast. 20 of it now is shut in. By the way, not because they have been damaged. They preventively shut down so they wouldnt incur damage. That is a good thing. Industry responded early. They should be applauded for that. Its a devastating situation. Our hearts and prays go to the people in the gulf and firstresponders. They need energy. They need diesel fuel to get around to rescue people. They need to keep lights on in hospitals. The industry is working around the clock. Goes without saying this sun precedented. Neil thank you very much, car car karen for the update. The economic damage can not be lost and for those outside of the hurricane zone, harveys swath, the fact of matter you will be impacted by other items, curtailment of refineries, prices related, well explore investment by investment and how theyre affected. How you might have to gird for higher prices down the road including utility bills. Well get into that. There is the issue of unintended consequences when roads and cities become flooded and fires and gas explosions erupt. That seems to be happening in downtown houston may be the case. We dont know the source of the fire. It comes after the flooding. People suspect they will see a lot more of this. Right now better part of valor to let this thing burn on. Tend to people who are in literal harms way. That building was not occupied at the time this was going on. Well have more after this. You always pay. Your insurance on time. Tap one little bumper, and up go your rates. What good is having insurance if you get punished for using it . News flash nobodys perfect. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™ Liberty Mutual insurance. Neil the. This is what happens when you have a devastating storm. Anything having to do with rebuilding or building period, those issues move up. Lowes, home depot, lumber liquidators, rise smartly after a disaster like this. The question Going Forward here, has this become an even worse disaster because some people remained in place . You might recall there was a bit of a disconnect, Texas Governor abbott, advocating those in houston evacuate. The democratic mayor said that would cause more after panic and problem than it is worth so dont advocate. Governor abbott i chatted in the weekend with live coverage, he takes no umbrage, political or otherwise against the mayor. Not everyone heeded your call to evacuate though. I think the houston mayor had said that might cause problems en masse. Now, were there difficulties with him that you had or what . No, no. The way it works in the state of texas that it is the local officials who have the authority to declare an evacuation. Some made that declaration closer to where the hurricane hit. In houston there has not been a need for it. In Harris County which houston is located there have been certain localized mayors that have declared evacuations, voluntary evacuations. But this is a matter to be determined at the local level. Neil really to be fair, has not been still not a lot of finger pointing made. George p. Bush, texas land commissioner joining me. Commissioner, very good having you back with us. What is the latest from your Vantage Point . How bad does this get . How far does this flooding spread. Regret fully, neil, the weather situation is not helping us. Were anticipating as you mentioned more a few feet of precipitation in many areas of our state. We have 54 counties of our 254 right now declared to be disaster areas. Were still in the process of extensive searchandrescue efforts. Pretty much the full weight of the State Government along with county and local leadership in these affects areas deploying as many assets as possible to the point of areas that need it the most. In addition to the extensive voluntary efforts you and your viewers have been watching over the course of the last several days. So, that is the immediate priority right now, saving as many lives as possible in an area where eight Million People are under some sort of a flood advisory. Neil you know what do you do, for a lot of those people, particularly in areas now in houston expecting feet more of rain . Is it almost too late to evacuate them, to wait it out . I mean this could go on for three or four days . What do you do . The specific instructions, follow the local and county Emergency Managers in terms of directions. A lot of that information has been put out on social media, tv, radio, any media channel that you can imagine and the coordination has been seamless in terms of the directions that have been put out to the public. For a lot of people youre watching in houston, yes, they are, told to shelter in place and a lot are going to be stranded in areas. You had talked previously with other elected officials that are stranded in their own areas. Our railroad commissioner, our lieutenant governor, for example, are stuck in their own neighborhoods in the greater houston area. So, i know local officials according to the mayors brief earlier today, said of police chief in houston said, that theyre trying to attend to the tens of thousands of 9 11 calls, to the extent possible but not to give up on local and county authorities to initiate searchandrescue. Neil you know a lot of people know your father, jeb bush, the former florida governor, for how he handled hurricanes. He had decent is under his watch, close to a dozen which he became very familiar. He was famous for preparing residents to not take storms lightly or to go out afterwards in floods and risk their lives and their potential rescuers lives. Fair to say a good many took this storm lightly. Maybe for good reason. They have seen threats, heard of threats before and maybe disregarded them. What do you think of all that . This is a unique storm, neil. If you go back to thursday it was considered to be a Tropical Storm over the yucatan peninsula. Neil thats right. It wasnt really tracked by many to be honest. It developed into a category 4 storm that immediately made landfall in south texas, closer to Corpus Christie, rockport, port aransas. What is very unique, neil it, traveled over Central Texas and proceeded to create a rainmaking type event that now unfortunately works against us because the states geology flows downward. So you have four of our major rivers are now out of their banks and, creating a lot of stress in the houston bayou system. In fact the core of engineers had to relief some of that strain in the Buffalo Bayou which runs through downtown houston. A confluence of many factors that make this a extremely dangerous situation. Neil commissioner, how do you think President Trump is doing so far with this . This is the first emergency weather crisis under his watch . He is doing the right things. He accepted the governors request for disaster relief. He will be coming to texas on tuesday. I think he is doing that in a thoughtful methodical way, not to constrain firstresponders currently activated and operating right now in the greater houston area. I understand he is going down to the areas in which, the storm hit initially where landfall was made in texas. And so, i know, based upon the briefs that weve been getting at state Operations Center that the federal government has done their job. Right now it comes down to excuse execution. You have seen amazing and heroic efforts from firstresponders but voluntary efforts. Texans helping texans. People coming from all over the country coming into help oust. Even the cajun navy as it is called. Neil remarkable and very inspiring. You mentioned the president , what he has been doing here. Sometimes president s are damned if they do, damned if they dont, your uncle, george w. Bush for katrina and new orleans, was originally criticized coming late. Others warned him ahead of time dont come too soon you will add to the, you know the dislocation going on. So maybe, President Trump will be in that same kind of nowin conundrum. What do you make of that and how he has to handle the visit tomorrow . I will leave that for the critics that will assess. There will be plenty of time for that. He probably will be criticized. Us a nowin situation. But what he can do and has already done pledged available assets and resources. I know the federal government has done their part prepositioning assets to make sure we mitigate a lot of commodity shortages we anticipate in the coastal areas but also all available resources. The coast guard stepped up in terms of aerial reconnaissance and searchandrescue missions taking place off of rooftops as we speak. Neil commissioner, real quickly, one of the things i learned make you particularly vulnerable, all the building going on in that city. I have seen it myself. Cranes have been busy. 30,000 people added a year since 2010 . Too much so . Making especially vulnerable city and land that normally would have sort of sucked up rain unable to do so now . Well, i think we need a paradigm shift here in texas, frankly throughout the country in terms how we mitigate future events like this, whether dealing with flood events or storm surge. Many anticipated this to be a storm surge event. Were seeing it is more of a rainmaking event from the northwestern part of the state through the city. We can find that, that balance in our state. We have, between Economic Development on one hand and just being, living in a vulnerable area. New orleans rebuilt after katrina. Their barrier system has been built to with stand a 20foot storm surge. After this process as texans we will come together to do the same to make sure we can stem events from this happening again. Neil all right. Commissioner, youve been busy. We do appreciate the time you take to speak with us, update our audience. Many of whom live in texas. Thank you, again, sir. Appreciate it. You got it. Neil you know, we told you about these floods, all those homeowners. One in five protected right now through some sort of insurance. Even that might not cover everything. But for the four out of five, does it cover anything, e