Days cooling trade. And the crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at a real dot com. And now abc world news. Is bbc world news america reporting from washington o. The remnants of hurricane hall the all wreaking havoc on the text coast catastrophic flooding has forced thousands into shelters will live on the same. I know much about it live in la grange. This weather break that has broken its. As the storm rolls said that east with yet more flooding to calm. President trump heads to texas tomorrow its allies are on how his administration handles its first natural disaster. He has this message for those affected. We are one hundred percent with you. But frank for you are working closely with your leaders and officials. And amid the devastation barrel or sex scenes of humanity with volunteers rescuing people trapped. And neighbors of reaching out to those in need. Welcome to our views on Public Television and around the globe. Theyre running out of adjectives to describe the historic flooding in Houston Texas and it is not over yet. The unprecedented amount of rain comes in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. And all the storm may have weakened it is still life threatening tens of thousands of already being forced from their homes to escape the rapidly rising water. Among the areas holiday hit is lagrange thats where the b. B. C. s or trevelyan is tonight. Would you believe it or not youre looking that jane believe it or not you are looking that at what is one of the main streets in la grange texas i know it looks like a war so why because the. Colorado river has broken its banks causing this devastating flooding this is the worst flooding theyve seen half in a hundred years the Colorado River is only about five to eight feet. Is running or. Thirty five feet that is double the flooding level its causing. Absolutely ruinous devastating catastrophic flooding to homes and to businesses naff because the. To have all of the damage has been a hundred miles west of here in houston for one of my colleague james cook reports. In texas today. Every stranger is afraid. Everyone. Exhausted unable even to stand. Box she said. All day long with a google to safety. Family after family abandoning their homes to the water. Anything that would float became part of this makeshift armada. People here are pulling together but many say they had no choice theyd called for help. But no one came weve seen a couple neighbors happened they were top people to have some people come in and. Wood boats but im. Not enough help. And anon from the authorities nine from the authorities that they already have been paid basically useless. One thing have been overwhelmed by the scale of this crisis. Three days after Hurricane Harvey smashed into their state texans are still struggling in its wake. In this suburb of houston they called for help all night but no one answered. In the end it wasnt police or Fire Fighters who came to the rescue. But some friends with the boat they say they called nine one one of them is no lots of it youve answered the call well. We just have to be here and now we had a vote in the truck so here we are and thats whats happening all over texas isnt it yes it is all over houston. Cold and the rain the helping hand was warmly welcomed. Must be grateful to these guys here of course grateful took actually at the whole Community Things use them being together helping each other out thats. Really touching him. I was im on this show is actually had something to god i hope. In moments like this we all need it. Well. That is frenetic activity heroes boats both up and down the river. This little vessel alone has rescued thirty people so fa. From the situation is developing very quickly. On the rooftops of flooded houses many mortar still waiting to be rescued. In desperation all they can do is to click on and call for help. In houston alone more than twenty helicopters are flying rescue missions but pulling people from the floods is delicate and it is dangerous. And his texas brings in Twelve Thousand soldiers from the National Guard to help. The state also has to prepare for a president ial visit. It is a historic amount of water in particular theres never been anything like it. So. The people handle it amazingly well and the people of texas as you know have. Have really. Persevered. And when you watch the spirit and enthusiasm and helping each other the teamwork. Its really been something. Texas is now saturated and it is struggling thousands of people have made it to safety. But the warfares keep all not rising and the Lone Star State is swamped. James cook bbc news houston. Well for more on the situation head in la grange i spoke earlier to the county judge and units guy and i started by asking him if hes ever seen. Nothing like this before. Ive been here for twenty seven years doing this job. Ive been through about four five floods and yes never like this. You get tired of using the word. Unbelievable know we were here obviously all night and and whatever and. Really didnt know the effects we were following through with their National Weather service and then suddenly when daybreak came. Yes you came out here and it was just it was hard to believe. All the water that was her. And what kind of an impact i think that i have owned a small town of five thousand people with so many Small Businesses which looked to be rude and. But what happens if we start out with this weve been fighting this storm just trying to make sure that everybody safe. Not only here in the city but around the entire county because we had run off weve had all kinds of floods in the area. Now the hard work starts you have to start rebuilding you have to start clean. Theres Little Things like you have to make sure when using the water here in the city that you boil. That we brought in a team of Mental Health experts that have to deal with people that have. Issues that losing their houses and stuff so now the really hard work is going to start. Most impact on you passed away when youve seen the gore range this Place Community devastated by Something Like they. Know if its a positive thing for me and ill tell you why. Because yes its been a really difficult thing for everybody people have really full of them. Everybody volunteer spirit is wonderful here yeah i can tell you im. Because they were gonna do steps to help to receive ans in the aftermath of hurricane hoping. We were not. Getting that prevent working with the. National Weather Bureau and stuff and and we were very familiar with. Forecasts and on the impact of the river because weve done it in the past. And suddenly they said forty nine feet at home. Thats not true its impossible and then they start. Raising it up to forty three and forty point finally we ended up with forty four nine or forty four six whatever we ended up but. Yeah no well we were and i was completely gone back. But now that this has happened once and we havent seen flooding like they send a blank for a hundred years. Deal wiry that this could happen again that youre going to have to scramble on respond by this again in the future. No i really dont i mean i think this is a thousand year flood thats exactly what im gonna call it because. Im also local historian and i know about the floods in. And where they came from this is a modern day record only because its god speaka little bit earlier about the events. Yeah and and jane of course as i talk to you. The storm itself has headed banqiao into the gulf of mexico is going to the northeast and is heading towards louisiana so much much already in ful. Is expected at both to the east of houston and in the state of louisiana went out of the woods yet jiang nor i just cant get over the speed at which that water is rushing past you. The people that i surprised at how bad this became so quickly. Jane people are astonished at first alway in them and they feel that the storm was happening on the coast and yes the speed of the water by yesterday afternoon people went out for the day they went to church they. Did whatever they came back to find there was an Evacuation Order on that dual yellow tape everywhere and the water levels are rising. And you talk about the speed at which the Colorado River is now moving behind me or what was one of the main streets in this town. I actually so i did act carried down the street thereve been. Numerous bits of daydream weve been estimating that the gang at between fifteen and twenty miles an asset this is. It dreamily dangerous what has happened here leaving in its wake this absolutely ruinous funding. Are conquered iraq laura thank you very much indeed do stay with us like its going to come back to you shortly. But the head of the federal Emergency Management agency or fema says they will be in texas for years helping those affected by the storm will for more on that in response i spoke a brief time ago. With Richard Serena who served as deputy administrator of fema under president obama and now teaches at harvard. Richard serena thank you very much for coming in now youve handled a number of major disasters have you seen anything like this. You know we hate to classify disasters and each disasters uniquely different but this one is is special because it came and hit the coast as a category four hurricane. And then on top of that his dumb thirty five inches of rain in some places they could go up to fifty inches of rain. This of course is the sort of situation that fema plans for but give me an idea of just how complicated the responses. One of things that we look at is the the very complex responses. Complex responses that you need to bring together a whole host what we call the whole the Community Bring people together. So far administrative brookline is done a great job of leaking together with governor rabbit. The state directing them kid whos very experienced say emergency manager in texas is well is bring together the local communities. And but it doesnt stop which is government we realize that this has to expand quite a bit more its bringing in. The private sector the businesses also the non profits such as the red cross the salvation arm. The voluntary agencies such as team room because they gonna help in the long term. But also how do we work with the faith based communities who with air and also bringing together the. People themselves the public and how important they are weve watched neighbors helping neighbors saving lives all throughout the last few days and i know were going to continue to see that. Is continuing professional urban search and rescue teams arrive to assist. A lot of the full costs a saying that the rain is expected to continue pretty much for most of the week. Can people cope can the authorities cope and all those volunteers youre talking about if it gets much worse. Well i think one of the things thats the unique palaces the leadership and the leadership has been key. And getting enough help to the right people at the right time its really difficult for the survivors in putting people first. So continuing guy is the main part in the houston area is still life safety issues still water rescues going on still people going out there. But realizing how important it is to look after the survivors also the respondents themselves in. Now theyve been working pretty much nonstop doing heroic efforts in now that sammy to get replaced and have other people come in and give them at least a few hours break. So i can go back out and help more and more the citizens and business to the area so at this point what would you say is the biggest challeng. I think the biggest challenge is going to be a life safety is good making sure they rescue those who need to be rescued. Also get maintaining in making sure theres enough food water. Initially for a again to keep people alive in then now how do we look at sheltering in we had we put these people up to thirty thousand people could be sheltered. Four hundred fifty thousand will be looking for some sort of assistance and working through those processes the housing issue. After they get out of shelters hopefully into a hotel and then to move some medium term housing for rentals and looking at the long term housing issues. This is. Gonna be called for a lot of patients its going to b. Months and years until this gets back to normal. Is the governor of mention just recently its going to be in doing normal for that part of texas. Richard serena thank you very much for joining me. Thank you. Well we can go about torture valley and whos in la grange for us up laura in it for the long hold how all people keeping their spirits up knowing that this could well get worse before it gets better. Well you know this is really a very small and tight knit Community WhetherBaptist Church is playing a central well whack when i go ahead this morning jane. The beka in the town square hed shut up shop for the day but he was giving everybody free sausage rolls so. Because its only five thousand people because i pretty much Everybody Knows everybody the three hundred homes that were evacuated. Everyone is rushing to the church to play a role to help those were evacuated because they know them personally. And yet another person i met the ball but hes shot up shop said he can go to the churc. He was that cooking breakfast for everyone this morning with his ten year old daughter whos off School Giving out mail so. Thats what youre seeing happening hit your seeing people responding to what is a devastating event out waves that great resilience but also people are saying you know thankfully we didnt see loss of life here at least. Know that has been reported amy and is just loss of property its not the same as actually losing an individual say that. Strength of Community Spirit here i would say jane is extremely strong indeed. The orchard allen with the very latest in la grange thank you very much. Well as weve mentioned i to texas on tuesday possibly louisiana on saturday whats the purpose of the trip. I think the purpose is to show that hes paying attention to the problems on the ground and that the federal government is doing something if remember george w. Bush after hurricane katrina. He was perceived as not doing enough that he. Didnt cut short his vacation that he only flew over the flooded areas in a plane. Wasnt immediately responded i think. The Trump Administration donald trump himself is painfully aware of the dangers that a storm like this could pose to a presidency. Katrina set a very low bar four oval for how damaging it could be to a presidency. And he wants to make sure that ill optics are are such that hes perceived is doing everything he can to coordinate. The on the Ground Response better member right now its mostly a state and local efforts. The Disaster Relief the federal governments role beyond just coordinating comes in later. With the rebuilding restructuring helping the displaced. Settle back to new new that new homes what about the evacuation though because a lot of people did decide to stay. Is the government this their sense of the government has been criticized for not having done enough if there is criticism i think that is where its coming right now those directed mostly at the state and local officials. Kept remember houston is a city of over six Million People to try to evacuate a city like that. Is. Technically nearly impossible hurricane rita in two thousand five it or did evacuation two point five million houstonians hit the road creating traffic jams all around texas. I was an awesome night friends in houston its normally two and half hour drive it can twenty hours to get. To their friends in an austin hall hundred people died on that drive from the sea and. Through traffic accidents in High School Even imagine it. Double jump is saying about it this is going to be very expensive and theyre in there for the long hold but. Presumably there isnt a blank check for the cleanup operation and is Congress Going to support him. Well traditionally. Support has been bipartisan in congress for Disaster Relief we saw that change after Hurricane Sandy in two thousand twelve where there were some legislators including. Several from texas who blocked a on on the bus Disaster Relief built dot targeted towards new jersey and new york. Saying that it would have their pet projects in at that it was it narrowly focused enough so now the shoe is essentially on the other foot and i think were hearing from a lot of critics say. Well these the. Anthony circa thanks very much for joining us. Another breaking news north korea is reported to find a missile from near its capital pyongyang over japanese territory and see. Japanese governments Warning System advice people in the area to take precautions but no damage was reported. There was no attempt shoot the missile that. European and African Leaders meeting in paris have agreed on an action plan to curb the flow of migrants across the mediterranean. The french president emmanuel mccrone said it would involve tackling people smugglers improving security and increasing aids to transit countries. Germany to anglo buckle said there wasnt much work to do to improve security judicial procedures and development. In south africa five men have appeared in court to face charges of murder and conspiracy to murder. In a story of alleged cannibalism but has gripped the country. They were arrested off to one of that one of them hounded himself over to police saying he was. Tired of eating human flesh. Watching bbc world news america still to come on tonights program will return to texas where community simply called cope with the massive amounts of rain for. The red cross tells us what theyre doing to help those in need. The guru his conviction for rape triggered deadly riots in northern india has been sentenced to twenty years in jail. On friday clashes between followers of go meet rom rocking saying and Security Forces left thirty eight people dead. Thousands of police have been deployed to the region where his movement is based amid further phase of unrest from that justin wrote up reports. The town where the controversial self styled guru is being held was under Strict Lockdown today. The normally flamboyant god man was subdued as the twenty year sentence was read out. The victim said that was too light and they would appeal. After the explosion of violence that followed his conviction the indian Authorities Say they are taking no chances. Steam thousand Paramilitary Police and troops have been deployed. This town is the focus of concern to die this is why the vast temple complex that serves as the gurus h. Q. Is based. All your. Troops ready to besiege the temple complex if necessary. We have four eclipse we needed in pretty trade. What what that action that given we implement . Guru ram brought him is a charismatic and controversial figure he stars in his own movies and has millions of followers. Many devotees say that despite the right convictions they have not lost faith in the man they regard. As a living saint. Use it to ruin my theyd be woodbury hes a true guru the accusations all falls i was deeply hurt by the verdicts. His blessings will always be with us it doesnt matter that hes in jail a guru is always occurring. Tonight the gurus temple complex is effectively under siege surrounded by heavily armed police and troops. Inside there are reckoned to be fifteen thousand hard core disciples. The fear is what happens when the authorities try to get them out. Justin wrote that bbc news sinisa. Poor attorney tong lead story now and the rains hitting texas which is causing historic flooding the b. B. C. s george about and has been in la grange for us all day and joins me again. Laura i was talking to. Someday from the red cross earlier today and they were describing this extraordinary logistical. Complicated. Operation thats now underway but for many people that. Its the new normal this is going to happen again in keypad. Well no one here likes to think that that could be the case but of course we do have a changing climate we do have warming war says. Wave warming waters you get more that moisture act coming into the atmosphere and walk hurricanes absolutely love is moisture up because that. Gives them rainfall and thats whats happened in this situation with Hurricane Harbor that that became the Tropical Storm. Is because that was all this moisture in that because thats been so much moisture rising from the water because its been a very warm winter in the gulf of mexico. That has enabled this Tropical Storm to keep going aided of course by the fact that the winds just didnt move at well thats got nothing necessarily to do with Climate Change but you can see. The era convergences a of things that if we get a particularly bad weather passion like no winds arriving to move a hurricane also city. Combined with more water in the atmosphere that. Yes we could well see more more flooding like this where you see the Colorado River breaking his bank so at its alarming to think that this is the new normal. And this could be the future but this is my sasson lee what im Disaster Management at charities of planning fo. And i suspect that most people that are focused on the more immediate problem briefly and indeed how manys will it be before the waters recede. And when they do what kind of condition will the property be a so yes tonight there are many people. In shelters not just here in la grange but across this region of texas and digging in for the long hold orchard allen thanks very much indeed. What does this disaster has unfolded some of the most powerful images have been photographs here is some that captured the magnitude and the emotional toll . Uhhuh. And from photo galleries to the latest information about those affect find a storm do go to the bbc website bio got constant updates. On jane obrien thank you for watching bbc world news america. With the bbc news out. Of vertical videos designed to occur in your lifestyle. So you can swipe your way. The news of the day. And stay up to date with the latest headlines you can trust. Download now from selected apps does. Funding of this presentation is made possible by. The freemen foundation. And coal Fuller Foundation pursuing solutions for americas neglected me. Planning a vacation escape thats relaxing inviting. And exciting. Is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here in aruba. Families couples and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm sunny days cooling trade. And the crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at a real dot com. Bbc world news was presented by casey team loss and captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc obrien good evening, im miles obrien. Judy woodruff is away. On the newshour tonight. Houston under water harvey brings historic floods, forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee, many by boat or helicopter, with a cruel forecast of much more rain for days. To have to make some very tough decision as to which people to rescue, what people come back to later to help, weighs on all of us here. Obrien then, pardon power president trumps controversial move to absolve former Sheriff Joe Arpaio raises questions about respect for federal law. And, its politics monday we explore how recent statements from the secretaries of state and defense highlight a growing ga