All that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Obrien houston, the nations 4th largest city, is virtually paralyzed tonight. Huge swaths are underwater in the wake of hurricane, now Tropical Storm harvey. At least eight people are dead, thousands rescued, untold numbers stranded. About 30 inches of rain has fallen already with 20 more inches possible. Special correspondent Christopher Booker reports from houston reporter hour by hour, the water keeps rising and rescuers keep going, with whatever is at hand. Its just gonna get worse and if they dont get out today, theyre going to have to get out tomorrow or the day after anyway. Power is not gonna come back, so might as well get out and try to ride it out at a shelter. Reporter whole communities have already been inundated, and officials opened two reservoirs today to ease pressure on dams and protect the citys business core. It could also mean flooding thousands more homes. Thats lent new urgency to the roundtheclock rescue efforts. All over the city impromptu rescue operations are underway. In this apartment complex, neighbors are going doortodoor encouraging people to leave. Houston mayor Sylvester Turner the rescues, thats our number one priority. Getting to people in houston who remain their homes, we want to get to them today, we want to reach everyone today. Reporter harvey made landfall near Corpus Christi late friday night, then stalled, all the while dumping rain measured in feet. Now, the storm is expected to dip back into the gulf of mexico, then hit houston for a second time by wednesday. Today, Governor Greg Abbott activated all 12,000 members of the Texas National guard for searchandrescue missions. But its still not enough, and civilians, from texas and beyond, have volunteered boats and trucks to help overwhelmed first responders. Youve just got to look out for everybody. Its overwhelming, the amount of rain. Its too much for the first responders. They need help. Reporter over the weekend, some people were airlifted from roofs by coast guard helicopters, others ferried off on boats. Thigh deep water. Current was strong. And they helped us up to the military truck that evacuated us over here to the library. So were just happy to be okay. Reporter for rescuers and rescued alike, its risky business. As youre walking through the water, the water is actually moving pretty rapidly past you, and the danger is you take each step you re not exactly sure what youre going to step on, or how deep it is or how shallow it is, youre constantly getting jostled back and forth. Many of houstons main roadways are still impassable today. This map shows where high water has made travel all but impossible, except by boat. For those forced from their homes, the scope of whats been lost is sinking in. I have three feet of water in my house. Three feet in my bed, in my hospital bed in my house, because im bedridden. Theres water in all of the beds in the house, weve lost every strip of furniture, every couch, everything. Reporter houstons george r. Brown Convention Center housed thousands of new orleans victims during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now, the citys own residents are taking shelter there. City officials are defending their decision not to order evacuations. Francisco sanchez is a spokesperson for the Harris County office of Homeland Security says it would have been worse to let people get caught in the open. Some of those questions and criticisms, where youre actually looking at where those are coming from, arent people from texas and they arent people from Harris County. Our community here understands hurricanes. Reporter some coastal texas counties did evacuate friday night, but the sheer destruction will take months, if not years, to clean up. We dont have any electricity. Theres no water. So, basically, were still breathing, but it humbled us. It really did. If nobodys humbled by this, somethings wrong. Reporter volunteers arrived in rockport, texas, to hand out water bottles. President trump monitored the situation from the white house, promising full federal support for the victims. I think that youre going to see very rapid action from congress. Certainly from the president and youre going to get your funding. Reporter the president and mrs. Trump plan travel to Corpus Christi themselves tomorrow, then to san antonio. Mr. Trump has also declared a separate emergency in louisiana. That was from special Christopher Booker who joins me with more now. Christopher, where are you and what are you seeing right now there in houston . Reporter justth just west of downtown houston and seeing what you seen all over city. Playing out everywhere. We drove a little bit around, everywhere we went streets just like this and many, Amazing Things all the people coming out in these impromty rescue units a family walks past with a young child and the woman was very, very pregnant. Its just unbelievable obrien you get the sense that people are banding together and relying on each other as much they can. Not necessarily waiting for the authorities to come rescue them. Is that what youre seeing . Reporter we spent some time earlier this afternoon with a group of neighbors who had formed an impromptu rescue chain where people were going into this apartment complex with boats getting encouraging people to leave their homes and once the people got out ofa . Qs their homes, they then went to the next chain where the people were directing them to shelters or to hotels. This was all organized on the scene in the moment. Obrien what does surprise me as i see this scene there with the driving rain a lot of water behind you is there still quite a bit of put activity. What is going on there right now . What are people doing . Reporter this is just like many of the other cities. People are coming, up weve seen number of possibly of launch their boats and theyve been taking them through the flooded waters. Truck passed me is from the ohio task force, people are dispatching clearly from all over to go to different places. Just down the way, im not sure if you can actually see it here, but theres an 18 wheeler stuck in the water, and theres a group of people walking toward it. People seem to be coming out from the right here as basically making their way toward higher ground. And just beyond my view, theres a higher spot where people who have walked out of the water are kind of walking up to what seems to be people ranged to pick them up obrien Christopher Booker in houston. Christopher, you and your team please be safe. Thank you. Obrien another view on the soggy ground in texas, i spoke to Sheila Jackson lee, a democrat. Represented downtown houston more than two decades. The Congress Woman has not been able to access her own home due to flooding in the area. She join us from the George R BrownConvention Center in houston. Thanks for being with us. I know youve been in your district for the day and i know you are personally affected by this. If you can just paint the scene for me. What are you seeing among your constituents right now . Well, im seeing a lot. I just came back in from the northeast part of high district, rescuing about 50 people including elderly that were frail, babies and moms and others that were disabled, but these were resilient people. Who are waiting and really said well wait it out. Well stay here in this place with no real food and no real resources. They had taken cover, if you will, in a place in the neighborhood. A lot of people are doing that. They are seeking their own refuge but a lot of people are volunteering and being the good samaritans. At the same time, were working closely with local governments. The mayor and county judge and im here on the federal resources. Fema at this center we have is very, very popular center, if you will. The george brown Convention Center, the shelter here. We got fema and a full Medical Center established and were trying to restore peoples lives. But we do need and will need federal resources and im looking for a bipartisan approach to making sure we get those monies to restore the lives houstonians and those of south texas and those all over the state being impacted and still being impacted by Hurricane Harvey obrien what will you be asking for an aids package we hope will be joined by republicans and democrats that are compress as ifly look at the housing. We reallies that there are homes that are now sitting with water. This is most catastrophic event we have had in houston. Bar none, bar alicia and allison, the water is pounding. Were going to have to restore a lot of housing. Infrastructure has to be restored, water retention. All of that will be part of an aids package and i hope we will not only have the leadership of the congress but the white house will understand that a large economic piece of the nation has been severely impacted. I heard someone from fema say this will take months for restoration and maybe even years. Obrien the politics in washington is the possibility maybe of a Government Shutdown in context of whats happening in houston what do you say to that this is a busy place. Im trying to get people rescued. I intend to send a letter to the president of the United States and he does not to him this is the worst time that a Government Shutdown could occur. Im not for a Government Shutdown. I understand the speaker is not, and the majority leaders are not. Those of us in the other party, democratic party, our leadership wants to be able to help working people get a better deal. We do not want to have a shutdown so my message to the president is if youre coming here tomorrow, come here with a message of unity, come here with a message of strength and come here with a message that we are America First and that we want to help the people of america, were going to help Houston Texas and the first first responders, the police and firefighters with me just an hours ago bringing these 60 people inform i watched them carefully lift up the elderly and sick and frail and Young Mothers and families. Thats what i needed the president to do. He should come here with a message unity and thanks for all of these people who sacrifice out there with their own boats helping and he should come with a message of a dollar sign hes going to go back keep the government open and help us get back on our feet. Obrien is there a sense of desperation in your district i will say to you that this is beyond our even appreciation or understanding. Were in an ocean. People rightly so are mourning and concerned about their lives. They have been disrupted. But theyre welcoming of help and i dont think despair set in at this point but i think theyre looking for those who are going to be held accountable and get us back on our feet. Despair comes when you think no one is caring about you. Obrien congressmanSheila Jackson lee, thank you very much, well let you get back to it thank you very much and i thank all the volunteers who have come in some across the nation and we need help, please send us help. A lot of items here, whatever you have, bring them down to the george brown Convention Center in houston, texas, thank you so much obrien the u. S. Coast guard is on the front line using boats and helicopters to get residents to safety. Lieutenant Commander Michael is helping relieve them. We spoke about the challenges. Were getting calls for rescues continuously, nonstop since the incident began. We have multiple aircrafts, multiple small boats, state, multiple counties, city and resources all in the water, in the air at the same time, and their rescues are nonstop. Obrien give us an idea of the kinds of scenarios youre running into say theres a shelter or say theres a specific home, rising flood water, well immediately dispatch a helicopter and well try to prioritize those as best we can. As our helicopter is en route, that helicopter may encounter another person in distress that we may not have realized, they werent able to make an emergency call, well have to trust the on scene initiative, experience of our pilots and our boat crews to have to make very tough decisions as to which people they do rescue and which people theyvef and that is an extremely difficult things and something that weighs on all of us obrien tell me about the resources you have there at your disposal, how many aircraft exactly . How many crews do you need more help . This morning, when we started, when we deployed for operations, i had over 21 coast guard small boat teams, small boat punt teams and ice rescue teams from district 9. These are our Shallow Water flood experts, i had access to 21 of those boats, and in excess of 50 to 60 personnel specifically trained for these types of operations. I had access to them this morning, i was able to get them out in the field very early. Get them to areas where we were receiving the most calls and immediately had those rescues in some cases, immediately getting people from danger to high ground. The aircraft, im just going to speak in excess of 20 coast guard helicopters and that includes other aircraft we have of state aircraft, we have other dhs aircraft and dod. Obrien a little unusual and this situation is the crews are flying through ongoing hazardous weather. How much is that hampering efforts and how much are you concerned about the safety of these crews . I think you hit it right on the head. I think thats the unique challenge of this particular storm, of this. Weather event is extreme complicated rescue operations and coordination, for the air crews having to fight through hazard weather but the fact that the rain and the con within what will flood waters has made coordination extremely difficult Obrien Michael attanasio they know for your work. Obrien they might be the most immediate but part of how houston is grappling with harvey. Police chief art acevedo described the magnitude of the situation. Our priority is saving lives. Were getting so many calls for people requires rescue from rising flood waters and unfortunately, so far, we have more calls than we have capacity. Our response to the teams from the state and other cities are having a hard time accessing the area of operation where we are and its just seems that every time we think were going to get a break, the weather keeps getting worse and the rain just will not stop and the flooding is just getting worse. Obrien i read that at one point in the midst of this an individual 911 operator had as many as 250 calls on hold. Where do you stand on that right now and how are you getting help to people who need it the Houston Police department has responded to over 60,000 calls. We have rescued over 2000 of our fellow houstonians, the backlog was down. At one point last night of just ten, but now, the rain and the flooding starting to spread to places that that historically never flooded and it will start getting worse again. Bottom line is a lot of folks are using social media and were monitoring it to get help to folks the been all hands on deck. And just seems theres no end in sight to the tragedies that our community is facing obrien Chris Houston is renown for the Medical Center. One of the hospitals was a great concern. I know evacuating patients from there was a big priority, bring us up to date on that we had evacuate that hospital, there are other hospitals that are here in houston, that are at a level where that may become an issue. I heard recently they were down if pasadena. A their hospital is not functioning normally. This is the perfect storm is an under statement, is this a storm of historical proportions, and they will be they knowing about it many generations to come. Obrien what do you need right now the most we need more rescue boats. We need more rescue boats in our ror, more aircraft, again, the problem with aircraft is that the coast guard has been heroic in their efforts, but not they cant operate 24 7 because of the weather conditions, and theyre relief boats that are coming from dps and the National Guard are still having difficulty trying to get into the or because of flooded freeways and unfortunately, the freeways in or around houston, weve been having the issue throughout the state. Theres big debate about whether you should evacuated or not evacuated . People are forget this entire state has been dell lukeed but one city tan stop is the houston region obrien do you feel you made the right call highways are prone and the Rural Community and entire state is prone to flash floods. Just yesterday, she was three days into this event. We, the dps, the department of safety trooper, 500 troopers could not get past the city of bass trap on the way to houston, im convinced we would be talking about hundreds if not thousands of lives lost had we put try to put a regional 6. 5 million, im not sure we would have taken them. This entire state seems like has been under water, and now, that water is all headed here. Obrien art, acevedo is the police chief in houston, thank you. Thank you and if you believe in the good lord above i dont care what religion, please send prayers obrien the American Red Cross is on the scene in texas to help thousands of people in need. I spoke wit