Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20170829 07:

What are you guys going to do now, claudio . Were going to stay here, find shelter. Because weve been hearing the news its going to come back and hit us again. And would have had nobody would have had nowhere to go. So were going to stay here and try to protect ourselves. Try to protect my kids. And try to try to last through this storm. I dont know if its going to get worse or not. But we want to be safe. I want my family to be safe. So i guess were going to stay here until everything is over. Claudio, were glad youre okay. Hug your kids and wife for us. Thank you so much for joining us here on cnn. Good luck to you. Best of luck. All right, thank you, sir. Thank you. Jamie baxter, weve got jamie by phone again. Technical issues, storm, hes stranded in his apartment with neighbors tonight. Havent really tried the police because i know that theyve been swamped and the red cross is swamped, as well. So we dont really know who to call. It seems like we put out the word for help and we sit here and we kind of wait and see what happens. Anybody else rescued from your area . All i know is that they have sent the National Guard out. I know theres been people riding around in boats. Weve seen some helicopters earlier today. I just hope theres a lot of people in boats heading out. People telling me theyre coming from New York City and colorado, a group is coming in from chicago with their own personal stuff. Basically just trying to get the word out to make sure that nobody else has to lose their life or anything in this storm. Because its getting a lot worse all right. Thank you, sir. This is cnn Breaking News. Heres our Breaking News. The waters rising. Thousands trapped. And more rain on the way in texas. President trump heading to the flood zone in a matter of hours. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Things are really bad in texas tonight and expected to get much worse. The state already hit with at least 15 trillion gallons of rain. This storm is far from over. The National Weather Service Warns lifethreatening flooding is continuing. The coast guard getting more than a thousand rescue calls every hour. Tonight well have stories from some of the people who narrowly escaped the raging floodwaters and some who are still trapped. The forecast as the storm gathers strength. Its gaining strength tonight. Lets go straight to derek van dam in sugar land, texas for us. Derek, good evening to you. The latest on the searchandrescue efforts where you are right now . Reporter good evening, don. The thing about the Search And Rescue Efforts, its complicated by the nighttime. The dark, darkness has set in across houston and with conditions can like this, it is extremely treacherous. Last night we joined some of the Search And Rescue Efforts and we saw firsthand what they have had to deal with. They navigate these flooded neighborhoods with sometimes the streams flowing extremely fast. Almost too fast to cross. In fact, the braes bayou yesterday prevented the majority of rescues from taking place for some of the neighborhoods because the current was too strong for the boats that are in place here across the area. Weve talked to a lot of the rescuers who have volunteered their boats, their time. And just to do their best to help this community. And they have told some harrowing stories including just because its out over open waters right now. If you look closely at a radar to see where its heaviest, its almost pivoting across the Greater Houston Area right now. Thats why it continues to bring this heavy incessant rain. It has not stopped since we got here 48 hours ago. Its unprecedented and it looks as if its going to continue into the night and going to be a very difficult time for rescuers and, of course, for all the people who are stranded. Before i let you go, Whats The Story behind you . Whats going on there . That truck and water and all that. Reporter this is just one of the many stranded vehicles, don. What you cant see is the dozens of them littered across the car parks within this area, the parking lots. I think this is just the last ditch effort. People realize that they needed to ditch their cars and get to higher ground. Get to safety. Its a bit unfortunate to see people trying their hardest to drive and navigate through these flooded roadways because weve manner, being polite, courteous, theyre just trying to get food and water for their families. Trying to get a good fights sleep. Its orderly and organized inside that building. A lot of police and volunteers trying to calm people down and get what they need. So far so good in the convention center. It is incredible. Your derek described how quickly the water could rise. We were earlier tonight in a place called lakewood today, earlier today with some private rescuers who were pulling people from Flooded Homes you wouldnt believe the devastation. These were neighborhoods where the water was almost to the roofs. People were waiting on rooftops and on the hoods and on the tops of their cars while water was right below them, waiting there for a couple of days. They said they had called and tried to get the city and others to come. We know how overwhelmed the First Responders are. These people are saying they were thinking nobody would come, and the water was still rising. So it is still a very dire situation out there tonight, don. What the Harris County Sheriffs Office has put out there to some of the people in these neighborhoods, theyre saying to them, display a prominently in your Windows Towels and sheets so that we know thats a place where we need to come into. Dont just call and give us your address because these addresses are almost unrecognizable. Youve got to display towels and sheets prominently your windows. So we know thats a place where we can get to people. There are tens of thousands of people still needing rescue. Brian todd, thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting. I want to go to isis bragg. You heard from her in our last hour, the very beginning of our show at 10 00 p. M. Eastern. She is trapped with her 1yearold baby and her cousin. The water is rising. Now shes very worried about the electricity and she joins us by phone. Isis, where are you now in and who is with you . Yes, im still in the home and i still have the same people with me. My cousin and 1yearold baby. Has the electricity been intermittent . Has it been going in and out . Yes, it has. Most of the units lights have went back out. Do you have electricity now or no . Yes, i have electricity right now. As i understand, are you seeing a fire nearby you . Yes, i am. Talk to me. Where is it . Its across the street behind behind the school. We just see like a lot of orange in the air. We can see it from here. You can see it . Yes. And has the water since we spoke to you last about an hour ago, how, has the water gotten any higher . Yes, the water has gotten higher. From the front end of my to the back end of my apartment. And you said one of your neighbors, you told us last hour one of your neighbors was trying to go upstairs to another apartment and what happened . The lady had told her that if she had 300 to come into her apartment she would let her. Wow. Unbelievable. Yes, sir, it is. And so how high is the water in your apartment now . You said its coming in . Its Different Levels in the apartment. The highest the water that im reaching is to my thighs. Weve been trying to get folks to come help you. Have you been abe to get anyone on the phone . Have you heard anything . No, sir. We even, my cousin, she even went and stood at the end of the road. She did get three City Of Houston trucks but they had drove off by the time we came back out the house. So tell us where you live and how much im wondering i asked you about the water because just in the last report, theyre saying that some of the addresses are covered and they cant get to them. If your address is covered, they cant get to it. Is that your apartment that bad off . Its not bad. So you can still see the numbers . You can still see the numbers . Yes, we can still i mean yes, people can still see numbers and still see people standing outside at the end of the road saying can you help us. Now tell us where you are. I just wanted to get that. If they cant see the address, then the point may be moot for you to give it out. Were across the street from the school. There is still people outside standing on their porch just facing towards the road. Screaming help, waving help, flashing light, help. And really nobody cant tell us nothing but call the number, call the number. Weve been trying to cause the number. Theres no answer. No help. And its the forest Creek Apartments on whats the road again . On uvalde and wallaceville. Uvalde . Yes, on uvalde. Give me a cross street. Wallaceville. Watersville . Wallaceville is the cross street. Wallaceville okay. Uvalde road in houston, 5900 block of uvalde road. And thats where isis bragg is with her 1yearold and 21yearold cousin. Isis, were thinking about you. Were going to try to get help for you and hopefully some officials will get you out of there. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. Lets turn now to reverend john stevens, Senior Pastor at chapelwood United Methodist church. He went out today to save as many people as they could. He joins us now by phone. How you doing, rev . Im doing well. How are you . Im sure doing better than you guys. You guys are doing a great job down there. Youre doing gods work. Youve been with your church group helping with rescues. We have some video from instagram. What are you seeing . Tell us what youre seeing. Well, a lot of rain. It just wont stop. You know, we got a call, this thing started out kind of small and organic. We have Church Members we heard were stranded. We had a couple of guys get together. It kind of grew from there. We went down to where they were and found out more and more people. When we got to the little neighborhood thats got about chest high water all around it so you cant get in and out. Once you get in, its a little higher. People just start coming out. Then wed have people that were walking up in the water to check on their parents. We had some elderly there was one of the things a guy in a wheelchair. That guy just walked up. Theres a car there, but uthat car pulled out from his carport. Were looking at that video now. Go on. Thats just to get him to the boat because we couldnt walk. We couldnt get him to the boat. Youve got to go two blocks around where his son was going to pick him up. Then we start walking around. I saw a lady looking out of her window. I just asked her how she was doing, was she alone. She was. She had no power. Her name was miss louise. I said would you like to go out with us on the boat. She said i would. I said ill be back to get you. I went around and she said before i walked away, youre not going to forget me, are you . I said no, maam. Im getting old but im not going to forget you, i promise. She was on one of their little videos as we pull out. The surprising thing, a lot of people wouldnt come out with us. Theyre trying to wait it out. They think its like Hurricane Ike or thunderstorms in houston when we get deluge and the water builds up quick and then it drains quick. I dont think people understand that with the reservoirs being released bayous over record levels, the waters not going anywhere. In the next day, two days, three days. I dont know. I trust people to know more than that. I just know weve got a list in the morning of more people that were getting that are just in our neighborhood. We cant do it all. I heard you talking to this young lady isis. I mean, she is way on the other side of where we are. Were on west side of houston and shes way over on the northeast side. But were staying in our little west side memorial area. Weve got plenty of people to get off of buffalo bayou. And were just trying to get all we can. Weve got more guys coming in the morning and bringing their boats. Were just going to get one at a time. Safety guys are doing great. The fire and the police, theyre doing a great job. Theyre just im looking at this website on people who need rescue, houston Harvey Rescue or whatever. Theres over 1100, 1200 names on this thing. Some of them are not correct and you start looking up where map links are, its not correct. Theres a lot of confusion and a lot of its word of mouth. Social media. But everybodys chipping in. Thats the great story is, we go knock on the door, we dont ask them what their religion is or who they voted for in the last election. None of that matters. You need help . It should not matter especially in this circumstance. This is something as sad as it is it brings us all together. Realize were just all human beings and were all americans, and life is very precious. Reverend, i have to go. I want to thank you. Continue to do gods work. Thank you. We really appreciate it. If we can help you out, please let us know, okay . I will. Thank you so much. Thank you. When we come back, well speak to more of the heroes out there trying to rescue the thousands trapped in the flood zones. Well get an update from the National Guard and speak to an emt who rescued a pregnant woman who was in labor. Scuse me. Mind if i sit here . Not if you want your phone to work. Let me guess, you cant livestream your lobster roll. 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Will they be able to continue working throughout the night and working 24 hours . Its a lot of work. Absolutely. The men and women are working around the clock. And theyre going to keep working. Weve got a plan to keep it going 24 7. Uhhuh. Do you have any idea how many people are still stuck and waiting to be rescued . Were hearing a thousand calls an hour for rescues. I dont have an idea how many are still needing rescue. As soon as we get calls, were still responding to them. Were still getting plenty of calls from local and state agencies, and from other groups out there that are doing search and rescue, and were helping them. Those have not slowed down. So i know we still have a lot of work to do. So whats the biggest problem . Is it equipment or what . Do you have enough equipment to get to people . Whats the biggest problem youre facing at this hour . Well, i mean, weve got boats there now. Weve got high profile vehicles there. Were bringing in more and more helicopters to help us all the time. I think the Biggest Issue right now is just time. Getting to everyone that needs to that we need to get to and covering such a vast amount of area. Were still fighting deep waters in some areas. But i think we have the equipment we need now, and i think you know, were not going to rest till we can make every effort to get to those in harps way. Harvey is supposed to get worse and its far from over yet. Whats your plan in the next few days . Well, were bringing more people to the scene. Weve got 3,000 people there now. As we mentioned earlier today, were increasing that to 12,000. Weve taken a number of helicopters from 14 to 2. Thats going to increase to 46 by tomorrow. So were continuing to bring more and more forces in. Boats that we didnt have out before weve got out now. Were going to continue to focus on it until we get everybody that needs to be rescued, rescued. Thank you very much, colonel steven metz, i appreciate your time. I want to go to cnns tom sater now live for news the weather center. Tom, you heard what the colonel said. Youve been listening to the folks on air and our meteorologists out in the field, reporters as well. Harvey has dumped more than 15 trillion gallons of rain so far. 15 trillion. What can folks expect on the ground now . Well, were looking at least another 10 to 15 in houston, isolated 17inch totals. I have more of a fear whats going to happen north of houston in the next 24. Lets back it up a little bit. That 11 to 15 trillion have fallen already, theyve calculated in Harris Countyalone 1 trillion gallons. About 33 inches blanketing the entire county alone. In the color