Because of problems with ubers board. A tall task after ubers Public Relations disasters. Absolutely. Early start continues with the latest on nowTropical Storm harvey. This likely is going to be an historic rainfall, if not an alltime record. Unprecedented. Catastrophic. Unfortunately, not over yet. Houston and other parts of texas devastated after rain and storms are not finished. We have more on the devastation and rescues, what lies in store. Good morning, everyone, welcome to early start. Im dave briggs. Im christine romans. Were awaiting a fresh update from the National Hurricane center on exactly what Tropical Storm harvey is doing. Its churning over the houston area. Three Miles Per Hour and now heading back toward the gulf. A devastating situation for the folks there in southeastern texas. It is monday, august 28th, 5 00 a. M. In the east. It is 4 00 a. M. On the nose in houston this morning. This morning, americas fourthlargest city is mostly under water, and its going to get worse. The National WeatherService Calls the flooding unprecedented and beyond anything experienced before. This catastrophic flooding from nowTropical Storm harvey stretching Government Resources. In some cases past the breaking point. Authorities in and around houston scrambling to save those trapped by the high waters after 24 inches of rain fell there in just 24 hours. Officials say at least two people were killed by the storm, and the death toll is likely to rise. Houstons mayor warning that some 911 calls are going unanswered as operators give priority to those calls where lives are at stake. Officials say so far there have been about 2,000 water rescues. The Houston Independent School district has canceled classes for the week. Dallas has announced plans to open a mega shelter to accommodate 5,000 evacuees. Officials, charities, hospitals are all working to get it open at the Kay Bailey HutchisonConvention Center. They want this mega center open by tomorrow morning. This morning, Corpus ChristiNational Airport is back open, six others remain closed. The governor of texas, greg abbott, calling in 1,000 additional members of the National Guard to help flood victims. And across the country, several states and the u. S. Military sending emergency workers and equipment to texas where the work is only beginning. Femas going to be there for years. This Disaster Recovery, this disasters going to be a landmark event. Were already in the stages. While were focused on response and helping texas, you know, respond, were already pushing forwa forward recovery teams. Were pushing forces to implement National Flood insurance program. Were setting up and gearing up for the next couple years. Now fema and the department of Homeland Security will have a briefing updating whats happening there. 6 6 15 texas time. 7 15 eastern. Rosa flores joins us live from the flood zone in houston. Is the rain still has it stopped . Does it remain quiet there . Awfully dark where you are in houston. Reporter were still getting rain this morning. Thats really bad news for the entire houston metro area. As you look around me, we are inundated with water. This is downtown houston. Its the historic district. Im not sure if youre able to see because its dark, but the intersection thats behind me, commerce and travis streets. For people familiar, this is where spaghetti warehouse is. And you see that the sign that takes you north on i45 toward dallas is under water. And you cant see the ramp to i45, but the ramp is under water. 24 hours ago we were doing live shots from where the intersection is. Right now it is too dangerous. It is way too deep for us to get any closer to that location. Now, houston has been pounded with water. Weve seen these bands of rain in the last 24 to 36 hours. And it continues to come down. And the latest guidance from local authorities is that theyre expecting six to ten more inches of rain. Now were also hearing about the incredible stories, the rescues that are going on all around the metro area. I just got off the phone with the red cross coordinator here in downtown houston. They have 2,500 people right now at the Convention Center in downtown houston. I talked to some of them yesterday. Their stories are incredible. Imagine these bayous that now have overflown also meander through neighborhoods. Imagine being in your home with your children, the water starts rising, and then what do you do . Some of the women that i talked to said that they carried their babies above water to try to get out of that area, to try to get to safer grounds. Just imagine just any mother having to do that, dave and christine, to try to save their children, to get to Higher Ground. So those are the Amazing Stories that were hearing from the Convention Center here in downtown houston as people, as we learn about the harrowing stories for them to get to safety and for them to get to Higher Ground and to resources that could get them to safety, to boats, to highwater vehicles. Were hearing a lot of stories now. Theres been two deaths related to the storm. And unfortunately, you know, this city and state preparing for the word. We know we talked to Emergency Management earlier, an hour ago, and they were saying in the early hours of the storm a lot of calls 911 calls were people trapped in their vehicles. The water rescues were helping people out of their vehicles. Now the calls are coming from inside the homes as people are getting nervous about how quickly the water is rising. Youre seeing sort of a shift in the water rescues the past day or two. 2,000 rescues overall. 1,000 since last night. Thank you very much. Lets bring in meteorologist Karen Maginnis in the cnn weather center. If youre talking water rescues, we could have days of this ahead here. Yes. Were going to show you the forecast. A lot of information. We just got an update from the National Hurricane center. Essentially this is quasistationary, moving southeast at three Miles Per Hour. Theres still plenty of tropical moisture trying to feed into Tropical Storm harvey. Moistureladen air is shifting north and east. If youre in beaumont, port arthur, youre looking at pretty astounding rainfall totals here over the next several days, as well. Here theres a lull around houston now. Not completely, but youre not seeing significant downpours like youve been looking at over the last 24 and 48 hours. Theres beaumont, port arthur, reporting heavy rainfall and fog. I watched what youre about to see realtime. It is nonetheless astounding. This is black and white video near katy texas, interstate 10 in katy. This is a halfhour drive to the west of houston. You see the suv. The waters rising up. You still see the roof. Theres a man on the back side of that automobile. You see on either side of the vehicle, the water is rushing. If he were to step on either side of the vehicle, he would be caught up in the floodwaters. And we might be telling a different story besides the rubber dinghy coming to pick him up and take him to Higher Ground. As you have said, its not dry land, its just Higher Ground out of the floodwaters. Back to you. Thank you very much for that. The update from the National Hurricane center, we have to reiterate, especially in light of the pictures you showed, do not attempt to travel in the affected area. If are you in a safe place, do not drive into flooded roadways. Its easy to think theres maybe only a couple of inches. You have no idea whats going on underneath the water. One very hardhit area is the city of dickinson, southeast of houston. Galveston county emergency Officials Say 20 to 25 people were rescued from the la vita bella nursing home. The owners daughter said officials told her daughter to shelter residents in place. After the water rose, she tweeted this incredible photo as a plea for help which did finally come. Look at that. Those people are up to their waists in water in that room. Unbelievable. Also in dickinson, ed lavandera who drove up sunday night with producer jason morris and joe de la rosa, photojournalist. They were accompanying a search and rescue mission as rescuers were about to leave a flooded neighborhood. They heard a family out and helped with the rescue. Ed spoke to them once everyone was out safely. Reporter how long have you been trapped in there . All night. Reporter all night . Youve been with your parents . How are they holding up . Uhhuh, yeah. Pretty good. Pretty good. I think pretty good for the circumstances. Its bad. Everythings floating. Its bad. 11 minutes past the hour. Rain and flooding inundating heart of oil industry. Oil rigs have been evacuated, and ten refineries shut down. One, Exxonmobils Baytown refinery. Onethird of the refineries on the texas coast. The closures take 2. 2 Million Barrels of oil a day off line. That disruption means higher gas prices. Futures hitting a twoyear high, up 7 . Gas prices could rise 5 to 15 cents over the next week especially in the south, southeast, midatlantic u. S. Higher gas prices just one of the potential costs of harvey. The storm also threatened the economy in texas. The states Unemployment Rate just started to fall after spiking last year. Remember there was a crash in oil prices that hurt the texas economy and Unemployment Rate there. Extended oil closures could hurt the states progress. So could rebuilding. Property damage forecasted at 40 billion. 20 billion worth in houston alone. These are early days. These forecasts may well rise and be revised. Its one of the most densely Populated Areas in the u. S. It is literally under water. All right. The storm poses a major test, as you know, for President Trump. Set to fly to texas tomorrow. What does everyone make to the response to the storm . And what about the friday night pardon of joe arpaio . The tweeting out of a book by a controversial sheriff . Well discuss it next. vo pro plan bright mind adult 7 promotes alertness and mental sharpness in dogs 7 and older. ray the difference has been incredible. She is much more aware. She wants to learn things. vo purina pro plan bright mind. Nutrition that performs. Whats going on here . Um. Im babysitting. Thatll be 50 bucks. You said 30 dollars. Yeah, well it was 30 before my fees, like the dogsitting fee. And the rummage through your closet fee. Who is she, verizon . Are those my heels . 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The president expected to travel away from the storm zone, avoiding the most hardhit areas, potentially stopping in san antonio or even austin. This the first big hurricane Natural Disaster test for President Trump. A test by which president s have been measured, especially since katrina. Joining us to discuss the white house response to harvey, Washington Examiner editor Jason Russell bright and early from washington. Good morning. This is the first real test for the president , a Natural Disaster, how he is showing leadership, gravitas. How he is showing compassion for texas. Hows he doing . Well, hes doing okay. If you just judge him based on his twitter feed, you could argue that he could be more focussed with empathizing with the victims and trying to rally the American People to donate and give and support houston and the rest of texas in any way they can. But theres been some distractions there. Hes tweeting about, you know, sheriff david clarks book and lots of issues and plenty of texas tweets. Probably not as focused as you would expect a president to be. Natural three are other things hes naturally there are other things hes doing besides tweeting to solve the situation. At least publicly thats the most public way hes helping. Certain was eyebrow raising 21 hours ago. A great book by a great guy, highly recommended, talking about david clark. A very controversial figure, mind you. This is no ordinary book or topic. That certainly was off focus a little bit. As far as the federal reaction to texas, it seems to be going on thus far without a hitch. True. We havent heard complaints from the governor, greg abbott. Hes a republican. He is on Donald Trumps team, if you will. From anyone else, we havent heard complaints yet. Now, i think when it came to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the big complaints were in the aftermath of the hurricane. I think thats where the big test is is in the rebuilding phase. You know, rain is still falling on houston and is projected to keep falling for several days. I looked up the tenday forecast. Still a 40 chance or higher of rain through september 7th. This is not stopping any time soon unfortunately. We will get in just a couple of hours, there will be a press conference that well take live at cnn with the department of Homeland Security and fema in washington. So there will be that visual of the federal response. I wanted to ask you, jason, but something that happened this weekend. The secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, and really the defense secretary, james mattis, distancing themselves i would say from the president s reaction to charlottesville. I want you to listen to this and get your thoughts on the other side. I dont believe anyone doubts the American Peoples values or the commitment of the American Government or the governments agencies to advancing those values and defending those values. And the president s values . The president speaks for himself, chris. Tow the line, my young soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines. Hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it, being friendly to one another. Wow. Each of those on their own is remarkable, its stunning. What do you make of that . Yeah. I mean, tillersons comments were very reminiscent of what sean spicer used used to say in press briefings, saying the tweet speaks for itself, and let it go from there. I think thats the distancing tactic that Rex Tillerson was trying to take. But people thought he was saying the president doesnt speak for American Values. His values may not be American Values theft in his reaction to charlottesville. At least in his reaction to charlottesville. Im sure Rex Tillerson wouldnt say that on the record. Its definitely possible thats what he was trying to get across without saying it directly. You know, he was rex, i think, was trying to make clear that, yes, americans respect each other. When it comes to the violence in charlottesville, between antifa and nazi groups, that that was not representative of American Values. Thats clearly the american fringe. It seemed like Rex Tillerson made a clear line of distinction between the departments and the state de