To give us the first big response about what this situation is on the ground. Well bring it to you live. President trump says hes going to visit the region tomorrow. Lets begin our coverage with cnns Alex Marquardt live in suburban houston. The big concern we keep hearing, alex, is theres going to be more and that the water thats there is going nowhere any time soon. What do you see around you . Reporter thats right, chris. In the last few moments the rain and wind have picked up. Theres catastrophic flooding all across this city, scenes just like this one. Take a look behind me, this is an onramp to interstate 610 which is right there. You can still see cars driving along it. Right behind it theres an suv almost completely submerged. Thats four feet right there. In Harris County, 30 inches, it will go up to 50 in the coming days. So things will get worse. There is an allhandsondeck response to this catastrophe. Local authorities, the coast guard and all sorts of folks going out there in their own boats, volunteers to try to rescue as many people as possible. The coast guard tells us theyve carried out some 250 water rescues, rescuing some 1,000 people. That Major Development this morning, as you noted, is the release from those two reservoirs, barker and addux. All that water will go into the Buffalo Bayou, swelling the bayou and threatening the homes along that area. So thousands of people are being asked to evaluate. A lot of people will be needing a lot of help. Please stay safe, alex. Well check back. The flooding in houston evokes images of hurricane katrina. Thousands of people seeking refuge in the citys convention center. Look at all these cots lined up. Its now acting as a shelter. City buses, even dump trucks dropping off evacuees who have been plucked from their swamped homes. Cnns rosa florez is live in houston. Reporter that bayou that alex was talking about is right over my shoulder. All that water is going to come right through downtown houston. You can already see the water levels here. That is going to be devastating for this area as more water continues to flow out towards the gulf of mexico. Now, all of this water, testing the system, testing the infrastructure here in houston and also testing the decisions made by city leaders and state leaders. Initially the governor of this state recommended for people to evacuate. Then the city leaders came back and said that city leaders knew best what was best for residents of houston. Its been a huge debate. The city mayor here defending his position. Take a listen. The decision that we made was a smart one. It was in the best interest of houstoni houstonians. It was the right decision in terms of their safety. Always we must put the interests of the city of houston and houstonians first. Absolutely no regret. We acted according to the plan that we laid out. Reporter overnight we did learn of mandatory evacuations in southwest houston in the area of fort ben county, the area of the brasoria river. That river level expected to be at 56 feet. Were learning about voluntary evacuations in North Houston because the water there is supposed to surpass i45. Again, lots of water, more water coming. Like you mentioned, alisyn, were expecting more rain. Rosa, they sure are. Well get a forecast right now. Thank you very much for all that. At this hour nearly 13 Million People under flood warnings and watches in texas and louisiana. Forecasters do say the flooding will only get worse. Harvey could dump up to two additional feet of rain. Cnn meteorologist chad myers has the latest forecast. How is this possible, chad . Its possible because harvey is about to emerge back into the gulf of mexico, not very far from where it came off the gulf of mexico and regain some strength. Today houston gets two inches of rainfall. The real bogey today is beaumont, port arthur and over to lake charles. Thats where the rain is going to be heaviest today. Houston, you get two inches today. Beaumont gets ten inches. So a slight reprieve. You dont need two, but you dont get ten. Here is the forecast for today. Until midnight, theres the circle right there of purple. That is east of houston, thank goodness and back to houston a little bit less. We are still going to see this Buffalo Bayou go up. It already is a record. It may be four feet above record before were finally done. Chris, i just checked center point energy, the Power Company in houston. 86,000 or somewhere around there, people without power. 2. 3 Million People still have power. These people that are going into these homes to rescue other people have to understand that that power may still be on. So theres another real danger there that the power is still on for 96 of houston, and the water is going up. The goodbad news. Well be monitoring those numbers. The longer that water stands and the more wind you have that comes into it, the more you can have people losing power. Youre right. Its a risk you go in there. But people are always trying to save lives. Its the beauty of the human condition. Chad, thank you very much, well check back with you in a little bit. Right now lets bring in colonel lars zedderstrung from the army corp of engineers in houston. Thank you for joining us. The news about releasing in part some of the flood dams, why did that happen and what does that mean . Whats the plusminus on that move . The plusminus of that move is we are doing controlled releases from both dams to minimize the volume of uncontrolled releases, in this case specifically around the northern end of the addux dam. Based off our current modeling, we no longer believe were going to have water flowing around the ends and spillways of the parker dam. I totally understand that Harris County and houston are worried about us releasing this water. I think the thing that might help clarify why were doing this is the water is going to go in the buffalo buy you no matter what we do because of what Mother Nature is doing. The uncontrolled releases around the spillway of the addux dam are still flowing around the watershed and ultimately will flow into buffalo buy you. So were not the corps is not the ones forcing exacerbation of the Buffalo Bayou watershed. Its just the sheer amount of wat water. A little while ago we exceeded our record pools set last year in the tax day flood. In the 70plusyear history of these two dams, we now for the second year in a row had record pool and were going to keep on growing, and additional perspective is both dams by design and by modifications after construction are providing more than a thousandyearlevel of flood Risk Reduction for the citizens of houston. And so the fact that water is going to go around the an uncontrolled manner or this spillway means for addux, more than a thousandyear flood event. Thats perspective. People now want to make it through this situation. Thank god theyre holding. It seems as though youre describing this as a bad or worse situation. You have to release some water right now to keep the level steady. Thats going to create additional flooding in some of these communities. Youre saying youre trying to stave off an even worse event. Let me ask you, do you think people need to get out of those surrounding areas right now. Based off our models and what were seeing with the weather prediction, people upstream of the dams that are in the potential inundation zone need to monitor carefully the rate of rise and prepare for a voluntary evacuation that the local elected leadership have recommended. The rate of rise of the two structures is between 2 1 2 and 3 inches. Its a slow rise, but a sufficient rise where homes up stream of the dams could either be impacted, meaning water on the property or inundated, meaning there could be water in their homes. People can contact the galveston district headquarters, and we can take their address information and put it in and at least give more detailed explanation of what we think as to how its going to impact them. Thats for citizens that live close to the barker dams and up stream. For the citizens downstream that live along the Buffalo Bayou, these two dams were built specifically to try to minimize flooding in houston, their purpose is to try to prevent water in the addux and barker, plus cyprus creek. In cyprus creek the water is going to jump and go into these dams. Even with releases or going around, people need to know all that water thats still in these dams is still being contained that otherwise would go downstream. Understood. Colonel, i appreciate the explanation. Please feel free to check back with us, well reach out to you as well. See us as an extension of your ability to get the information to the communities that need it. Stay safe and thank you for helping the people in that area. Thank you very much. Chris, we should let everybody know we are expecting a briefing from fema, from federal officials to tell us what the plan is to come back harvey. Thats just moments away. Meanwhile, joining us now on the phone is texas congressman al green. He represents houstons ninth district, one of the hardest hit areas. Congressman, thank you for taking time with us this morning. Do you know the status of your constituents in your district . Are people still stranded at this hour . Thank you for having me on. This is the way we do it in texas, we help each other. Im grateful to the First Responders as well. My sympathies and prayers to those who have been harmed, lives that have been lost. We are facing a major catastrophe. Id like to announce if i may, my constituents, a good many of them, are still in harms way. I spoke to the mayor in Missouri City in fort ben county. This is where the tornadoes hit, theyll have to move out of that office, its a satellite office. The mayor has indicated theres a possibility of flooding that will take place in an area that would cause a good many people to move out and tough decisions have been made. People are doing the best they can under unusual circumstances. You had water in one day that would be a record level. You hear people talking about a thousand year flood event. We have to realize that weve not dealing with anything we faced before and making tough decisions and i hope people will understand it. Congressman, given that, given the unprecedented nature of this, do you think the mayor of houston should have evacuated more people. I agree with what the mayor did. I was here when we had rita, when we had millions of people trying to exit the city without proper contraflow lanes. I remember the heat strokes people suffered. I remember there were fights that took place on the roadways. I remember a bus that caught on fire and there were persons in there congressman, im so sorry to interrupt you. The fema briefing is starting. Our speakers include acting secretary of Homeland Security, elaine duke, the federal Emergency ManagementAgency Administrator brock long, the National WeatherService Director louie buttelini and from the coast guard admiral paul zong and health and Human Services secretary price. Just to let you know in advance, administrator long will be immediately heading from here to make his way down to texas, so we should end promptly at 7 45 to allow him to get to his airplane to make it to texas. With that, ill bring in our speakers, thank you. This fema briefing, we should be updated on the number of people killed, number of people still stranded, what the federal government is doing. Fema headquarters, home of the National Response coordination center. I know everyone in this room and on the president s team has been moved by the images and stories of people who are suffering in texas. We want to make sure you all know we are working right no now to provide assistance as quickly as we can. Right now we are focused on rescue operations and will move into recovery operations later in the week. Today we are deeply concerned with those in houston and surrounding areas who are stranded and in need of immediate assistance. People need help, and we are working to provide it. While the hurricaneforce winds have diminished, i want to stress that we are not out of the woods yet, not by a long slaut. Harvey is still a dangerous and historic storm. According to the National Weather service who youll hear from shortly, rainfall amounts as much as two feet have occurred in the houston metro area. Lifethreatening flooding will occur over a large portion of South Central and Southeast Texas in the coming days. Rivers wont crest until later this week. It is vitally important for those in texas and louisiana to monitor your local radio and tv stations for updated emergency information and, as always, listen to the direction of your local officials. If you are in the affected areas, were asking that you please only call 911 if you have immediate need for medical attention or evacuation assistance. If local officials deem it safe, please take time to check on your neighbors and friends, particularly the elderly who may need assistance. The department through fema has been working in close coordination with the state and local officials throughout the region for many days in preparing for hurricane harvey. Under the president s direction, we have made every resource available to respond to this historic storm. The partnership at every level of government has been exceptional, and id want to thank Governor Abbott and governor edwards for all they have done. We understand that there are challenges before us, particularly in houston, but we are committed to getting the resources local officials need as soon as possible. Finally, id like to thank the thousands of civil servants, First Responders and volunteers in texas and around the country including those here in d. C. At fema, who have worked tirelessly throughout the weekend and will continue to carry out our response and Recovery Efforts over the weeks and months to come. You have provided a Tremendous Service to your fellow americans and we thank you. With that id like to turn it over to fema administrator brock long to walk us through the response efforts. Thank you, madam secretary. So Emergency Management, as ive been saying, is about partnership. My goal is to unify the efforts of all these agency, not only these guys here, the agencies they represent, but basically the fire power of the federal government. What we want to be able to do is have a coordinated effort and give the state of texas everything they need to fill gaps, bolster their operations an capability. They set the Mission Priorities right now. We fall in line to support those. Right now this is still an ongoing situation. Were not at recovery yet. Were thinking and planning for recovery. We have recovery teams down in texas, but right now this mission, its very important. This is a life safety, Life Sustaining mission. Were trying to help bolster the efforts to do swift water rescue, search and rescue, over a huge county jurisdiction, over 30 to 50 counties possibly impacted in texas. Just because we see whats going on in houston, this impact these impacts are not only across houston, but 50 different counties within texas. Were also going to see a tremendous amount of rainfall into southwest louisiana. Were asking citizens to still listen to their local emergency managers, county judges or parish president s for lifesaving warns and communication. Right now with regard to search and rescue, the next objective is to stabilize disaster survivors. Once we move them, we or able to extract them from different areas and rescue them, weve got to get them into shelters. This Shelter Mission is going to be a very heavy lift. Were anticipating over 30,000 people being placed in shelters temporarily to basically stabilize the situation and provide for their care. Next we are ready deploying essential Life Sustaining commodities. We have a tremendous amount of supplies in the state and the state is pilling our resources already to be able to put those out. Its occurring all over the state of texas. Through our partners at the army corps of engineers, were working to restore power. Were providing emergency generators for Critical Infrastructures to support things such as 911 centers or other Critical Infrastructure within the state of texas. Finally, were also providing emergency communications. Were trying to help the state reroute 911 centers, but also making sure were enter operable between the federal, state and local responders out there on the ground. Security is also a main concern. The state, as you know, has mobilized a huge amount of National Guard, but we have also the secretary has been leaning forward. We activated the dhs, what we call Homeland SecuritySurge Capacity force. Were putting Law Enforcement down to help with that effort as well, as well as other dod assets. Right now here is what i need you to know. Helping texas over come this disaster is going to be for greater than fema coordinating the mission of the entire federal government. We need citizens involved. This is a landmark event. We have not seen an event like this. You could not draw this forecast up you could not dream this forecast us. Its been a very challenging effort for the National Weather service who is putting out great information. Weve been telling people it was coming, still on going. You couldnt draw this situation up. The bottom line is its going to continue on. We need the whole community, not only the federal government forces, but this