The National Weather service says large areas of south texas may be uninhabitable for weeks or even months. The Texas Governor is already asking for the state to be declared a major disaster area to trigger additional help from the federal government. As the First National disaster on his watch is about to hit a natural disaster, President Trump is over at camp david. The white house says hes been actively engaged with emergency officials and is planning to travel to texas early next week. We are also just learning that the president assigned and directed following up officially on his ban on transgender troops that he announced in a tweet last month. This hour ill speak live with the head of the federal Emergency Management agency, brock long. There you see him. And our correspondents, specialists and other guests are standing by as we cover this breaking story. First, lets go to cnns Martin Savage. Hes right in the heart of things in Corpus Christi. Martin, youre in the danger zone. Thats expected to take a direct hit from harvey. Give our viewers here in the u. S. And around the world the latest. Reporter wolf, Corpus Christi is definitely under the gun and the wind just fnz to increase. Its an indication that this hurricane is growing ever more closer to the shore here, and it is the wind right now that is the biggest problem. It is literally body punching this entire area with a heavy, heavy force that is only going to increase over the next few hours. But then comes the secondary, and thats the the rain and that is truly what could be the most destructive and deadly force over multiple days. Not since katrina have we heard the dire warnings like we are hearing now. And also what were hearing is that this storm, even when it comes ashore, thats not the end. It really is the beginning. This is going to be a very major disaster. Reporter a dire warning from the Texas Governor as Hurricane Harvey bears down on the texas coast. With a window to evacuate now closing, officials are cautioning residents to get out of the storms path. You have the power and the ability right now to be able to avoid being stuck into a search and rescue situation if you make the decision to get out of harms way before it is too late. Reporter millions of people in texas are being warned to evacuate. The texas afrmy and air nationa guards have been activated ahead of the storms land fall. Harvey is expected to dump 15 to 20 inches of rain. And if it stalls some areas could get up to 35 inches. For coastal areas waves as high as 30 feet and storms endangering everything and everyone in its path. This is lifethreatening storm surge inundation. Water moving in as the hurricane makes land fall. We could see 6 to 12 feet of flooding. Im 6 feet tall. Double my height in certain areas of the coast here. Reporter farther floods and spin out are the concern. You lose nothing but your life. Now is not the time to lose fagtd in your government institutions. Reporter with wide prolonged Power Outages, they are stock up on supplies. Thank you for calling home depot. We are out of generators, out of water and out of stand. Reporter before departing for camp david, President Trump tweeting this photo of a hurricane briefing with his tom Homeland Security advisors and the first lady weighing in as well tweeting for those living near the path of Hurricane Harvey, stay safe. Thoughts and prayers of an entire country are with you. Waiolf, it is really starti to howell now with the hurricane. Its like standing in the backwash of a 747. At times its even hard to remain on your feet. And the worst is still yet to come. So, right now in this community theyre hunkered down. There is no way anybody could leave at this point. If you havent left, youre going to have to stick it out. Wolf . Do you see any people out there on the streets near you, people still driving their cars near you . Reporter im afraid you see it in every storm, but you would think in a storm with this magnitude, that they would stay home, but they dont. Youll always have people who want to come out and see whats going on, take their photos. They dont realize of course there is real danger. Any kind of break, any kind of debris in the air would shatter their car and have a big impact on their lives. Its just not wise at all, wolf. Youre absolutely right. Martin savage. Joining us, martin is in Corpus Christi. Thats the real danger zone. Lets head up a little further along the texas gulf coast to galveston. Cnns ed is on the scene for us there. Whats it like there, ed . Reporter hi, wolf. Were on the eastern edge of this storm looking back toward the west here. The brunt of Hurricane Harvey down that way and its those communities that lie between galveston island and those and Corpus Christi. A lot of focus is always on the eye of the storm. Obviously that is an area of great concern given the sustained winds and the damage those winds and surf is going to cause in those areas. But in this particular storm, you really have to look at the wider reach and what it is going to be capable of doing and the rainfall that it will be producing in the hours and days ahead. And that is of the most concern. And for the most widespread area here in southeast texas. This is an area that is already prone to major flooding in the weakest of Tropical Storms, so you can imagine there is exponentially much larger than even some tropical depressions or Tropical Storms have caused in the past. So, that is why this is so much concerning. Not even just along the coast. Here in galveston, you see the seawall that is here that protects from the smaller storm surges. And you can see how the water is already pushing up close to this wall. And this seawall stretches throughout most of the island. Once you start getting away from galveston island down closer to Corpus Christi, not every community has that kind of protection and thats why the flood waters, not just along the coast line, but even inland is of great concern as this storm stalls out and just continues to produce more and more rain, that flooding is going to be of major concern. Teams have been First Responders have been prepositioning. Were told high water rescue teams in various areas throughout various counties to be able to react to those types of situations, that they expect to have to be called out to. So, that is some of the work that is being done here on the front edge of this storm. As many people here from galveston island to houston all the way down to Corpus Christi really prepare for the brunt of what is coming with this hurricane. Wolf . Ed joining us from galveston. Were going to get back to you. I quickly want to go back to Corpus Christi right now, bracing for impact from this hurricane. Weather nation field correspondent professional storm chaser ben mcmillan is there for us. Where exactly are you, ben, and tell us what youre seeing and hearing . Reporter yeah, would have, the winds have really picked up here the last hour here in texas. Its just after 5 00 p. M. This is Corpus Christi bay. Look at how violent this water is coming up and over some of these sea breaks. Thats a big concern here, the surge is supposed to hit 6 to 12 feet above sea level. The city itself is only 7 feet above sea level. If we get to the higher numbers we could see a lot of water flo flowing up over this seawall and into the city and were watching that condition very closely to make sure that water doesnt rise too quickly. How have the conditions changed over the past hour . We spoke an hour or so ago, ben. What does it feel like now in this hurricane . Reporter wolf, as that eye or center of circulation of the hurricane has moved closer to the city itself, weve seen sustained winds start, which is constant winds flowing in a circular pattern around that prk hurricane. Its basically a big machine releasing all that heat off the ocean in this rotating storm and thats what those winds are coming from and theyre going to continue to batter not only the coastal areas but inland now as the evening goes on. All right. Were going to get back to you. Stand by. Be careful over there, ben mcmillan, the storm chaser. I want to check in on the Emergency Response plan for Hurricane Harvey and the catastrophic impact it is likely to have the were joined by the head of the federal Emergency Management agency, brock long, administrator long. Thanks very much for joining us. Thanks for all the graeme of great work that fema does. What are your biggest concerns are as Hurricane Harvey now approaches land fall . Right now its the life safety mission. Obviously the time to evacuate has come to a close. If youre in those areas getting ready to experience the 6 to 12 feet of storm surge, its time to find some high ground and facility that can withstand the wind. Did people heed the evacuation orders . I know a lot of it was voluntary, some mandatory. What are you hearing about that . So, this was a tough storm. You know, the National Weather service is we have the worlds best meteorologists when it comes to the National Weather service, and but the one thing about this storm, it was incredibly difficult for them to forecast because of the nature of it coming off the yucatan and getting into the bay of campechee. What we saw is a rapidly intensifying major hurricane. Its very hard to motivate people in a small window of time to move. Regarding actual participation rates, you know, 100,000 people plus that were placed under evacuations, i do not have a good number on that. But it was difficult to motivate people most likely because of the nature of this storm and the forecast. How long, administrator, should people expect to be away from their homes . This is going to be a marathon and we have to set the expectations of citizens. Th this ones going to be very difficult. Not only do we have the first major hurricane land fall since 2005, which brings with it the most deadly hazard, storm surge, and the most costly hazard storm surge, but because the storm is going to lose its current and slow down before land fall and stay on top of texas and portions of louisiana, this is going to be a very a multiple day event and its going to be a constantly changing dynamic forecast over the next 48 to 120 hours. Its going to be amazing. Is your big he felt fear the storm surge, the high winds, category 3, 125 mile an hour winds, the flooding, the Power Outages that certainly will develop . This is potentially a real disaster. Oh, its going to be a disaster. Its going to be a significant disaster. And, you know, the citizens of texas and louisiana are going to have their daily routine disrupted for a long time, particularly in the areas that are going to receive the torrential rains. Storm surges, the 50 meter target, storm surge is the most dangerous element of hurricanes, in my opinion, because it has the highest potential to kill the most amount of people and cause the most amount of damage when they come ashore. Once the system starts to dissipate over time because of interaction with land, its going to turn into that rainfall event. And then its going to be a frustrating event because its going to take time for the system to move out. One of the things that we are watching very carefully is the uncertainty of this forecast. If this system moves a little bit to the east of track or north of track before land fall, it could change the rain forecast over the next four or five days tremendously. We want to make sure that, you know, the locals are heeding the warnings the judges are giving out to them. Not only in texas, but also the local officials in the parishes of louisiana. Any shift to the north and east could change the rainfall forecast significantly for those folks living in louisiana. So we want to make sure that while the attention right now and all the cameras are in texas, louisiana needs to watch this one very closely. Weve been in touch with both governors and we are ready to go and preposition in both states. Would you compare this Hurricane Harvey to Hurricane Katrina which happened exactly 12 years ago this week . And we all remember the enormous destruction, the loss of life then. I really dont compare it to Hurricane Katrina. Each storm is different, by the way. No category 3 hurricane is the same, no category 4 hurricane is the same. No Tropical Storm is the same. You know, for this, this one has no steering currents. Katrina had pretty solid steering currents and moved through the state. It brought a tremendous amount of storm surge to the coast of mississippi. And whats interesting is those who stayed behind to experience storm surge in mississippi were not around to give interviews after that event because storm surge is the unforgiving hazard. When you shift over to this event, this is a slow moving event. I would probably, you know, look to the 2001 event and Tropical Storm alison, alison stayed over the city of houston five days and dropped over 30 inches of rain and was a billion dollar event back in 2001. Yeah, i remember that as well. Could this hurricane, Hurricane Harvey, make land fall twice . Yeah, you know, right now this forecast is so uncertain. Any time i see a very slow Forward Movement and where the models, what we call do a spaghetti model plot where theyre all over the place, theyre not in agreement with each other, right now anything is possible, in my opinion, and we have to watch each forecast as it comes out very closely because those models are going to change and the guidance that the National Weather service and the National Hurricane center uses is going to change. Its a dynamic situation that we, you know, we can never be too cautious and Everybody Needs to stay alert. Fema has deployed what are called urban search and rescue teams to san antonio right now. What will be their role in the coming days . I assume theyre going to be moved out of san antonio as quickly as possible. Right. So, the goal of fema is we have to prestage teams such as search and rescue teams, incident management teams. Were prestaging lifesaving commodities. We cant roll directly to the area. I cannot put my staff in danger. It does no good for fema to become a victim by getting too close to the storm. But as soon as the governor, you know, asks for support, we understand what the gaps are in the state. We can mobilize those forces very quickly to start helping the state to respond and recover. What sort of coordination support are you getting from the white house, from President Trump right now . Excellent coordination and support. Were in Constant Contact with not only the white house, but our acting secretary duke over at Homeland Security. I briefed the president directly this morning. Hes actually been to the federal Emergency Management agency here in the National ResponseCoordination Center which is behind me where all my dedicated staff are working. The lines of communication are not only clear between the white house and fema as well as the lines of communication to the department of Homeland Security. But most importantly, you know, our goal is to support our state and local partners and those two governs, John Bell Edwards in louisiana and govern abbott in texas. Thats what we do. Were not a First Response agency. But we are an agency that coordinates the fire power of the federal government down to those governors when called upon. Whats the status of President Trump declaring a federal disaster zone or a declaration, even before land fall occurs . So, heres the process. The declaration request has come up from Governor Abbott in the state of texas. We come through, evaluate the declaration and put it to the white house. It is in the white house this moment as we speak. So, you guys havent done it yet. You anticipate he will . Because its your recommendation that hes going to be relying on, right . A decision should be made very soon. Very soon. And can i just say that youve recommended that the declaration be issued . You know, i cant comment on that. Obviously we are leaning forward and ready to support. We have our resources in the state and so weve already mobilized weve already mobilized a tremendous amount of resources without being asked to be there. This is going to be a critically important decision, then. I assume hes going to do it fairly, fairly soon. How different would the situation, administrator, be in texas right now if that state had built what some recommended years ago a coastal barrier system . They recommended that after hurricane ike. You know, im not familiar necessarily with the coastal barrier system that was put forward. I can tell you this about the state of texas. Its a very capable state. They have solid leadership. Chief kid, the director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management