Several minutes. This is obviously a big moment for President Trump. There were some questioning whether this was the right moment for President Trump to be visiting a disaster area. So soon after Hurricane Harvey came ashore. I can tell you that from talking to sources that the president feels this is the right thing to do. He did this during the campaign. Visited louisiana after flooding down there. And the feeling is inside the white house, you heard this from Sarah Huckabee sanders a short while ago. Talking to reporters on air force one. The feeling, theyre fuf enough away from where the Critical Response areas are now. Obviously thats the houston area and around the houston area and heading into louisiana. From what we understand talking to folks at the white house, the president may indeed visit those parts of texas and louisiana over the weekend. Not set in stone yet, but were going to watch that. You see senator john cornyn also sitting down in the room there just a few folks away from senator ted cruz. It appears that they are getting ready for the president s visit there. First a look at the houston area. Large parts of the countrys fourth biggest city are underwater after being drenched with more than three feet of water with more on the way. Right now an ominous order from officials in columbia lake. Just southwest of houston. Get out now. That is, you can see that onscreen there. Get out now, what theyre telling people in Columbia Lakes. The levees there have breached and residents are being told to leave immediately. So if you live in that area, or if you know people in that area, Columbia Lakes, please, make sure that those folks get out now nthat is what youre told b government officials. Dont forgetting a louisiana. The 12th anniversary of hurricane katrina. Parts of that state dealing with devastating floods. More than 500 people, you see video there, had to be rescued from their homes in lake charles, louisiana. Moving northeast through texas to the houston area, the city and surrounding suburbs dealing with record levels of main. As many as four feet according to one report. Thats a staggering amounted. And more on the way as harvey continues to churn in the gulf. Our brian todd there in houston right now. Ed lavandera in galveston island and cnn meteorologist, hes at the Severe Weather center in atlanta. Brian, as we look at these live pictures in Corpus Christi, texas, where the president is expected to arrive at any moment. I only preface that in case we have to jump in as youre speaking, brian. You see have seen so many rescu heroic efforts. Thousands so far. It whats happening right now . Brian todd, can you hear me, sir . This is jim acosta. We are in, Live Programming right now. Brian is down in houston trying to reach out to him. Brian todd, can you hear me . What can you tell us . Reporter jim, we are at the bush intercontinental airport. These customs and Border Protection helicopters are sh shuttlining over and about to te off. Where are they going to next . What have you jean whats taken place, in the last minutes, you can see, being blown around. Might be tough to hear. What can you tell us about everything youre seeing. Reporter these are customs and Border Protection rescue helicopters getting ready to take off. Theyre shuttling here, ready to take off on another wave of rescue missions. And what have you seen so far throughout the day . How many folks of these rescuers, have they picked up so far . How complicated is it right now . Reporter weve seen a lot of deserve strags from tvastation. Flooding goes on as far as the eye can see. Water past the windows of the houses and almost up to the roofs. Live programming. Cut you off. Governor abbott, President Trump, first lady melania trump, come into the room for an update on releetes leief efforts. Sitting down. Go ahead and listen in and see what theyre going to tell us. Welcome, the president of the United States, to the great state of texas. I want to express my gratitude for our fellow texans and especially the people of Corpus Christi for giving the president sump a warm welcome. On his ride over here. Showing gratitude we all have for the president. I want to express my deep gratitude to the president for him and his entire cabinet and staff for what theyve done over the past couple weeks. A lot of people see what happens in front of the camera. I want to reveal in just one minute whats been going on behind the scenes, behind the camera for the past two weeks. About ten days in advance of the hurricane, even coming in to the Corpus Christi area, members of the president s cabinet and the president himself were in contact with me and my office prepreparing for this catastrophe coming our way. Every step of the way as the hurricane came across the shore, as the flooding began in houston, texas, the president and his cabinet remained in Constant Contact with me and my staff, and they all had one thing to say. Texas, what do you need . How can we help . You can count on us. What ive learned is, we can count on the president of the United States and his staff for helping texas. Texas has been tested, but our response to this challenge has been made much more effective, because of the very effective way the president and his staff has helped texas respond to this challenge. So, mr. President , thank. Thank. Welcome to texas. I appreciate it. Its so nice, governor, and its really my honor. This is a very special place and a special state, and senator cruz and senator cornyn, thank you very much. Senator corn, fyn, we appreciat it. Its very hard to get here. You were trapped in various locations but we appreciate you both being here. I want to thank my staff, my cabinet. We have quite a few of our cabinet here. Ben carson, obviously, from hud and tom price and linda mcmahon. Small business. Which is now big business, because when you add them all up, you are going to help a lot of people in texas, and doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much. We have had a tremendous group of folks, our acting director, elaine, thank you very much for the job youve done, and a man who really has become very famous on television in the last couple of days, mr. Long. We appreciate it very much. You have been just outstanding, and i can tell you that my folks are telling me how great your representatives have been in working together. Its a real team, and we want to do it better than ever before. We want to be looked at in five years, in ten years from now as, this is the way to do it. This was of epic proportion. Nobodys ever seen anything like this and i just want to say that working with the governor and his entire team has been an honor for us. So, governor, again, thank very much. We wont say congratulations. We dont want to do that. We dont want to congratulate. Well congratulate each other when its all finished, but you have been terrific. You really have. Youve been my friend. And with that, maybe you can mr. President so, the whole community is coming together. You know, right here, where the brunt of the category 4 hurricane winds came in just north of Corpus Christi, were already starting to affect recovery. Recovery is a slow process. But rest assured were doing everything we can to unify efforts down to support. To local, First Responders weve had here. Yesterday put eyes on the ground in rockport. Already points of distribution flowing. Working in conjunction with the Governors National guard. Fema is flying meals and water, and the National Guard is helping to run those sdrish distribution points is how this system works. All eyes are on houston, so are mine. Weve got a long way to go and are to set up expectations of the citizens and have to continue a unified effort now to help the state of texas ultimately recover. So very greatly the objectives stay the same. To the north of us, its not over. Still in a life saving, Life Sustaining mission. And let me be clear. This is not the superdome. The Convention Center, we are sustaining food. They have food. Security. I have an Incident Management Team inside the city of houston as we speak. And more and more people are being moved to shelters to stabilize the situation. The next thing is, that were pushing commodities. Once the water goes down well continue to push not only commodities, also help to get people registered in the system to receive assistance from all of us. Assistants that doesnt just come from fema. It comes from Many Organizations who are represented here today by secretary price, secretary carson, and others. The nice thing is, were looking at power restoration. Maintaining security. Mobilized a Home Security and with that comes Law Enforcement making sure wean anticipating and overcoming any security you need we have and then also with secretary price over here. Were working with not only the govern governors disaster medical teams but sending federal disaster medical teams in not only to the Convention Center today, some on site and in multiple area for crisis counseling and making sure were meeting access and functional nields. The access is a challenge to getting all the supplies in, once the Roadway Systems come out, we amassed quite the federal force to be able to support the local and state effort. For example, governor pulls 12,000 National Guard troops in. Were pulling units out of fort hood as the federal government, federal d. O. D. Forces come in as well. We pulled several hundred trucks and staff just from assets right here in the state of texas. Thats how the system worksthis rvry will be frustrating. Were going to be here with you to temperature you guide you through. Its going to be tough to navigate, all of the programs, as they become available, but were here to help. With that, id like to pass it along to our friends at the coast guard. Good afternoon, sir. This is where your coast guard, sir, is at its best. A bias for action heres in the state of texas to support of state of texas, federal Emergency Management agency and full coast guard men and women across the country, capabilities, helicopters, Quick Response and management specialists in the state of texas and getting after the task the hand. I tell you that as you look obviously the landfall here, phase one down here in the canal. Seen this folks speak more about that. [ inaudible ] in houston, a challenge there. Everything from fighting the weather the next couple days. Probably see average rainfall for the year, 50 inches, before weeks end. We dont know what that looks like, but i can tell you, the coast guard and Home Security team and d. O. D. Force and National Guard spent sunday and monday with the governor in different locations. Latched up with the state and Getting Better every day with a problem of catastrophic proportions weve havent done before but were all in, and im encouraged about how this thing will go forward. With cooperation. With that, sir, a couple moments here [ inaudible ] and [ inaudible ] Corpus Christi and also the commander for unified command. Our unified command provides over 150 federal, state and local agencies and was partners here to make sure we cover all the bases. I want to walk through a timeline of our activities weve done over the course of Hurricane Harvey, just to let you know where were at. So on tuesday the storm shifted and became a hurricane. Our job, assess this. When we started doing that, wednesday. Making preparations and lockdown facilit facilities. Getting our vesseling out to sea. [ inaudible ] and out of harms way and come back in after the storm. On friday, we moved boats and aircraft away from the storm so they could immediately respond. Now were, harvey upgraded to a category 4 hurricane, our team hunkered down elsewhere and about 20 miles or so from here. And practiced and were ready to be here. [ inaudible ] moorings and mariners in distress. At that point had to wait for parameters to change, sent helicopters north and saved 19 mariners lives that night. Later on saturday morning, we had our assessment. It wasnt good to take the boats on the a water. Among the damage, we noted [ inaudible ] front of the Corpus Christi channel. A major challenge. Continued search and rescue calls saturday. The weather conditions wouldnt allow us [ inaudible ] trying to we were working on that. Sunday, the storm shifted to houston. And [ inaudible ] up to houston. And helping everyone we can with that [ inaudible ] using assets down here to run low jigistics over the state. Brought boats from the south to start activities here. So monday we started to check our water operations. Its a huge emphasis on commerce and all the activities we do. And partners with the army corps of engineers and checking obstructions and the navigation and starting evaluations of the waters. Channel markings, making sure we opened the ports safe. So far 180 grounded vessels. Those are major concerns, that large [ inaudible ] in the Corpus Christi channel. Last night winds came from the storm that actually raised itself and drifted to the other side of the channel. [ inaudible ]. Additionally, were working with [ inaudible ] on pollution activities. So far, good news, not seen any as far as pollution [ inaudible ] so in closing, about onethird done with our Channel Service with the army corp. Once we complete the survey and salvage the grounded ship well be in good position. And right now [ inaudible ] really looking to that. I want to tell you, i can speak for the governor because we spoke about it. We are very proud of the coast guard. The lives theyve saved. Were very, very proud of you. Thank you very much. Mr. President , a couple thousand rescues a day. Everybody else in this economic issue, of course, we are in with border of protection agency, and in the facility donors, and on the waterways, the pilots, conditions now are not amenable. We recognize that as a National Priority and will keep that [ inaudible ]. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you. Mr. President , at this hour before the press pool pillpulls, the whole community. Neighbor helping neighbor is needed in helping texas overcome. Very quickly, if you if you would like to register for assistance underneath the governors declared counties, theres 18 declared counties for individual assistants underneath the president s disaster declaration. Thats disasterassistant. Org. Puts in excuse me. Disasterassistance. Gov. I apologize. Disasterassistance. Gov, the fema individual assistant system. Theres ways, looking to volunteer in nboad. Org. Also within the state of texas, one Star Foundation dot org. Also and leave it at that, or redcross. Org as well. Thank you, and at this time this concludes the press briefing. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. There you have it. The president briefed by federal officials on relief efforts in texas after Hurricane Harvey. You saw the fema administrator there and other officials, coast guard officials as well. Back out to see how things are on its ground in the houston area. Ed lavandera is live in galveston. Ed, yesterday we saw you traveling around with the National Guard troops. So what are you seeing today . It still looks pretty bad where you are. That road behind you, you can tell, completely flooded . Reporter yes. Were out here on galveston island just off of the main thoroughfa thoroughfare, broadway after nue avenue. So much rainfall on galveston island this morning, there are a number of neighborhoods, not all of the island by any means, but a number of neighborhoods that are looking like this. These floodwaters rising very quickly. I spoke with a couple people trying to manage their way and get through these areas here in the last couple of hours. They say in many places, the water is chest high and many homes here in this area are taking on water as well. So there has been so much rainfall since noon yesterday throughout this region that it just keeps coming and coming. Thats why were seeing these floodwaters. In fact, on the main thoroughfare that takes you through part of the eland here that connects into interstate 45 and takes you back on to the mainland, a lot of that road has been under water and in the strand district, the Entertainment District here on galveston island as well. Hearing reports, havent been able to make it there ourselves. Hearing theres a great deal of water in that area as well. So this is what were seeing. Chesthigh water. Again, here in actually really the most serious flooding weve seen so far on galveston island since the storm made its way from Corpus Christi and rockport and started moving eastward towards where we are. Hoping its not a harbinger of things to come in the comes hours. Intensity of rainfall and relentlessness of it over the past hours has been dramatic as weve seen floodwaters and a number of emergency vehicles, weve seen repeatedly making their way through its streets of galveston island here this morning. Well continue to monitor. Ed lavandera, looks bad where you are and the rain still coming. Appreciate it. And focusing on 6,000 rescues, performed already, with thousands more still waiting for help. Some shelters are overflowing and shortages of food and fuel. Cnns scott