Flash flood emergencies still in effect for multiple counties in Southeast Texas as the storm attempts to dump another 7 inches of rain each hour. Joining me on the phone is houstons mayor sylvester turner. Mayor, i know its tough going for you right now. Weve been getting reports from all over the city. Tell us what youve just learned in the last couple of hours. Were expecting probably between 4 to 8 inches of rain before the day is over. Well continue to get rain through tomorrow and probably through thursday. So this event, this storm will be around for several more days. Of course, last yesterday, last night starting at about 7 30, over an eighthour period, there was certain portions of the city that received as much as 20 inches. Quite a bit of rain yesterday. All of our bayous have exceeded its banks, so theres flooding all throughout the city, all throughout the county. There are a number of homes where there is water and people have had to be evacuated. Houston Police Department, the Fire Department and First Responders had to respond to about 3,700 calls, so its quite a number. And so now we are going throughout the city of houston using high water rescue vehicles, high water rescue boats, getting people off roofs in some cases. Some people went to their attics. We dont advise people to do that. And some people are stranded in their homes. So were trying to get to as many of them before it gets dark, and weve set up a number of shelters throughout the city, one specifically in the downtown area at the Georgia BrownConvention Center so people can have places to go. How is electricity so far . Just outside of houston alone, we have over 300,000 folks without power . What about houston metro itself . In houston in the metro area, were doing fairly well. Our electricity providers indicated that about 98 of the customers are operating with power. So were doing fine. Our water system is fine. Water is good, water is sound. Operating at 100 meeting all of our needs so were fine with that. The major thing is that the roads are still very much impassable. There is a lot of water everywhere. We are encouraging people to stay off the roads. We had one fatality last night because someone ventured out in the road and ended up getting drowned. Up to this point, there are now three fatalities in the houston area. One on the road, there was one in the home, and i think there was one in the elevator shaft. So there is a lot of rain, a lot of flooding. Water has exceeded the banks, but we are i cannot stress enough the importance of people staying at home, staying off the road. We think thats the safest place for you. And then were responding to a lot of 911 calls. Mr. Mayor, as this happens, do you have concerns about water supply, whether its Potable Water that folks will have, number one. Number two, is that the waters that are out in the streets are contaminated. This is obviously houston. This is an area that is certainly used to understanding the significance of petro chemicals. Right. But at this point our water supply is sound. We are operating at 100 . The Water Quality is good. And so i feel very confident that in terms of our water system, we will meet our needs and it will be the quality will be excellent. So im fine with that. Whats concerning me is making sure that we respond to the needs of seniors, for example, who may be living in homes or apartments by themselves and may not be letting people know that theyre in distress. Im concerned with people who are disabled, again, who may be living by themselves. We want to make sure we meet their needs. Im concerned about individuals, lowincome persons, who may be living in communities, for example, that are prone to floods. We opened up one of the shelters very close to one of those communities last night before the massive rainfall came, and that worked out extremely, extremely well, learning from an event that took place a year ago. So my major concern is trying to reach as many people as i can, as we can. Those who are on rooftops or those who are in attics and those who are in homes before night fa nightfall comes, because you dont want them staying out there for too long, especially at night. I do want to give a lot of credit to our First Responders, police and fire. They have done an exceptional, exemplary job. I also want to give credit to a lot of you houstonians who have just stepped up, people in the communities who have stepped up. I cannot say enough for the city coming together in this moment of crisis. But look, this is just day two for us. There will be day three, day four and day five, so well get a lot of rain over the next several days. But, you know, well take it one day at a time. A lot of rain in the coming days. Mr. Mayor, you had suggested, you had asked all residents of houston in the houston metro area to stay in place, do not leave their residence. Do you still believe that was the right strategy here . Without question. As you can recall, when this storm was forming and there was still a tropical depression, went to a Tropical Storm and then became a hurricane, nobody really knew the direction in which it was going. Even after it landed, nobody knew the direction it was going to go. You cannot evacuate in this case when you include the city and the county of 6. 5 Million People, you cant evacuate them when you dont know where the danger is. The city of houston and Harris County were not in the direct path of the hurricane. When it did form and we knew it was going to land around the rockport victoria Corpus Christi area. So we were never in the direct path once we had a better sense of where it was going. For us it was always going to be a rain maker. With that being the case, we had to prepare before. We asked people to get their food, their medicine, their water. Stock up all the things they needed so they could hunker down. Most people, and 99 of the people did that. Im very thankful for that. We knew this was going to be a rainmaker over several days and we asked people to exercise a great deal of patience. They have done that. But we are continuing to say to people, do not venture out. You have a small percentage of people who are venturing out, and as a result theyre getting stranded and we have to respond to them with the 911 calls. But there is no question, no doubt in my mind, that the best decision and the right decision was to tell houstonians and people in Harris County, dont get on the road. Dont try to evacuate. You cant put 6. 5 Million People on the road a day or two ahead of the storm without making it more dangerous for them. So without hesitation or doubt, i would make the same decision if we had it to do again. One of the top five largest cities in our country. You have a lot to govern there, mr. Mayor. Sylvester turner, thank you for the update and hopefully were getting word to folks in your area in terms of what you would like them to do. Thank you. Lets bring out more on Tropical Storm harvey. Where it might be going. Getting close to houston again with more rain. Shawn mendiola our meteorologist. Shawn, whats the latest . I want to point out this video. The roads, the freeways inundated with water. It doesnt take much to get swept away. This is why the mayor says stay in place, this is why the National Weather service says dont go anywhere, just stay in place. It only takes one foot of water to push a small car possibly out of the neighborhood and get into accidents here. What were looking at right now with this storm is just a lot of rain happening in the next few days. Weve been repeating this over and over because its not moving at all. It is stuck in place because, again, that blocking high to the west and to the east coast is just sandwiching it right over texas. Southeast texas looking at many bands getting fed in by the gulf of mexico. A lot of that moisture producing possible thunderstorms as well and maybe even tornadoes tonight. We are watching that threat. But 40 inches of rain likely is what were going for here. Houston looking at 15 to 25 inches by the time this might be over additionally to what theyve got on the ground. So every single day, although we are expecting the rain to go down and not be as severe in the next few days, its going to add to whats on the ground as well. Looking at those flash flood warnings in place for houston, galveston, bay city. Up in will you pleaseton, it appears we cou it looks like we could be seeing this through friday now. The reason why its not going to turn into a low with this new track is because its driving over the water and its going to feel the storm. Were going to see it turn left at houston. Unfortunately, thats where we see most of the rain right now and we see it move up north and possibly move out by the time we get to the end of the week. Again, several days ahead. Friday still probably going to be a wet day ahead for houston, and i know they feel like this might not be over ever, but crossing our fingers that everyone just stays in place and stays safe. When will tornadoes not be a threat there . Will it be a threat through this entire storm . It appears to be so as long as the circulation is right over the water. Thats where were getting it, right off the gulf. As long as it stays over water, well continue to have threats and those tornado watches remain in place. Thank you, shawn. We continue to watch harvey as it dumps tons of rain down there in texas and louisiana. President trumps decision to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio remains a hot topic. The move to grant clemency to the lawman prompted a quote, will this blow over in a few days or will this come back to haunt mr. Trump . Here is tom bossert with his take on the pardon. I think there is a clemency argument that can be made for the long history of service both in the United States military and Law Enforcement for the sheriff. I think the president was pretty straightforward that he believes that long history of service merits this clemency, and hes acted accordingly. Joining us now, our assistant prosecutor linyninda and nick valdez. Nick, well start with you. When you look at the pardon, many have said this is lawful but just not typical of what has been done previously by other president s. Is there anything that could have been done to stop this pardon . I dont think theres anything that could have been done to stop this president to keep from pardoning joe arpaio. I think this entire pardon is totally outrageous, undermines our legal system, our judicial system, and essentially shows that what President Trump did with respect to the charlottesville demonstration, basically equating the white nationalists with the counterdemonstrators, really shows that he is our bigot in chief. If you look at the two pieces of our criminal justice system, why do we have it . We have it for punishment and deterrence. In this particular case, the punishment obviously was going to fit the crime. This was a situation where joe arpaio, a sheriff, a Law Enforcement officer who was sworn to uphold the law and the constitution of the United States, was going out and arresting people just because they were latinos. Putting in people who were american citizens, putting them under arrest. He had no probable cause to arrest people for immigration violations. In fact, the court, the Arizona Federal District Court judge, found that there was no basis and directly ordered arpaio not to arrest people based on this racial profiling. Instead what he did was to violate, willfully and knowingly violate that court order. You had one judge who found it was a problem, ordered him not to do it, and then you found another judge who basically found that he was guilty. If ever there was a situation where someone should be punished, this was it. This pardon did not go through the normal process. It did not have the normal approvals of the department of justice. In fact, as reports this morning in the paper showed, this was all a preplanned by the president to try and get joe arpaio off the entire case. In addition, one of the prime reasons why we go ahead and prosecute certain cases over other cases is the deterrence. The idea that you want to deter people from certain activity. Here the activity of violating people of their Constitutional Rights, arresting them for no good reason just because of the way they look, because of their national origin, is just totally unamerican. Thats why you want to deter people from doing that. What the president has done is just the opposite. Right. He has basically set it up so that now people should be incentivized to do this because theyre not going to have to pay the consequences. And thats what i find outrageous. And whats even more outrageous nick, i want to get linda into this conversation, too. I know your engine was moving there, but just keep it at idle for a second here. Linda, i want to get you in on this because your paper published an oped in part saying, what does this pardon say to latino americans, especially in the midst of all the racial turmoil surrounding the recent events in charlottesville . Thats really the question. But this is that particular Editorial Board comment. Whats your reflection on what this pardon means . Well, i think it clearly means that the president has given his seal of approval for Law Enforcement to racially profile people. And hes also shown great contempt for the judicial system, and if there was any doubt about what his message was after the charlottesville violence, that doubt has been erased. Its clearly an insult to latinos, but its also an insult to all americans, because the constitution guarantees equal protection. And joe arpaio was a Law Enforcement officer who was not providing that. He had policies, official policies, that racially profiled people, and these were not all undocumented people. There were u. S. Citizens and legal residents who were detained and harassed by his policies. And by the president also shortcircuited the Legal Process. The trial was a long process. He had recently been found guilty of criminal contempt for ignoring the federal judges orders to stop his policies, and the sentencing was due to come in october. The president did not even wait for that process to work its way through the system, and i think thats really that sends a very frightening message, particularly at this time when the administration is trying to engage local Law Enforcement in enforcing immigration laws. This is like a green light to profile whomever looks latino. Thats very dangerous. Its a very dangerous statement. Nick, as you were alluding to, and quickly if you can here, the Washington Post reporting that the president in early spring had approached the attorney general to discuss basically dismissing this case against joe arpaio. You put that together with then later on the pardon. What might be thought of here for special counsel mueller . Might he do something with that . Again, it all goes to the president s intent. His intent to obstruct the legal system, his intent to obstruct justice as he did here. And let me just say, to follow up on what linda said, this is an issue that doesnt just involve latinos. This announcement was made in the middle of this hurricane purposely to detract peoples attention from an issue that is extremely important and that affects not only latinos but every single american in this country. And even though we should all be concerned about this hurricane, we should also be concerned about our Constitutional Rights and our right to go about our business as citizens without being arrested on the spot and having a president who condones that activity. Linda, whats your sense of the president s thought right now, and what has been the response from latinoamericans as they have been very clear in the latinoamerican community overall, saying this is not good. The president saying, well, i wanted to do this because he served the country for so long, hes in his 80s, this man deserves this. Thats basically what weve been hearing from the administration. Put those two together for us, linda. I think for all of us who wanted justice for arpaio, there was a feeling of betrayal and a feeling that the system was shortcircuited. They used the Legal Process to try to stop him from what he was doing, and that was shortcircuited. Joe arpaio has a long history of service. But much of what he did as sheriff of maricopa county, he ignored hundreds of cases of sexual assault, including against children, so that he could focus on his immigration enforcement. He cost the county, maricopa county, more than 150 million in legal fees. He was not a good administrator. He was not a good sheriff. But the fact that hes old and the fact that he may have provided good service to the country at some point in time does not excuse his behavior as sheriff. He was a Law Enforcement agent. He was an official with power, and he abused that power. Thats just a fact. You dont just ignore that and say, oh, well, he did some good things in his life. That isnt the way it works. All right. Linda valdez, thank you so much. Nick ackerman, really bringing it today. I thank you both for help on this topic. Assessing the damage after harvey. Were going to return to that breaking story. Fema says it could take years to recover. We go live to victoria, texas where residents are without power and water. Re you related o jennifer . Kind of joking with him. And my dad was so proud to tell her, as a matter of fact, she is my middle daughter. So now dad has the venture card, hes earning his double miles, and he made a friend at the company. Can i say it . Go ahead whats in your wallet . Nice job dad. You dont let anything lkeep you sidelined. Come on thats why you drink ensure. With 9 grams of protein, and 26 vitamins and minerals. 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