Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 201

Wind gusts of up to 132 miles per hour. Winds and massive storm surges pummelling large swaths of the state leaving thousands without power. Areas like rockport get hurt worse than others with entire buildings collapsed, trapping residents and sending others to hospitals. President trump declared Hurricane Harvey a disaster late into the evening. Hes monitoring the storm and tweeting from camp david with his National Security team and the Vice President there. Leaders in texas also urged residents to evacuate, warning those who remained would be subjected to the storms wrath for days. Heres governor greg abbott. We are concerned that not enough people have evacuated, and we are still urging people if at all possible, if youre in lowlying areas, in zones where evacuation orders have been in place, there may still be time to get out. We begin by heading to corp Corpus Christi, texas. Were hearing about catastrophic flooding possible the next several days, correct . Reporter that is the potential here. And that is something that Corpus Christi and the surrounding areas are certainly bracing for. Right now we have a lot of people here that do not have power. About 162,000 people in the Corpus Christi area without electricity at this point along the texas gulf coast here. 211,000 people. Were told about 100 circuits are out of service. These are major transmission areas. That is why we are now talking about people in the hundreds of thousands without power here. We have video we want you to look at. This was taken a little bit earlier last night right when Hurricane Harvey was making landfall. This is just a few miles north of here. The harbor master building that was there gave way during those categoryfour winds that the hurricane brought on shore. Just an amazing sight to see that structural damage because of the hurricane. Another issue here the water. There is a precautionary boil water order in Corpus Christi at this time. City officials saying they do not want people to drink, cook, wash their face, or brush their teeth with the water until further notice. Again, that is especially true for people with compromised immune systems and people who are young or the elderly. This is for an unspecified period of time, until further notice. Again because theyre blaming Hurricane Harvey as far as affecting the water system here in Corpus Christi. There are just a number of things going on here related to Hurricane Harvey. We are waiting for sunrise. At that point, it will become clearer what kind of structural damage there might be and clearer what kind of flooding there might be in some of the areas further inland from here. I cant help noticing, it looks pretty calm where you are now. That probably wasnt the case earlier, was it . Reporter it was not, as you can imagine. The winds were very, very strong. Especially a couple of hours ago when we were feeling the brunt of Hurricane Harvey here. As hurricanes come on shore, you know the winds shift around. At one point, they were coming from the east and sort of from the north and coming from the west. We have seen a reduction in a force of the winds here. Its not affecting our windows here on the building as much as they were before. Thats something that we definitely noticed. Again, were not out of the woods yet because were expecting to have hurricaneforce winds throughout the rest of the day today here in Corpus Christi. Thank you. Thats right, we want to check back in with her later in this hour and the coming hours of this morning. With more on the challenge to try to get help to the victims along the gulf coast there, we have Bristol Minsker from the red cross from austin, texas. Bristol, when weve got so many folks without power, what are some of the things they can do to get help now . We try to remind people before these types of storms how important it is to have that disaster kit ready with your backup batteries, weather radio, flashlights that are all charged up, and to have your digital devices charged up. Of course, the hope is that they have access to a radio where they can stay informed about local resources and that theyve got their devices that are charged up so they can check in with all their digital resources. If they dont have those things, we dont want to encourage people to go outside in dangerous conditions unless you know what the conditions are going to be outside your door. What about the issue of safe water as maya was telling us about . Thats definitely a concern. We want to encourage people to heed every warning coming from local authorities. There are so many communities across texas being impacted by the storm. The issues in each town are going to be slightly different. Make sure that youre tuned in to what your community is instructing you to do about water safety and power safety because youve got to to take care of your family, and you dont want to put yourself at risk. We also know that many people are without power. How do you get word about dangers like the water out to people who may not be able to be watching on television or the radio . Every community has different emergency Warning Systems. Hopefully they have their telephones plugged into the local Warning Systems like what we have here in central texas. The communities will be notifying people through things that have worked over the ages, long before we had the technology of social media, where now everybody seems to be on twitter. Weve got to start relying on the older technologies like good, oldfashioned phone calls, and weather radios. What are you hearing in terms of reports of damage . Were getting in at the 1 30 a. M. Hour local time, an hour and a half ago, but a high school destroyed damaged, i should say, as well as a harbor master building along the coast destroyed. What are you hearing in terms of infrastructure damage . We are starting to hear reports, as well, of homes and buildings that have been damaged. The damages are going to become much more clear as the sun comes up. We also want to remind people that even when the sun does come up, theyre not in the clear yet. This is going to be a continued Flooding Risk for the next several days in many communities. While we will begin to do Damage Assessment when it becomes lighter outside today, were certainly not in the clear. And a lot of that wont become known until the floodwaters start to subside into next week. And looking looking at that video there, showing what these winds can do, tearing off a roof. We dont know of which building. An uprooted tree. Here it is again, the video. We had a report of a senior home also getting such damage, the roof coming off and having to evacuate those who were in the home to a local jail. Are you getting any reports of injuries related to such infrastructure damage . We havent heard those types of reports. Youve got to remember that right now the red cross is focused on sheltering people from this storm. We want to make sure that everyone knows they have a safe place to go. If you do have access to your digital devices, redcross. Org shelters will tell you where the nearest shelters are. If people are out in the storm or if theyve evacuated to more of the inland communities, weve got shelters available all across Central South Texas and along the gulf coast to make sure that theyve got a safe place to go. What are the biggest dangers when the sun comes out, people are curious, they want to walk around and check out the damage were talking about. What is the danger of perhaps, you know, power lines being down . Thats right. There may be downed power lines. If you live in a street or neighborhood thats been blocked off by local authorities, you definitely need to Pay Attention to the warnings. Dont go back into your neighborhood or into a community thats been evacuated unless youve been told by local authorities its safe to do so. Downed power lines, gas lines can pose a risk. Thank you very much. I believe we have some information to put on the screen for people who might want to help. Yes, the American Red Cross number there. Obviously people always do want to lend a hand to those in need. She said if you need help, if youve got a situation, call them. Sometimes thats going to be better than trying to use email or digital connections. Exactly. Lets get to the latest on the this storm. Were about to see it in daylight coming up fairly soon. Yeah. And i dont even think youve seen the worst of damage yet. Weve seen the images out of Corpus Christi, right . Its north of there, rockport. Rockport is where we get first light. Its going to be pretty bad. Well be looking for images here in the hours to come. Some changes with the storm, the newest update in at the top of the hour, down to a category two, a strong two, with winds of 110 miles per hour. Each hour youll see the winds step down a little bit. Looking at the radar picture, a healthy looking storm. I think its very important that we talk about the storm in steps because this can be misleading to people. The weather will improve for a while. Then it will turn worse again. So well walk through the timeline. Thats very important. For instance, Corpus Christi, you got hit with the back side of the storm. What that means is that wasnt even the strongest side of the storm, and there was considerable damage. Things will get better for today for a while. So the latest positioning here, 25 miles north northwest of rockport. Thats where the landfall was, the first landfall. And its moving off to the northwest now at six miles per hour. It has slowed down from earlier speeds that we saw on friday. Now the storm system kind of has multiple threats going on here. The storm surge threat is still ongoing here for these Barrier Islands to the north and east of Corpus Christi now. The waters still coming in. Were still seeing very heavy rainfall. That will be the case for the next several hours. So conditions north and east of Corpus Christi, rockport, places like that, up toward the bay, still not Getting Better yet. You have to wait for the storm to move further north and west before things get better. They will get better temporarily. So we need to talk about this. The storm right now is pushing off toward the north and west. Victoria, your weathers going downhill. Houston, weve been seeing Tornado Warnings. The last time you checked in with me, we had no warnings. There are warnings now. Things can happen that quickly. Again, to watch for brief spinups. The timeline is important. The storm will continue to work north and west. And conditions will get better for a while along coastal texas where the Barrier Islands are still dealing with some flooding. The rain will abate a little bit. The problem is is the storm tracks back down to the south tomorrow night, into monday, into tuesday. It may reemerge over the gulf and strengthen again. It will be interesting to see what the Hurricane Center does with the 5 00 a. M. Path. Right now, still calling for isolated totals up to 40 inches of rain. This is over the next seven days. So its easy to become desensitized in the next day or two if you dont see all the extensive flooding. There will be pockets of very bad flooding today and tomorrow, but it will ton build off of itself as we head through the rest of the weekend and especially next week. Like i said earlier, the european model keeps the storm around saturday in some through saturday in some capacity. Seven to eight days of dealing its hard to wrap your mind around this, but its important to understand the storm and wobbles that come with it. Well keep you posted because it is a tricky storm. It is definitely complicated this one. It is. The big concern there is houston. 6. 5 million folks in the metropolitan area. And its really too early, isnt it, to know how severe the flooding will be there. We think back to 2001 when 22 people died because of flooding. Right. And so its these bands lets see if i can get the radar back up. Ill have to do it for the next hit. The feeder bands of the storm are 10, 15 miles wide. There can be areas that are hit very hard and then just 20 or 25 miles down the road, very little effect. Its when you get into the bands. The whole storm itself is spiraling around. Eventually youll get hit with one of the bands. Its over the next couple of days the threat continues. So the track, again, wobbling inland for a while. Tonight into sunday, it backs to the south. Its the supply of water thats the problem. This is the gulf of mexico, a reservoir of moisture. It gets wrung out like a sponge. Just because you may not have extensive flooding today or tomorrow, the threat isnt over. Southeastern texas is under the gun for the next seven days. The first images will be out of rockport this morning. Curious to see whats happening there as they had the surge, seven to nine inches of rain. The flood threat moving north and west today, back again toward the coast tomorrow night into monday. And up into the houston area through the rest of the week. Its very complicated. Thats why we will try to break it down each hour. Bill will be around here this morning and will be on top of this thing. And youre doing a great job at it. Thank you. Thanks. No breaks for you, my friend. Coffee, please. More live coverage of the historic storm that steve was telling us after a break. These days families want to be connected 24 7. Thats why at comcast were continuing to make our services more reliable than ever. Like technology that can update itself. An advanced fibernetwork infrustructure. New, more Reliable Equipment for your home. And a new culture built around customer service. It all adds up to our most Reliable Network ever. One that keeps you connected to what matters most. You can see were being hit by a significant band from harvey as it is making landfall 50 miles south of where we are. We are in port la vaca. There is la vaca bay in front of me here. That storm surge is pushing water from the bay this way. There you see kprc reporter Brandon Walker in texas, smack dab in the center of harvey as it made landfall. We continue to follow developments this morning as this hurricane pummels the bown star state. Now to houston where Stephanie Gosk has been tracking the storm and the historic damage its bringing. Stephanie . Reporter the city of houston tonight, how much rain will fall and how quickly will it come . The question is drainage in this city. If its slow enough, the city hopefully will have the capacity to allow that water to drain. The drainage system in the city is not great. It is a lowlying city, drainage systems over 100 years old. Rests in an area interlaced with bayous. Theres one bayou in particular that people in the city are concerned about. Its called braise bayou, and its flooded the last two years in a row. They will be keeping a close eye on that bayou. The other area of concern is to the west of the city. Its two dams. The dams are critical because they stop the floodwater from going down into the city of houston which has a population of 6. 6 million people. The army corps of engineers says say that are monitoring dams 24 hours, round the clock, not what they normally do. In 2009, the two dams were rated as in urgent need of repair. Right now theres a 75 million plan to repair them. It only just started in 2016. The concern is that the water tops those if it tops the dams or if the dams give way in any way, they will have to do something they call an emergency release of water which will automatically bring flooding downstream, but it would be far less catastrophic than if the dams gave way. For the people of houston, this storm is only just getting started. Back to you in new york. So well said. Now to Corpus Christi, not far from where stephanie was at, where New York Times reporter Manny Fernandez is on the ground for us. What are you seeing and hearing right now . Reporter things are a lot calmer than they were, you know, a couple hours ago. You know, Corpus Christi had got hit pretty hard and with some very intense winds. Not a lot of water where i am. Im a few miles inland in Corpus Christi. And a few hours ago, you know, the wind was just it just was really sort of pushing against you, you know, when you stood outside. And things have sort of calmed down a little bit. It looks like some of the worst damage is probably north of us now. A few miles to the north. When you look outside or put your ear to the door, youre saying its calm at the moment then . Reporter it is its a little calmer than it was. A few hours ago outside our hotel, the wind was very intense, there were palm trees that were in the parking lot of the hotel that came down. You know, it just it was a tense wind. Now its a little bit calmer. I think people at the hotel are breathing a little easier in the last couple of hours. What about power . Power outages in the number of 200,000 that were seeing so far. Some locations have not seen any loss at all. What have you seen . Were one of the lucky ones. Were at a hotel here that kept its power. The power would sort of flicker on and off throughout the evening but basically held. Yeah, those power outage numbers that have sloedsly and steadi slowly and steadily cropped up throughout the Corpus Christi area, but we still have power. The water, thats the tornado we were hearing from maya earlier, about where the water is safe to drink. Theres the warning they need boil it. When they open the faucet at the hotel, maybe they can do that, what does it look like . Is there any noticeable difference . Right now it looks okay. And im i went to the Hurricane Harvey<\/a> a disaster late into the evening. Hes monitoring the storm and tweeting from camp david with his National Security<\/a> team and the Vice President<\/a> there. Leaders in texas also urged residents to evacuate, warning those who remained would be subjected to the storms wrath for days. Heres governor greg abbott. We are concerned that not enough people have evacuated, and we are still urging people if at all possible, if youre in lowlying areas, in zones where evacuation orders have been in place, there may still be time to get out. We begin by heading to corp Corpus Christi<\/a>, texas. Were hearing about catastrophic flooding possible the next several days, correct . Reporter that is the potential here. And that is something that Corpus Christi<\/a> and the surrounding areas are certainly bracing for. Right now we have a lot of people here that do not have power. About 162,000 people in the Corpus Christi<\/a> area without electricity at this point along the texas gulf coast here. 211,000 people. Were told about 100 circuits are out of service. These are major transmission areas. That is why we are now talking about people in the hundreds of thousands without power here. We have video we want you to look at. This was taken a little bit earlier last night right when Hurricane Harvey<\/a> was making landfall. This is just a few miles north of here. The harbor master building that was there gave way during those categoryfour winds that the hurricane brought on shore. Just an amazing sight to see that structural damage because of the hurricane. Another issue here the water. There is a precautionary boil water order in Corpus Christi<\/a> at this time. City officials saying they do not want people to drink, cook, wash their face, or brush their teeth with the water until further notice. Again, that is especially true for people with compromised immune systems and people who are young or the elderly. This is for an unspecified period of time, until further notice. Again because theyre blaming Hurricane Harvey<\/a> as far as affecting the water system here in Corpus Christi<\/a>. There are just a number of things going on here related to Hurricane Harvey<\/a>. We are waiting for sunrise. At that point, it will become clearer what kind of structural damage there might be and clearer what kind of flooding there might be in some of the areas further inland from here. I cant help noticing, it looks pretty calm where you are now. That probably wasnt the case earlier, was it . Reporter it was not, as you can imagine. The winds were very, very strong. Especially a couple of hours ago when we were feeling the brunt of Hurricane Harvey<\/a> here. As hurricanes come on shore, you know the winds shift around. At one point, they were coming from the east and sort of from the north and coming from the west. We have seen a reduction in a force of the winds here. Its not affecting our windows here on the building as much as they were before. Thats something that we definitely noticed. Again, were not out of the woods yet because were expecting to have hurricaneforce winds throughout the rest of the day today here in Corpus Christi<\/a>. Thank you. Thats right, we want to check back in with her later in this hour and the coming hours of this morning. With more on the challenge to try to get help to the victims along the gulf coast there, we have Bristol Minsker<\/a> from the red cross from austin, texas. Bristol, when weve got so many folks without power, what are some of the things they can do to get help now . We try to remind people before these types of storms how important it is to have that disaster kit ready with your backup batteries, weather radio, flashlights that are all charged up, and to have your digital devices charged up. Of course, the hope is that they have access to a radio where they can stay informed about local resources and that theyve got their devices that are charged up so they can check in with all their digital resources. If they dont have those things, we dont want to encourage people to go outside in dangerous conditions unless you know what the conditions are going to be outside your door. What about the issue of safe water as maya was telling us about . Thats definitely a concern. We want to encourage people to heed every warning coming from local authorities. There are so many communities across texas being impacted by the storm. The issues in each town are going to be slightly different. Make sure that youre tuned in to what your community is instructing you to do about water safety and power safety because youve got to to take care of your family, and you dont want to put yourself at risk. We also know that many people are without power. How do you get word about dangers like the water out to people who may not be able to be watching on television or the radio . Every community has different emergency Warning Systems<\/a>. Hopefully they have their telephones plugged into the local Warning Systems<\/a> like what we have here in central texas. The communities will be notifying people through things that have worked over the ages, long before we had the technology of social media, where now everybody seems to be on twitter. Weve got to start relying on the older technologies like good, oldfashioned phone calls, and weather radios. What are you hearing in terms of reports of damage . Were getting in at the 1 30 a. M. Hour local time, an hour and a half ago, but a high school destroyed damaged, i should say, as well as a harbor master building along the coast destroyed. What are you hearing in terms of infrastructure damage . We are starting to hear reports, as well, of homes and buildings that have been damaged. The damages are going to become much more clear as the sun comes up. We also want to remind people that even when the sun does come up, theyre not in the clear yet. This is going to be a continued Flooding Risk<\/a> for the next several days in many communities. While we will begin to do Damage Assessment<\/a> when it becomes lighter outside today, were certainly not in the clear. And a lot of that wont become known until the floodwaters start to subside into next week. And looking looking at that video there, showing what these winds can do, tearing off a roof. We dont know of which building. An uprooted tree. Here it is again, the video. We had a report of a senior home also getting such damage, the roof coming off and having to evacuate those who were in the home to a local jail. Are you getting any reports of injuries related to such infrastructure damage . We havent heard those types of reports. Youve got to remember that right now the red cross is focused on sheltering people from this storm. We want to make sure that everyone knows they have a safe place to go. If you do have access to your digital devices, redcross. Org shelters will tell you where the nearest shelters are. If people are out in the storm or if theyve evacuated to more of the inland communities, weve got shelters available all across Central South Texas<\/a> and along the gulf coast to make sure that theyve got a safe place to go. What are the biggest dangers when the sun comes out, people are curious, they want to walk around and check out the damage were talking about. What is the danger of perhaps, you know, power lines being down . Thats right. There may be downed power lines. If you live in a street or neighborhood thats been blocked off by local authorities, you definitely need to Pay Attention<\/a> to the warnings. Dont go back into your neighborhood or into a community thats been evacuated unless youve been told by local authorities its safe to do so. Downed power lines, gas lines can pose a risk. Thank you very much. I believe we have some information to put on the screen for people who might want to help. Yes, the American Red Cross<\/a> number there. Obviously people always do want to lend a hand to those in need. She said if you need help, if youve got a situation, call them. Sometimes thats going to be better than trying to use email or digital connections. Exactly. Lets get to the latest on the this storm. Were about to see it in daylight coming up fairly soon. Yeah. And i dont even think youve seen the worst of damage yet. Weve seen the images out of Corpus Christi<\/a>, right . Its north of there, rockport. Rockport is where we get first light. Its going to be pretty bad. Well be looking for images here in the hours to come. Some changes with the storm, the newest update in at the top of the hour, down to a category two, a strong two, with winds of 110 miles per hour. Each hour youll see the winds step down a little bit. Looking at the radar picture, a healthy looking storm. I think its very important that we talk about the storm in steps because this can be misleading to people. The weather will improve for a while. Then it will turn worse again. So well walk through the timeline. Thats very important. For instance, Corpus Christi<\/a>, you got hit with the back side of the storm. What that means is that wasnt even the strongest side of the storm, and there was considerable damage. Things will get better for today for a while. So the latest positioning here, 25 miles north northwest of rockport. Thats where the landfall was, the first landfall. And its moving off to the northwest now at six miles per hour. It has slowed down from earlier speeds that we saw on friday. Now the storm system kind of has multiple threats going on here. The storm surge threat is still ongoing here for these Barrier Islands<\/a> to the north and east of Corpus Christi<\/a> now. The waters still coming in. Were still seeing very heavy rainfall. That will be the case for the next several hours. So conditions north and east of Corpus Christi<\/a>, rockport, places like that, up toward the bay, still not Getting Better<\/a> yet. You have to wait for the storm to move further north and west before things get better. They will get better temporarily. So we need to talk about this. The storm right now is pushing off toward the north and west. Victoria, your weathers going downhill. Houston, weve been seeing Tornado Warning<\/a>s. The last time you checked in with me, we had no warnings. There are warnings now. Things can happen that quickly. Again, to watch for brief spinups. The timeline is important. The storm will continue to work north and west. And conditions will get better for a while along coastal texas where the Barrier Islands<\/a> are still dealing with some flooding. The rain will abate a little bit. The problem is is the storm tracks back down to the south tomorrow night, into monday, into tuesday. It may reemerge over the gulf and strengthen again. It will be interesting to see what the Hurricane Center<\/a> does with the 5 00 a. M. Path. Right now, still calling for isolated totals up to 40 inches of rain. This is over the next seven days. So its easy to become desensitized in the next day or two if you dont see all the extensive flooding. There will be pockets of very bad flooding today and tomorrow, but it will ton build off of itself as we head through the rest of the weekend and especially next week. Like i said earlier, the european model keeps the storm around saturday in some through saturday in some capacity. Seven to eight days of dealing its hard to wrap your mind around this, but its important to understand the storm and wobbles that come with it. Well keep you posted because it is a tricky storm. It is definitely complicated this one. It is. The big concern there is houston. 6. 5 million folks in the metropolitan area. And its really too early, isnt it, to know how severe the flooding will be there. We think back to 2001 when 22 people died because of flooding. Right. And so its these bands lets see if i can get the radar back up. Ill have to do it for the next hit. The feeder bands of the storm are 10, 15 miles wide. There can be areas that are hit very hard and then just 20 or 25 miles down the road, very little effect. Its when you get into the bands. The whole storm itself is spiraling around. Eventually youll get hit with one of the bands. Its over the next couple of days the threat continues. So the track, again, wobbling inland for a while. Tonight into sunday, it backs to the south. Its the supply of water thats the problem. This is the gulf of mexico, a reservoir of moisture. It gets wrung out like a sponge. Just because you may not have extensive flooding today or tomorrow, the threat isnt over. Southeastern texas is under the gun for the next seven days. The first images will be out of rockport this morning. Curious to see whats happening there as they had the surge, seven to nine inches of rain. The flood threat moving north and west today, back again toward the coast tomorrow night into monday. And up into the houston area through the rest of the week. Its very complicated. Thats why we will try to break it down each hour. Bill will be around here this morning and will be on top of this thing. And youre doing a great job at it. Thank you. Thanks. No breaks for you, my friend. Coffee, please. More live coverage of the historic storm that steve was telling us after a break. These days families want to be connected 24 7. Thats why at comcast were continuing to make our services more reliable than ever. Like technology that can update itself. An advanced fibernetwork infrustructure. New, more Reliable Equipment<\/a> for your home. And a new culture built around customer service. It all adds up to our most Reliable Network<\/a> ever. One that keeps you connected to what matters most. You can see were being hit by a significant band from harvey as it is making landfall 50 miles south of where we are. We are in port la vaca. There is la vaca bay in front of me here. That storm surge is pushing water from the bay this way. There you see kprc reporter Brandon Walker<\/a> in texas, smack dab in the center of harvey as it made landfall. We continue to follow developments this morning as this hurricane pummels the bown star state. Now to houston where Stephanie Gosk<\/a> has been tracking the storm and the historic damage its bringing. Stephanie . Reporter the city of houston tonight, how much rain will fall and how quickly will it come . The question is drainage in this city. If its slow enough, the city hopefully will have the capacity to allow that water to drain. The drainage system in the city is not great. It is a lowlying city, drainage systems over 100 years old. Rests in an area interlaced with bayous. Theres one bayou in particular that people in the city are concerned about. Its called braise bayou, and its flooded the last two years in a row. They will be keeping a close eye on that bayou. The other area of concern is to the west of the city. Its two dams. The dams are critical because they stop the floodwater from going down into the city of houston which has a population of 6. 6 million people. The army corps of engineers says say that are monitoring dams 24 hours, round the clock, not what they normally do. In 2009, the two dams were rated as in urgent need of repair. Right now theres a 75 million plan to repair them. It only just started in 2016. The concern is that the water tops those if it tops the dams or if the dams give way in any way, they will have to do something they call an emergency release of water which will automatically bring flooding downstream, but it would be far less catastrophic than if the dams gave way. For the people of houston, this storm is only just getting started. Back to you in new york. So well said. Now to Corpus Christi<\/a>, not far from where stephanie was at, where New York Times<\/a> reporter Manny Fernandez<\/a> is on the ground for us. What are you seeing and hearing right now . Reporter things are a lot calmer than they were, you know, a couple hours ago. You know, Corpus Christi<\/a> had got hit pretty hard and with some very intense winds. Not a lot of water where i am. Im a few miles inland in Corpus Christi<\/a>. And a few hours ago, you know, the wind was just it just was really sort of pushing against you, you know, when you stood outside. And things have sort of calmed down a little bit. It looks like some of the worst damage is probably north of us now. A few miles to the north. When you look outside or put your ear to the door, youre saying its calm at the moment then . Reporter it is its a little calmer than it was. A few hours ago outside our hotel, the wind was very intense, there were palm trees that were in the parking lot of the hotel that came down. You know, it just it was a tense wind. Now its a little bit calmer. I think people at the hotel are breathing a little easier in the last couple of hours. What about power . Power outages in the number of 200,000 that were seeing so far. Some locations have not seen any loss at all. What have you seen . Were one of the lucky ones. Were at a hotel here that kept its power. The power would sort of flicker on and off throughout the evening but basically held. Yeah, those power outage numbers that have sloedsly and steadi slowly and steadily cropped up throughout the Corpus Christi<\/a> area, but we still have power. The water, thats the tornado we were hearing from maya earlier, about where the water is safe to drink. Theres the warning they need boil it. When they open the faucet at the hotel, maybe they can do that, what does it look like . Is there any noticeable difference . Right now it looks okay. And im i went to the Bathroom Faucet<\/a> right now just to give it another check. And now it looks okay. When the city issued that, they said it was a precautionary thing. Right now the water looks fine. I think people dont trust it after the city put out the statement. Right now it looks like normal water. People are being careful, and you know, you see bottles of water pretty much everywhere. The gulf of mexico has a tremendous contribution to our economy. There are over a half a million folks that work in this region. Theyre certainly affected refineries. Thats right. Refineries, petrochemical factories. You name it. Its also in the middle of the high season for the summer. Folks would normally be enjoying themselves not to mention oil rigs off the coast. Thats right. Oil rigs which probably had to be moved, those that could be moved. How are the employees at your Hotel Getting<\/a> or leaving work . Did you speak with any . Are they at full or lower staff because of what were seeing right now . This hotel is totally full, completely full. There were some some you know, its actually so full that the some of the local residents have treated this open hotel with power as their shelter. And so you go to the hotel lobby, and there were the families of the employees that were hanging out with some of the journalists. It was a little bit of a family atmosphere. So it was a nice sort of mood where people felt good. The power would go out, and you could hear gasps. A few seconds later, it would turn back on, and people would breathe a sigh of relief. Theres a lot of people here, a lot of local residents who were in the old, concrete hotel thats a few stories high. And so a lot of people in town specifically chose the hotel to stay in because they knew it was a concrete building. They felt better about it. Theres an interesting atmosphere. Quickly, mood. You know when folks gather, right . Its interesting because in the past when weve covered these things, theres a camaraderie to it. When youre stuck in one place for a period of time. Yeah, its definitely here. It was sort of fun to be in the hotel lobby to see it unfolding. Thank you very much there from the New York Times<\/a>. We appreciate you stopping by. Thank you. Appreciate it. When we come back, how the president is handling the storm and also the political firestorm that hes unleashing, as well. This kid makes stains like crazy so we got our new he washing machine but it took forever turns out it wasnt the machine, it was our detergent. So we switched to tide turbo clean. Now we get way cleaner clothes way faster he turbo clean. 6x the cleaning power in 1 2 the time thanks for staying with us as we cover the Early Morning<\/a> news, Hurricane Harvey<\/a> hitting texas. The white house is covering news on a multiple front, some may call eight front for an overnight news dump. It dependant with the white house announcing a president ial pardon for sheriff joe arpaio, he is the socalled toughest sheriff in america the longtime official from arizona, last month he was convicted of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a judges order to stop rounding up people he suspected of being undocumented immigrants. In a statement the white house saying, quote, sclif joe arpaio is now 85yearsold and after more than 50 years of admirable service, he was a worthy candidate for a pardp. Take a listen. Im very appreciative of what the president has done. Right now, i have to thank the president for standing by me and standing by law enforcement. And im very humbled. Do you feel like you have been vindicated by the president . Yes, and i think he understands my situation. Both arizonas republican senators slammed the move calling for the judicial process to work its way, while the senates highest ranking democrat new Yorks Chuck Schumer<\/a> unleashed a storm alleging he used the hurricane as political cover to pardon arpaio. Overnight the president made the ban on transgender troops officials signing an order for the pentagon to move forward on a ban, though it remains unclear what will happen to transgender personnel who are currently serving. The order also bans the department of defense from providing medical treatment to Transgender Service<\/a> members. And to top it off, there is the ousting of sebastian gorka, and called islam an inherently violent relidgeen. The white house says his visit a quote not a quote resignation per se. However, yahoo news is reporting white house chief of staff john kelly allegedly revoked the security clearance, almost forcing him to resign, doing so while he was on vacation. Gorka was set to be back at the white house on monday. There is more in addition to the hurricane we are watching, that is special Counsel Robert Mueller<\/a> issued subpoenas to former Trump Campaign<\/a> chairman paul manafort. Six firms in all received subpoenas. One executive says muellers team is focusing on an international lobbying team which ran between 2012 and 2014. The subpoenas are the first public investigation that the first indication of the russian interference in the president ial elections is beginning to compel witnesses to testify before a grand jury. An pyongyang has fired three missiles towards south korea, missiles the u. S. Say all failed t. Second missile appears to have blown up immediately, one other failed in flight, according to Pacific Command<\/a> t. Prove categories shows the heated rhetoric between north korea and the u. S. Calmed of late with each side seemingly quieting their chants of war. Kim jongun continues his regimes pursuit to contain a nuclear bomb. They are a setback for the rocky machine and rapid nuclear and missile expansion. All these things are happening over the last 24 hours. Hurricane harvey roaring book in the united states, slamming texas. It is certainly fought done in its pathway and it track the latest on the conditions there, nbc news Mia Rodriguez<\/a> if Corpus Christi<\/a>, not too far away here from where Hurricane Harvey<\/a> actually had landfall earlier. Reporter yeah, Hurricane Harvey<\/a> made landfall a few miles up from where we are right now t. Win in the last 15 minutes started picking up afen. We had talked about this earlier, how they seen calm and they were picking umm. So we have been going through these cycles. Of course, this is all because how the storm is moving around us. So right now we do have some winds. They appear to be coming from the westnorthwest. They have picked up recently. Now, our local nbc affiliate in Corpus Christi<\/a> is reporting the Fire Department<\/a> is now fighting a fire on south padre island, one of the Barrier Islands<\/a> off the coast of Corpus Christi<\/a>. Whether that fire is somehow related to the hurricane is unclear. What is clear is that you do have First Responders<\/a>, responding to a call for service in the middle of a hurricane. While Hurricane Harvey<\/a> is now a category 2, make no mistake, it is still a hurricane. You do have First Responders<\/a> out there responding to these emergency calls that theyre getting. Earlier tonight at 11 00 p. M. Actually right when the hurricane was making landfall, Corpus Christi<\/a> Police Responded<\/a> to a report of a homeowner shooting an intruder. So they had to go hand him that in the middle of a category 4 hurricane t. Mayor here in Corpus Christi<\/a> has said people first, property second. He has been very concerned how First Responders<\/a> would be handling these calls for service. They said they would always respond. Again they wanted to make sure they would do so in the safest way possible. In the meantime, we have people without power, at this point, 24re6r7,0 211,000 across the coast. They have been creeping up. They will probably continue to do so as Hurricane Harvey<\/a> continues to move inland. Thats the new piece of news, a category 2, number one, number go is that increase in number two is that increase in power, people without power. Thank you for the latest, if you are joining us, a category 2 now Hurricane Harvey<\/a> expected as it moves farther inland. When we come back, we head back to texas as Hurricane Harvey<\/a> enters the record books with a behemoth of storms. Weve seen what hurricane andrew did to president bush 41. We saw what katrina did to bush 43. We seen the criticisms of obama in zoo superstorm sandy. They can establish the merity, getting ahead of sit not just in politics its actually saving lives and doing what you are supposed to do. That was former fe pa director Michael Brown<\/a> who oversaw the response following hurricane katrina. Welcome back to Hurricane Harvey<\/a> as it unleashes wind in texas, making landfall ten miles northeast of Corpus Christi<\/a> with wind speeds of 130 miles an hour. While its bad there, the worse is the yet to come. Lets go to our meteorologist for a look at where this storm is headed and the difference at this moment for those who are watching us, are now a category 2. Does this meet your expectations . A category 2 is weaker than a category 4 it made landfall. Thats in perspective. It is on shore, that means the reservoir of warm and tropical air hurricanes feed off is a little less. Its still an impressive storm. We are starting toee the other angles of this storm unfold. I plotted how wide and warm this storm is. So from basically the houston area, south and west past Corpus Christi<\/a>, this is 260 miles long. The width is about 165 miles wide. So a substantial storm in size, but you can see, there are Little Details<\/a> here in between bans that is significant. So im going to zoom in on the radar here. This is the houston area, right . There are heavy thunderstorms on the Northwest Side<\/a> of town. Then there is little to nothing south of town. Then you have a Tornado Warning<\/a> to the south and west here. So over a short distance, the weather can vary drastically. Its moving very fast, too. So there are a lot of changes that need to be you know spoken about here as these storms basically are moving to the north and west about 45 miles per hour. So you can get under a heavy rain band that lasts 20 to 25 minutes, it shuts down, thats what you will be dealing with, thats what maya is dealing with in Corpus Christi<\/a>. You get into the ban, its ferocious, ten, 15 minutes later it doesnt look so bad. That will be the theme. 110 miles per hour, a strong category 2 strong. I have been saying dont get hung up on the category of the storm. It is now evolving into a flood threat. But the serge is a problem at the post. Port lavaca has seen a storm surge. Its not done yet t. Trajectory, you can get a few update. 75mileperhour storm as it moves to the north and west. This is why the storm is so significant. It moves to the south and wet and back to the north and east. Almost unprecedented. Look at the time line. This is wednesday. So i wanted to show you the european modem. It will be interesting to see what the Hurricane Center<\/a> does with the 5 00 a. M. Advisory t. Time line 4 00 a. M. Heavy rain continues to plos some. Notice the size of the storm, it doesnt shrink much. The size of the storm very heavy rain bands, the threat for torn, all the way through tomorrow morning. This is 7 00 a. M. Notice the problem. This is very heavy rain. Follow the time line. This is 9 00 a. M. Monday morning over the same areas. We are going into tuesday now. The problem doesnt move. This is why were concerned. This storm puts on the brakes and doesnt move. So areas around victoria, down toward the coast again, where weather will improve later on today, are not out of the woods yet. This storm system will eventually back down. This is 4 00 on wednesday, thursday, friday this is not a joke. Then into saturday, it eventually fizzles on out. Thats why you are seeing these large rainfall totals. We dont put this on the map. In fact, noaa had to redesign their scales. 40 inches wasnt a part of the old system here. So this storm is changing the books in terms of the rainfall amounts. That will be the big story the next couple days. Again, dont get fooled. Were not making this dramatic that the winds have come through, now you are looking out the door. Its not so bad. It comes in steps. So its that second step were really worried ability. Thats the rachael. Thats coming up here for much of this week, again, multiparts of this storm, it makes it complicated. Again, you have to just keep in mind that the weather may improve briefly where you are. Overtime, it will move back downhill. This intlob as big as the state of texas. It just sits there. How much rain per day and the latter half will be falling per day. Its a good question. As i showed you on the radar earlier, theyre in bands, right. If you get underneath these bands, it can draw threetofive inches of rain in an hour. From an hour, wow. Luckily the bands tend to move. Sometimes the bands will set up where one area is unit for a couple hours. Thats how you can easily get ten inches of rain and 40 inches total like this. I remember when we were covering katrina, the bayous, the low areas exist all throughout this area, ken for that great state of louisiana as well as texas, too. Louisiana is on the northern fringe of the storms, the winds will be severe, you have that on shore push of water. You also have in those rain bands, the threetofive inches of rain i was talking about t. Concern here, north and east of Corpus Christi<\/a> is the water pushes in with the wind flow, the water that normally bleeds out to the gulf has nowhere to go. So it piles up. Yeah. So thats why this is an accumulation over days, it builds and builds and gets worse. A big somepy sponge is what this area will be. Hopefully the people are prepared. Thank you, steve, glad to have you here. Joining us more is greg lavoti in the houston area of texas. He joins us on the phone right now. Thank you for. That how are things going for you so far . Well, it seems like in houston we are waiting for the proverbial dirty side you guys have been talking about. Everybody is pretty prepared at this point. Were all sitting, waiting, watching for all that nasty ness you guys had on the radar there to sort of visit houston and were bracing for it and a lot of things have been cancelled already. Everybody is pretty much just waiting. Thats all we can do right now. Im sitting here outside my window. Every few minutes or so i will get one of those bands you guys were talking about will come through and top you know some nasty rain for a minute and it goes away. That pretty much will be a way of life for houston for the next oh six or seven days. We are ready for it, though. Do you have any impression about who decided to go elsewhere, either to shelters or to a hotel and how many people decided to stay calm and wait it out there . Quite honestly here in houston, we are used to tropical storms and press telling just amounts of rain. So i guess the people who i would say who left the houston area, you have to remember the houston area is very big. Were not over a small area at all. So i mean one thing out west in the katy area, can be different than what life is like in pareland or places leak that. So to me i think, my perception especially with us over here at the houston chronicle, our impression is the people that have left have been the people who deal with five, six days of possible electricity being out. You know, things not being available. So the people that have left i think theyre being cautious. For most of us that have lived here, all of our lives, were, you know, we always had this phrase here in houston, you know, hunker down. You know a lot of us have done that, especially we have gotten extra provisions. Water has been scarce at stores lately. A lot of people sort of like you said hunkering down if town, waiting for what comes next. We are definitely very cautious about rain and what not. It can get bad here. But i think houston is hardy and ready for it. Hopefully they are all prepared. Thank you very much. Good luck. Thank you. More or less coverage of this historic storm after this break. Hours after Hurricane Harvey<\/a> made landfall as a category 4 storm is now unleash actor rential assault of rain as a category 2 making lapdzfall near rockport texas with winds of 140 miles per hour. It is the strongest storm to hit texas in 50 years and the strongest to hit the u. S. Mainland in almost 12. Stay with us for more continuing coverage as Hurricane Harvey<\/a> becomes the fiercest hurricane to hit the u. S. In quite some time. Thanks for staying with us on ms nbc. Our breaking News Coverage<\/a> all throughout the morning him im richard louie, the first category 4 hit making landfall in texas hours ago. The eye of the storm hitting southeastern texas east coast time as it continued to strengthen and has since been downgraded to category 2. Still, though, a powerful hurricane the likes of which we have not seen in 12 years, slamming texas right now with wind gusts of up to 160 miles an hour, massive storm surges pummeling large parts of the state leaving thousands without power. Hundreds of thousands, areas like rockport, they bought the hit worse than others with entire buildings reportedly collapsing, trapping residents and sending others to nearby hospitals. President trump declared Hurricane Harvey<\/a> a federal disaster late into the evening. He is monitoring the storm and tweeting from camp david with his National Security<\/a> team and the Vice President<\/a>. Leaders in texas are urging residents at this hour to evacuate, warnle those who remain would be suspected to the storms wrath for days. Heres governor greg abbott. We are concerned that not enough people have evacuated. We are still urging people if at all possible if run in low lying areas, if are you if zones where evacuation orders have been if place, there may still be time for you to get out. All right. Lets start our coverage this hour, going to Corpus Christi<\/a>, texas. That city getting hammered overnight, maya rotd guess has been there, we are hearing some 40 inches of rain can hit with catastrophic flooding. We are getting a fuad voir from noaa, a category 2 storm and winds going down a bit, but the warning as steve soza has been telling us, that doesnt mean that this storm does not remain deadly . Reporter no and the potential is there, obviously, in the aftermath of the storm. You know, as people go out, venture outside of their homes, go to pick up lens, what have you, they can be susceptible to all the dangers, whether its flooding or strong winds that remain, because we are still expecting to have Hurricane Force<\/a> winds throughout the day here in Corpus Christi<\/a>. Right now, though, we have 211,000 people without power along the texas gulf coast here. A lot of them here in Corpus Christi<\/a>. Those numbers have been climbing steadily over the last several hours, of course, as people come to realize and report in, hey, we dont have any power here, some of the lucky people, though, are here in Corpus Christi<\/a> right behind me, you can see some lights. Those people have obviously not lost power. Some of the areas further inland from here have. Now we also have a situation on south padre island, one of the Barrier Islands<\/a> here, just off the coast of Corpus Christi<\/a>. Corpus christi firefighters have been over there. They were battling a major house fire. Those were their words over there. Obviously, the chief was concerned about having to dispatch firefighters to fight that fire in the middle of a hurricane. Now, that has been a concern about how First Responders<\/a> would handle some of these dangerous winds and the potential for flash flooding here as well. Again we are told that firefighters have been over there trying to dell with that fire and keep it from spreading to any other homes, because, of course, those are Barrier Islands<\/a>. Who ill this area here was under a voluntary evacuation, Barrier Islands<\/a>, generally speaking, people know to get out. Because tray so susceptible to major hurricanes and even tropical storms, frankly. We also have a situation here, where we are under a precautionary boil water oil. That is coming from the city of Corpus Christi<\/a>. They are asking people here to not cook, not drink, not wash their face, brush their teeth with the water. 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