Now were focussing in on the rainfall and also the potential for some Severe Weather. Really rainfall being the number one entity here. Lets make a few maneuvers here. A couple of pockets of heavy rain for you right now. This is whats left of the eye wall. Now, the storm system Still Holding itself together here. It is in a weaker fashion. Winds are now 90 Miles Per Hour. This is new information at the top of the hour. A category one hurricane. Still enough wind to topple trees. Still enough to bring in the water, but, again, the main threat now will start to focus into the flood threat, and thats probably the hardest thing to wrap your mind around. The flood threat lasting through much of the upcoming week. Its kind of maneuvering around here. You can see its not just the point, though. We had these bands of thunderstorms pivoting around the center of circulation, so this is where the weather changes very quickly, and you can get Severe Weather in a matter of minutes, and then in another matter of minutes its over. This is what we need to watch out for here for the next couple of hours. You can get a lot of rainfall in those bands, but, again, this is the variation of the track. These little wobbles that you see here, thats causing the rainfall amounts around it to be quite expabs insexpansive. You can see by the time you go et to monday, the storm has looped around, and not really moved all that much. Were still dealing with the storm as we move into monday evening. Theres a potential that this system basically dips and hits the northern part of the gulf of mexico. Its not a slam dunk possibility just yet, but its in proximity to the gulf, which means it can gather that moisture again, and the problem with that is it dumps more rain. Already in the last, lets say, six to 12 hours, these are the rainfall amounts weve put down. Over ten inches in some spots and what youll see over the next couple of days is this just blossom as this storm system wobbles and rotates around here dumping copyus amounts of rain. Still sticking to the 40 inch predictions here. Again, that is through wednesday or thursday of next week. We have Reynolds Wolf out there. He is getting drenched right now. Winds at 90 Miles Per Hour. The story is now focussing from the storm surge and the wind to the flooding. As you can see here on this image behind me, the eye is starting to shrink. The storm system will remain large, but not quite as intense as the wind speeds. Thats the concern here. The flooding especially with this system expected to linger, to stall. Really not on the table right now. Unfortunately, its what you call the brown water effect. This system is basically sitting over a swamp. This area could be inundated by rainfall and flooding and its enough to keep the Tropical Storm alive. While it wont strengthen, it keeps it intact. That circulation is around to the first part of next weekend. Hey, maybe this thing will fizzle out and maybe well get a chance. Its a wobbler. Thats why the models have he a hard time with it. Well check back in in a little bit. Joining me now is steve sims. He works in rock port, texas, just north of Corpus Christi where flooding and damage is preventing rescues right now. What are the calls youre getting in mostly . We thank you for taking the time, first of all, but what are those calls that you are getting in primarily now . Biggest thing were dealing with right now, of course, is still dark outside yet. Were unable to get out on the streets, but we have multiple calls of collapsed roofs, people trapped in homes, high water. Were waiting on daylight. Sir, how does this work as far as prioritization . When you get all these calls coming in, roofs collapse, people stranded, how is it that you work with all of your crews out there to figure out which ones you are going to get to first . Well, right now we have 22 firefighters here at the station, and one ems medical unit, and as soon as daylight breaks and we feel its safe to get outside and start making our rounds, were going to jump on it and see what we can get done. Were trying to prioritize what we feel is first come. There has to be a the sunrises at 6 55 local time, which is a little less than two hours from now. What is it that you can tell these residents who are in need of most help right now knowing that you cant reach out to them for another hour or so or even more . Yes. Its heart breaking. You know, were all sitting here wanting to do it, but we cant do it. We will be there as soon as we can possibly get there. All right. What is it that you can tell residents . I know the number one priority is to make sure that they dont leave their homes, downed power lines, the overall threat of their safety. What is it you can tell them right now . Shelter in place. Just stay where you are at. Weve got a lot of high water, and were still, you know, at 70, 80mileanhour winds right now. Just hang tight, as you, im sure, will get to them as soon as you can. Yes, maam. Steve sims, fire chief, says thank you for your time. Stay safe out there. We appreciate it. Thank you. Lets go to Kerry Sanders who is in victoria, texas. How is it looking there . It seems pretty rough there with those winds, kerry. Snoo its a mess out here, as you can imagine. Its hard to determine how bad the damage is because of the darkness, but we certainly know were getting gusts here upwards of 100, 110 Miles Per Hour. As you can see in the foreground here and if you look, that rain is the real problem here because it looks like harvey is going to stall over this area. Theyre predicting upwards of 37, maybe even 40 inches of rain here. Theyre already talking about the Guadalupe River here possibly being 32 feet above et cetera normal flood stage, which means that theres going to be a lot of problems for homes and neighborhoods along the river. Sorry. Its a little hard to talk with this wind. Its really blowing right now. This morning the Fire Department reports that they responded to several fires here in victoria overnight. Unfortunately, at one of the fires, which residents nearby say they thought may have been sparked by lightning. By the time the Fire Department got to the apartment complex, it was blaze, and they were unable to put it out. It was eventually put out, but thats not before the entire apartment complex burned to the ground. Another home caught fire. Why . Undetermined at this point. May also have been a Lightning Strike. The good news is that those two fires, there were no reports of injuries. Very difficult for the Fire Department. Those First Respond ares to get out in the middle of this type of weather to try to deal with the fire. The other good news is that we have reports that both of the shelters here have so far been able to maintain their integrity. Theres no indication of any problems, and no reports of any injuries at either of the two shelters that opened up here. I can tell you that they were opened at very quickly feld to capacity, and those folks who could not get into the shelters were turned away and had to go either back home or flee the area. The problem is so many people waited until the last minute fleeing the area, and it was really not an option. You got wind and rain and flooding that you have right there, but, yet, you have these structures burning to the ground. Im curious also with the First Responders how theyre getting out there. Especially in those conditions. I imagine theyre getting calls already now with people who are stranded or are in need of help. You know, francis, they make it very clear as the hurricane is coming ashore that at some point theres going to be a drop dead point where dialing 911 is unlikely to get the sort of response that theyre used to. The Fire Department, the Police Department all already working on double shifts. Some of the firefighters and some of the Police Officers that weve had started at 6 00 a. M. Before we even saw this rain or any other weather. It was mostly a traffic situation. Victoria is a city of 67,000. With the oefrt of First Responders, it can bust the citys budget. The president did respond to the governor of texass request for the declaration of an emergency and signing an order that will release federal money, and the release of that federal money will help pay for the overtime. Theres not any concern right now of somebody saying, well, how are we going to be able to afford this . Its really more a matter of how are we going to be able to handle it . You talk about the Double Overtime there. And the resources that are stretched. I want to ask you, kerry, we understand theres been at least 16. 43 inches much rain so far fallen there in victoria. How are you literally holding up . Are you having a tough time . Obviously the wind behind you, but how is that feeling for you . Struggling there just to stand up . Right now its mostly a steady wind, so im able to position myself in a way here where the wind is just coming from behind me. The droplets sting. Thats why i have my back turned. The wind is blowing this direction, and so im not standing out in the worst of it, but im here slightly a few feet off from the building where you can see where the wind is certainly kicking up here. Thats a gust right there. Thats there we go. Im able to hold my balance at least so far. This is remember, were talking about 100, 110mileperhour gusts. We had winds at one point with this hurricane around the eye wall that were 140 to 145 Miles Per Hour, and when you ramp it up, theres a big difference in those final 20, 30, 40mileperhour winds. We know in victoria its been over a decade since a storm like this has hit around there. You have lifers who basically say, yes, weve been through so many of these storms. We know how to do this, but you may have some people new to the community as well. What were you gathering from some of the people you spoke with as far as their preparings and how they were taking in the storm . I just lost a lot of the question in the noise of the rain. Try it one more time. Im going to see if i can listen a little closer. With the people who you spoke with before the height of this storm, knowing that its been over a decade since the storm like this hit texas. What were you hearing . You have lifers who know and maybe news after 10, 12 years of seeing a hurricane like this hit the coast of texas, peoples lives have changed. People have had children, children who have grown up into adults, and things are very different. Even though this is not the most a lot of fear going into this, and if folks are in their safe spots and their safe homes and their shelters and surrounded by others, even right inside the building that were in here, folks are finding one another and in a crisis like this with Mother Nature where its one of those situations where you are completely perilous other than to hopefully stay in a safe location, people find a little bit of strength by looking in the eyes of each other and realizing if you are okay, im okay. I think thats what were seeing here this morning. Again, i havent ventured over to the shelters just because its too dangerous to be out here on the road. There are power lines down. Even though you can see its pitch brack out here and the power is out. That doesnt mean the power lines dont have power and, of course, trees are down. Just the idea of driving in this hurricane is just a little too dangerous. Which is certainly why Law Enforcement are urging people to just stay where you are no matter what you need. Essentials. If you can, just stay where you are right now, especially with daylight expected in less than two hours there. Kerry sanders. For now lets go to joe fryer who is in galveston, texas, a little northeast and not looking nearly as bad as the situation. Kerry was facing joe, but definitely those winds are picking up. We can tell. Yeah. The wind and rain have spikd up just here in the last couple of minutes. More than weve been experiencing so far this morning. Youre right. Its not nearly as bad as where kerry is, and it wasnt supposed to be as bad. This was an area that was under a Tropical Storm warning the last few days. Not a hurricane warning. Because of that, a lot of people decided not to evacuate. They decided they could wait it out here because the gusts of wind werent going to be as strong because the storm surge wasnt expected to be as high. The other reason is they know the major concern here is going to be the flooding in the coming days because this area will get a lot of flooding, much like a lot of areas up the coast. Possibly 15 to 20 inches between yesterday and tuesday or wednesday. A lot of people dont want to leave their homes yet. Especially in lowlying areas. They want to kind of wait and see if they can try and fend off any floodwaters safely, that is, so theyve been shuddering up their homes and hunkering down with water. Some people have generateors. We can tell you once the winds started last night, our hotels power going in and out before it went out for two hours. We had no power here, and that was the scene up and down the coast here in galveston. Right now theyre still dealing with some rain. A lot of people decided to stay put. It was sort of different from what we were seeing in the Corpus Christi area yesterday where it was sort of like a ghost town as the storm was moving in. People were out and about in galveston. Some walking along the shore because they felt it was safer. Even though its still a dangerous situation. We know here just east of here is boliver peninsula. There was a bad fire there. At least three homes burned, and imagine trying to fight a fire in these windwhipped planes that have been reaching 75 Miles Per Hour here. We know at least three homes there, and we dont know what sparked that fire, but once it starts trying to fight a fire in a situation like this, cant be easy. Francis. Its interesting. I did notice that where those people with less urgency, i guess, is the way you could put it there with it being a Tropical Storm in that area. There is that sense of a fascination when it comes to a phenomenon like this to be able to see nature in its fury and those spectators who went out there on the beach to see these waves. Im sure you saw that even late in the evening last night. Yeah. The other thing to keep in mind here is galveston was hit really hard by hurricane ike nine years ago in 2008. What you hear from some people is they were told to evacuate then, which was likely a smart move. Then it took a long time before they were allowed back in, and there were people who really wanted to try to get back to their homes, but it wasnt a safe situation because of the flooding, because of the sanitary situation. That frustrated a lot of people. You do hear reports from some people who decided this time around, even though the hurricane was not nearly as powerful here to sort of stick it out because they wanted to see if they could take care of their home, and they were afraid if they left, they werent sure how quickly they would be able to get back in. Hopefully the situation there, again, with the rain lingering and more of the rain accumulates, and the flooding becomes an issue, that people will be safe in those conditions as well. Joe fryer for us in galveston. Joe, thank you. We thank you for being with us here on msnbc. As we continue our coverage of this historic storm, Hurricane Harvey. Keep it right here. Well be back after the break. Dont let dust and allergens get between you and lifes beautiful moments. Switch to flonase allergy relief. Flonase outperforms the 1 nondrowsy allergy pill. When we breathe in allergens, our bodies react by overproducing 6 key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. Flonase helps block 6. Most allergy pills only block one and 6 is greater than 1. With more complete relief you can enjoy every beautiful moment to the fullest. Flonase. 6 is greater than 1 changes everything. Can make anyone slow downt and pull up a seat to the table. Thats why she takes the time to season her turkey to perfection, and make stuffing from scratch. So that you can spend time on what really matters. Marie callenders. Its time to savor. When its time to toddlers see things a bit differently thanks to pampers easy ups while they see their first underwear you see an easy way to potty train pampers easy ups our first and only training underwear with an all around stretchy waistband and pampers superior protection so youll see fewer leaks and theyll see their first underwear pampers easy ups, an easy way to underwear pampers for over 100 years like kraft has,natural cheese you learn a lot about what people want. Honey, do we have like a super creamy cheese with taco spice already in it . Oh, thanks. Bon appecheese okay. Entertaining us, getting us back on track, and finding us dates. Phones really have changed. So why hasnt the way we pay for them . Introducing xfinity mobile. You only pay for data and can easily switch between pay per gig and unlimited. No one else lets you do that. See how much you can save. Choose by the gig or unlimited. Xfinity mobile. A new kind of network designed to save you money. Call, visit or go to xfinitymobile. Com. You can see is it for yourself. Were being hit by a significant band from harvey, as it is making landfall here. About 50 miles, as you mentioned, south of where we are. Were here in port lavocca. There is the bay just if front of me here. That storm surge from harvey is pushing water from the bay this way. Once day break comes, it will be about the cleanup and recovery. Were now joined by anthony, spokesperson for the american red cross. Anthony, i appreciate your being with us here early this morning. Talk to us a little bit about the efforts out there. The efforts you had to help the people in need the most and what those concerns are right now. Yeah. One of the biggest concerns we have for the people being impacted by the storm is to use commonsense. You know, its been reiterated throughout the morning on your program just that stay safe. If you havent already evacuated, stay in your safe area and be safe. We have more than 50 shelters either open or on standby. I kno