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We are going to walk over here because you can see another helicopter landed. this is one of the helicopters from the hospital. it has brought in some supplies and maybe used to move a patient out as well. but at this point, you have seen the beginning of the evacuation of the baptist hospital here in beaumont. back to you. >> kerry, thanks. we will keep an eye on what you are looking at there in beaumont, texas. we just did show you some pictures of mike pence, the vice president, landing in texas with his wife karen pence, being greeting local officials there in corpus christi. that, of cour...

Sanders who is still on the ground with us in beaumont, texas, as the helicopters take off. >> you can see the blackhawk helicopter, the second one is taking off. the patients are being flown to jasper, texas. that's the texas air national guard who have done some amazing work here. also, you have the staff here at baptist hospital. now that we have some of the noise down, let's remind people why they started the evacuation in a very orderly fashion here at the hospital. as you can see, it is high and dry here, and so is the general area. it is because of a lack of fresh water and i think we h...

And what else you're working on today. >> this has been a very dynamic situation. we moved over 1200 personnel and 500 vehicles into the beaumont area last night as well as about 60 helicopters that we have conducting ongoing operations throughout houston and beaumont. our priority is search and rescue. and then evacuation onward from there. we continue to work with the local authorities to provide as much support as they can stand. we positioned as much equipment as will not block up all the routes going in. i have pulled in quite a number of active duty units into the area, we're flowing in ...

Asap. they jumped in vehicles, went out there and completed the mission. good feeling to know that we're making a difference to help the citizens of the great state of texas. >> lieutenant colonel, you are from texas, you live in this state. people around the country, their hearts go out to people here, what is it like to be a native texan to be here and see what you're seeing? >> again, same thing, just proud. love wearing the uniform, love serving texas, my country. families up north are safe. my sister is in houston. she's safe. we're here to help the ones that are not. and we have a combin...

Bit about the situation in beaumont, specifically, the police are saying that the city is essentially on an island. what does that mean? how does that change your rescue efforts here? >> most importantly the concerns us the most with all the first responders in the texas division, emergency management, is the water situation. we're getting a status on whether the generators can come back up at the pumping stations and restore water. in preparation for that, we're moving tremendous logistics assets to be able to provide water as we rescue people and as the water starts -- the floodwaters start ...