you're all still together and well. you can tell those two young men the poise, confidence, calm that they used in that terrible situation, it will serve them well the rest of their lives. so i wish you the best. let us know how we can help you going forward. we'll stay in touch. okay? >> all right. thank you so much. >> be well. gentlemen, thank you for your calm. there is a lot of news. there's some breaking developments. let's get after it. good morning everyone. you are watching new day. i'm alisyn camerota coming to you live in houston this morning in the after math. first there is a mandatory evacuation of the communities around the backer reservoir here in houston. just west of where i am. and that's because the reservoir is right at its breaking point. it is on the cusp of going over.

it is at 101 feet. so there is a mandatory evacuation. officials waiting for first light here in houston and that has just happened. in the past few moments, it has gotten light enough for people to try to make their way out of those communities. chris, the danger is not over here. the water in downtown houston has receded. i am next to the buffalo bayou. it has gone down but it is still incredibly dangerous at these dams. their floodgates need to be open and the reservoir may spill over. >> well a lot of the places flooded, the water is not expected to crest until tomorrow or the next day, according to the fema head and the story as right behind you. a bayou is supposed to be a slow moving artery of water. look how fast that current is. it shows how overcapacity they are. we also hear there's a mix the

blessing starting today. the fisz responders are going to start going door to door. why is it nixed? because hopefully find people alive and who knows what else they're going to find. another breaking story is there have been explosions reported at a flooded chemical plant in crosby texas. ten sheriffs' deputies had to be hospitalized. the smoke they inhaled at the scene appears no the to be toxic but inhaling any smoke can take you down. this as another emergency infolds in beaumont. the city's two sources for water are cut off. imagine the added distress are having no water. we have all of these breaking stories covered. let's begin with cnn paulo sandoval in richmond texas. people think you're surrounded by water. you can't drink it, you can't bathe in it or use it to cook. >>reporter: that's the irony in all of this too.

and now another day is bringing another round of these mandatory evacuations, latest ones just mentioned are add the to the ones already in place. not far from houston. at least people in at least three communities here in the area are being asked that as soon as the sun comes up u pack up and head out because of the danger there of the rising waters in that county. let's go to houston where officials extremely busy, beginning the very difficult task of going door to door in these flooded neighborhoods, many still under water to make sure everybody that needed rescuing was rescued. >> we'll be doing a basically block by block, door by door of structures we believe have had three foot of water or greater to be sure there are no peopleb. this is a one to two week process. >>reporter: as that happens in

houston, here in richmond, texas, the river continues to rise, already reaching record levels. still expected to go even higher. so from rivers to reservoirs, they are still posing serious threats for people here in texas. >> yes, there's all sorts of danger and then complicated because there's all sorts of chemical plants and refineries on the coast and houston as well. that's where we find there as been an explosion this morning at one of these chemical plants. what do you know, paul? >> reporter: alisyn, they're some what disputing the term explosion. at about 1:00 in the morning and 2:00, they had an ignition of what they call organic approximate sides. these are chemicals. they had been warning for days this would happen. that's because this plant became flooded. these chemicals need to be refrid

refridge rated. when they heat up they de grade and the term they using is they ignite. this happened twice. taking this very seriously, they evacuated the neighborhood within a mile and a half of the chemical plant, also, one officer, smelling these fumes, was taken to a local hospital. nine others drove themselves to the hospital. according to the harris county sheriff's department, they have been checked oucht and there's nothing serious. they say the fumes are non toxic. as one official put it, it's sort of like breathing in the fire from a camp fire, but they are not erring on the side of risky fine riskiness. as we said, they expected this to happen without any refrigerati refrigeration, the plant was l

vulnerable. >> okay. thank you very much for that clari clarification. all eyes are watching beaumont, texas. that's because, as we just heard general honore there. the grid is failing. if that happens there's an entire cascade of catastrophes that could happen. they have lost both water supplies. drew, what is the latest in beaumont? >> reporter: they are going to go out and check the water pump that's in the river. the they should be doing that now. they had to take a boat out to do that. that failure is what caused all the water in the city of beaumont to just go dry. it happened very quickly. 12:30 this morning, the word went out that the water supply, the pumt ps had gone out and i'll tell you by the time i woke up this morning about 3:00, there was no water in the system. it could be a quick fix.

it could be a days' fix, and this is of city without water is going to be a problem especially with all thewater surrounding it that you can't use. the that's one of the bigger problems here. they are going to begin now starting to door to door rescues, checks, to make sure everything is good. but as of right now, the city water supply, that is the big problem in beaumont. >> absolutely, drew. these keep us posted on what's happening there. there's obviously great concern. now to the human tragedy and toll of this terrible storm. one of the most heart breaking stories that we have heard is the saldy var family. they've lost six members of their family when their van -- they were trying to escape the flood waters and loaded into the van and it vanished. the driver of the van, a brother named sonny.

he was able to get out. but he watched as the van then submerged with six of his young relatives and his parents. so, we went and talked to another brother in that family. about the heart breaking turn of events when he had been told that the van and bodies had been found. when you knew hurricane harvey was heading here, your family came up with a plan. what was that plan? >> i said what are you planning on doing? he said well i'm going to stay and if the water starts coming up i'll put them in the truck and take them to your house. that's okay. that will work. >> but then something went wrong with that plan. what happened? >> fell asleep. my wife was teching wixting wit. he sent us a voice mail which we didn't hear because we fell asleep, and it said that i fell asleep. the water's in the house.

>> it's just me i guess we got to get out of here. i if tell asleep. neighbor just woke us up. watering coming in the house. >> then, when he realized he had fallen asleep it was starting to get too late. >> yes. >> but then he figured out he could still get out because your brother had left a van. >> yes. >> how did you find out what had happened across that bridge? >> well, my sister-in-law called me, and said that -- she was hysterical and said sammy lost control of the van and mom and dad are gone and my grandkids are gone. i said what are you talking about? what happened? sammy lost control of the van and everybody's gone. i finally got a hold of sammy. he said of course he was barely able to talk. they came up to a bridge. and the bridge was overflown but

dad said, go. i mean you can make it. i can see the guardrail. go. and sammy told -- we were talk you can -- you listen to your dad. dad was really demanding even at 84 years old. so he went. and like i told sammy, i said i can't see myself doing anything different. i would -- dad told me to go i would have tried to make it. he panicked. he said him, mom and dad were in underwater. and he got out of the van. he didn't even take off his seatbelt. the window was half way open. he slid out. and he came -- grabbed a branch or twig, what he called it. he called a twig. i don't know if it was a branch or tree. the kids were screaming and crying. of course they want the out of the van. he kept yelling climb out the back doors. >> that's one of the most heart breaking parts of this

incredibly heart breaking story is that your brother witnessed it all happening. >> yeah. van go down, knowing his parents are in it, his great nieces and nephews are in it. and it's his brothers, which our brother danny, his grandkids. >> how did you get the word today that they had actually found the van? >> danny called me and said his son andrew found the van. >> by himself? >> he went over there by himself to find it. the i don't know if he had anybody else. he just told me andrew was there and he could see the van under the water. >> and he told you that they had found the bodies. >> yeah. well, basically, i knew then. they said the diver went down and they could see two adults in the front seat and couldn't see in the back of the van. >> so you were very close with your parents. >> oh, yes. all of us were. >> and to lose them so suddenly

is- >> yeah. >> a bigger challenge. >> yes, but at their age, you start getting ready for it. you start keeping little messages that dad puts on your phone. >> but you wanted a memento of your parents. >> yes. i nts wanted to hear like he was calling me on the phone. sorry. yeah. i just wanted to hear that. >> so many people around the country and around the world have heard your story. it's really just gripped the whole country. >> my neighbors came over and gave me a hug and said they were so sorry. whatever you need. everybody. just whatever you need. i guess they can't imagine going through something like this. and like i told them, i said i'm so glad you saved my brother. i just -- i didn't want to loose my brother. i'm sorry. it comes up so fast.

i can't stop it. >> everybody understands that. i mean in other words, it could have been worse, could have been more loss. >> yes. i mean if he went down. he even said -- what's wrong with you. i mean if if he went down, we wouldn't know. we would still think they're at a shelter or something or at least hoping that's where they were. we wouldn't know. andrew wouldn't know to go look for the van down there. we wouldn't know what route he took. i told him to take the back roads because the fleeway was flooded. >> what did you say to the deputies? oh, my god. thank you. because he said we were actually going. i said oh, my god thank you very much. you know? y'all saved my brother's life. i didn't know the two that saved him. he was just so happy that they did that. that somebody heard him screaming. i don't know who, but somebody heard him and they showed up.

>> chris, look, it's obviously inconceivable for most of us to be able to imagine that level of loss in one family. you can hear rick there. he's dlee he's clearly a positive person. he says so touched by the outpouring of love he's gotten from coworkers, friends and neighbors, but i do want to alert people to this sickening scam that's happening. believe it or not, there are people who are trying to cash in on the saldy var's tragedy and set up bogus phoney gofundme pages. there's only really one page that the real family wants to be out there. this is the verified one. this is katherine ramos sal da var. we're only putting it up because we don't want people tricked by these scams. the family is not asking the public for anything. they're not asking the public for money or anything other than that we've just all keep them in our prayers.

>> who knows what they'll need going forward, but there's no question the crisis brings out true character. good people do good things, bad people do bad things. right now, let's take a look at the situation. this is live picture of one of the reservoirs. okay? so you're seeing what the problem is. chad myers has been speaking to this very directly all morning. the a lot of these structures are built inside of what would be the reservoir area, literally, as he would say built inside a lake. so you're seeing the runoff, spillage, full capacity of that reservoir, and you're seeing the basis for the appraisal of fema and other experts saying that they haven't seen the worst of the cresting yet. that's why emergency managers have ordered mandatory evacuations along that west side of the reservoir, because of fear of imminent flood. all right. so, alisyn, just beautifully told you the story of the kind

of loss that's there. i say beautifully, because it deserves the respect of that reality. but there's another reality as well. last night on cnn, we had a man who was separated from his 88-year-old father. imagine this. he coops find him. he knew he had been brought somewhere. the father doesn't have his phone, didn't have the numbers rem rised. the he was trying to find him. he came to us. you did what people doest about. you spread the word, tried to help. it got back to him and guess what? h 20 minutes after the interview, bradley alan got information about where his father was and he went and they had each other ones again. bradley joins us on the phone right now. did i get it right? is that how it happened? >> that is correct. that's very correct. a lot of people called and i appreciate all the calls about prayers and stuff. i had to keep on moving through the calls.

the they were coming in at an amazing rate. pause for one minute and another call came in h. i was suspicious they were just helping to pray and everything or else they might be the right one. i have to answer every single one from all over the country and this one lady said i think my night manager's checked your dad into the hotel. i couldn't believe it. you hang on just a minute. can you verify his full name. they were very secure. and then they said okay. can you verify the address he would register under. she said yes we have a man with in a registration and the into igt manager saw your show and called the hotel and said hey, we found that man that was on tv. and so after thee verified that he was in the room, she wouldn't give me the number or anything. right thing to did, policy, but she connected me to the room and i said this is bradley allen,

are you my dad? and it was. i could not believe it. then he told me the unbelievable story about turning around and getting up in bed and saying oh, my gosh what is this on my feet? it's water. he got up and someone was banging on the back door. some citizen somewhere banging. i'm here to help you. he went to the door. he said get whatever you can in a bag. you got like 30 seconds to get to the front door. open up the front door. he opened up the front door and the man slid a kayak into the house strapped him in and pulled him to safety. this street was roaring with water and he had him tied on and paddling with the other kayak and somehow got him to safety where the houston police department took care of him and put him in h the dump truck and got him over to the highway. yeah. he couldn't stop. he was dying to tell his story. it was really nice you all were

able to do that. but there were thousands and thousands or hundreds of miles all the way from san antonio to corpus christi. small town, huge city, thank you all so much. >> listen. it's not us. people realize that at times like this, we're all kepgtconne. people stepped up an social media, of all places for all the negative stuff that can happen there. they heard your need and responded for you because that's what people do. they help one another. the i'm so happy for you, bradley. i mean i can't imagine what it was like for you not knowing where your pop was. i'm really happy you have each other. i hope that find of ending comes for so many others still out there stranded and still trying to find their loved ones. hold onto each other. i hope he is well and i hope you both recover quickly and get back on your feet. >> thank you so much. i should meet him later on this morning for a first time in a

long time. >> beautiful. send me a picture. i know every son loves to see their father but this time will be special. send me a picture if you can. >> i sure will. >> god bless, be well, thank you for sharing your story. >> ung that. >> all right. look, just like you have the situation for that family, you've going to have good stories as well. thank god these two have found themselves in this family can be reunited. >> we're so grateful that that happened. power of television and i believe we're actually going to talk to them later on in the date. so we'll bring updates. meanwhile, the military presence is increasing by the day. texas governor greg abbott deployed additional 10,000 national guard members here. i believe that you're looking right now at the flooding that's happening around this reservoir, the barker reservoir, where people are being told to evacuate this morning and the

navy has also sent some of its equipment here. so joining us now is brig a deer general patrick hamilton, and he is the commander of all military forces, state and federal, that are operating within texas to assist the recovery effort from this storm. general, thank you very much for being here. what is most pressing for you today? >> good morning. most pressing right now is continuing search and rescue operations in beaumont and port arthur area. the as a matter of fact, yesterday we moved 500 trucks and 1200 soldiers airman, excuse me. navy marines, active duty guard in a consolidated move. one of the largest moves i think we've seen since world war ii at one time from areas into an area to start rescue operations. i'm concerned about the water

situation. we're staging tremendous amount of lodge -- i'm sorry fema's helping with that. that developing situation is going to continue. >> general help us understand the numbers here. the we have been told yesterday that the pentagon said it had 30,000 troops ready to go whenever governor abbott needed it. is it your assessment it's time to activate them? >> we are bringing them in, absolutely bringing them in, in a scaled fashion so they can be put into the effort in a coordinated manner. one of the problems when you flood an area with too much help, it becomes counter productive sometimes. we have got right now 14,000 soldiers on the ground with another 5,000 flowing in right now. some of those are part of that

30,000. bringing troops in from other places. we have a tremendous number of active duty units flowing in as well. the in is a very coordinated operation and continues to grow. >> general, beaumont texas is where so many officials are spoke kuszed this morning because of the evacuation there. this is what everyone feared, that the storm would pass, blue skies, people would have a false sense of security, return home and then a reservoir would tip. or then the floodgates of a dam would open and a neighborhood would be in peril. that's what's happening in beaumont, texas where the reservoir is right on the cusp of failing. the we've heard from one of our reporters that the water supplies are failing. what's your plan for it some place like beaumont starts dropping off the grid? >> right. that becomes a large scale

evacuation that's going to happen in that area. air transportation, large aircraft transportation all laid on to begin that operation. pulling people out, getting them to staging area, evacuation hubs and begin to move them out of the area. >> all right. we know that you have your hands full. we know you're keeping an eye on it. thank you very much for joining us and obviously we'll be bringing everybody the breaking details. back to you. >> all right. so harvey's relative. what we're seeing in texas it catastrophic. louisiana, little bit different story. some what spared. people had to be rescued, tons of flooding and not completely out of the woods. the gov they are has asked for the federal government to extend a disaster declaration to more areas. join us is republican senator john kennedy of louisiana. i'm sorry for it to be under these circumstances but that's

why i made air quotes when i said spared because i know there have been areas hard hit. what do you know about the reality on the ground in your s state this morning? >> we had some flood rg, chris, and it's not over for us yet. but for the most part, we dodged the bullet. texas took it right in the gut. and i'm just -- i'm so sorry for them. i know what they're going through. we went through it in katrina. and all i can tell my friends in texas is there are going to be times you want to give up. don't. we'll get through all of this together. we've sent most of our resources in louisiana to texas. we have probably 500 citizens, not people who work for government, just citizens who got up and took teheir boats.

they were in houston, now in beaumont, and port arthur just trying to help people get out. we've opened shelters here in l.a. louisiana so people can come over here to louisiana. i'm just so sorry. this whole thing is just, as you put it, horrific. just sucks. i'm sorry. that's the only way i know to explain it. i don't know why bad things happen to good people. but they do. and we have to deal with it. and we're going to deal with it. it's going to take a lot of money. but at a time like this, you don't think about the money. you think about the -- you don't think about the mathematics. you think about the moral aspect of it. >> you -- >> it's not over. >> you shouldn't anyway. that's true. i want to talk to you about that. there's no question that when we see the worst from mother nature we sometimes see the best from human nature and the hope is the people who survive it are

stronger than ever and people have a better sense like we saw in louisiana and new orleans that that community came back and knew something about itself and how people care about each other that they may not have known as well before. talk about money. there are two different angles of a immediate concern. the one is flood insurance. the what do you hear about the sustainability of programs, payouts, efficiency that's going to happen? because was we both know, that's the first big immediate fear after survival for people in areas that get flooded out is will i get the money to rebuild. >> if you had flood insurance and you paid your hard earned dollars in premiums, by god, you're going to get paid. congress is going to do whatever it takes, yes, the flood insurance program is in debt about $25 billion. that >> that's why i'm asking. >> the line of credit will be extended. people will get paid.

at some point when we get back to washington we're going to have to reauthorize the program. i have a bill i put together with elizabeth warren and marco rubio and bob menendez and others to try to do that. we have to have flood insurance but our main concern right now is first, let's get the situation stabilized in texas and get people out of harm's way and then let's help them get whack on their feet. new orleans did recover from katrina. but we had a lot of help from the american taxpayer. i can tell you will right up front i'm going to vote to give texas whatever they need to get back. >> we didn't see that with sandy. i know a lot of lawmakers don't like this part of the conversation. they think i'm being negative. that's too damn bad, senator. people play politics with that bill. a lot of people in the republican party said it was two thirds pork. it wasn't. that's why governor chris christie was so angry calling

out ted kroocruz. how do we avoid this. >> you just don't do it. the folks in texas, just like new york and sandy, bayed a lot of money in taxes for the federal government. they worked hard for in a money. in a catastrophe like this, they're entitled to get some of it back. it's just that simple. the first role of government is to protect people and property. le and part of that means when bad things happen to folks, through no fault of their own, their fellow americans help them. wasn't there when they voted on the relief for sandy. i'm there now the u.s. senate and i can tell you, i'm about as fiscally conservative as they come, chris. some people call me cheap. that's okay. but i'm going to vote to give texas all the help it needs. it's just that sim if pl. >> good because there are plenty of times to safe and no question there's a need for fiscal responsible but emergency is

that. there are times to have setoffs and budgets, clean bills. this is one of those times, because they're going to need money in waves and it's going to have to keep coming. senator thank you for fights that good fight for the people surviving this storm and your state and around the gulf. we are here to have this discussion. let us know if it isn't going the right way. we will expose that process. >> thank you, chris. >> so another update we're getting from the ground is that door to door searches start today. and you're going to hear a tone shift on this, because this is good but it's a ix m the kind of blessing because who knows what they're going to find. hopefully find people stranded. we're going to have houston's fire chief with the expectations next. (boy) and these are the lungs. (class) ewwww! (boy) sorry. (dad) don't worry about it.

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welcome back new day. i'm trying to report on the aftermath of harvey. looking at live pictures of vice president mike pence. he is preparing to come here to texas to look for himself at what's happened to this state in the aftermath of harvey. going to be going to corpus christi and rockport. that's where the storm first made landfall as a very strong hurricane, and so obviously just

that devastation across the coast of texas and even inland and vice president pence is is going to be getting a view of all of that today. meanwhile, we are entering a new phase here in houston. firefighters are beginning to go door to door, searching for what could be thousands of people who stayed behind stranded or weathered the storm this their homes and there is no idea what they might find. so joining us now on the phone is the houston fire chief, sam well pena. thing you very much for being here. how are you going to start to figure out what region to go to? >> thanks for having me this morning. we've already selected the area. we're starting in the south west parts of houston. the it's an area that was devastated by the floods. they had immense innone dags ui.

the same process, same wide area search process that we're going to execute 0 beginning at 9:00 this morning is going to have to happen in different parts of houston. but at this point, this area has the environment in that area is such that we can begin this second phase. >> and, chief, not to put too fine a point on it, there's just no telling what you'll find. at the moment, the death toll, while tragic. i mean the last number we had is 37. obviously, it could have been much worse, could have been catastrophic such as in katrina. what are you bracing for as you go door to door? >> well, we hope we don't find anything in those city hopes but i can tell you that the area we're you searching is as a

result of it being inundated with at least three feet of water or sometimes completely underwater. it's going to be an immense undertaking. crews are going to be searching in that area alone. we've got over 16,000 single family home that is we need to search. over 2500 multi-family homes. so it's going to be a huge undertaking. it was devastated by harvey, and we've -- again, hope for the best, but really we are preparing to -- for what's anticipated. >> yeah. that is a huge undertaking. you know, yesterday, i went out with the cajun navy. this ad hoc team of hundreds of volunteers and we went to this neighborhood that was subsumed by water and you just think nobody was there, because how could they be living in this

neighborhood. their cars were underwater, first floors underwater but sure enough, we found people still there. they were just weather it in their homes. so you are -- i mean i think it's really impossible to underscore enough what you may be? it store to are when you nok on these doors. >> absolutely. at some point, when the operations began, first day we ran close to 5500 calls for service. and then as the days went on, they started getting a little bit less. still over 4,000 the second day and so forth. but they started to come in less, and we -- part of the reason maybe their cell phones were dying and patterry was dying and couldn't get -- reach assistance. so, yes. there are -- we expect to find people in these areas. some of them have made it up to the attic and that's where they've been waiting for a

rescue. but i can tell you that the area that we're searching is going to be on foot. going to be door to door. our process is not going to be -- not going to mark up the houses, use a gps system to track the houses we've -- firefighters have searched. and then be able to have the data so we can see what the progress is. my hat is off to the firefighters and spirs responders and all the workers that have committed to this responding to this incident. we have firefighters right now and that haven't been home since the incident began for three to four days. they haven't even assessed what conditions in their own homes but they're committed. they're -- have a huge sense of duty and i couldn't be prouder of the men and women of houston

fire department. >> we understand and want to echo those sentiments, they're doing god's work. thank you for taking the time to talk to us. we are watching very closely what you all find today. thank you for being with us. so while i'm here on the banking of the this bayou, let me walk you around and show you what we're seeing today because it changes by the hour. so let me show you what's -- what we're facing today. this duck pond right here, what i'm calling a duck pond. that was a parking lot a few days ago. this sand dune that im i'm now walking on. this was a regular walkway. you'll get a sense, no sand is supposed to be here. obviously this was moved down the buffalo bayou by the raging flood waters here and get a sense of just how high the waters rose. the if you look at the tree you can see the baggies in it, that shows the debris and all the garbage brought down the river. and at the very top you can see

one. so obviously the floods went above this tree. in fact the locals tell us it went as high as those two trees in the distance. the flood waters at the very top, those leaves were peaking out on these tall trees over there. the obviously, it's going to be a lot of cleaning up to do. but this is exactly what more cities need. this is park space. this is open green space. and it can turn into a flood plane if necessary. because obviously no homes around here had to be devastated. i went to bring in general honore. he's been walking us through what he's seeing. thanks so much. let's talk about the places in most dire need this morning. you're most worried about beaumont. >> absolutely. when you lose water people can't live without water. now we have to import water because i'm not sure if a boil water execution will solve the problem there. and i'm sure the mayor and whole team, but as of today they need

to have truckloads of water headed to beaumont. then the problem is how you distroib out it. particularly to people that may still be sheltering at home. >> we heard from a general in the military that they are deploying nor national guardsmen here. is it everything you've seen, do they need more military troops here for the next phase? >> yes. comparatively speaking, katrina they brought in about 50,000 national guard and we had 20,000 federal. >> how many here now? >> what the texas state has i think is around 12,000. the governor mobilized the entire national guard. i thought it should have been -- >> it's 24,000 as of this hour. governor abbott did deploy i think 12,000 more but your feeling is that's still half as many as they need. >> oh yeah. they need a good 50,000 troops. >> what would they be doing

right now? >> they've got to get out in the small communities help open roads stand up infrastructure, help get water systems back on line. help with security and traffic control because the local police force have to focus on these. only police and credentialed people. we can't use the cajun navy to go into people's houses to see if anybody's in there. the this has to be done by credentialed law enforcement and first responders. they have a tough job. my heart goes out to them. this search going in the homes is going to be tough. >> it's just starting now. general, thank you very much for all the experience and helping us while we've been out here. chris, obviously keep you posted throughout the day of what transpires now that the real searching continues. >> the general's right. i was with him in katrina. this is an important step. it can be a great event when they start going in these homes and find people still alive, but it is hard for the first responders. it's going to be hard for

everybody to learn of the realities. the so we'll stay on it. we have to cover it. that's the job. cleanup efforts are underway in some places like dickinson texas. that was wrong one of the hardest hit areas by harvey. what is it like as they're cleaning it up? what's the reality? we'll go there. next. it's time for the biggest sale of the year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses and automatically adjusts on both sides. the new 360 smart bed is part of our biggest sale of the year where all beds are on sale. and right now save 50% on the labor day limited edition bed, plus 36 month financing. ends monday!

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...made with carbsteady... ...to help minimize blood sugar spikes... ...you can really feel it. now with 30% less carbs and sugars. glucerna. welcome back. to new day. i'm here in downtown houston. one of the hardest hit places in harvey was a place called davidson -- sorry. i hope that's right. which one? we're going -- dickinson. sorry about that. t it's 30 mile the southeast. the it's one of the hardest hit places, harvey dumped more than four feet of rain there. thankfully, the flood waters are starting to recede there, but let's check in with ed in

dingenson. he has been there since harvey first hit. tell us what you're seeing today, ed. >> good morning, allison, well just a few days ago this particular neighborhood here in dickinson was under five to six feet of water. the water is gone, which is the good news, but now the dreadful cleanup of what is left behind. you can see this one take lar home in this neighborhood starting to clean out their belongin belongings. that also stretches out here. this backs up to a bayou on the other side of those homes. that is where all of the water rushed in. this is a neighborhood where you saw many dramatic rescues by citizen volunteers and national guard soldiers as well. a great deal of gratitude for those people. but now, the cleanup process begins. and it is going to take a long time.

alisyn? >> it sure is, ed. thank you for monitoring all of that for us. so one of the things we want to show you is what's happening in these deluged nab neighborhoods. i had a chance to ride around with the so called cajun navy, this ad hoc team of volunteers and they're descended on texas to help out. they came with their boats from louisiana. the so we'll show you what they've been accomplishing on this ride jalong, next.

okay. so you've probably heard us talk about the cajun navy. that this ad hoc group of hundreds, i think of volunteers, nobody has an exact number when we ask. they have come in from louisiana. and they've come in to help the folks here. many of these are heros from katrina. they bring their boats, and they

come here and they actually endured a treacherous day-long journey to get here over flooded streets et cetera. the and they want to help rescue survivors. i was able to ride along with a group of them, and we went to try to find people who were stranded in their homes, still, yesterday, by the flood waters. watch this. what's your role here? what are you doing here? >> we're try our hardest to find locations that are in dire need. that's been the hardest part of this three-day journey. >> why did you come here to texas? you came from louisiana, right? >> yeah. lafayette, louisiana. we're part of the cajun navy. >> what is the cajun navnavy. >> held ifl if i know. i went to katrina to do the same

thing. they started calling us the cajun navy. >> do you know where people are trapped in here? >> i am 100% clueless. >> the sheriff said they need help? >> yeah. this was the latest call. >> so these are the boat loads of people who were stranded after they opened the floodgates on the dam. so there was a whole neighborhood, apartment complex and you can see them with their pets. they have dogs in cages. you can see that one of these boats there was a woman in a wheelchair. the so lots of people. this isn't from the storm and flooding. this is from releasing the dam days later. and they're stranded in their home tsz and need to evacuate now. so you can hear all the house alarms. they're going off because of all the flooding. and we can also hear whistling from people inside so let us know that they're trapped in there.

>> what are you doing in there? >> i'm a marine. i'm a marine. we don't retire. i'm not leaving. >> sir, we've been combing this whole complex looking for people. what are you still doing here? >> i'm here because i was evacuated yesterday. they told us that the -- it was going to be a six-foot swell coming, which never happened. we only had two inches more water come into the complex. >> but now you do have a six-foot swell. it's happened. your whole complex is sur merged. >> em whyes, ma'am. >> we left in feet of water but it was just two inches lower than what it is right now. it only went up two inches. >> what does that mean you think you can stay here? >> we have three levels. we still have electrical, food, power. we shut off the power downstairs, all the electrical outlets shut off downstairs, ac shut off.

updares you have everything. running water. >> are you riding it out here? >> i was going to ride it out but i don't want to be separated from my wife and daughter. i want to tell you in houston texas we had guys from louisiana that were picking up african-americans, caulk occasions, asians, any kind of race you can imagine. they weren't asking what race you were, what religion you were from, what background. they saw you as a human that needed help. and all the racism that everybody's talking about right now, that's one small pocket of ignorant people. but what i've witnessed over these last three day sthas we have more people in this world that care about each other than the small pockets of people that don't care about each other. i'm taking that away as the greatest miracle that you could ever learn in life is to see real people helping people. so, chris, that, of course, is the silver lining to

tragedies like this. you see the best in humanity and that man wanted to tell us about all the goodness that he's seen. everybody, lots and lots of people have told under the circumstances about all the generosity of neighbors and just residents helping each other. it was really interesting to ride around with the cajun navy because nobody's organizing them. they call different sheriff's department ps and say where do you needed most help. they go and help and sure enough find people. >> not always the best situation but right now it's the best they can do. it's good that they are there. good to see you too with your person personal flow tation device. stay safe. >> i even wear it in the car. >> good. i'll see you tomorrow morning and i will see you tonight on prime time at 9:00 p.m. there is breaking news developments with harrvey. the it's going to continue with john berman after this ex bra.

please stay with cnn. bra. please stay with cnn. . please stay with cnn. it's time for the biggest sale of the year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses and automatically adjusts on both sides. the new 360 smart bed is part of our biggest sale of the year where all beds are on sale. and right now save 50% on the labor day limited edition bed, plus 36 month financing. ends monday!

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> good morning everyone. john berman here. new concerns this morning in texas with dangerous increasing even as some flood waters recede. a violent chemical reaction sparked a fire overnight at a chemical plant near hoouhouston. the area had been evacuated. authorities insist there was no explosion, their words but obviously a clear risk here and concern for first