for serious readers. >> we have this for you from the new orleans times picayune with one of us use pictures on the website as tropical storm harvey made a second landfall just west of cameron louisiana early this morning. the national hurricane center said the storm came back on land almost two and miles east of houston with maximum sustained winds of 45 miles an hour harvey is forecasted to drop substantial amounts of rain on louisiana before moving on to arkansas, tennessee and parts of missouri pixe exomars could seeo ten inches of rain. forecasters warned of possible tornadoes across a wide swath of the southeast as harvey rolled inland. governor john bel edwards held everything about the storm and potential flooding also get rescue efforts. that will be coming up at 1:30 p.m. eastern. about 9:30 a.m. the head of fema the coast guard commandant and homeland security department official briefed reporters about

the lease on now tropical storm harvey and federal relief efforts. >> good morning, everyone. thank you for being here with us today. i want to start today by thanking governor abbott and his team for hosting president trump, the first lady and members of the cabinet yesterday on our visit to harpers christie in austin, texas. we heard firsthand the experience of the first responders and the volunteers that are helping in the texas area. we met with state and local officials to continue coordinating our response in identifying opportunities for closer collaboration. this was an important first visit to the area. i also want to reinforce for the presidency message from our trip yesterday. we expect a mini recovery in texas and the federal government

is in this for the long haul. we will continue to support the people of texas as long as it is necessary that the president reiterated this again both publicly and behind closed doors yesterday. the initial word we got, people first is continuing to our response. while we continue to monitor the storm as it heads towards louisiana, we remain concerned about houston were catastrophic flooding is likely to persist days after the rain stops. this cooperation between fema, the other federal agencies, and state and local officials has been outstanding, and we are collectively focused on rescuing those in danger and providing housing and immediate care for those who are displaced. resources from across the country have been dispatched to the area to aid in response and recovery. finally, the local officials in texas, governor abbott, mayor

turner, judge emmet, and all the others are doing a tremendous job under considerable strain. what we must do in the federal government is to continue to support them and their teams. i want to also thank the men and women who are putting their lives on the line to up the people of texas. their heroism is truly humbling. homeland securities own customs and border protection, u.s. coast guard and others are working with the national guard and local first responders and have saved countless lives. yesterday, we tragically lost one of these local heroes. sergeant steve perez. our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and to those who have lost loved ones in this terrible storm. while the focus has been understandably on texas, we are working with the state of louisiana as the storm moves

through their state. to the people in texas and louisiana, is continue to listen to your local officials and heed warnings. we expect this to them to continue and our number one priority is everyone's safety. we'll continue with the life-sustaining, lifesaving mission for the next few days, and then moving to recovery for the area. the officials with me here today will tell you more about that. i'll turn it over to the commandant now to talk about our continuing lifesaving mission. >> thank you, madam secretary. we are still very much in the emergency response phase of this historic storm. number one priority right now is recovering survivors. over thousands yesterday but these are numbers, these are people, and i just want to put myself in the shoes of these community members whose lives have really been turned upside down. so we will be there for as long as it takes.

as the storm started to ship to the east, will be able to shift our resources to the east as well. we will be able to stay in front of the spirit where getting great support from the national guard, from the state of texas, the entire first response community. this has truly been a unified effort, and i can't emphasize enough the great work that he good samaritans are doing as well. back at her coast guard headquarters i have 32 watch standards standing watch around the clock because 91 911 calls e inundated the call center ten texas. we are taking an overflow and receiving over 1000 calls per hour. so we're not out of this by any long stretch yet, and we will be as we continue to watch the storm move on and then as we move into the long road to recovery. thank you very much. >> so the whole community continues to descend upon texas. we have amassed the federal

government support, over 12,000 staff members and is going to continue to grow. now don't are we pushing people forward to the dhs surge capacity, as secretary duke proactively put into place and also the commandants people are risking their lives to save others as well in conjunction with state and first responders, but we are also calling upon the states through emergency management assistance compact and contracts where we are asking states to come down and so they continue to amass in texas. the operation right now is very clear. we are still in lifesaving, life-sustaining mode. not only are we performing through our partners at the coast guard, where performing those life safety measures but the life-sustaining mission is huge. it's going to grow. we have over 230 shelters operating in texas with over 30,000 people by don't want to get fixated on numbers because those numbers are going to change in the next 30 minutes, but just to let the people of texas know that we are supporting the efforts to

provide master, not only mascara but also medical care to those have been displaced and we understand that this going to be a frustrating and painful process but were trying to do everything we can to alleviate these situations. overnight the areas of beaumont and port offer packet, got slammed with 20 inches of rainfall -- port arthur. while we are focused on love the effort on houston we have to also understand there are multiple counties, over 50 counties impacted right now. where continue to watch the situation develop, and citizen of louisiana are not in the clear. you are still under some evacuation warnings. please make sure your heating those warnings, and we are ready to support john belk edwards in his efforts to take care -- john bel edwards to take care of those folks in louisiana. we've also turned on individual assistance in some most important information you will hear about today is some are recovery director, alex, we are providing a central commodity

distribution. what that means is is we are already providing point to distribution and disseminating life-sustaining commodities in areas that are not currently impacted by rainfall. for example, we've been down in rockport, port huron says with the rain has stopped but they sustain category four wins and storm surge there were supporting those folks down there with lifesaving commodity. power restoration is ongoing to wear very concerned about the infrastructure obviously. infrastructure is the key to restoring routine to everybody daily lies. we will try to help private power companies bring the power back on as quickly as a camper right now many areas in texas still are not out of the clear from the threat as it's ongoing. security is a concern. we've amassed quite a bit of federal law enforcement out of the department of homeland security down to us state and local partners. again they're working in conjunction with over 12,000 national guard members that a been deeply by the national

guard in texas as well as the true first responder at the local level. again, we're supporting medical support. secretary price is highly engaged. we're constantly watching the hospital situations and being able, with the banquet at several hospitals that were also trying to sustain several hospitals to make sure you're up and operational and we're providing a standard of care that everybody deserves. with that when i would like to do is continue to ask people to find ways to volunteer. when it comes to nvoad.org or basically going through texas, the state of texas organizations to be able to organize the volunteer effort. the need to volunteer is going to take place over the next couple years, okay, and the need to volunteer, let me remind you, 50 counties right now. not just in houston, but everywhere so that mission is

going to continue to expand. right now what i really like to concert on is how we get the disaster survivors to start activating assistance for those that qualify. so alex, my recovery director, will give us some very critical information here. >> good morning. so as of this morning with over 195,000 registrations of individuals asking for assistance. we provide over $35 million in financial assistance to those that have registered. so our message is clear. if you have impact, damage from the disaster, find itself in a shelter, first contact your insurance company, filed your claim any mealy after that go to disasterassistance.gov and register for financial assistance from fema. what's important understand is that our assistance is not designed to make you which of what is important first register

with your insurance company. it's also important that you provide us your location of where you're at during the registration process so we can provide you immediate assistance. we also have transitional shelter assistance program over 1700 families last night and over 2000 rooms in five given states of providing assistance. so after you register you will be assigned an inspector. that inspector will contact you to come out and view your damages. due to the volume, we are prioritizing inspections based off of the greatest amount of damage and will be in contact with you throughout this process. and so make sure that fema can provide some legal assistant. also can provide some assistance for repair. we can provide assistance for personal property. it's important that when you

register, your address, your current location, how we can contact you, what kind of damage you have sustained, the insurance that you have an stay in contact with a go to disasterassistance.gov. the effort we're doing to thousands of employs working to provide assistance to those that are in shelters and getting them out of shelters into better place, working in partnership with our nongovernmental organizations as administrator long had mentioned in support of the state of texas these organizations like american red cross, salvation army, this is an unprecedented event. we've seen our call volume increase and skyrocket larger than ever before. so has the registrations and we are in the haul to provide assistance to every disaster survival we can't. >> thank you, alex. madam secretary? >> take some questions at this point, if any. >> from reuters, any estimate of how many '07 flooded and how

many people will need assistance? >> right now it's a dynamic situation. we don't have an accurate number. i could try to put you a number out there but i can tell you in 30 minutes it will be wrong. we try to use the best mapping capability that we have when it comes to understanding the flood zones, the floodplain mapping that we have, but the best indicator of individual assistance is what alex was just saying, we have nearly 200,000 people already registered that number is going to client, we know it. it's going to continue to project and we have to be ready to go, support it. >> looking at some of the decisions the administration made ahead of this disaster, a proposed budget that, for instance, would cut fema grants and other agency programs that are involved in this effort, or rolling back the last administrations flood standards, understand that did not in fact,

this response were seeing right now, how is that playing into the administration looking at perhaps you prepare for these disasters going forward and reconsidering some of the decisions or proposals made in the prior month? >> right now we're focusing on this specific disaster and ensuring we have the appropriate funding and programs in place. i think that the planning that the communities do has grown over the years, and when looking at having grant programs that are appropriate to have them continue their planning, but many of the communities, including texas, has an extraordinary progress in planning for disaster. this particular storm was unprecedented in terms of volume of rain and that's what we're focusing on now. >> what does the temporary shelter look like? is a going to include trailers? what are the options that you are considering?

>> so very simply, the goal is to sustain life. we've already turned on transitional shelter program which is basic to getting people into hotels, motels, shelters obviously are not ideal and a fortunate people are going to be there for quite some time as we're turn to mobilize people into hotels. how may people have we already moved? >> about 1800. >> rent 1800 have hundred have been placed in hotels, motels. we have to understand the vacancies come make sure we will continue but that number will continue to grow as we do. the next goal is safehouses. as the water starts receipt we've got to go in and visit with the volunteers need to be organized is helping people knock out their houses can get the wet carpet, the wet drywall out, make simple repairs totally get people back in the house at a very baseline level and sustained in there. and then finally the fema

manufactured housing and travel terms can we pull the trigger. we have a limited amount the rest of the was called the defense production agency to buy, to buy this capability but also it takes time produce those. slowly as last resort we start to bring those in. it's a very sizable mission. what we have on the ground right now is will the gulf disaster housing assistance teams. but this is a coordinated effort between not only fema but hud can working with the state and local partners and those counterparts deputy which would put together a conference to plan and we clearly explain how the system works. >> the presidenthe president sud probably there's never been anything this historic inner history, anything of the sort. is that true or -- [inaudible] >> you can't do a point by point

comparison of these storms that what's unique about this storm is the envy of devastation, also the amount of rainfall which is now measured in some places over 50 inches which is more than the annual rainfall. also how long it has been. so we've been experiencing this rainfall over a long read of time, even though the initial wins have subsided. so the duration and we expect a flood waters not to press for couple of days. so those are some of the unique things that were behind the president comments yesterday. >> i also think it's important to point out that this is going to be an incredibly large disaster for the country is going to help to reshape some the ways we do business. we will learn and one. i think it's important to recognize that the cost of this disaster of the economic cost to measure the disaster versus our physical cost as the federal

government family, wouldn't going to do a to cost for that for many, many years to, as we work together to understand what the committees are entitled to from public assistance or hud block grants for the reimbursement cost. it takes a lot of time to understand the true cost of this disaster, it is going to be a huge one. >> are the areas in houston that you feel -- [inaudible] and individuals who are trapped and not able to communicate their in an emergency situation? >> so we been able to use google heat maps, if you will come and where the concentration of most of these calls are coming from. even if someone can't communicate, we have 11 fixed wing airplanes that are doing surveillance as well. with a pretty good idea of where the concentration of those who are still in high water him and at the same time we're monitoring as you heard from the administrator the heavy rainfall

that occurred in port arthur and beaumont as well. so this isn't like five year old sock, edwin clustered about 1. people across it entire metropolitan area make sure we get resources allocated that is well corday with cbp, coast guard, other first responders, national guard. >> can you be more specific about the classes of areas, how many areas where talking about. >> with we are talking square miles. we are not down two blocks. talking the entire houston metropolitan area. others more impact than others, but we're seeing an awful lot to the west and southwest of the city of houston proper itself. >> can you tell us when ever infrastructure would be back up and running, how concerned you are about and social facilities including the chemical plant that had been evacuated? >> i'll talk briefly about the chemical plant. we were able to restore

electricity. those refrigerated tank cars should be stabilized. it's about 20 miles to the northeast of houston itself. from the coast guard aspect we're looking at reopening the ports. right now it is too rough for ships, for pilots to embark ships. we are working with the army corps of engineers, with noaa, coast guard, the inner harbor of corpus christi survey today. art of the intercoastal waterway. >> but even when you a port what we've seen it will take several days before thos before the hose workers can get back to work. when you can fire up the refiners. when pilots can actually safe to get to the boats and then continue business as usual. we want to make sure those ports are open well in advance before the first worker control pics i can expect for the maritime. other infrastructure perhaps -- >> so we are in constant contact with all the critical infrastructure sectors in the area.

secretary perry is leading us from the cabinet on the energy sector. there are cheap pieces to that we have to keep in mind in recovery. one is getting distribution of an insect is getting powers to individual resins and homes and that we challenging. the high level of flooding requires quite a bit of preparation to make sure that it's safe, as the electric companies connect their distribution systems to it, to specific points of system delivery. additionally, where tracking the refineries and other gas and oil in the area. the very good news is we have seen no environmental issues at this point because that critical infrastructure did act proactively in shutting down. so we're looking at getting those up and running to keep oil refinement and production going. it is still a safety concern ad they will be up as soon as possible. >> if i may, you know, emergency

managers around the country realize that restoring routine is the number one goal in recovery as well. it's not just keeping up the critical infrastructure but we also acted it was called business emergency operation ops center to win one at the national level and typically all states have them at the state level to understand as well as when the private industries coming back online. if we can get the roadways open and get the private industry back on to restore some of that routine as well as the schools, we will be, the department of homeland security, also, and fema, will be working to help figure out how we're going to do school, schools eventually damage and different things. we met to set up temporary capability but that's all in the back, it's in the fun of her might actually on recovery side, getting the lights back on, getting the sewer system working, bring at the private industry, bring up the private industry is the most important thing. >> i with "the associated press." one of the keys to getting

routine back is getting people back in their homes. the raw numbers, about 9% of people have flood insurance in houston than five years ago. do you understand what's behind that decline? because the flood is so far outside the area where people have flood insurance, what's the advice for homeowners? >> so very simply put, those that have flood insurance need to be activating their nfip policies. those that don't will most likely be dealing with the small business administration and looking at low interest loans antipathies because they also have a disaster declaration through sba. typically anything, if you're uninsured outside the nfip, the next of the most likely going to be the small business association. >> what's behind the decline in numbers of people who have interest? >> i don't know the answer to that. i'm sorry, i'm not familiar with that localized issue